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Post by drea721 on Dec 13, 2004 22:31:27 GMT -5
I am new to this site and could really use some HELP We just started our son on Ritilan LA today is day 4 and I am ready to check into a nut house. He takes it once a day and by the time he is out of school he is not my child anymore. I mean I don't know what I mean . I have been trying to find a medication for him for about 3 1/2 - 4 years now and I am at the end of my rope with him. If there is anyone out there that can help me please do, cause I have exhausted all of my resources and don't know what to do.
To make matters worse we have just finished building our house and now he doesn't want to move. Does anyone know how long it takes for you to see any results from Ritilan LA ? Or is this it unless he takes another dose in the afternoon ? I would appreciate any help that I can get so please HELP.
Thank you, Andrea
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Post by finnmom on Dec 13, 2004 23:18:11 GMT -5
:)Drea and welcome, you´ve come to the right place for ongoing suport, you´d really try to exhaust us  About your question; I´ve read a lot of ritalin rebound´s, they do sound really nasty sometime´s. As far as I know, it should start working almost right away when you start it. I´ve read about outburst´s, anger and all those kind of thing´s related to ritalin use. How is your ds acting, what excactly do you find difficult? Are you sure you have the right doze? What other med´s have you tried? Lot´s of question´s, I´am sorry. Congratulation´s of you new house  I think lot of our kid´s do hate changes, moving and schearhing their place so to speak. I bet he´s just refusing to re-program his life. Adhdérs have hard time with changes. Make sure he know´s he has all his most loved thing´s with him, let him wonder around to get familiar with the place.... I hope this goes well. I know other´s have more info of ritalin-use. So stay tuned and they´ll answer. Welcome again!! |
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Post by tridlette on Dec 14, 2004 9:12:45 GMT -5
Ahhh, you've met the Incredible Hulk! He used to live in my house, too! Mine was from Adderall, and Concerta. I wish I knew what to tell you. We finally gave up on meds all together. I talked to my DS 14, Michael, just last night about meds. He said that the Straterra really helped him, but he got terrible migraine headaches, so we stopped using it. When we moved in to this house, he was 9. I had pictures of the house, since we moved almost 500 miles and the kids hadn't seen the place we were moving to. I let them all see the house from different angles, and let them think about which room was going to be theirs. I kind of swayed their choices, but they never realized! I also had pictures of the new school, and had visited so I was able to tell them about the programs and the school day ahead of time too. If you built your house, then you already have probably done all the visits and he has seen the progress of the building. Did he have any input into paint color, wall paper, carpets, door knobs? Sometimes having a little bit of decision power can go a long way to making the move easier. For my then DS7, we let him pick out a wall border for his room (teddy bears that are still there for my now 12 yr old!). The boys even decided to go without curtains in their rooms, and it lets them feel like they have some control. It is a little embarrassing, but it makes them happy, so I choose my battles! I don't know about the meds, I thought they were relatively fast acting, working from day 1. For us, the Incredible Hulk was a slow building thing. I can't tell you when he first starting appearing, but toward the end, he was definitely here. I guess with the Cocerta, we knew right away he was here, but the Adderall took a few years to get to us.  Someone with more Ritalin experience will answer soon. Laurie |
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Post by camismom on Dec 14, 2004 14:20:18 GMT -5
You my dear are experiencing the lovely rebound effect! My dd takes Ritalin LA and has for years. It works great while in school but unfortunately starts wearing off just as she gets home and boy, watch out! My dh equates it to someone coming off a "high".... she actually gets a little more hyper during this time. I agree with Marja (Finnmom) in that you may want to look at the dosage. He may be getting too much. If not, and he does well in school on this med.... then you just have to figure out a way to deal with the rebounds at home. Good luck.
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Post by StrugglingAgain on Dec 14, 2004 14:37:58 GMT -5
Andrea...HI. So glad you joined us. We ALL just rant and rave and in there somewhere find lots of help or at least someone who will listen. How old is your ds? My ds is 9 and we moved from MO to TX a year ago. I was very, very concerned about the "change" of moving since he doesn't do well with any change. Actually, when we got down to it, he did wonderfully. SO, don't worry about that part too much. Are you moving a long distance? Also, my son has been on Ritalin LA for almost two years. Although it's supposed to be an eight hour medication, his metabolism is such that it eats it up in four hours max. He has to take a dose at school. For that matter, my son takes four medications. It's the best combination we've found since he started meds at age four. Everyone is so different that unfortunately it takes many trials and errors. When he takes his Ritalin LA, it takes at least 45 minutes for it to get into his system and start working for him. My guess is that your ds needs at least a week to make sure that his Ritalin LA is doing the best it's going to do. Then call his doctor and see what he says. My son has rebounds, too, but he's at the max dosage for his age and weight, so we live with it. All you can do is the best you can do. Often it's necessary to combine medications to get the very best effect possible. 'Glad you're here....!
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Post by drea721 on Dec 15, 2004 1:55:51 GMT -5
I thought I'd try and answer a couple of these questions. He acts like someone or something I have never seen before, that is when he is coming down. He argues with everyone, yelling and screaming like he is being killed. He says really hurtful and mean things to all of us. And God forbid I try and get him to do his reading homework. It takes 40 minutes of him throwing a fit for him to do one page of anything. If it gets bad enough that I give him a time out that take another 45 minutes of him dying to do a 5 minute time out. Then he starts that nobody cares about me I'm just gonna run away or I want my real parents cause they're nicer (yes, we are the real parents).
