Since I haven't talked about Meds in forever

I figured I should now.

We took Lauren back to the neurologist on 10/5 and we decided to dramatically change her medication. This is what she was on prior to that appointment.

Morning:
10 mg of Ritalin (works for hyperactivity but is not a long acting drug. I believe it stays in your system for 4 hours)
40 mg of Straterra (works to improve focus)

Afternoon:
5 mg of Ritalin

Bedtime:
0.2 mg of Clonidine
6 mg of Melatonin (not actually a drug but a supplement)

Ritalin is a stimulant and can wreck havoc on a child's sleep cycle. We were the lucky winner of that. She had been on 5 mg in the afternoon for a while and we bumped it up to 10 mg. She then slept for 1 hour in a twenty four hour period for several days. We went back to the 5 mg dose but her sleep never returned to normal. Normal for Lauren is about 5 to 6 hours a day. Normal for a 6 year old is about 10-11 hours.

Clonidine is actually a very old high blood pressure meds that help some kids with impulse control and makes the tired. I never noticed any difference in impulse control but

On October 5th, we switched to this regiment.

Morning:
5 mg of Adderall XR
40 mg of Straterra

Evening:
50 mg of Trazadone (Trazadone is a very old, very cheap anti-depressant that is used primarily for slep now)

The results almost 2 weeks later. Trazadone good, very, very good. She is now sleeping 10-11 hours a night on a consistent basis. I don't think she has had this much consistent sleep since she was 2. I feel safe to care for my children and operate a car.

Adderall XR bad, very bad. She is falling apart at school and almost every note says that she cannot focus and cannot pay attention. She is struggling to do things that she did last year with ease. This suddenly started when we gave her the Adderall. We have even given her 10 mg the last two days with no improvement.

I've left a call for the neurologist and I'm waiting for him to get back to me. This really is trial and error.