Its been my understanding that these medications take a matter of a couple weeks to see any changes.

People respond to different meds differently, and also to different doses. Make sure you have a provider who will talk with both you and your son about the medications and how they are affecting him (or not) so that an appropriate medication and dose can be figured out for your son. Also note that appropriate doses might change over time, so having a provider who will listen to both you and your son is important.

From personal experience, I think the meds work best in conjunction with education about ADHD (therapy, counseling, coaching, self-education, etc) - the meds don’t cure the ADHD, they just make it a little easier to cope with the symptoms.

Thank you for the advise.  I understand the medication is not a miracle cure, that is only a tool to help my son.  I just dont know where to begin in terms of educating myself, my son and the rest of our family to help him.  The way I’ve always parented needs to be changed completely and I just dont know where to begin.  School is one step but, home is a complete other domain!

Remember there are a number of drugs used to treat ADHD and not all work for all folks.  Not all take the same amount of time to kick in either.  So best to find out exactly what it is supposed to do and after what time period.  If you have a little but not enough results it may be a dose issue.

Also, this drug is only your physician’s FIRST idea, there are other options so stay open.  The drug that will work for your child will be the one that works for his brain, NOT the one your physician wants to give him because he thinks it will work.  They are human too.

Also, if you can find Play Attention somewhere in your area, that worked great for my husband and we are trying to get my daughter approved for it as well. 

As far as discipline, remember anger, yelling, any intense energy is like adding to the chaos inside your child’s brain.  So any sort of outburst from me, even if it is only a rolling of the eyes! to my daughter feels so intense and like I am stabbing her.  But when I calmly say, “We don’t do that in this house” she gets the message.  Its loud inside there in an ADHD brain, you have to cut through the chaos with some calm if you want to be heard.

My son is 10 & was diagnoised with ADHD at age 6 but I knew there was something “different"about him b/f age 5. Different is not a bad thing- he is much more polite & manerly than other kids his age. My son loves the challenge of private catholic school. When not on his pill he is totally a different child, he is unfocused, the attention is gone it really shows how much he benefits from the medicine. He takes Yvanse 40mg as soon as he wakes up then about 4 pm a 2 mg pill..

I guarantee the first medication will not be the right one for your child/and or the correct mg (dose) will not be right either.  It is a proven fact that 70% + of children who take ADHD medictaion will have an issue with, one or the other. Either supressed appetite or trouble/interuptions with their sleep at night. My son’s current medication is the 3rd one he tried. I recently changed his dose from 60 mg to 40 mg and if needed he will take another the 20mg pill at night, predominately if we have somewhere to go or something to do. Remeber this:YOU ARE IN CHARGE & YOU CONTROL THE MEDICATION DOSAGE. The doctor writes the prescription that’s about all his job is to do in my son’s case. My son has been on his current medication for about 3 + years.

To answer your question: There are 2 types of medicine: long acting & time released. Don’t expect one pill to last a full day b/c it won’t. The diose whould slowly be increased- only by 10mg at a time maybe every 2 weeks or so to give it some time to see if it works. I hope this helps. Educate yourself there are & is so much info out there about ADHD medication & how ADHD effects you child.

Thank you all so much.  I was told that the med he is on would show instantly.  Im not seeing it.  Although, his behavior at home is usually better than at school so, the real test will be when school resumes after vacation.  My son has shown signs of ADHD since he was a toddler.  We use to describe him as having a “busy mind” which he does!  He is loveable, tender and sensitive but, in school, he is aggressive defiant and angry.  Ive stopped punishing him for his school behavior although, we do talk about his behavior, I stopped punishing because I feel we are just hurting his self esteem.  Now, we focus on what was good in school or home instead of what was not good.  The word “bad” has been abolished from our home!!! Aside from that, I really no longer know how to discipline him.  I now question everything I say and do as not to hurt his self esteem.  I know Im a novice so, any help advise is really appreciated….also, yellaryan, what is Play Attention???

This was our experience exactly with our daughter.  She will be seven next week and is in first grade.  She is a triplet and has always been the.most sweet and happy little girl with a sweet smile always on her face.  This year, after a couple days of school she absolutely lost all control.  She would cry uncontrollably at school on and off for literally hours. She had to spend much of the day in the principles.office and guidance counselors office.  It was unbelievable to imagine this was our little girl.  Total change in personality.  We felt helpless.  To make a long story short, I WAS ON EMAIL NEARLY DAILY WITH everyone who had contact with my daughter.  She eventually landed on Rivaling and while she does.well at school, she comes how beat down from keeping it together all day.  Her behavior is sometimes unmanageable. We do lots of time outs and have had to take the anger and intensity out of the discipline.  We have also.had to ignore a.lot of behavior is we never would have before