Today was day 2 of week two, and the second day of the ADHD meds at school. Jonas had a pretty good day, at home and at school, until an hour or so before the end of the school day. I went in to talk to the teacher about his day and setting up tutoring, and I walked into a scene out of slap-stick comedy movie.
He was babbling, loudly and quickly, saying silly things, as he swung on the coat racks and ran in and out of the bathroom across the hall. She looked at me like a deer in the headlights. We were both stunned. "No, this hasn't happened before", she said. "Yip. Yip. Ok!" he chirped, as he bounced around, trying to run away as we tried to talk to him. It took more than 15 minutes for him to get dressed to go home. Neither of us knew quite what to do.
He calmed down on the walk home, and shoveling the driveway when we got there seemed to take care of the rest of the pent-up energy. Once he seemed focused again, we talked about his behavior, and when I asked what was going he on, he said he didn't know. He settled down to homework nicely after a snack, and he was fine for the rest of the night. He fell asleep pretty quickly tonight too.
I wracked my brain and it finally dawned on me that I gave him his meds much earlier this morning. He's been taking them first thing in the morning, but our mornings started much later last week. Instead of 8am, he took them at 6am today. Where the meds would normally wear off around dinner time, today the effects started while he was still at school. Duh!
Lesson learned - at least I hope that's the lesson! Tomorrow I'll give him his meds around 8ish and we'll see if that helps. Fingers crossed!
Cheers!
The heavy work might have helped to calm him down too in the afternoon. That is one of our OT strategies that we use a lot, carrying packs of paper around or walking with a weighted backpack between classes. Timing is everything- mine had no meds today and boy did we have to work hard!
ReplyDeleteI think I'm already nervous about Jonas going without. ;) We still have to stay on top of every little thing but it doesn't seem like a constant barage these days.
ReplyDeleteThe longer he has to sit still and concentrate, the worse his symptoms are. He definitely needs more exercise in his day. The days they hagve gym, dance or music, are always the best ones. I love that backpack idea! Unfortunately, they mostly stay in the same classroom right now so it might not work for us during the school day BUT I'm sure there are times when it will. His teacher is working on giving him more movement breaks during the day so he can use up some of that energy.
Recess definitely helps, as does walking to and from school before and after school, and at lunch time. We've rearranged our after-school routine so he gets outside playtime, then a snack and then homework. That has made a HUGE difference, over going straight inside after school.
In the words of my wonderful son, "Thanks YOU!"