OT ADHD Meds (another, I know, sorry guys)

[stacy6552]

Hey friends. My son has ADHD. Last year we tried 2 different meds, Focalin and Vyvanse, both resulting in bad sideffects. He's been off meds for about 5 or 6 mos and his grades are slipping and he's getting into trouble again and I'm ready to reconsider medication.

Can you share your trial and error stories with me? Both meds we long lasting and had the dosages upped before we eventually took him off. Straterra scares me. And I've heard that some kinds dont do well on long acting perscriptions but when they get the short term ones, they do much better. Any insight and encouragement would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[ilovecoasters]

I have several students that take Strattera. It has done wonders for their concentration and ability to focus on their work. None have experienced any side effects. It also remains in the system for 24 hours vs. meds like Cylert and Ritalin that have a half life of 4 hours. Even if a dose is missed you don't see drastic differences in behavior or attention.

 

[bowlingchicaroo]

hi

just my 2 cents...my dd is almost 9 and has been taking Metadate for about 6 weeks now and is doing great with it...i haven't noticed any side effects...it stays in her system for 6hrs...

 

[61292cna]

My daughter has ADD no hyperactivity, just attention difficulties & sensory perception issues. She started on Ritalin, but wasn't real helpful. WE then switched to Stratera & was doing fine, but insurance stop paying for it. She now takes Concerta & is doing great! My nephew has a good history with adderall. I have also heard there is some kind of patch, but don't know whats in it. No one drug works for everyone, so please keep trying until you find the right medicine & dosage for your child.

 

[mapmakerj]

Just curious as to what side effects your DS had on Vyvanse. My DS has been on it for over a year and I haven't noticed any real side effects on him. We first tried Strattera and it did absolutely nothing for him, then we tried Adderall but it didn't last long enough throughout the day, and then finally we went on Vyvanse and it worked like a charm. The only possible side effect we have seen at all is that his appetite at lunch isn't as big as it was, but he makes up for it the rest of the day. He did lose a lot of weight on Adderall, but has made it all back up and then some on the Vyvanse.

 

[Fabinva]

My DS8 has ADD bordeline ADHD, we tried Focalin XR and lower dose did little for him other than give him stomach ache and made him dizzy. We then switched to Concerta and it made him hyper and aggresive, this last one was so bad that we stopped trying meds, switched his diet (no sugary cereal or cow milk) and so far behavior at school is better BUT he still unable to focus on his work so we are going to pay out of pocket for Behavior Therapy, after the nightmare with Concerta we are willing to try everything before going back to meds. If in the end all fails we will give medication another try but heard therapy works well for many kids that do not respond to meds.

 

[Steph9072]

Our four-year-old son was diagnosed ADHD last Fall. We took Sam and to our pediatrician because Sam was delayed in his speech to the point he was denied at pre-school for fear that they would not be able to understand him. Because then if Sam was not understood he would get upset, rightfull so I would too, and shut down. While talking the the Ped. he said that unless we were able get Sam to pay attention longer then speech therapy would be a waste. We went through the testing and found he was ADHD. Let me say when we returned to discuss our options I was against medicating my son. After spending 45 minutes talking to the Ped. I knew we had not option. Now I wonder why we waited. Sam can actually go to Church and stay in the chapel for the whole service. Before he would never have been able to. Sam can now sit still long enough for me to read a whole book to him or watch a whole movie.

Sam was placed on Daytrana patches. We started at 10mg with the understanding we would adjust as needed. He is now on 15mg and he is awesome. What I love is I control how long he is under the effect of the medication. I know when I put the patch on it will take 2 hours to be at the full effectiveness. Once the patch is removed it takes 3 hours for the medication to be removed. Now the patch will leave a slight red mark once removed, which I am assured it is normal.

Oh Sam is now in speech and doing wonderful. He will start pre-school in the Fall.

