Hi everyone,
I’m hoping to hear from parents who have been through something similar with ADHD medication.
My son is 8 and has been taking Medikinet XL since he was 6. He started on 30mg and is now on 40mg. We increased to 40mg because 30mg wasn’t giving him enough benefit. Interestingly, he actually says that when he takes 30mg, “my brain doesn’t work anymore” — so clearly he feels that he needs a certain level of medication to function properly.
However, I’m finding the transition on 40mg quite difficult.
When the medication starts kicking in during the morning, he can become very quiet and tearful. Then in the afternoon, as it starts wearing off, he can become irritable. So it’s almost as though the transitions themselves are difficult for him, rather than the medication simply not working.
His appetite isn’t great on it either. Sleep has always been difficult for him historically, although at the moment he’s actually managing around 10pm–7am, which is pretty good for him because when he was younger he barely slept.
He also has autism and dyspraxia, so there are obviously quite a few things to consider. We’ve been under the care of the same neurodevelopmental paediatrician since he was 10 months old. She’s been absolutely fantastic with him, so I’m very happy with her and I’m not looking to change doctors. She’s a neurodevelopmental paediatrician rather than a psychiatrist, but she knows him extremely well.
We have a medication review in November and I want to go into it with a good understanding of the possible alternatives rather than just automatically increasing or continuing the 40mg.
For those whose children had problems with Medikinet XL — particularly tearfulness or becoming unusually quiet when it kicks in, followed by irritability when it wears off — what did you move on to?
I’m particularly interested in whether changing the formulation helped when the problem seemed to be the peaks and wearing-off rather than methylphenidate being completely ineffective.
I know every child is different and obviously I will discuss any change with his paediatrician. I’m just trying to understand the options before our November review.