My 8 yr old son was on 2 full 10mg pills a day.. originally 3 but that in my opinion was way too much.... he was doing fine but loosing weight and i didnt like the way he got so low and then high.... well i lowered it to 2 half pills a day for about a month.. well he started getting notes sent home again..and one really bad inncodent on the bus so again i am uping it back to 2 full pills.. i hate it but he bahaves so badly if he is not medicated... .. in the mornings i just loose it I try and tell myself to ignore him when he is laughing crazily at me when i tell him to stop something or keeps talking after i have told him to stop.. this morning i just lost it.. i told him to please be quiet over 5 times andhe kept talking still... i mean does he not understand english.. I should expect him to be abit more out of control while uping the meds again.. he was eating more with less but I guess it just wasnt worth the behavoural change....

Sharm, was your son's behaviour like this before he started taking Ritalin?

Have you tried Lars' advice about liquid nutrition supplements, since he clearly needs the higher dose of Ritalin?

I don't mean to giggle at your problem but I had to. My son giggles at everything and talks incessantly and yes he knows the meaning of the words "be quiet."

I have a bench that when it gets so bad.... he sits on it with a timer. 5 min of NO talking/noise. If he starts, I start the timer over but I don't engage or argue with him. If he doesn't want to sit on the bench, he needs to stop when I ask him in the first place. It's done wonders. Oh and he's only 6.

The loss of appetite is a normal side-effect of ritalin, I had it when I took ritalin, if you want to help encourage his appetite make sure he doesn't take any ritalin for several hours beforehead, then he can take ritalin after he's eaten if need be.

Hey Sharm,

Is this something you have talked with your son's doctor about? Do you let him know when you change doses? I think that if things are not working well, that you should talk with the doctor to see if a different medication might not be the answer.

Just my two cents.

At Heart

It's probably a normal side effect of the medication. Try another brand of med

You might try focalin. My youngest lost a little weight then did not gain any for 8 months. We switched to focalin because the doc has some other patients that lost weight on methylphenidate but not focalin (it is only one of the 2 isomers that make up methylphenidate). My youngest gained weight slowly on the focalin.

Hello Sharm - are you still here? I hope you are talking with whomever is prescribing the meds for your child, not simply changing his doses without the doctor's knowledge. The others raise good points also, you may want to try another medication. My son has less appetite on Concerta (long acting Ritalin).

At Heart