Summertime and medications ....

[shellyd67]

I am once again on my favorite site looking for advice from all you wonderful parents !

Here is my dilemma, difficult child who is ADHD/ODD loves to sleep late when he is able. With summertime around the corner I am dreading attempting to wake him every morning to give him his daily dose of Concerta ( as I sure you all know, this must be given very early in the morning) He is a bear in the morning and I am anxious over the whole process ... any suggestions ?

 

[nandz]

Can he go back to sleep after taking his pill or no? If he's anything like my difficult child, when he is up, he is up. I wish I had more advice for you. My difficult child is on a short acting stimulant so we can afford to give it a bit later in the morning. Good luck.

 

[shellyd67]

That is what we plan to do .. husband will bring him milk and his medications around 7am right to his room. We have done this before and he freaks out and is not very compliant ... I guess every morning will be hell for me and husband ... he can then go back to sleep and hopefully wake up in a better mood .. I just dread the freaking out every morning .. I wish there was a simpler way ...

 

[KTMom91]

Is there a way to keep him on a schedule similar to school days? Reasonable bedtime, reasonable wake up time? Miss KT's need for a set schedule was one of the reasons I had her in summer school or day care. Without anything to do, she was more impossible than usual, and I didn't want to hear it all summer long.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

You know, I grew up where summertime was staying up late and playing flashlight tag, late nights at the pool, etc. We did get to sleep in a little more in the summer. I'm in the same mind set with difficult child. He gets to stay up much later in the summer and sleep in for a reasonable amount of time.

I have always chosen not to medicare my son in the summer and on holiday breaks. I medicate him for school because of the focus issues, and when he was younger, for the hyperactivity and impulse control as well. But when he's home, he is not required to sit and do tasks that require a lot of concentration or he's not required to so formally adhere to a schedule. For school, he can't do without it. For summer and breaks, I let him take a break. When he was younger, it actually took about the first two weeks of summer for me to keep reminding him, "difficult child, you are not taking your medications, take it easy", or, "pipe down", or "think about what you are doing". He adjusted. I would start him back about a week before school started so his body could adjust a little to the side effects of low appetite, etc...

At almost 15, I think if I woke him to give him his meeds at 7, he would go right back to sleep - but that's a teenager for you!

Good luck.

Sharon