Help!Temper tantrums normal? | ADHD Information
That sounds like Adderall, my son (4) started on Adderall XR and we quickly stopped due to emotional fits, tantrums, and when he was told no he would cry for atleast 30 minutes. We changed to Ritlan and have been having success so far!
Good Luck.
my child is 6 now and was diagnosed when she was 4. We fostered and then adopted her from a home where she was neglected and left to fend for herself. She was 1 and a half years old. She suffered physical abuse also and had a speech delay so when we got her she was terrified of us and everything in our home including the bathtub. She has progressed so much since she has taken "Speech" and "Social Development" classes but her rages continue. She has the worst temper tantrums. She has to take Clonidine to calm her down at times. She mostly needs it at night. She takes a tiny speck of a dose but it does wonders for her. She does not appear drugged. She just calms down enough for us to talk to her and she can collect herself so she can stop crying or throwing things. I do not know if the rages are from past abuse, ADHD or both but Clonidine works for us. I hope to take her off of it when she can tell me how she feels instead of just lashing out. I ask her to draw a lot and I gave her a journal to practice writing. It gives her an outlet even if she can't write sentences she can write to get some stress out or draw a picture to show me.Your son sounds exactly like mine when my son was on adderall. He did great all day in school, but by around 5pm, he was awful! I was actually afraid he would hurt his sister, because he raged so much. He was so angry, and cried over nothing. If I asked him to just brush his teeth, he would try hitting and kicking me because he was angry at me.
I finally got the doctor to take him off adderall after 3 dose changes. He is now on concerta 18 mg, and is doing much better. No more aggression, and he is almost back to his old self. He is doing great in school as well. I hope this helps, but I would definately ask him to be taken off adderall. Good luck!
If a child rages, bites hmself, bangs his head on the floor, etc. BEFORE MEDS you need to see a Child Psychiatrist. It could be early onset bipolar, which is almost always diagnosed as ADHD/ODD first. ODD is a huge symptom of bipolar and ADHD doesn't cause this sort of raging. Stims make bipolar kids even more aggressive, even violent. Adderrall is the worst of all, but no stim will help a child with a serious mood disorder. Here are a few sites you may want to look at. I know it's scary to think beyond ADHD, but often, when a child behaves over-the-top, that's what it is. Sometimes the Adderall alone can cause these problems, but, if it has always happened, it's likely beyond ADHD. And ODD is sort of just "out there"--a symptom of other disorders. Again, it is often bipolar disorder in kids, which doesn't resemble bipolar in adults. Childhood bp looks like rageful, angry ADHD.
I'd check out the meds too, but there might be something thats upsetting him, and he lets his frustration out at home, instead of at school????? My son is 15 now, with ADHD. We went through the temper tantrum stage a little later than is the norm. He would take a fit while in his room, bang things and yell and scream for about the same amount of time your son does. It was done when he was sent to his room for inappropriate behavior. It lasted a long time, until I changed the plan, so it wasn't worth it for him to continue his bad behavior. He was given 10 minutes to make it known that he was mad, then I'd call up and say you need to be quiet now, or you'll get an hour in your room. Time out doesn't start till your quiet. After months of temper tantrums, it stopped immediately. He received 1 hour time out, and that was pretty much the end of it. It may be a phase or it could be the meds. There is no norm for adhd kids, and they are much more immature. Good Luck with this one. I know its not fun listening to it.momiss238827.5597800926my 5 yr old is on 20 mg of sr ritalin, he has a mixed diagnosis of ADHD/ODD (Opposistional Defiance Disorder). has always been aggressive, bossy, in charge, the winner. if things don't go his way he gets mad and yells, calls names, attacks my other children (all older), tantrum, break things, knock over my furniture, ect. does the med. intensify things? he seems to tantrum regaurdless of time or place, just don't tell him "No". could it be part of the ODD? Dr. seems to think he has pent up engery from the med's and says not to worry it will get better. but he rages when he is on his med's too.
My son is six. We started going through "issues" with him at three years old. He and I both have seen a therapist, he had a "play" therapist come to his daycare once a week for about 8 months and she would come to the home 2X a month. Finally when he was five, his Kindergarten teacher requested he be tested for ADHD and that's what it was. He was put on Conserta and it has been wonderful. He has many friends, his teachers love him ... but, at home, approximately 4X per week, he is experiencing the temper tantrums you are all describing above. Very angry, usually lasting about 20 minutes then he calms right down and wants to do things to please me. Today, his tantrum included hitting his head with his hands. He has done this only on a few occassions. The tantrum is always started when my husband or I tell him "NO". Does anyone have any tricks that work with the tantrums. I am so frustrated.
Maggie,
My son 5 yrs old is going thru the same issues, wanting to be the winner, bossy, super hyper, etc.
He was put in Adderall firs, did not work, he got very emotional, then focalin,ritalin la, clonidine, now tenex..and Metadate cd 20mg , the only problem with the ritalin la and metadate cd is that he metabolizes the med. very quick and the effect only lasts 5 hours, so he needs to take it again if we want cover for the whole day.
The question that I have for you is about the Concerta ..you said that it has been working good. How long has he been on it? and how much of it he takes?
