Has anyone ever tried their ADD/ADHD child on Adderall? We had Andrew in to see the child psychiatrist today and he recommended Adderall, or increasing his Dexedrine. We don't yet have Straterra available in Canada yet otherwise he would have prescribed that. I haven't said one way or the other what form of treatment we want to go with (I have carefully considered the diet suggestions in the other post) and have until next Wednesday to come up with something. Has anyone ever tired this or do you know anything about the medicine (side effects, etc) or any other form of treatment that might work (that we haven't already tried). Thank you in advance, Brenda
My daughter was on Adderall. She did okay on it. She had no side effects except no wanting to eat. I had to make her eat. I don't Adderall was stout enough for her so they put her on Ritalin. She is now 30mgs. a morning. Strattera made her very I mean very mean. She was so aggresive. We had to stop that stuff. Different kids do do differently on different medicines. I know a neighbor who is on Strattera and does wonderful on it. I can tell you my experience with each medicine. Have a good day.
Well I can give you our personal experience. With Concerta ds cried non stop all day long and didn't sleep well at night but would fall asleep in class. With Strattera he was very aggressive. His school at that time had elementary on one side and junior high on the other side. One of the junior high kids was headed to the office on the elementary side and ds picked a fight with him. And a few days later picked a fight with 3 other kids in his class. Definetly not normal behavior for him. He's been on Adderall XR for a little over a year now. He's currently on 20 or 25mg, can't remember but its the highest dose for his weight. He does ok except it wears off around 4 or 5 when its supposed to last all day. We do have to keep a close eye on his weight and feed him at least 2 cans of Pediasure a day because he just dosen't eat enough on this medication. And we also run into the issue where he is too mellow. He doesn't want to go out and play, he would rather stay in his room and be left alone. We've got an appointment with his doc for next week to re-evaluate his medication. He's been at grandma's for the summer and she hasn't been giving it to him until the past week or so so that he can get readjusted to it before he gets home and we start lessons. Since he hasn't been taking it he has actually gained weight!! He finally went up one pant size. She said he's been eating non stop. So we are definetly going to try something else. I know our health food store has some herbal rememdies for adhd. I am thinking about checking into them. Good luck and I hope that you find something that works for you.
My son was on Straterra for almost a year, in which he gained no weight at all. In the first month he was off of it he gained 5 pounds! He is still gaining a little even now. Our child psychiatrist said that he quit prescribing Straterra because it doesn't work and the marketing is really screwed up (trying to bribe docs in worse ways than other companies). Did you know that they offer the docs kickbacks if they write so many new scipts in so many weeks????!!!!! :x :x :x Anyway, our doc said it hasn't really shown anywhere near the kind of success they are claiming. And ds was very, very aggressive on it, too. Now he is fine. No meds, no special diet. Just a stable, loving home. He has an appointment next week and I suspect his doc might not even consider him as having ADHD. I'm glad it only took us a year to get this figured out. :? Sorry to get off-topic.....I have not experience with Adderall, but thought I might help stear you away from Straterra.
If your child has to have that kind of medication, I think you'll find Adderall the most gentle. It does take the appetite away. The good thing abbout this medicine for us was that unlike Ritalin, you don't see it take effect or wear off. But, like I posted recently, My son's been off the stuff two months now, so I believe he really never needed it. I should have stuck to my guns where that crap was concerned.
Well, guessing by what you guys are telling me - Straterra isn't an option in this home. We have enough battles with aggression and don't need to add to the problems that we already have now. If the Dexedrine is increased we'll probably see an increase in the tics that Andrew displays (the doctor picked up on them within ten minutes of us being there without us having to mention it to him). He wanted to stop the Dexedrine because of the tics and go to Ritalin, but we've already had our run in with Ritalin and we won't go there again (what a nasty ride that was!). We have to go back next week and I'm going to ask about the diets that you guys mentioned and as much as I didn't neccessarily like the idea of feeding my children 'cafeine', we're going to try the tea idea - it has worked for some families - what will it hurt to try with Andrew, if it means no more medication it would be worth it. I wish parenting was always easy and that medications were never needed, but we seem to have to deal with this. Thank you guys for your input. Does anyone know anything about natural rememdies? Brenda
Hi, Brenda. I was wanting to follow up on your son's diagnosis. Was he diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome or a motor tic disorder besides the ADHD? It is extremely difficult to medicate the two together and, like Becky, I wish I had stuck to my guns from the get go as well. Anyway, we also lived in a high aggression, heated tempered home. As it turns out, the family doc had prescribed fluvoximine for the tics while we were waiting to get in to the specialist...it is mostly prescribed for OCD type stuff but he said that since the tics were worse with stress that the fluvoximine, or Luvox, might help. Well it did! Then we went to the specialist for it and he diagnosed ds with ADHD primarily hyperactivity/impulsivity besides the tic disorder and prescribed Straterra in addition. (sorry if this is getting complicated :roll: ).....the specialist said that Luvox is not usually prescribed for Tourette's but if it was working to mellow the tics then keep on it. Now, a year later, we are seeing that ds probably never had ADHD (or at least not needing medication) and that most of his problems were emotional. Now that our home is stable, ds is no longer experiencing ADHD type symptoms. He obviously has Tourette's Syndrome, but the tics are tolerable and he continues to take Luvox. I'll soon be talking to his doc about weaning off of it as well. Wow, after that confusing story :shock: I'd just like to encourage you to talk to his doctor about the possibility of your ds having something else going on that looks like ADHD but is not. Is ds taking anything for emotional issues? Depression and anxiety can both look just like ADHD. It's worth looking into. And if you ever want to talk sometime, I'm here for ya!
