How long before seeing meds work for ADD/ADHD?

My daughter just started taking meds for her ADD/ADHD about 3 weeks ago.  The Dr. told us not to give her the meds on weekends and when she is not in school.  I haven't seen any change, but when she gets home from school, she acts like she ate a whole bag of sugar on the way home.  The teacher hasn't said if she see's any changes, but she hasn't been in trouble so I guess it is better.  Should she be so hyped-up after school?

[allmymarbles]

The meds, unfortunately, are working. You said she is hyper when she gets home from school. This is the nasty side effect of what you are giving her. The meds for ADD are similar to speed. Do you really want your kid on speed? Academic success is only one narrow aspect of a child's totality. No way would I give a child of mine this dangerous junk.

[Sandman2]

   Allmymarbles is correct, the meds (most are, some are not) are similar to speed.  They work because a person with ADHD has an opposite reaction to the medication.  It slows them down and allows concentration.  
   Either the dosage is not high enough to affect your daughter, or she does not have ADHD and she is reacting to the medication like a normal person would. It is also possible that medication is wearing off by the time she gets home.  Either way it is very important to communicate with your doctor.

[dollyn]

Have you read the side effects of these medicines that they put our children on and we let them? Can you tell us who's idea was it for her to go get looked at for adhd and put  her on medicine.

some of these children really don't need to be on medicines and the doctors need to look at everything that is going on in a child's life before they drug them up with the risk to do more damage. You should read other post and see what other parents like myself have gone threw with our children being on medicines and how it made things worse for our child.

there are other things beside add or adhd that a child could have that look like it.

[mom104]

I waited over a year after I was told she had ADD/ADHD before I put her on any medicine!  She is repeating Kindergarden possible because I waited so long!  I think that it is wearing off by the time she gets home.  I debated long and hard over it, but I had to do something to help her focus at school.  Her teacher tells me that she is doing alot better in school.  Focusing more and not getting into trouble.  I could put her on more or something else to help after school, like for homework or what not.  But I am not going to do that.  The last thing that I wanted was to put her meds.  But I had to do something to help her!

[Sandman2]

  Glad to hear it is working out for you and her.  Because she is still in Kindergarten, homework should not be an issue yet.  When it is, then it is time to talk to a doctor.
  In the meantime here is some homework for you.    Just saw this post, these books might be worth checking out.  I haven't read them yet, but I am certainly going to look into them.

Dulcet1pms, Oct 07, 2009 03:33AM
Hi- I also have a son with ADhD and is Bi-polar as well.  THe one best thing I did for him was buy, read and implement the techniques in 2 books.  The first was, "How to reach and teach ADD ADhD kids."  The second was, "The ADD/ ADhD Answer book."  Both of those books are filled with things that help our kind of children

  There is a lot you can do to help her.  Getting the information to do so is vital.
Good Luck!!

[allmymarbles]

Maybe your daughter is getting better because she is getting older. Before doctors prescribe this garbage they should give the child the chance to settle down, which 99 per cent of them do without anybody's help. Anyway, I don't much care about the teacher and her desire for a class of obedient robots. I care about the child.

[dollyn]

Amen ,I agree with you allmymarbles.

I would hate for another child and family to go threw what my family has because of these drugs and the side effects.Not only do you have a hipper child but other medical problems to and a lot of medicines and hospital stays, blood work ,mom who worry's every day .trips to the doctors twice a month if not more.A child who needs to be home school because he cant handle going to school.


If I where to ever see the teacher who thou my child needed these drugs and made me feel like if we didn't we where bad parents .I would let her have it.

wish I could take back time or change places with my son.

[thejoyofmotherhood]

Oh My God, people!!!!
The ADHD medicine is wearing off. If you all have children that take the medicine, you would know that majority of parents struggle with this "coming off" the medicine after school. You can play around with dosages, try to change the medicine. Also, I noticed with my son, that if I don't quit giving him medicine during weekend, he seems better. I talked to parents who actually give children a Coca -Cola, and it helps (go figure). Some children become really depressed for about 2-3 hours; so they even put them on a low doze of Zoloft right after school. Another words, there are options, and it is normal for this to happen.