We just started today with 18mg and I did not see much difference on his behavior but we are going to do the 18mg for a couple of days then we are going to go up to 27mg. and see how it goes.
Has your son had any side effects? sleeping or eating?
Thank you
T
Maggie your little one sounds like my nephew. He has started to bite himself and hit his face and head when he goes into a meltdown. His little arms are all bruised up from bitting so hard. His therapist says hes clearly frustrated. I know he's been under some stress with the holidays messing up his schedule and his scooter and soccer ball being stolen. The soccer ball reappered but hes been looking for his scooter everyday. The past few weeks he's had more meltdown than he's had in the last 6 months. He's had one or two just about everyday now. If we can't redirect his attention to somthing else before he goes into one all we can really do is hold him until he gets over it. I wish I could say "do this or do that" to help you out but if I can't catch him before a meltodwn starts and redirect him its all pretty much downhill from there. It's so frustrating not able to get through to him. Somtimes when it all just gets to be too much all you can really do is cry along with him. Hi, I am new to this forum, and I could use some advice. My son was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten. He was put on Concerta and everything was great until this year. My son is in 2nd grade this year and started having problems at school--not paying attention or completing work, mild aggression, fidgeting, etc. We switched his med. to Focalin, which made things worse, then to Adderall, which has really helped with the problems at school. The new problem is that he has started having temper tantrums or melt downs if he is told "no". He has had 4 in the past week, and they last anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. He screams and bangs on the door when we put him in his room. He is also having mood swings much worse than ever. He used to have temper tantrums only maybe once a month, but the increased frequency has me worried. Is this normal for children with ADHD? Any advice?[QUOTE=wcs001]Hi, I am new to this forum, and I could use some advice. My son was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten. He was put on Concerta and everything was great until this year. My son is in 2nd grade this year and started having problems at school--not paying attention or completing work, mild aggression, fidgeting, etc. We switched his med. to Focalin, which made things worse, then to Adderall, which has really helped with the problems at school. The new problem is that he has started having temper tantrums or melt downs if he is told "no". He has had 4 in the past week, and they last anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. He screams and bangs on the door when we put him in his room. He is also having mood swings much worse than ever. He used to have temper tantrums only maybe once a month, but the increased frequency has me worried. Is this normal for children with ADHD? Any advice?[/QUOTE]
You might want to check with your doctor and see if you could maybe do a little drug holiday, take him off meds for a few days and see if this goes away. We just had to take our 9 year old off of Adderall for the same reason. He was getting extremely aggressive. He has a tendency toward aggression anyway, and is moody, but this was at a level that I have never even seen in him before. It was horrible and terrifying. He way over the top with emotions. Angry or crying over anything and everything. Things that normally he wouldn't even blink at, had him fist clenched and red faced.
I took him off meds during Spring break, and my bouncy, obnoxious, defiant, but only mildly aggressive child came right back. Now we're in a stand still trying to figure out where to go next. 
Anyway, no, I don't think it's ADHD typical, but I would make sure this isn't a med reaction first. I think ADHD children tend to be moody and irritable and short fused, but IMO their tantrums come in little burst. 5-10-15 minute blow ups, and then they mellow out. 45 minutes seems a bit long to me, and I would personally consider that a rage, not just a melt down. Of course that's simply my "opinion"
Good luck!
I've heard more and more stories on message boards about Adderall bringing out agression and temper tantrums in children. I agree with LadyM -- I don't think this is typical of kids with ADHD and may entirely be the result of the wrong med. It's not that ADHD kids don't have emotional reactivity -- they do -- but if a med is making things worse, I think you have to look in that direction and change things around. I recommend putting a call into your doc as well and letting him know what you're observing.Michel.
We started him on 18 MG and had him up to 27 MG pretty quickly. We too did not see much difference with the 18. He was on the 27 for about a year and it was great. Still difficult at home becuase it wears off but other than that great. He lost a few pounds but not enough to be concerned and now after a year he is not losing at all and gaining good. His schoolwork improved phenomonally. He just got his report card today and it is all A's and B's. It is unbelieveable the difference at school. All great reports from all his teachers who think he is just the best. His sleep was not affected at night. He just didn't fall asleep during car rides during the day any longer. After a year, we noticed some problems so inquired with the doctor and she raised it to 36 MG. That lasted a little while but then the tantrums were getting worse. Now I have him back to 27MG.
Yesterday he had a bad ending to school but today went great. So it is hit and miss. When I told the doctor about the evening tantrums she said many dr's would increase the meds. I am against that becuase it seems like the increase is directly related to the increase in the severity of the tantrums. So instead, we are keeping him on 27MG and when he gets home around 4PM we are going to give him a 5MG pill of ritalin (which Conserta is a form of Ritalin...) This way, he will not come down off a large dose to nothing . He will gradually come down hopefully decreasing the tantrums and he also shows signs of sadness or depression for about an hour in the late afternoon when the medicine wears off. So this will be more gradual and hopefully end the problems.
I will tell you one thing I always worry about is him making friends becuase he is so bossy and always seems to have to be the "star" but so far, he is socially doing well.
Hopefully this information helps you. I know how hard it is. Any more questions just let me know and good luck to you and your son.