 

[SamandJakes Mom]

My 5 year old son is on adderall, he is doing awesome, he has lost a couple of pounds but he was a big boy to begin with. We tried a few different meds ( concertta, medate) and this seemed to work. My daughter is 8 and she has just been diagnosed with adhd and she is on medate only because it is the one of the only meds that you can open capsuale (she has a hard time swallowing pills) and her teacher has said she is doing extremely well. In my opion I would keep trying until you can find something that works. I was one of those parents who was never going to do meds, but I see how much of a difference it makes. So keep trying I know it is hard but you are doing what is best for your child.

 

[here757]

sorry to hijack!!!
my mom is on addral. she lost alot of weight. but doesnt eat.
my niece was on foclin. took herself off cuz it messed up her nail beds.. thats her story anyhow.. shes currently on nothing.. because her mom doesnt think she has a problem..
now my question..
my son is 6 and i think he might have add.. how do you handle that.. just call the doctor.. the ped and say.. i think my kid has an issue. or wait til a physical?
i just hate for him to have a label at such a young age..
my hint he might have add.. he runs at 150 mph and soon as his head hits a pillow out in 5-10 minutes ..
he hasnt naped since he was 3

 

[SamandJakes Mom]

sorry to hijack!!!
my mom is on addral. she lost alot of weight. but doesnt eat.
my niece was on foclin. took herself off cuz it messed up her nail beds.. thats her story anyhow.. shes currently on nothing.. because her mom doesnt think she has a problem..
now my question..
my son is 6 and i think he might have add.. how do you handle that.. just call the doctor.. the ped and say.. i think my kid has an issue. or wait til a physical?
i just hate for him to have a label at such a young age..
my hint he might have add.. he runs at 150 mph and soon as his head hits a pillow out in 5-10 minutes ..
he hasnt naped since he was 3

Is he having problems in school? talk to his teacher and if he is you can ask the school sytem to do a full core evaluation. They will test him and you can find out that way. I know you said you hate to label him so early but sometime it is nice to a least know why he is acting like that. My daughter climbs the furniture so much some day i thinks she is going to be climbing the walls like spiderman LOL. But if i was you i would get him evaulated and find out what's going on Good luck!

 

[Order66]

Hey friends. My son has ADHD. Last year we tried 2 different meds, Focalin and Vyvanse, both resulting in bad sideffects. He's been off meds for about 5 or 6 mos and his grades are slipping and he's getting into trouble again and I'm ready to reconsider medication.

Can you share your trial and error stories with me? Both meds we long lasting and had the dosages upped before we eventually took him off. Straterra scares me. And I've heard that some kinds dont do well on long acting perscriptions but when they get the short term ones, they do much better. Any insight and encouragement would be appreciated.

Thanks

My son was started on meds at age 5. He is now 9. We started with Focalin XR 5mg and quickly up'd that to 10mg. While under dosed he was very emotional, cried about almost everything. We put him on 20mg about a year later and that lasted almost 2 years. This past fall, around the beginning of the school year I began to notice a sharp decline in the amount of hours the medication lasted. He takes his pill at 7am on school days and previously it would have lasting effects until almost dinner time (5ish). Last fall we were lucky it lasted throughout the school day and we had great difficulties getting through homework time, forget any after school activies!!! By 3pm he was in his ADHD zone again. We tried switching him to vyvanse. Started at 10mg. First month seemed good but by the second we were having emotional issues again, moody and lots of crying. The doctor wasn't really thrilled with upping him to 20mg as that was going slightly over the mg/kg ratio for his size. But we did that with a visit to a pediactric neurologist to rule out he had any other issues besides the ADHD. She ruled out other issues and diagnosed him as ADHD only. Her suggestion was to go back to focalin by try the regular 2 or 3 times daily rather than the XR. Not her favorite choice as it involves the school giving meds or us being at school daily to dose him. Or try the Daytrana patch, which is slow release dexmethlyphenidate (focalin). So he's been on Daytrana 20mg for 3 months and doing well. Since the patch takes 2 hours to kick in he takes a dexmethylphenidate 5mg in the morning and by the time that wears off the patch is working. We have lasting medication effects well past 6 or 7 pm most days. The meds stay in the system up to 3 hours once the patch is removed so he usually takes it off about 4 or 4:30, whenever his homework is done. The other alternative we can try if these don't work is to take a Focalin XR in the am and a regular after school. The doctor doesn't like this option as well as it gives them appetite supression right at dinner time. But if we need to, we need to.

