Hyperactivity/impulsivity at school

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-10-2006
Hyperactivity/impulsivity at school
4
Thu, 06-28-2007 - 9:23pm
So I got a call from Nick's daycare teacher, he has become increasingly hyper/impulsive at school lately. Now that they are on their summer program, they changed the structure a bit, they combined the 3-5 year olds and they now have the school agers full-time. Before, Nick had Miss Lara who he loves, but now had the school agers and he now has Miss LuAnn who normally teaches the 3 year olds. The group is good, but I think Nick is stressing about the change. He is a bit more anxious and a little bit more short on patience. He is also a bit more clingy with Miss Lara and asks her to do everything for him instead of Miss LuAnn (she is very nice by the way, but Nick is a creature of habit 100%). We have him on the clonidine which helps his hyper/impulsiveness quite a bit, and the dr. wrote the rx for 3/per day. We only give it to him 2/per day right now, lunch and dinner. I am wondering if a morning dose would help calm him a bit. He doesnt seem so anxious in the afternoon at school and our evenings have truly been better since starting it. I am not ready to put him back on the Metadate (ADHD meds) until we get closer to school starting. With the summer program, they are having fun and it isnt so much of an academic program right now where he needs to sit down a focus. I was thinking of starting Monday with a morning dose to see if it helps. What do you guys think?
Christine

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Christine

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-25-2003
Thu, 06-28-2007 - 10:22pm

Christine,


I am going to use

-Paula

visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 06-28-2007 - 11:43pm

Thing about clonodine is that it is a very short acting med so what you are giving him at night is not helping at all the next morning. It isn't like one of those that builds in your system though you have to be VERY careful to titrate off it slowly due to the blood pressure issue.

Speaking of which, since going on have you had his bp checked? I would do that and if all is kosher and he isn't too sleepy from it i would give it a try since that is his scrip anyway. You may find you don't need the metadate with the clonodine anyway. Clonodine is used for ADHD as well.

There are some things to look for with clonodine or some small problems.

1- It can cause extreme sleepiness particularly at first. I hear that often ends after a bit but if the daycare person doesn't let him do some mininaps or such if he needs it he may get pretty crabby.

2- it is a blood pressure med so you do have to regularly check BP just to make sure that it doesn't lower it too much for kids. I often used the local pharmacy for quick checks and into the doc once a month when I did use it. It was one of the few meds that worked fairly well for us, not perfect but that is another story.

3- Since it is short acting you can have some pretty extremes during the day. Really hyper (give med) to very tired to just right to really hyper (next dose start again). it isn't a horrible thing in most cases. Just so you know.

Renee

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-28-2006
Fri, 06-29-2007 - 1:55am

Renee, thank you for posting that, as My pys thought about it for Nic. I told him I don't care about the tics, but I care about the rages. He has been taking risperdal for the rages, but it doesn't seem to work as well for Nic so far as it does for Chris.

I might have to do some changes.

Christine, sometimes teachers want us to medicate medicate medicate.... to make their life easier. What do you think? Is it something that will make him feel better about himself, or is it something to help the teacher?

If its something to help the teacher out with, then I wouldn't do it, unless it was an extreme case. If my child was struggling and felt bad about himself, I would do it in a hot second.

Like Paula said, go with your gut....

Lainie

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-29-2004
Fri, 06-29-2007 - 5:15pm

Christine,
I am not sure if you have tried the B6/Mag combo. ALso adding CLO (Cod Liver oil) helped my son to calm down and focus. It is all the noise that is triggering him in the day care.

take care,
Anandhi