I have a 6 year old girl she was just found to have ADHD last Tuesday we were sent home with a stack of information, On Wednesday morning we started giving her what the Dr prescribed Focalin XR it last 12 hours I give it to her before school around 7 am and it wears off gradually. The last 6 hours in her system it tapers off so she is nice and hyper after school, this is her first week on medication , but I have noticed she still has tantrums and is hyper in the evening, however it is less but not perfect.
However, her 1st grade teacher has noticed a major difference during the day so I do know it is working as far as I can tell she has not had any side effects and it does taper off so it out of her system by bed time.

We are coming up on the weekend, Do you usually left them sleep in and giving your child the medicine when they wake up or wake them up so they always get the medicine at the same time. I'm not a morning person to begin with, I have always been a night owl. Since this is time release how late in the morning is it ok to give it to them it lasts 12 hours in your system including the taper down period as well?

You won't know until you try. Try it once when you first wake up and see how it goes. And she can't go to sleep at the regular time then you know you're going to have to wake up a couple of hours earlier to give it to her.

Of course there is always the option of not giving it to her on the weekends.

Thanks, we ended up giving it to her a little later in the morning on sat and she did well, haven't seen too much change in how she acting , but she is responding better to us, So i think we need to work on how to act with her some more.

We took away most of the TV and video games. That helped us alot. It now has to be earned. And the most they can have is an hour at a time. Actually I feel like I suffered the most from it. Boy I miss the tv! Last Sunday, my husband gave them free reign of the WII, and they were jumping all over the place.

I also have a 6 y/o daughter on Focalin. I have found that the Focalin seems to be out of her system at 4 pm (roughly 8 hours). When the whining and tantrums start, I get her outside for some fresh air and a lot of exercise (riding her bike, walking the dog, taking a walk around the block, playing ball in the backyard etc). I have found that this helps with the rebound. It gives her a way to let the energy out instead of throwing a tantrum.

Unfortunately, if there is homework it is like pulling teeth. She has no ability to focus what so ever. Her feet are above her head, she complains about anything in her eye sight. She will throw a tantrum because she can. She's not old enough to have figured out strategies to help her. We are teaching her coping strategies but it's not enough. So on those nights we have gone to using a fast acting medicine. We use it as needed and our daughter now asks for the second dose when she has homework.

Hang in there.

We use Focalin XR too. It only lasts about 6-7 hours for us. We also use the short acting for help with homework in the afternoon.

good luck.

I'll defiantly keep that in mind, I may ask about adding a short acting pill for homework time. I can so relate to all the energy, our problem is we got two older kids who are at games during the week so were all sitting in the stands watching them cheer or play soccer most nights and she gets restless but I do think some of that is just being a normal 6 year old. next week all the little ones her age will have signs to hold up during the games.
I have her in two dance classes during the week, one on MON a tap class and the other THUR a jazz class, This does help with her energy and she practices at home for fun. After her first full week her teacher has sent thanks for the happy pill note and she getting outstanding grades on her work, so I couldn't be happier. She used to play outside more with the neighborhood kids, but we had a few move away, so we will need to look for more play friends.

my son just started conserta 18mg aday on tues. his DR. tolled me to dont change his schedule on weekends, so I guess I have to wake him up at 7 am for his pill on saturday