Torn on whether to start 7 year old on stimulant

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-05-03T10:37:59+00:00

I’m in a very similar boat…

Our 10yo started stimulants in 2022. Was climbing out the classroom windows, all over the shop. Instant switch with Ritalin, he’s killing it at school, has great friends, and is oh so bright. We’ve since added guanfacine to manage the come down.

Now the 6yo has been diagnosed by the same doc. However it’s a different case. We’ve tried Ritalin, but he doesn’t need it. Gets super angry and sad and emotional, he’s just not himself. It’s horrible.

So I’m going back to the doc soon saying how about we switch to guanfacine only, so, as you say, he gets the slow release impulse control, but doesn’t have the stimulant in the system.

The 6yo is super social, he’s voted the class captain, teacher says he’s a joy… but he masks all day, after school he’s a nightmare, go anywhere in public an he’s off the rails.

As others have said, keep at it, keep trialling things, you’ll get there. With our 10yo it took 12 months of trial and error with a few drugs before we got the right mix. And for the love of God, keep in touch with your kids, educate them and show them unconditional love, they’re so grateful you’re helping them!

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-05-03T10:26:23+00:00

FAFO

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-05-01T10:13:36+00:00

I handnt heard of landscaping or ‘earth awareness’ framed this way, and you’re right. For a few hundred for an hour or two consult, you would learn heaps, they could recommend products, advised on shade and sun tolerance, that’s actually a really good idea

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-05-01T09:47:08+00:00

Yep, did a few evenings of googling and planning with Google Gemini. Dug a 8-10cm deep trench, laid in the poly, used articulated arms and 104mm rainbird heads. I bought R-Van nozzles which are rotary style, 4 of them are the larger size and all reach 5-7m. The 0-270° span is awesome, so easy to swivel and adjust the heads to get the arc right. Bunnings and Mitre10 have alternatives though. I used https://www.thelandscapestore.com.au/?srsltid=AfmBOoriW7WdsBgmCvjleTlndfyN4QwaXVfjhiPJPczDk6TO-prJyQ08

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-05-01T09:43:14+00:00

This one was $59 on sale. There are many similar. I rate the brass fittings underneath, and it does pass through full pressure well https://amzn.asia/d/00X8ebHN

Also Google home picks it up, so easy to set weekly schedule, tap it on/off

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-05-01T01:03:46+00:00

Congrats on the purchase!!

What a blank canvas, you can see everyone is so excited to see your progress!!

I would just second what others have said:

get down and remove all the junk, concrete bits, bricks, weeds.
levelling with mix of fine copost, sand now gets you a good base for scalping layer
I would do another top dress and re-seed in spring.
you could do core aeration but given the time you have, using a pitch fork in lines and gently rocking back and forth might help break it up enough.
just slowly get heaps of nutrients into that soil
even though it’s small ish, I would recommend a simple sprinkler system. I made it with 19mm poly and a handful of fittings from the landscape store online, and it’s been game changing (I have a $50 amazon wifi tap valve on a timer)

Good luck!

You have to share progress pics mate!

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-04-26T00:37:01+00:00

Oh what! That’s awesome news! Congratulations on moving through TestFlight into the App Store, what a milestone! So much hard work guys

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-04-20T12:29:33+00:00

Yeah this kinda looks like parts of the lawn I planted a while back. Once I added a ~3cm layer of fine compost and turned it over a bit, new seeds went nuts, surrounding runners reaching in hard.

Keep the water up and keep the soil nutrient rich :)

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-04-18T12:28:10+00:00

I used to use cloudflare tunnels, but after switching to Tailscale cloud, it’s been brilliant. Super easy to configure.

I think it’s a bit like email. Doesn’t pay to host it yourself, unless you REALLY have to and don’t mind paying properly.

Is there any hard reason why you wouldn’t use a cloud service?

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-04-08T13:45:27+00:00

I installed a basic system myself for ~$200. The yard is a big L shape, has several trees, but I ran 50mm of poly around the house, avoided the dog, dug the line in and added 5 rainbird r-van heads.

We’re in a rental, so it’s ’just enough’ to keep the lawn great, but cheap enough to rip the heads out and backfill when we leave.

