meds plateauing

[SunshineF]

does anyone have a similar experience…. My 5 yr old son seems to respond to Ritalin for about a month before his poor behavior and impulsivity starts up again. This includes all dose changes and time of day changes etc. he does well then he starts to regress. Is this normal? We he ever get longer than roughly a month of positive results before it starts to decline again?

[Onthemove1971]

Just curious is this happening with the Extended release and short acting? Our son did best with the extended release.

This may not be the medication for him. Or maybe he is metabolizing the medication quicker.

[SunshineF in reply to Onthemove1971]

short acting. His dr wants to move to long acting in the summer so we can eliminate the middle of day dose at school.

We’ve only tried adderall and Ritalin . Adderall did not go well but Ritalin seems to be helping a lot until the one month mark then we up the dose or change time of administration. I’m just wondering if it’s common to keep adjusting so frequently? Dr. Thinks this is a good match medicine wise…. So not really sure where to go from here aside from try the long lasting in a few months.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to SunshineF]

How you guys considered a non-stimulant and a stimulant? Our son has been very successful with Initiv and Ritalin. I know it is hard to swallow that our son needed that type of medication, but it has really helped him a lot.

[SunshineF]

He takes that as well. Just .5 mg three times a day. We’re not sure it’s doing that much anymore though… so hard to tell anymore.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to SunshineF]

I am no doctor, but if he is taking both and you are still seeing bad issues the medication is not right. I was told that medication should take care of 60% of behavior the others should be worked on with therapy, parental changes and the educational plan.

Our Initiv is a 24 hour dose and he takes it am and pm.

We were able to avoid any medication at school.

[SunshineF in reply to Onthemove1971]

well the thing is he does awesome on the meds for about a month then we hit a road block, we readjust dosage etc and then he does well again for about another month. This is what I’m questioning — is this pattern common.

[Bookworm365]

hello! We are still on the “finding the right meds/combo” quest, but we did experience this and I posted about it a while back. Just sharing a link to that post and the subsequent replies from helpful forum members in case it can offer some more insight: healthunlocked.com/adhd-par...

Med trial and error is such a long slog; just know we are in the same boat!

[SunshineF]

thanks so much for this and your support. I read your post and the responses. How is your son doing now? Have you tried different medication? Seeing any improvements?

[Bookworm365 in reply to SunshineF]

We are actually in the midst of a medication change so too soon to say if this will work. We went off the guanfacine (non stim) as it really seemed to make our son’s personality really flat, highly irritable (like just simmering below the surface) and he was too tired — honestly, he was no fun. While we waited for the new medication - Abilify, yes we are a bit nervous about it but trusting our psychiatrist - we did a few days of just stimulant and that was *rough.* The main goal for us is helping with aggression.

I hope we both find the right medications to help our kids! 🤞🏼

[Trying1978]

Our 7 yo son was on Ritalin for about a year (ER) with the same kind of thing, except more over periods of 3 months. You could definitely tell the moment it started getting out of his system! As far as I know, short acting is usually used as a booster dose rather than the main one these days? We switched to Vyvanse this winter with some improvements. I've been told and read, though, that this kind of plateau effect is just an issue with all stimulants.

Will be going down the road stimulant road next, I think!

Getting the meds right seems to be a long and exacting process for all involved 😁 We are still in the thick of it 1.5 years in. Hang in there!

[SunshineF in reply to Trying1978]

thanks for this info. it definitely is a process. We’ve also been at this for 1.5 yrs. — behavioral therapy, parenting lessons, evaluations… we’ve been trying medicine for the past 7 or so months. Are you going back to stimulants bc Vyvanse isn’t covering all of his symptoms well enough?

[Trying1978 in reply to SunshineF]

Vyvane is a stimulant, like a super-long-acting Adderall. But it's not working out much better than the Ritalin, honestly It did at first, to go with the theme of your post...

He was on 15, then 20, then 30 of Ritalin, btw: 7 yo, 50 lbs (saw the dosage discussion below).

[sousamarcela438]

Ask the doctor maybe needs to increase the amount my kid starts with 10mg then 15mg afert 1 year 20mg then the side effects starts depression ....

[SunshineF in reply to sousamarcela438]

he’s at 15 mg now. He takes 7.5 at 7 am and then another 7.5 at 11 am. I’m worried going up more will be too much since he’s only 5. How old is your son?

[SurvivorFan in reply to SunshineF]

We initially started at 5mg twice a day at age 5 but after a week bumped up to 10mg twice a day briefly. We ended up needing to switch to a long acting in the am (25mg) and 2 booster doses 12 (15mg)and 3pm (10mg) to make it through the day. My son metabolizes the stimulant very quickly. We just went through a phase where it felt like he was literally taking nothing again. Really hard days at home and school. It ended up being he needed to switch up his anxiety med as it was no longer helping. Finally we are back on track again. It's so so tough when things have to be adjusted and you feeling like your guessing at what to do.

[SunshineF in reply to SurvivorFan]

Do you mind sharing what anxiety meds he takes and when he started w those? My son also has mild anxiety and his dr. Brought up treating it w medicine but we haven’t made a decision on that yet. We’re hesitant because he’s so young— just turned 5 a few weeks ago.

[SurvivorFan in reply to SunshineF]

Sure, we started him on fluxoteine when he was about 6 1/2. We didn't wait/put off starting him. If he would have shown the symptoms he was earlier, I would not have hesitated to help him. He was on that for about a year and then recently we had to switch him to Celexa because it was no longer working for him and he couldn't tolerate a higher dose due to side effects.

[sousamarcela438 in reply to SunshineF]

7 years old

[Elijah1]

Does he have any other issues besides ADHD?

[SunshineF]

we think he has mild anxiety too but that’s all.

[Beachbum04]

My 5 yr old son is exactly the same on adderol! It works for about a month and then no more, have to move the dosage up. Dr wont prescribe any higher until he saw a psychologist. I am going to talk to the neuropsych about getting him on a non-stimulant too to see if we can get him to where he isnt running out of school and in front of buses.