daughters with adhd | ADHD Information

Feel free to email me at jehauck@bellsouth.netI have a 9 year old who has ADD (impulsive/inattentive) and is a twice exceptional (gifted with learning disablilites). I also have two othter girls--6 year old gifted with no LDs and a 2 year old. To make a long story short, our oldest has struggled w/self esteem for years and we found that going to a family therapist helped with the poor concept of self and the anger outbursts. I haven't tried Lexapro but we might in the future. She's currently on strattera 40mg's. Oh, and she does sports and lots of them. That is one of the few things she feels successful in and burns energy at the same time. Good luck! rdmom3,

Is she on straight Ritalin or on Concerta? My DD who just turned 12 two weeks was started on Ritalin when she was 8. It helped but we found that very quickly the evenings got very bad. It was the letdown when the medicines were leaving her system. Our doctor switched her to Concerta which lasts longer and is a more even rate of med release thus helping the kids stay at a more even mood. With Ritalin it's like this:

You give it to her in AM, she getes a good shot of it, but it starts to drastically fall off an hour or two later.  When she gets her PM dose, she goes up again, steadies for an hour or so and down again. It's like being on uppers and downers all day.

I find weekends used to be bad for the same reason if she didn't take her medicine. She'd basically suffer from withdrawals on those two days and we were basically "forced" to give her the meds on the weekends as well just to keep everyone's sanity. We don't anymore but that's because she's completed 80 hours of biofeedback and the impulsivity and moodiness has gotten a lot better. Not totally gone though.

So, if you can and feel ok with it, I think it would be a lot better for her to stay on meds on the weekend.

Margaret.
It sounds like you have a similar situation jehauck, I would like to discuss more with you.  We also give her 5mg or ritalin after school to help her with homework but she doen't want to take it.  How do you approach her about taking meds.  Also i used to take lexapro for a while it help me, never thought to give it her her.  I don't like pumping meds into kids if possible, i have a hard time with giving it in the first place but it does helpher get through the day.

Anyone out there with a 10 year old daughter with adhd? I need help with her anger outbursts and sometimes impulsive behaviour.  She is on 20mg of ritalin but does not think she needs it on weekends because "she doesn't have to focus like in school" but i think she needs it to keep her from getting impulsive and angry - Any thoughts?  she also tends to put her siblings down and call them idiots alot.I think her self esteem is low because she tells me that she feels different than others.  How can i help her and give advice.  My son (8yrs) has it too so I have a double whammy.  What to do....

Hi!

My daughter just turned 11, and has been diagnosed with ADHD since first grade (she is now in 4th).  She is on 30 mg Metadate CD, and we give it to her every day - it really helps cut down on the arguing and rudeness.  We also give her a 5 mg Ritalin tablet in the late afternoon to tide her over until bedtime.  Recently, we added Lexapro to the regimen, as it seemed like she was grumpy all the time.  Lexapro is a mood stabilizer and it really helps keep her in a better mood.