Posted by motherof2plustwins on April 9, 2006, at 2:03:50
In reply to Re: Lynne: (Re: Focalin XR vs Concerta, posted by Lynne on March 19, 2006, at 9:54:01
I was curious about your choice of meds. I have a nine year old daughter that takes 57mgs of Concerta a day. Some days we have to supplement 10 mg of Ritalin for afterschool...homework and drum lessons. It helps her go to school and function quite well. Her affect is rather flat most days, though. It is hard to watch the change. I had thought about taking her out of school before we started meds, because she was so far behind and was extremely anxious about school. So...She has been on Concerta now for 3 years and every time she gains a little weight the medicine quits working. Her doctor told me that most kids don't respond like that, but a few do and she is one of them. So we have raised her meds to the highest Concerta has...as a matter of fact they didn't have the 57 mg when she first started taking it.
My question on here is whether or not Focalin has affected anyone the same as what I described above. Flat affect. She is active, but shows hardly any emotion about her daily life or surprises. I ran out of her concerta last week and used a Focalin from a friend (never have done that before, but they are testing here and was worried about my daughter's anxiety levels...I don't care about the test). Madelaine, my daughter, came to me later that night really happy and excited. She told me that whatever medicine I had given her was awesome. She said that she was happy and could concentrate at the same time. I asked her to give me a little more information and she said that she had been happy, a little more active and had been a little goofy, but it was okay because she could still concentrate. I think it is sad that she found it so strange to be able to be happy and focus at the same time.
I have talked with her doctor about her meds, because I was scared that when this Concerta completely quits working, we won't have an option. Now I feel better, but haven't found too much positive information about Focalin.
She has overcome the upset stomachs and never being hungry...completely outgrew them---will that start all over again?
I am sorry....I hope someone will take the time to read this entire message and respond. I have so many questions.
Char
poster:motherof2plustwins
thread:620435
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060408/msgs/630807.html