His major side effects are of course appetite supression (for a kid who doesn't like to eat any way and is super picky it's a challenge!) and difficulty falling asleep.....which the doctor told me is often typical of ADHD kids medicated or not.....just having a brain spinning at 100mph is hard to relax to sleep. So at night he takes 1mg clonidine. He also does get slight reddening at the area the patch is in, but it's temporary he says it doesn't burn or itch. We switch legs we place it on daily. He hated them on his back so we use his thigh.

Different kids do better or worse on different medications. We always seemed good for the first 30 days, it was the 2nd month that told us the real story. So don't give up if the first plan doesn't work. There are dozens of medications to help kids with this problem and eventually you find it. We know that for my son the methlyphenidate family (Ritalin, Focalin, Daytrana) are what works for him. The amphetamine family (adderall, vyvanse) not so much, while my 16 year old nephew has been on Vyvanse for a year after first being on Focalin and is doing much better.

to the PP, call your doctor and ask for evaluation forms to be sent to the teacher. First step is evaluating "does the behavior occur in multiple settings". The input needs to come from both you and the school. Talk to the teacher, express your concern and ask for his/her input. Then let them know you've contacted the peditrician to take the necessary first steps to have him evaluated. I knew my son had an issue by the time he was 2 years old, but no doctor will put a lable on a child that young. I had to wait until he was school age. The kindergarten teacher was ready to fill out the forms after only 1 week....that's how obvious my child was. I too worried about his young age, but figured the younger he understood his differences and the sooner we started treating it the better off he would be. My SIL never considered it with her son until we started ours on medication. Her son was already 14 and had done poorly in school for all those years. He was diagnosed ADHD, started on meds and went from failing to mostly B's. But overall, he already developed such bad school habits that it was difficult for him to adjust to not being "lazy" and giving up on his work. He still struggles some, mostly due to his teenage emo drama....LOL, but I think he'd be a different kid if he'd gotten that help 8 years earlier.

regards

 

[Order66]

double posted.

 

[mickey&arielsmom]

I'm at a crossroads with my son who is 8. We started him on Adderall in September of this year. He had a tough time adjusting to it, but it definitely helped with his attention span, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior. Unfortunately, it seemed to cause extreme mood swings where he would lash out or cry hysterically and have no idea why. After a rough trip to Disneyland in February, we decided to try a different medication. We switched to Metadate, but have seen the same horrible mood swings and depressed behavior. He is absolutely NOT a moody, depressed kid when he's not on meds. This week, we've tried to go without any medication at all. He's been happier, but cannot focus on anything . . . at all. Everything from getting dressed to eating breakfast is a struggle. Homework has been a nightmare. Now, I'm the one that is moody and depressed. I don't know what to do at this point.

 

[stacy6552]

That's actually very similar to our experience. He went on Focalin first and we upped the dose twice and he had aggressive outbursts. OS we switched to Vyvanse and while the aggression was not there, he had horrible mood swings, almost like panic attacks, so we lowered that dose. Then he went to the school nurse twice with chest pains and we took him off it altogether. What we didn't do was lower the Focalin dose before switching meds.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

We (the doctor and the diagnostician, after conferencing with me) just upped DS13's Focalin XR dose and he seems to be doing fine. We are on Spring Break so he hasn't been to school since we changed the dose, but no side effects.

We started meds the second semester of 4th grade. Tried Strattera, nothing. Took him off of that, tried Concerta. Nothing. By then school was out for the summer. When he started to 5th grade we started Focalin XR. It worked wonders! Both his math and science teacher were blown away by how much he improved.

We increased the dose once after he started to 6th grade, and we just now increased it again (second semester of 7th grade) because his grades are tanking. He had been on the lower dose for 18 months and it just wasn't managing his symptoms anymore. He is ADD, no hyperactivity.

