any advice to improve behavior?

When my son had trouble swallowing the pills I would have him take them inserted into a spoonful of ice cream.

We tried Stratera - it made him very oppositional.

Immediate time outs/ tv off/ limit whatever is causing the distraction from cooperation. Consistancy here helps overcome behaivor problems.

Straterra is a capsule and is not time released. There is no concern in opening the capsules and hiding in food. Just be careful not to inhale. So much incorrect junk out there about this new med. I can’t say it will work for you but it did for us. It does for most. Its a very very nice med if you take it right and know what you are doing and you have no comorbid disorders. No lasting side effects and fantastic effectiveness. If you have an Q’s on it I’d be happy to answer you or direct you to some great resources. I’ll bump up a post we did on the ins and outs of this med. Most kids who fail on strat never got to the 4-6 weeks period, when it starts to work. Many kids trying this couldn’t take stims because of comorbs. Comorbs have a tendancy of failing on most meds, Strat is no exception. If your daughter doesn’t suffer from other disorders, she might be a good candidate for this med. My son had mild OCDs and bad motor and vocal tics. They are gone on the Strat. Its very unoffensive to the rest of the system. My son eats, sleeps and grows on this stuff. All very important for treatment of ADD.

In the mean time if your doc doesn’t want to go the Strat route, try a long acting stimulant. You would be surprised how differently kids react to different forms of the same meds.

Good Luck

I have to agree with Rebelmom. My son has been on other stimulants and had problems sleeping. We decided to try Stratt over the summer, and have been having great results with really minimal side-effects. I have found the info that Rebelmom had posted about how to “start Stratt and use it” most helpful and credit it with the success my son is having. The boy now sleeps well, eats well and he is happy and not oppositional or impulsive. It happens very gradually. With Stratt you need patience and try it for at least 4-6 weeks on TARGET DOSE.

All I can say is, my son has been doing great on it.

The “rebound effects” of the medication may be a big issue. This is something you can be aware of but can’t really change as long as she is taking the meds. It may be best to identify the “rebound” time and set up some easy-to-handle activities for her at that time.

As far as gaining compliance is concerned, it is important to be creative and to avoid power struggles. We used a lot of “reverse psychology” tehcniques, which work great with oppositional kids. Betting is a good one - you bet her a quarter that she won’t come when you call. If she wins, you pay her a quarter, if she loses, she does some kind of a job. You can remind her as the time approaches: “Oh, boy, I’m so excited that ____ is going to do my dishes for me tonight!” Then, when she comes through, you act really disappointed that she got a quarter out of you and that you have to wash your own dishes. The trick is to make it easy for her to win at first, and then put in fewer reminders over time. Eventually, you “forget” to bet her and she is now in the habit of coming. This can work for almost any behavior.

Sticker charts are also really good. Betting with a third party while she overhears you works well, too: “I bet you ____ won’t come when I call her to dinner.” Your partner argues that she will, but you say you know her very well, and your prediction will be correct, because you can ALWAYS tell exactly what ____ is going to do. These kids HATE to be predictable. Even if it is obvious that you are playing with them, it still works. But you have to have fun with it and try out different things. Above all, you want to avoid sternly ordering her to come without any backup plan. Then she’s got control! Just know that you can’t actually control a child, but you can obtain their cooperation if you are creative and respectful and willing to try out different options. It can actually be quite fun inventing new ways to outwit your clever counterpart, once you get past the “I am the adult and she should do what I ask” viewpoint. If you want to get more specific, I can give you lots of ideas that have worked for us.

–— Steve

[quote=”rebelmom”]Straterra is a capsule and is not time released. There is no concern in opening the capsules and hiding in food. Just be careful not to inhale. So much incorrect junk out there about this new med. I can’t say it will work for you but it did for us. It does for most. Its a very very nice med if you take it right and know what you are doing and you have no comorbid disorders. No lasting side effects and fantastic effectiveness. If you have an Q’s on it I’d be happy to answer you or direct you to some great resources. I’ll bump up a post we did on the ins and outs of this med. Most kids who fail on strat never got to the 4-6 weeks period, when it starts to work. Many kids trying this couldn’t take stims because of comorbs. Comorbs have a tendancy of failing on most meds, Strat is no exception. If your daughter doesn’t suffer from other disorders, she might be a good candidate for this med. My son had mild OCDs and bad motor and vocal tics. They are gone on the Strat. Its very unoffensive to the rest of the system. My son eats, sleeps and grows on this stuff. All very important for treatment of ADD.

In the mean time if your doc doesn’t want to go the Strat route, try a long acting stimulant. You would be surprised how differently kids react to different forms of the same meds.

Good Luck[/quote] :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

Nothing like copying good advise!

Rebel and May,

Both my sons started Straterra in July. One is 58 lbs, the older is 70 lbs. They are both on 40mgs? My older son is doing well, but still a bit hyper. But he is sleeping very well and eating up a storm. I’m not messing with the results. We will find a way to deal with his activity levels in another way. My younger son isn’t being very nice, he usually is. At first he was doing very well on the build up, now he seems to be paying attention but gets angry and cries easy,. Would two doses be better for him because he is younger? We like the results, but the moods are very out of the norm for him.

[quote=”wickedstepmom”]Rebel and May,

Both my sons started Straterra in July. One is 58 lbs, the older is 70 lbs. They are both on 40mgs? My older son is doing well, but still a bit hyper. But he is sleeping very well and eating up a storm. I’m not messing with the results. We will find a way to deal with his activity levels in another way. My younger son isn’t being very nice, he usually is. At first he was doing very well on the build up, now he seems to be paying attention but gets angry and cries easy,. Would two doses be better for him because he is younger? We like the results, but the moods are very out of the norm for him.[/quote]

For the 58 lbs son, his target dose should be min target 31mgs and max target is 47mgs. If he is getting angry and cries easily, the dose might be too high for him. You could try reducing it to 35 mgs. You could split the dose if you are not getting the 24 hour effectiveness. I don’t know if splitting it would change the moods. I will leave that to Reb to answer.

For the 70lbs son, his target dose should be min target 38mgs and max target 57 mgs. You can raise it a little to the mid point to see if that helps the hyperness. Maybe keep the 40mgs in the am and give an extra 10mgs after school. By the way, the Hyperness is always the last to kick in, so it might get better on its own if he has been on target long enough.

The thing with Stratt is that you have a range of 1.2 to 1.8 to weight ratio to play with to find the correct dosage for each individual so you have to fiddle around with it till you get the right dose.

I am sure Reb will checkin with her advice.

Good luck :wink:

I agree with Mayleng, try lowering and splitting if the doctor will let you. Don’t expect the same dose to work the same on two different sized boys. I think moodiness is easily effected by very small amounts of this, so just lowering a little will have some apparent changes. The trick is to find just the right dose with the best possible effectiveness and the least possible mood issues. My son is 57 lbs and on 25/10mgs. when we went over 40 he was very moody with no improvement over the 35mgs.

Let us know how it goes!

Thanks all - Steve, I like you suggestion on betting.. I’ll try that when the current ‘earn points (poker chips) to play playstation’ approach starts to fizzle. Right now the combination of points and timers has things back under control. Hope it lasts. I think behavior issues came up as the beginning of school got closer - she is going to a new school and had some anxiety about it.

Kim

Glad to hear that things are working better! It is always a process with these kids. Once you have a program in place, you have to prepare for the next issue… But that’s the stuff that really gets them through. Sounds like y’all are doing a great job! Good luck!

–- Steve