As for him being on the right dose at this point I have no idea. We have tried just about everything out there starting with Medadate CD then Adderall XR, Zoloft, Strattera, Tenex, Risperdal, Concerta, Abilify, and Guanfacine. The Adderal XR seems to have worked the best for the longest amount of time. Most recently he was taking Adderal xr 25mg. along with Abilify and the Guanfacine. I just felt it was too much and it wasn't doing what it should be doing for taking all of that at once. Which is why we are trying Ratalin LA.
As for the house it is about 1 1/2 hours from where we are now. But it's been really hard on me too. I've delivered two kids here and also buried one here. It seems like I've been here forever. But we've tried to enclude him in all stages of the building since my husband did most of it himself.
Robert is 8 years old. he is very big for his age yet very immature so it's hard for him to make and keep friends.
Well I hope this helps and that I didn't talk everyones ears off if so I'm sorry. Thanks for the feedback. Andrea
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Post by Sorka on Dec 15, 2004 7:55:52 GMT -5
I hate to ask this.. but is it worth it? If the meds are not really doing anything for him mabye it's time to take a break from them rather than dealing with this, and work at it a different way.
It sounds like you have been through them all anyway!
I dunno.. what do you think? I made that decision as have a few others here.
And it's hard, but it's working.
And this is your son's first lesson of the fact that people and memories matter.. not things.. the house is well.. a house.. what you all need to do is keep the memories alive of the good, and take those with you as you move.. They never leave you, your love never leaves, your memories never leave and that is what is really important!
It's not a bad thing!! It's a good thing!!
And even better.. you get to make more in the new place!!!!
Denise
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Post by StrugglingAgain on Dec 15, 2004 8:46:02 GMT -5
Hi Andrea! Boy, been there with all that, too! I first started with a child psychiatrist who pinpointed some of my ds's behaviors. He, too, did this screaming, stomping, talking ugly (mostly to ME), throwing things, etc. She called it Oppositional Behavior Disorder, along with Severe ADHD. The talking horribly to ME was called "Mother Abuse". Is it possible your son has ODD along with ADHD? The medications for ODD are different than those for ADHD. My son takes both which seem to work together as best as they can. Don't misunderstand, nothing works perfectly. Getting the right diagnosis is imperative. I know how hard this is for you and the rest of your family. I bet you've cried a mountain of tears, too, haven't you?
Moving will be difficult for him, but it may help alot that you are moving during the school year so that he'll be better able to make friends quickly. My son managed to do that fairly well, though pretty shy at first. Another thing that's helped alot is we put him into martial arts about a year ago. It helps get rid of pent up energy and frustration, as well as making other friends with the same interests.
I'm so sorry you're going through this. At one time or another most of us have said in our minds, "Why didn't I have a "normal" child?"....but, our children have other qualities that most "normal" children will never have. Stay around this forum, there are parents who have loads and loads of experiences to share!!!
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Post by eaccae on Jan 5, 2005 12:54:21 GMT -5
Andrea - are the reasons the Adderall worked the best due to the length of time it helped him or other reasons?
Ritalin LA gave DS the same Monster Rebounds you were describing - EXACTLY. He didn't have rebounds like that on any other medication - it was clearly at the "coming down" time of the medication so we knew it was a rebound problem. We went back to the Metadate CD and really have very little rebound. It is true that it has pretty much worn off by the time he gets off the bus - we just went to a ritalin booster. We had to increase the dosage once - but it seems to be making a HUGE difference in the afternoons. I see that you have tried the metadate CD - did it just not work well or was it due to how long it stayed in his system? It may be that your son needs a booster when he gets home. But I definitely wouldn't stay with the Ritalin LA if it is creating these rebounds. We were on it for almost a year and the rebound NEVER improved - but once we stopped the Ritalin LA they disappeared completely.
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Post by savvymom1 on Jan 5, 2005 22:52:50 GMT -5
Andrea, I feel for you and your struggles. My youngest dd is 10, and she does great on meds (concerta and/or focalin). We have had little if any rebound and both meds have really worked (for almost 3 years now).
On meds she is a super student, has great grades, and is much better at friendships than she was a few years ago. My problem is in the morning before the meds kick in!! Yikes!!
She is mean, rude and calls me all kinds of unkind names. This is the same angel who tells me she loves me and to have sweet dreams when I tuck her in at night. In the a.m. she is horrible (before meds kick in). Then once again she is loving and contrite.
I know this is not the same circumstances you are experiencing, but just wanted to say, I know how difficult this is--hang in there. This is a great place to get new insight. Good Luck!
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Post by drea721 on Jan 13, 2005 20:28:28 GMT -5
Well we finally got moved and my son is in his new school, he is also seeing a child psyc. I put him back on the Adderall XR . He is also taking Risperdal and Tenex. Seems like a whole lot of medicine for such a young child. But it's working. It's taken me all this time to get moved and my computer set up, there are still a bunch of boxes that need to be unpacked .
But I just wanted to make contact and get started with all of this wonderful support. My thanks to everyone for their help and feedback, don't know what I would have done without you guys. Thanks, Andrea
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Post by finnmom on Jan 14, 2005 8:39:56 GMT -5
Hi Andrea, nice to hear thing´s are finally working for you. Good to hear that you´ve found something that work´s for your son. Keep us posted and congratulation´s about moving, that really is some job!
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