I know some families give their kids medication holidays and I've even done it myself.

In our case, Nikoli needed to gain weight.  He had lost weight when he started on Adderall; I knew as a stimulant Adderall would affect his appetite, but I didn't realize he would lose weight.

For us, the medication holiday was a big challenge.  Nikoli went back to his "old self" and every day was a struggle to keep him on track without medication and to not yell at him for a situation I put him in.

His medication holiday was the summer after first grade.  I knew it was hard on me, but I didn't realize how hard it was on my daughter, who begged me the summer after second grade, "Don't take Nikoli off his medication."

Luckily, his weight held and this year, from November to July, he put on 10 pounds!

Our first goal with medication has always been to make sure everything connected with school runs smoothly, but our second goal has been to not set Nikoli up to "get in trouble."  As parents, we are not perfect, and we reach the end of our ropes eventually, even with things that are not Nikoli's fault.