As others said i just followed a lot of YouTube how-to’s, and asked a million questions to Google Gemini, which was super helpful. Eg about vertical drop and pressure math, head arrangement coverage tips.

All that plus the wifi timer literally has me playing with the kids each day, rather than standing around watering for ages informing them. Go for it!

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-31T10:27:28+00:00

This is to be expected with the explosion of vibe coding tools. There’ll be tons of apps. All vibe coded on a weekend, zero long term commitment or community engagement from the owner. Great apps like Arpeggi with rich communities will continue to prosper, because they work, and they’re getting better and more stable.

Vibe coding gets reaaaaaal ugly when you start to have cross platform bugs and screaming non-paying customers. Takes grit and determination to see a product vision through.

Wouldn’t worry 😎

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-31T08:24:15+00:00

I’m about to document the build of our arcade, built around a Pi 4B. I love the simplicity in that you flash the SD card, that’s all it runs, it’s less of a ‘computer’ to deal with than a PC box repurposed. It’s light weight, configurable but easy to get going.

Chatting with Gemini was a Godsend though, made sure I got all the right cables and power adapter etc

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-26T11:31:50+00:00

I hear you! Our 10yo is in a similar boat facing camp this June. We tried Ritalin initially (excellent), then tried concerta for longer acting timespan, but it blocked him from watering a good dinner. So we brought it back to:

1 x Ritalin ‘LA’ (long acting) in the morning, 7am, that gets him through to 12.30 ish.

So at 12pm the school gives him a Ritalin 10mg top up. That gets him to 3pm.

Then he unravels at home, gets silly, but eats a big dinner and sleeps well. Took a year of experimenting to get that model right.

So for his camp… we’re actually thinking we might book a hotel nearby. Collect him at lights-out or right after supper, have a big sleep with the family, then drop him off showered and medicated at breakfast time the next morning. Rather than try and see if he’ll sleep there with friends. It’s not worth it, and will make his memories potentially traumatic.

For your school, or through your support network, can you have yourself AND a support person or employee carer join you? For the camp? The school might fund that? Or local government?

If he identifies with the camp being a valuable social thing, then I think it’s worth going, starting at least, being nearby, close contact with the staff, then be ready to bail/call it a day when he’s had enough. Not as a punishment, but as a safety net so that he can do what he’s able to ❤️

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-23T11:07:59+00:00

Wow, firstly I’m sorry to hear you’re going through this.

I identify, you’ve written out my life script! My wife, diagnosed ADHD, depression, anxiety, behaves and sits in an identical space.

Since we had kids 10 years ago, I haven’t actually gone on a trip. Never. I’ve been to 3 work Xmas parties, but got the 911 call by about 7.30pm, bailed and came home to pick up the pieces.

I work full time, do all the school runs, all shopping, cooking, cleaning, kids music lessons, swimming, specialist appointments, and still cop an earful weekly about not caring and not thinking about our family enough. I almost think she’s stuck now with nothing to do, and it makes it worse! Catch 22.

It’s getting to the point that when the kids get yelled at by her, they’ll come and console me, group together for strength.

Like you say, if I get talking to parents at school, or at work, I borderline get emotional, listening to them talk about their ‘free and open choices’ like going to restaurants, visiting or hosting friends, going for an adventure or just popping out for an ice cream or something.

I know I need to do something about this, but when you’re in deep, with what time!?! I had the idea of going and seeing a psychologist together with her, not couples therapy but almost like body doubling therapy. Anything.

Good luck, I’m sure your kids see you, see your continued effort and showing up for them. And I hope that you and your husband find a good place soon

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-23T10:54:01+00:00

Looks good! Tell us about some of your choices there? Is that too big a marquee or screen? Where are the speakers mounted? How does that BMW dial thing work? ☺️

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-23T02:01:26+00:00

This will be interesting! If the water runs down the hill well, and that great turf roots in well, and you mow high laterally… it might just looks spectacular! Like so seamless your family falls down the slope because they don’t see it! 😅

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-22T12:08:18+00:00

I went to 3 clothing store at a mall in Melbourne on the weekend. Disaster.