[Sandman2]

interesting, I always wondered if coffee would help, since caffeine is a stimulant.  Coke certainly has the caffeine, so that may be why it helps.  Hopefully, it is diet coke.

[Lilak2002]

My son was diagnosed with ADHD, ODD and a mixed receptive speech delay at the age of 3 almost 4.  His doctor put him on Dextromine and it has done wonders for him.  Because of the medication he started talking almost over night and he was able to slow down enough to communicate with everyone.  His main issue was communication.  He was unable to communicate his needs to people so he would throw tantrums instead.  The medication not only helped his speech but also helped improve his behavior.  I understand what why people would say the things about the meds they put kids on and I felt the same way.  ADHD and ADD runs in my family and I know what Ritalin did to my brother and I didn’t want that to happen to my son.  After almost a year of getting kicked out of every daycare imaginable I was facing having to get out of the Army which I could not afford at the time.  Once they put him the meds it was like a miracle.  Also, ask your doctor to place her on a time release pill.  That is what my son is on.  He only has to take it once a day and it pretty much lasts all day. We had to change to that type of med when he started school.  It was a lot easier then having the school administer meds in the middle of the day.

[mom104]

Thanks!  She is on a time release med now.  You helped...alot of others have just trashed me for putting her on the meds!  I struggled with it for a year not wanting to do it but finally I just couldn't take it anymore.  I am going to try giving it to her on the weekends too and see if that helps.  Thanks.

[Sandman2]

If it worked during the week, it will also work during the weekend.  Use that time to socialize with her and touch up some of those little skills she might have missed due to her ADHD in her earlier years.  Also please remember, that the meds by themselves are not the whole answer.  What they will allow you to now do is to help her achieve her full potential.  So keep reading up on ADHD.  Do check into special education (if you haven't already done so), it will help her in the upper grades.  Because you have caught this early enough, she probably hasn't missed out on school stuff that would put her behind.  But as she gets older, balancing the time that meds wear off and homework must be finished can get tricky.  So do keep in touch with your doctor and of course your teachers.    
Best Wishes.

[Lilak2002]

Yeah, they are also holding my son back in kindergarten this year because we PCSed and the education system in Hawaii is really bad although they did help my son out a lot.  They said he was not mentally and emotionally prepared for 1st grade.  Broke my heart but I we had no choice.  Also, try putting her in any type of sports you can anything that will drain the excess energy out of her.  It was always great to have my son come home and fall asleep!  It does work though.  Get a trampoline something fun and just let her at it and that energy will just come right out.  We have tried a lot of things with our son that do work.  Don’t worry about what other people say.  I love my son to death but we had to put him on meds just to get him to slow down.  He is very smart, just was going at a much faster pace they everyone else.  We were aware of the side effects of Dextromine but they pretty much had no affect on our son.  Its side effects were weight loss, loss of appetite, stunted growth and insomnia.  There are worse side affects then that but my son never experienced any of it.  He did have a loss of appetite but he got over that quickly.  My son is 5 years old now and he is almost taller than me, mind you I’m only 4’11”. And he eats like he is a starved African child.  I have no regrets about what we chose to do and we had a wonderful child physiologist who was mindful of not putting him on harsh medications etc.  He would often visit the schools on base to check up on all the special needs children.  Wonderful doctor!