If this doesn't work I might talk to our Dr. about Vyvanse. The other one I thought about was Daytrana, but the info I found said it is for kids ages 6-12 so I don't know if he would even be a candidate for that.

 

[ryanshana]

I had ADHD when I was a kid (i'm now 28 and still can tell I have ADD/ADHD but I dont take meds; but can find ways to help w/ my attention...well maybe not I'm supposed to be doing homework right now but I am on Dis )

But when I was young I was on Ritalin from 8-16 but then my body built a tolerance to it...But that worked the best for me. However, from 16-18 I was on Adderall it worked well but I had bad mood swings.

Also I know that any kind of SR form (slow release) didn't work at all!

GL in your search.

 

[jenn10a]

My son is on Strattera and has been since he was 6. He is almost 12. He has never been on any other meds. He has never had lower than a C on his report card and that was one C. He has had all A's 3 times in the last two school years.

There are 2 classes of drugs. Stimulant and Anti depressant. Strattera is the only one that is not classified as a drug and can not be used for anything but add/adhd.

My son was experiencing anxiety issues in K an 1st grade. That is what led us to medicate. It was debilitating to him.

 

[princessfionasmom]

Before I post what I want to post I want to know if I am able to post this info. I have a website thru which someone can purchase a certain vitamin item which is used for ADD. I also have an booklet type doc of info I could send to pp for research, however, I value my disboard membership WAY to much to put it in any jeopardy so if a moderator can please let me know if I can post this information I would greatly appreciate it. I do not want to break any rules, just not sure what they are when it comes to posting information that could benefit both parties. TIA.

 

[Order66]

We (the doctor and the diagnostician, after conferencing with me) just upped DS13's Focalin XR dose and he seems to be doing fine. We are on Spring Break so he hasn't been to school since we changed the dose, but no side effects.

We started meds the second semester of 4th grade. Tried Strattera, nothing. Took him off of that, tried Concerta. Nothing. By then school was out for the summer. When he started to 5th grade we started Focalin XR. It worked wonders! Both his math and science teacher were blown away by how much he improved.

We increased the dose once after he started to 6th grade, and we just now increased it again (second semester of 7th grade) because his grades are tanking. He had been on the lower dose for 18 months and it just wasn't managing his symptoms anymore. He is ADD, no hyperactivity.

If this doesn't work I might talk to our Dr. about Vyvanse. The other one I thought about was Daytrana, but the info I found said it is for kids ages 6-12 so I don't know if he would even be a candidate for that.

Daytrana is dexmethlyphenidate delivered transdermally. It's the exact same drug as Focalin XR. You can certainly check with your physician, but I believe that's the target age as it was developed for children who had difficulty swallowing pills. My son takes pills just fine. We use the patches because we get longer lasting effects. He's on 20mg and the patch delievers 2.2mg per hour over 9 hours, though the doctor tells me it can actually deliever medication for 10-12 hours if there is an occasion he needs to be on it longer into the day he can leave it on longer. As opposed to Focalin XR where we seemed to get 2 "spikes" of the medication with dwindling effects until the second release. He's much more even throughout the day on the Daytrana.

I don't see why it couldn't be used for a patient over 12 when Focalin XR is all the time.

regards

 

[poohguys]

DS8 has been on Dytrana patch now for about a year and a half. He started on the 10 mg and we had to adjust up to the 20 mg after about 6 months. Since then he has been fine with the same dose. Like a few of the pp's said. It does seem to take about 2 hours for it to get fully into his system and it does leave a read mark on his skin when taken off. It has made such a differance for him with being able to control himself and sit still long enough to do his school work. We tried diet changes before the medication and it had a minimal affect. DS has never had any side effets from the medication other than the decreased appitite. When he originally went on the medication he lost about 10 lbs, but he was a little heavy. I would say now he is maybe a bout 3 lbs less than the recomended weight for his height (he is tall for his age). I find he just eats more late in the day when the medication wears off.

The daytrana is supposed to be effective for 9 hrs, but DS usually has is on for at least 12 and it seems to last. His Dr said he has teenage patients who use it and do not take the patch off at night, just change each morning.