When to up his medications?

[garrison]

Mr. I had a perfect first half of 2nd grade. But since christmas he has been refusing to work and chewing like crazy. We are dealing with the chewing. But the refusal to work is a problem. His Special Education teacher is a wonderful sweet woman. She takes the same kind of ADHD medications Mr. I does. She also has special needs kids of her own. She gets it. Friday she kind of mentioned maybe checking with the Dr. about upping Mr. I's medications. She wasn't all pushy about it, it was a comment as part of things we could do.
How do I know when to up his medications? How did you know?

 

[JJJ]

Did you give him a medication holiday over the break? Sometimes that can be enough to shake things back into place. Otherwise, we look at uppping medications or switching when the symptoms have clearly returned and are starting to interfere with his performance.

 

[TeDo]

Chewing is anxiety and/or sensory. Is he actually "refusing" to work or has the work gotten too hard for him or is it just the medication? "Refusal" to work is not the same as being unable to sit down and concentrate to get the work done. If it was the ADHD stuff, I'd ask to up the medication. JMHO

 

[tammybackagain]

Just went through this myself, Finally talked to his Dr and we agreed to up his medications. Doesn't hurt to ask.

 

[HaoZi]

When it's consistently and obviously no longer working (though be taken consistently), it's time to talk to doctor about changing dose or medication.

 

[InsaneCdn]

If there has been a major growth spurt (at that age, adding 10 pounds is a huge difference), it's an automatic cause for review.
Otherwise... I'd be reviewing the school situation first... because subtle changes can be HUGE to a difficult child.

 

[garrison]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm so thankful I have some where to ask these kinds of questions.
I am exploring things at school. I have discovered that he hasn't been allowed to use the bathroom during his Special Education time. This is whats making him mad. He sees the Special Education teacher one hour a day. So she is trying to cram as much help in as possible. Before Christmas break, Mr. I. was asking to use the bathroom and staying in it for 20 to 30 minutes. The teacher felt he was stalling to get out of work, so she put a stop to it.
Starting tomorrow he will have a scheduled bathroom break before Special Education.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hoping it's this easy! LOL