[AshleyTheKid]

I'm a 16 year old high school student. Who was taking Vyvanse, and before that Concerta. I changed from Concerta to Vyvanse, because I eventually got to the highest dosage, and it just stopped working for me. I went back to the old hyper self I was before. When I first got on Vyvanse I stayed up for a week straight. I had gotten no sleep at all. After I finally got over all that, it went very smoothly for a while. I was concentrating on my school work, making good grades. Then after a while I just started feeling weird. Like I wasn't my self anymore, I was never talking to my friends or anyone for that matter. I just became isolated, and eventually became very depressed. I would just cry for no reason, and I was very irritable and complained about everything. I also lost a very large amount of weight. I would never eat, I just never had and appetite anymore. Also when the medication started to wear off, is when I would become severally depressed. I couldn't take it anymore, I hurt myself a lot, I actually tried to kill myself several times. I didn't know what was happening to me. I felt like a completely different person. A person that hated everything. My friends started to become worried and everyone would ask what had happened to me. I just told them I was taking medication for my ADHD, ADD, and ODD. I told my mother about it eventually, and she took me back to the doctor. And all he did was up my dosage. I begged for my mother to not make me take it anymore, it was completely destroying my life. In my opinion, wanting your child to have nearly perfect grades, isn't worth ruining their whole entire childhood. I stopped taking all medication for my problems, and now I believe my life, my attitude, and even my grades are the best they have ever been. I'm proud of myself. And I will never take any medication like that ever again. Neither will I give it to my children when I get older. I believe it is just a life ruiner, not a life saver. You shouldn't try to make your child perfect, everybody has their own faults. Not everyone is going to make it out there in the world perfectly safe and no problems to worry about. They'll figure it all out on their own soon enough. I did. I don't believe in all this changing the way your child is nonsense. I mean you can't expect a child to not have all this energy, and be hyper it's just how every child is. Imagine how your child feels with you giving them all this medicine to make them better, it makes a child think they are not good enough, and that you don't think they are either. I'm just trying to get the message out that giving your child medication that is basically speed isn't worth it in the end. It messes with a child, like how their feelings and thoughts are. There is another solution to this so called problem with your children. Trust me there always is. Your kid just needs to learn how to sort their thoughts out properly, and concentrate on the important things in your early life, like school work. And day dream and goof off on their free time. I managed to figure this all out on my own, and now I don't need medication to help me get my work straightened out, and to ruin my life. I can do it all on my own if I just try and concentrate on the important things. All you have to do is get your children to set their minds on their school work and mess around and goof off after they have gotten the important things done with it. If I can do it I believe any child can. I have ADHD, ADD, and ODD, but I managed to get my life all straightened out and focus on the important things, and all climb my way up to the top of my class. I managed all that, I bet your children could too, all they have to do is try. It's not that hard once you get the hang of it. I hope the best for all of you and I hope my story helps you all with your children.

[Sandman2]

      Hey Ashley, you have done amazing things, congratulations.  
      I do hope that you realize that everyone is different and what works for one person will not work for another.  What you were able to do in high school to get yourself under control would be impossible for a child of 6 or 7.  
      What is kind of weird to me is how you reacted to the meds.  Its kind of untypical.  Much more like how someone without ADHD would react.  Almost makes me wonder if if you were misdiagnosed as a child as there are several other things that mimic ADHD and some doctors just take the easy way out (as you have found out).  
     By the way, two sites aimed at the adult ADD sufferer that you might want to check out are totallyadd.com and http://jeffsaddmind.com/for-first-time-visitors.
       Both sites are done by people with ADD.  totallyadd was actually a PBS special and consequently is a series of short videos.  Quite entertaining and useful.   Jeffs add mind really reflects him.  Has much more adult interaction.  Both are worth checking out.
       Anyway, thanks for your post.  Best wishes






1

[Ailana]

I studied chemisty & water chemisty. Although the caffine helps, the acid in soda is 2.4, drinking water is 7.2.   Being that its on a 10 scale, that means it is almost 10 to the power 5 (100,000) times more acidic than water. It would take pages for me to explain the effects & science of soda. In chemisty, soda means acid.   Noone should drink that poison!

[hannidog]

ah get your daughter off it, and wait until she reaches grade 6, this is when she really needs to pay attention. speaking from a psychology student point of view, I have been with a.d.d all my life and just started taking the meds this summer, after 2 years in university.
trust me. she does not need to know anything before grade 6. what doctors are doing now is stupid. prescribing children these drugs will harm their growth, their liver their sleep cycle their serotonin level.
these drugs help, but are not needed in Kindergarden. I'm sure everyone here can barely remember their days in Kindergarden.

