Ritalin and inconsistent days

[Anonymous]

We started our 4 year old on a very low dose of Ritalin several months ago. There was an initial reasonably positive change, with zero side effects, and thus the dose was maintained rather than increased since we wanted to avoid impacts on sleep and eating (though the effect of the med probably could have been better). Recently the impact seems to be rather inconsistent. It's always hard, of course, to sort out what's what, but I'd say routinely 2-3 days out of 7 it's like nothing was taken. Would this potentially sign that the dose may need to be increased, or is inconsistency typical? Or unlikely to be related to dosing (is Ritalin supposed to be the sort of thing that either works consistently, or doesn't, and thus any inconsistency is due to something unrelated to meds)? Or a quirk of medicating this young? We don't have an in person follow up for 3 months and at our last appointment a few weeks ago, the inconsistency pattern wasn't yet clear.

[Anonymous]

Young children's brain chemistry is constantly changing. You could need a change in dosage, or their could be other changes. You should contact your doctor and tell him about the changes. If necessary, move up the appointment date.