Special Needs Education

» cscott267 - NONSTOP

In response to NONSTOP posted by mmmom:
We started on the patch last week. My son is 11 and I know he's had ADD his entire life, but just was diagnosed last year. Throughout elementary, he was constantly in trouble... swats 9 days into kindergarten. But his grades were always great. We transitioned to middle school (5th grade) and boom they plummeted. The social problems have been there all along. We've tried Adderall XR and Focalin. The Adderall worked, but he was such a zombie in the afternoon. The Focalin didn't seem to help at all. The thing is, I love the energy and life and humor of my son. So I think the patch is a great idea, because we can take it off and its out of his system within a couple of hours. I let my son take it off for the nurse at school and throw it away there at 3pm. That way it's out of his system before dinner, and usually before I get home from work. We are doubling the dosage on him, because we did not see great success last week. But now that I know about the issue with the 3 layers, we'll watch for that. The biggest issue I have is that he's entering puberty and is not found of me watching him put the patch on or verifying it's application.

-- posted by cscott267

» vickyw8 - My son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 4.

My son was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 4. We have tried nearly all of the medications available. We switched to the Daytrana patch and started with 10mg. He was much better, but there were days that we couldn't tell he was even on the patch so we upped the patch to 15mg. Now with the 15mg patch he is having trouble in the classroom with concentration. He did not have that trouble before. Has anyone had this happen?

-- posted by vickyw8

» medstud - Daytrana

In response to Daytrana posted by maria32955:
Hi all,

I'm a 28 year old med student who just started Daytrana a month ago. I like the convenience and flexibility that the patch offers. The only drawback is the itching and occassional welts I get from the patch. The redness can last for days, too. It's almost making me want to go back to Concerta. At any rate, a recurring complaint seems to be removing the backing of the patch. From my own trial and error, trying to remove it from the edge does not work. It just takes forever to get it started, then some of the adhesive/matrix comes off with it. What works, though, is...

1. Bend the patch in half and grab in the center where the two halves meet. Flexing the patch often separates the backing from the adhesive in that spot.
2. Pull back from the center out to the edge. The three edges are pulled off last.
3. You can either take the other half off now or after the exposed half has been placed on the skin. I usually take both sides off first.
4. Place the patch where you want it and cover all of it with your hand for at least 30 seconds. If you miss an edge, just cover that part with your hand for another 30 secs. The adhesive is activated by the pressure. Sometimes the edges pull away later in the day, but that tends to depend on how often I use the restroom or change clothes (ie. how often something slides over it during the day.)

You tend to touch the sticky part a little, so wash your hands when finished.

Hope this helps. Let me know if anyone has problems with redness, welts, and itchiness and what you do for it. Antihistimines help them go away faster, but the itchiness is still there.

Cheers

-- posted by medstud

» ncmacasl - bad lot

My 12-yr-old daughter is on 15mg, and on her 3rd month. Our 1st 2 batches, we had some problems removing the backing, but like everyone else, we eventually fugured it out without too many problems.

The 3rd batch, was horrible. Most completely stuck to the backing and not the patch. It was like peeling off rubber cement. We checked with our pharmacy and they said we were the 4th family with the same complaint (and we are in a small town (pop 50k). We called Shire and they noted the lot number, then sent us 2 "40-free-patches" coupon/cards. But we also had to call the doctor to get a replacement Rx since Ritalin-related drugs are now treated as a controlled substabce (at least in NC) and you are limited to 30 days at a time (no stocking up / no automatic refills / new prescription each month).
It was a pain.

Perhaps we should note Lot numbers that are known to be bad here.

Overall, we love it! We notice mood swings, but nothing more than she had on any other ADD meds. We assume her age has a lot to do with it more so than the meds.

-- posted by ncmacasl

» mominny - Daytrana skin irritation and slow start

In response to Daytrana skin irritation and slow start posted by jannew:

I am so glad that I'm not the only mother of a teenager who found meds all over the house. Hidden of course. We are on day 2 of the patch. So far so good. I wish there was a shorter acting patch as my daughter puts the patch on at 6am but needs meds until around 8:30 at night due to sports.

I read a lot of posts about having difficulty getting the backing off. Has it changed since the patch first came on the market? Because I'm not having any trouble..yet.

-- posted by mominny

» larjak - daytrana - solution to backing problems

I noticed that a lot of people are having problems with the backings as I have when applying to my son's back. I spoke to his doctors office about this and they suggested placing it in the frig for 10 minutes prior to application and then after application place your hand over the patch for about 30 seconds to a minute and the heat will make it stick better to your child's skin...so far I have had great luck with this! Good luck!

-- posted by larjak

» adhdmom - getting all the adhesive residue off AFTER removing

I don't know if anyone else has this problem but we cannot seem to get all of the adhesive off after removing the patch. It stayed on for 3 days even after warm washcloth and 2 showers, my son(12) complained so much this am i gave him his 20mg focalin and sent him to school. as far as removing backing. I stuck patch in frig over night and this am it came off very easily

-- posted by adhdmom

» my3sons3 - How long does it take?

My son is not noticing the affects of the patch until 3 hours after I apply it. Is this normal??? My Dr. thinks it is because the dose isn't high enough, but I disagree since my son is very mellow once it finally kicks in.
Any thoughts??

-- posted by my3sons3

» adhdmomx2 - Daytrana

To those of you having trouble removing the backing of the patch can you let me know if they came in a package of 10 patches or 30? I have 4 children 2 are diagnosed ADHD, 1 will be soon and the 4th one I am not sure about. so far I have had 7 boxes of patches, 4 of them were packages of 10 & 3 of them were packages of 30. I experienced no problem whatsoever removing the backing of the patches that came in the packages of 10. However with the ones in the packages of 30 it has been next to impossible to remove the backing on every patch. I have a theory but don't know if it even makes any sense. The white container with the foil cover is the same size for both the 10 & 30. In the package of 30 the patches are packed in pretty tightly. However, the box of 10 are packed loosely. My thought is they need to package the 30 in a larger container. Maybe the lack of the extra space in the package of 30 causes the problem that they say is from being exposed to heat, maybe its not relate to heat at all. Please let me know if anyone agrees with my theory.

Thank you.

-- posted by adhdmomx2

» adhdmomx2 - Daytrana

In response to Daytrana posted by medstud:

Could you be more specifc by what you mean when you say Bend the patch in half and grab in the center where the two halves meet. Do you meen the diagonal center where it naturally falls because of how the patch ismade? What do you mean by grab in center. I have tried doing what I think you mean and had to throw 5 patches away. I think I have 2 bad batches 1 30 pack of 30mg and 1 30 pack of 15mg. I had 4 batches of 10 packs of patches that I had no problem at all with so that is why I think it is a problem with the patch not me. I am about to have a nervous breakdown trying to get these to work. I have 4 kids to get ready in the morning and don't have the time in the morning to get it right. So i have been trying to figure it out tonight but I can not afford to keep wasting patches. Thanks for your help.

-- posted by adhdmomx2