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Post by Kbugsmom on Jan 21, 2005 16:44:14 GMT -5
DD is going to start Adderall 5mg XR on Monday. She will go up to 10mg after a week. The doctor prescribed it to be taken every day, including weekends. She said that dd should take it every day to avoid some of the highs and lows. My questions are these: do your kid's (those on stimulants) take their meds daily or just Mon.-Fri.? If they just take them Mon.-Fri., how do they tolerate going off on the w/e's?
Thanks for your answers, this is all very new to me.
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Post by JulieinSC on Jan 21, 2005 17:55:21 GMT -5
There is no single answer to whether your kid should take stimulant meds on non-school days; it varies greatly depending on your kid, the type of ADHD, the med, what you and your family and doctor think, etc.
My son is ADHD-inattentive. He takes Metadate CD only for school. If he has lots of homework he takes a dose of Ritalin.
Because he is ADHD-inattentive, and not a behavior problem, and has no problems stopping/starting meds this is what we have decided to do. We are doing this after talking with our doctor, of course, and my son, who is 13.
As I said, there is no single right answer. You have to do what you think is best for you, your child and your family.
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Post by Linda on Jan 21, 2005 19:10:20 GMT -5
Hi Erin...good advice...every child is different...we always did it for school only....I always liked the hyper part of Paul(now 16) and we never had bad behavior issues with him.
His biggest problem was impulsiveness with or without the meds...but he has mellowed out a lot.
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Post by eaccae on Jan 22, 2005 1:36:37 GMT -5
Hi, Erin. As Linda stated - every child is different. We did both. We started out medicating only during school hours. We did this for two years but in our case it was not working out well. DS is highly "energetic", highly impulsive and highly inattentive. Family life was nonexistent for us on the weekends so when we started medicating on the weekends it was like reclaiming our lives. Also - a possible side effect with the stimulants is that there can be increased hyperactivity for a couple days after stopping the medication. This happens with DS. We are currently using Metadate CD 20 mgs.
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Post by finnmom on Jan 22, 2005 11:40:01 GMT -5
Hi Erin
My ds9 is on concerta 18mg at school days only+ a booster-ritalin 5mg at schooldays when needed. That has been good for us, at w-end´s/holidays we do something as a family and his behaviour has never been an issue when we´re together. Behaviour, hyperness and lack of control is an issue at school and med´s do work there.
Every child is different, so there is truly no "proofed" method that´ll work with your´s, only trial and error.
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Post by Kbugsmom on Jan 23, 2005 8:28:09 GMT -5
Hi all,
DD is primarily inattentive with some hyperactivity at times, nothing we can't deal with at home. We are mostly doing this for her benefit at school, both to help her out in the classroom and socially. We will medicate her as ordered, but I do like the idea of giving her a break from the meds. on w/e's. However, I certainly don't want DD to experience unnecessary highs and lows. We will have a follow up appt. in one month so I guess I will just sit back and see what happens until then. Thanks again for your replies.
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Post by Meghynne on Jan 24, 2005 10:31:19 GMT -5
I take strattera (65mg) daily, and Adderall (20mg long acting) only Monday through Friday. Usually on the weekends I take only 10mg of the long acting or 5mg of the short acting if I need it...if I'm going to be driving or if I have an It's Academic thing or something.
It really does depend on the person. I've never had an issue with highs and lows, even when I was only on Adderall and not the Strattera. Taking it every day might help her get used to the drug faster though, as there can be a bit of an adjustment period.
Sometimes when I don't take the drugs on the weekends I'm a little...bouncy...but it doesn't really make a difference if I'm not doing anything school-related.
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Post by vickilyn32 on Jan 24, 2005 12:41:07 GMT -5
DS14 takes adderall xr 30 mg on school days only. He also is ADHD-inattentive, and no behavior problems (except for being a teenager! ;D) we have never given meds on non-school days except when he went to boyscout camp and church camp. Then we did give him meds because they were working on earning badges or on lessons.
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Post by Kbugsmom on Jan 25, 2005 10:41:53 GMT -5
Maybe once DD is acclimated to the medication and has been taking it for a little while, I will ask about taking her off on weekends. I am at peace with giving her meds and my initial anxiety over starting the meds are gone, but I still would like to give her a break from the meds when I can.
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Post by milesofsmiles on Jan 26, 2005 12:16:13 GMT -5
Sounds like your plan will be the best one. Just wait and see. On some medicines we would not give them on the weekend so he would eat again, then at the start of the week he had emotional melt downs when he got home from school. It took a couple of days for him to get reaclimated. With the help of the Dr. we found a happy medium so it was not so bad at the beginning of the school week. Miles  |
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Post by AnneM on Jan 26, 2005 15:00:16 GMT -5
With my (now 16) son I have REDUCED his concerta at weekends the past three years but not often stopped it entirely .... For example he took 36 mg each school day (which at one point went up to 54 mg) .... but at weekends I always gave him 18 mg ... I found if I reduced to nothing at weekends he would get a little (temporarily) "irritable" which I understand "can" happen when suddenly stopped from meds ... I have always found the 18mg just kept him ticking over and on an "even keel" ...
I am talking in the past tense because now at 16 he no longer needs as much medication at all ... these figures are based on the past 3 years since age 13.
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