I hope its not too late. and hope you understand that this is not a trashing msg more of a save your child msg. and give her what she needs when she needs it.

good luck

[Sandman2]

    The trouble with basing advice off your experience is that while it may be true for someone like you, it may not be good advice for someone else.  You are a psychology student in college and didn't start taking meds until recently.  Obviously you have a pretty high intellectual level (and probably self discipline) that allowed you to compensate during your elementary, middle school and probably high school years.  Others are not so gifted.  I have taught kids who were so far behind in their math by seventh grade, that they never caught up.   I might also add that by grade 6 a kids self esteem could be pretty well trashed, and that might be even harder to correct.
     So as I said somewhere up above - everybody is different.  And the pill is most certainly not a magic elixir.   Knowledge however is something that nobody should go without.

[3rdgradeteach]

As a 3rd grade teacher, I hope nobody takes hannidog's advice. The elementary years are where kids learn all of the basic skills they will need later on in school and in life. How well do you think that child would do in the 6th grade if they were reading at a 2nd grade level and didn't know their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, much less formulas and writing methods and scientific method? Kids with ADHD also struggle to develop social skills because they become a distraction to other students and their impulsivity causes conflicts with their friends.

They would fail. They would have no social skills. They would have no friends. They would be kept in remediation. They would be in classes with people 2 and 3 years younger than them because they had to catch up. By high school, they will have developed a sense of self that consists of words like "stupid", "annoying", and "hopeless", yet they won't be the only voice calling themselves those words. Do you think they would go on to succeed from there? Maybe, but they've been set on the track to lifelong failure.

Medication works wonders for the kids that need it, and it makes just as much of an impact as getting a child glasses that can't see the paper in front of them or the words on the board. ADHD medication is an enabler and to neglect it as an option is to take away an opportunity for your ADHD child to succeed.

Some people with ADHD are able to overcome its challenges through coping methods, diet, and practiced self control, but there are others that struggle with a more acute disability or may not have the innate intelligence to do those things without achieving a chemical balance through medication.

If you choose not to medicate your child, pray they are the former and not the latter.

[mgrendon]

Don't let anyone make you feel guilty. It's a tough decision and it's easy for others to judge when they may or may not live with an ADHD child. Each child is unique. Low self esteem, labeling, and failure in school is not what anyone wants for their child. I am ovewhelmed by daily "bad behavior" reports and I have tried everything short of meds. It's a tough choice but an individual choice.

[mgrendon]

Thank you for your insightful and needed post!

[jo73161]

Your child comes home with rebound hyperactivity and is common in children with ADHD who are on medication. My son did it for a long time.
Please just remember what ever your decision is it is for the greater good for your child, ADHD children have a habit of making parents look bad and there child undisciplined I know i coped it for years, keep strong and your chin up. Our living tea-bag's have big hearts and slow down with age.. :)

[Mizgz]

Please don't let other women on this blog bully you.  I am a 36 year-old woman and have recently been diagnosed with ADHD.  I know I've had ADHD since I was a kid but it wasn't as well understood then. As an adult I didn't seek treatment as I was opposed to taking the medication. Instead I tried all sorts of ways of dealing with my condition.  I have 6 list apps, lots of post-it notes as reminders, take copious notes of everything but I still forget things every day and struggle with concentration and motivation even though I am far from lazy.  I dropped out of college and didn't return until I was 30 to finish even though my IQ is well above average. Now I'm in grad school and finally managing because of ADHD meds.  Your daughter has a medical condition that only ADD and ADHD medication can fix and only you can decide what is best for her. Not anyone else on this site.

[Sandman2]

   Glad to hear that things are working out for you!  Do you find that you use the meds on an as needed study/test basis or just do a daily long lasting one?  (If you don't mind my asking)
   By the way this is a very interesting site for adults with ADD/ADHD
http://jeffsaddmind.com/for-first-time-visitors
   Please keep posting.  Its good to hear from people who "have been there".  Best wishes.