Well, the doctor hasn't diagnosed Andrew with Tourette's or anything else yet. He knows that we just moved and is trying to link the behaviours and challenges that we have faced for the past year on the move (Uh Hello, we just moved. We've been having these problems since Tracy's accident almost two years ago and it has gotten really bad in the past year!). He wants to see how Andrew adjusts to the move (although he did ask mulitlple questions to rule out psychoisis, etc). Patience is the key issue here... In a sense I wish the public schools were open right now so I could get a hold of the BASC assessment we did with Andrew just after I pulled him from school (they decided to take me serious about pulling him out only after I did so). And I wish they could have had input on what was happening at school. The doctor was quick to assume that Andrew became restless and unreasonable after lunch (tried to say it was the medication wearing off), but he was unpredictable at any given time of the day - one day it would be first thing in the morning another day later on. He was never consistent about the mood swings and I suspect it's going to be awhile before we finally get this sorted out. Brenda
I used to teach special education until I decided to homeschool. I had three ADHD kids in my classroom all taking Adderall. All three sets of parents made the same comments to me and I also noticed this in school. Adderall seemed to work really well because it didn't wear off like the Ritalin did. The kids stayed focused at home and school, they had no aggressive behaviors and the only noticed side effect was loss of appetite that over time they were able to deal with. The kids school work and personal life improved after they went from Ritalin to Adderal. Hope that helps. Johnna (.p.s.) my son is almost nine and displayed some tics , large mood swings , and hyperactive tendencies from around 5-6 weeks during a really stressful year for us. We moved, had a baby, I had surgery, etc.. He is the only boy for us and also on both sides of our immediate family plus he is a middle child. All symptoms finally went away one at a time until no more were noticed. This all happened after we were able to relieve some stress around here. He has no learning disabilities and isn't hyperactive but did display those characterisitics to the point I was going to test him.... Sounds you have a lot of different things to deal with and I hope you get everthing all worked out !!!
Just wondering if any other mom's of adhd kids have an awful time convinving their kids doctor that they know what's best for their kid. We took ds to the doc on tuesday for an evaluation of his adderall. He's perscribed 20 mg a day but after not taking it all summer he seems to only need half of that. His doc wont drop the doseage!! He's insisting that if he drops it I'll be back in his office in 2 weeks asking him to up it again so he just wont do it. Ticks me off. For the time being I'm just opening the capsule and dumping 1/2 of it out but I think I should find a new doctor. Anyone else having trouble like this?
Finding another doctor is a great idea to me! Our specialist absolutely listens to everything I suggest and we have had wonderful results....to the point of not needing adhd medication anymore. Great docs are out there if you are able to look for one. In the meantime, I wouldn't use part of the doseage.....for one thing it is illegal and you don't want to post about it and have some loony report you....after all, being a homeschooler and all kinda sets you up for ppl paying a bit too much attention to what we are doing. Secondly, any time you adjust his doseage you'll want it on his permanent records, otherwise a new doc will look at his behavior/attention now and not have an accurate account of his current medication. I still can't fathom a doc not working with the parent, especially since most of their information comes from the parent. Best wishes and happy hunting! :wink:
You know, Moondancer, we had a doctor who kept a child on Adderall for weightloss long after the child needed it for attention. The doctor wanted me to do the same since my son also has a weight problem. His tone was, as long as it helps something, keep using it. That's what I can't stand in a doctor- a tendency to rely on drugs too easily, and an attitude of they know better. Your doctor could easily give you a sample pack of the lower dose to see how it works. It's funny- we just changed doctors after 19 years. I recently saw one of their office girls in the grocery store and she would not speak to me. Don't worry about changing doctors if you aren't being respected.
