Recently started my 7 yr. old son Ritaliln LA. On some days, it works like a charm, with my son even completing his writing homework. On other days, it hardly works at all. Anyone else have this experience? Also wondering weather just plain Ritalin may be better. Does it kick in faster? And does it really wear off that quickly in only 3-4 hours?
My son (12) is on Ritalin LA as well. He does have some days that aren't quit as good as others but even the bad days are better than the days we had before meds. Ritalin LA is time released over the course of the day so the kids have much less of the "ups" and "downs" that occurs with Ritalin. This helps with impulsivity issues like my son has. We switched my son (5) from regular ritalin to ritalin LA about a month ago. The regular ritalin did seem to kick in faster (15-30min) for us but it also really does wear off in 3-4 hours. We experienced lots of ups and downs with regular ritalin and the LA seems much smoother. Now his teacher just told me today that he's been off the wall this week at school and wanted to know if he had been taking his meds or not. I have noticed that this week it seems to wear off soon than before but I'm not sure what to make of this yet. I do know that somedays the regular ritalin didn't hardly work and somedays, apparetnly, the LA isn't working either. I think somedays are harder than others for these kids, just like some days are harder for us to deal with, to deal with and the meds just can't compensate for that. A bad day, weather you are a 'Normal" adult or ADHD child is a bad day and the meds just can't help. Hang in there and talk to the doctor if you are really concerned.