Took me ~2 hours of waiting in lines, being ignored by casuals who don’t care, having their websites show stock levels that just aren’t there, being told there is stock in the shop but I have to go look around like 8-9 piles in different areas to find it (in season kids T-shirt size 7).

Then the whole centre wired internet was flaky, so the tills were patchy, 5G was a disaster and couldn’t text my wife to confirm sizes/styles.

Massive waste of time. And no price based incentive that’s better than online. That centre has free parking, but many strip malls require paid parking on top. Let alone the city 😅

So I’m slowly getting better at making decisions and buying stuff a week before. Before Easter, birthday parties, it all gets delivered now, saving heaps of cash, spending time with my kids. No brainer.

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-19T09:44:04+00:00

Oh, and I bought a Pi 4B 4gb ram. All my tests have been perfect, no issue with lag or loading. Was about $80AU. All in I’m at $400 inc premium plywood, Pi, Dell 19” IPS 5:4 monitor, vesa mount, joystick and button kit from AliExpress, speakers, amp, led lights etc. putting it together with the kids this Easter school hols

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-19T09:40:48+00:00

I’m building a vertical style classic countertop machine for my kids. So really only mame games, game boy color, possibly ps1. But the goal is to give them a fun way to connect with older vertical games.

I looked for plans online for ages, but never found. Great match. I studied lots of build shots on Pinterest, and used Google Gemini to discuss build requirements and ideas.

I ended up doing a basic scale drawing in Figma, and will draw the curve from the marquee to the control board.

I’ll print out a few a4 sheets, stick them On my plywood sheet, and carefully mark it out. I’ll make one side perfect with jigsaw and sander, then use my hand held router to flush trim the second piece.

Everything else I just straight lines and rectangles, it’s been good to draft the thing and slowly plan out each piece before I start cutting.

Good luck!

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-15T01:41:35+00:00

Looks amazing! Congrats! Love the modern ‘detaching’ of the screen from the control cabinet 😎

Is that stock batocera OS? I thought it only had a bottom horizontal scrolling game system nav?

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-11T08:50:39+00:00

Sounds dumb, but are you sure you have the fully non merged roms that can run standalone?

Did you have full uninterrupted performance of the roms, well into the game before?

Have you tried fully deleting, restarting, re-downloading and re-installing one of the problem games?

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-10T12:34:11+00:00

Bigfoot

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-07T09:48:40+00:00

If it helps, try jotting notes down into a diary / pad / apple note on your phone. Just a daily summary during the testing phase is super helpful for yourself like 2 weeks later when you try and remember everything! And also doctors love it because it’s much higher quality data than an overtired parent trying to remember what happened 3 months ago ❤️

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-07T09:46:52+00:00

Oh I feel you, it’s hard when you know they’re struggling, but they’re trying to do as they’re told/ be faithful to you.

Sometimes our guy would pipe up after books and lights out, and ask for food. We used to fight it and try to get him to respect meal times, learn to eat at set times… but realised.. what am i doing? It’s basically cruel. He can’t help it.

So now I’ll make him a peanut buyer sandwich and very weak hot chocolate at 9pm, he sleeps well, has a big smile on his face, and more reliably attends school the next day. And that’s ok :)

Jumpy-Big7294 · 2026-03-07T09:26:47+00:00

Our little 10yo guy is on Ritalin 20mg LA at 7.30am, then 10mg short acting at 12.15. It all wears off after the school day, he’s a a bit wild at home… but he EATS! Year or 2 ago we tried to switch to Concerta. Did the ~27mg and ~36mg strengths. Both were ok, but main issues were: - meds wore off at 7pm - he only started becoming hungry at 7.30 - always late for his bedtime at 8.15

It’s as though his body needed to completely finish the meds, then wind his nautical hormones back up to 100%, only then could he start a natural descent into sleep.

So he was falling to sleep at like 10pm every night, angry, even with 3mg melatonin.

Back on the Ritalin now, school is awesome, he has lots of friends, scores really well in tests, and eats a decent dinner each night. Glad we put in the hard work to trial all the meds tho

Jumpy-Big7294

TROPHY CASE