7 year old son recently diagnosed and I have some medication questions...

[friscomomoftwo]

Hello,
I'm so happy to find this forum. My 7 year old son had a really rough school year last year in 1st grade. His teacher told us that he never completed any tasks, day dreamed, was not focused, is behind in reading and writing, etc. We had him tested for learning disabilities as well as attention disorders. We found that he does not have a reading disorder, but does have ADHD. He is not super hyper, but talks ALOT and has so much trouble in school and staying on task.

Our pediatrician started him out on 18 mg of Concerta the 2nd to last week of school. His teacher really saw no difference at all. He also had no negative side effects. He ate and slept just fine.

The doctor had him take 36 mg when we just had 2 days of school left. It was hard for the teacher to be able to see a big difference when they were doing fun end of the year activities.

I have now noticed his appetite has decreased a bit and he does have trouble falling asleep at bedtime.

My goal this summer was to get him regulated on a good medication, so that when school rolls around again in August, he will be all set.

We are still trying to decide if he should repeat 1st grade like the teacher recommends, or send him on to 2nd.

He is doing private tutoring this summer and the tutor feels that he is focused during their sessions. However, that is one on one and not in a big class setting.

My concern is that it is still a HUGE struggle to get him to work with me on reading and tutoring assignments.

Maybe I am not realistic, but I imagined that once he was on Concerta, he would be happy to do his school work.

My fear is that the Concerta he is taking is not working, and I won't know that until school starts and his teacher tells me he is having trouble again.

Then I will be back at square one for finding a medication that works for him.

Am I wrong in expecting to see a dramatic change in his attitude towards school? Maybe it is working, and he is just a typical boy and doesn't like to do school work. Maybe it is not working and I'm wasting his time having him on Concerta all summer.

Because he is not overly hyper active at home, it is so hard for me to see a real difference when he is on the medication. His lack of attention was all news to me when his teacher called me in for the conference. I know some parent's can see a night and day difference when their kids begin medication, and I just don't see that. That is why I'm afraid it is not working.

I would love to hear any insight you all might have. I wish I had gotten his diagnosis earlier in the school year, so that we would have had more time to determine if the medication was really working or not.

Thanks so much!!!

[mommytriz]

Originally Posted by friscomomoftwo

My concern is that it is still a HUGE struggle to get him to work with me on reading and tutoring assignments.

Maybe I am not realistic, but I imagined that once he was on Concerta, he would be happy to do his school work.

It has been my experience over the past 5 months that the medication can make it more possible for my dd to focus, settle in to do work that is expected as school, BUT it doesn't make her necessarily WANT to do it at home. She will, after a bit of complaining, attend better. However the meds don't make her suddenly love to read and write. They didn't change her core personality which is to not love to read and write. lol She finds it very difficult and therefore understandably avoids it. It's makes sense. Who goes back for more of a miserable experience at the age of 8.

Originally Posted by friscomomoftwo

My fear is that the Concerta he is taking is not working, and I won't know that until school starts and his teacher tells me he is having trouble again.

Then I will be back at square one for finding a medication that works for him.

Will your son spend more time on tasks that are not directed by the tutor than he used to? Try giving him some mazes, word searches or even just colouring sheets and see if you see a difference from his non medicated self. My dd when medicated will sit for about 2 hours designing/colouring clothing styles and scenes. Without the medication she'll do 1 design before she moves on to something else.

Originally Posted by friscomomoftwo

Am I wrong in expecting to see a dramatic change in his attitude towards school? Maybe it is working, and he is just a typical boy and doesn't like to do school work. Maybe it is not working and I'm wasting his time having him on Concerta all summer.

Because he is not overly hyper active at home, it is so hard for me to see a real difference when he is on the medication. His lack of attention was all news to me when his teacher called me in for the conference. I know some parent's can see a night and day difference when their kids begin medication, and I just don't see that. That is why I'm afraid it is not working.

I would love to hear any insight you all might have. I wish I had gotten his diagnosis earlier in the school year, so that we would have had more time to determine if the medication was really working or not.

Thanks so much!!!

I do not see a night and day difference at home either as my daugher is primarily Inattentive ADHD, but we did at school. A huge difference the first day. We do not give her the medicine unless she has to go to school. Did he have any sessions with the tutor without the medication? If not, you could always try going without it for a day and see if she sees a difference. Try having him on it and assigning a writing story and monitor his efforts and then try him without the concerta. Sorry if Concerta is a med you have to have in your system constantly as I guess this won't work then.

I know the uncertainty is really tough and it's hard to be giving a 7 year old a drug if your not even sure if it's effective. Hang in there. School life can be much better for him in September, it'll just take a bit of time to figure all this out. As for repeating a grade. Hopefully the tutor will have some gauge of what level he is at by August.

[sarahsweets]

Sometimes a longer acting medication like concerta just isnt right for some kids. Perhaps a short acting dose of ritalin would work better?

[CrazyLazyGal]

Originally Posted by sarahsweets

Sometimes a longer acting medication like concerta just isnt right for some kids. Perhaps a short acting dose of ritalin would work better?

Or another family of medications. Concerta didn't work at all for me, but I've had good experiences with Vyvanse, Adderall, and Adderall XR.