After a long (and necessary) road through diagnosis, my 10yo daughter started Concerta, 18mg yesterday. I wanted to start her on a weekend day so that I could watch for side effects. There were no side effects :) .

I am so hoping she will have good results with the medication. She is due for some wins. Despite her high IQ, she has been failing the fourth grade and struggles with completing her work at school and at home. She has been on a behavoir contract, which has helped with getting her homework home, but it is quite a struggle getting the work done, despite having a reduced writting load and computer tools to help get the work completed. It is obvious that she can do the work if she has (a very patient) someone keeping her on task every minute. Her hand writting and spelling are horrible. She does well in math if given a good explanation prior to starting the work. Unfortunately, at school she does not always "get" the instructions correctly.

Although the diagnosis and treatment are related to her school performance, I noticed an improvement in her behavoir at home on her first day (yesterday). She actually went shopping (pet food store, electronic store and grocery store) with me and was helpful :D . I had quit taking her places because she was so impulsive and active that I would be totally distracted by her; and not get everything that I was supposed to (try making dinner with out all the ingrediants); and I would be frazzled when we got home.

I am hoping she has a good day at school today.
vickie

That's great Vicky! I'm happy for you. :) I'm hoping to switch my 8 year old daughter for Ritalin to Concerta soon for the longer coverage and less ups and downs.


Scattered

Congratulations and Good Luck!

Seeing those behavior improvements on meds was a day that I will never forget.

One accomodation that we got from our teacher is that she writes down instructions on the board. Multi-part verbal instructions are difficult for ADDer's. Homework instructions are always written with the homework.

Don't want to discurage you, just prepare you. Often it takes a while for the side affects to show up. However, there are plenty of choices of meds, and usually something will be just right for your child.

Today is her 4th day and still no side effects (keeping fingers crossed). She has always been really up and down on her attention and behavior, so Sunday could have been a fluke. She has had almost no homework and has been doing most of it in class, so I cannot tell how that is going yet. This is a light school week because of a field trip to the state capitol.

I read the studies on Concerta and saw that most kids had good results on doses between 36 and 54mg. The dose titration scheme suggests starting at 18mg increasing weekly up to 54mg for kids, depending on side effects and improvement (register for free medscape access):
http://www.medscape.com/infosite/concerta/article-dose

http://images.medscape.com/pi/sites/infosite/concerta/chart-recommendeddosing.gif
We shall see what the psychiatrist does for dose this weekend.

I think I am prepared to deal with side effects and the related

We have been happy with the accomodations the school has made related to the IEP (for LD as the ADHD was just finally diagnosed). For assignments, my daughter has to record all homework in her planner and the teacher signs it at the end of the day. My daughter would not get anything in the planner at the start of the school year, let alone bring home any books.
vickie