Parents of Preschoolers on meds??? | ADHD Information
My son is 5 yrs now. We started him on meds and therapy at 3 yrs. We've come along way ad its worked well. He take straterra right now. I think that some children need the meds to help them get through this, others don't. But we are doing the right thing with our children. Good luckMy little guy is 7 now, but he has been medicated since he was 3.5 years old. For us, Adderall was the drug of choice for our doc and the change was remarkable right from the get go. We have tried to change to some of the non-stim drugs and thr psych tried to cut them out altogether just recently.... all it did was reaffirm how much he needs iT.
Kaleb also received early intervention help and we made sure we had goals with reasonable expectations.
He still has issues today and the issues are changing daily, but as demonstrated by the recent experiment, he still needs his Adderall as part of the solution.
BTW, I was SOOOO anti-drugs for a kid his age at the time. My doc knew this and we went point - counterpoint through all of my arguements and he convinced me to try it. Thank goodness he is willing to take the time to talk during each appt!!!!
hi baydenmom. our son is almost 5 and we tried adderall, but he became lethargic on it. he is now on concerta xr 18 mg and has been responding well to it. we still have to fine tune the dosage and are doing behavior therapy.
a lot of people are against medicating pre-schoolers, i used to be one of them. i'll tell you that in our son's case, everyone of our medical team thought medication would be an important piece of the puzzle, and it has been a tremendous help. as one dr. told me, the preschool years are critical. this is when kids learn to relate to others, they start pre-reading and developing the base from which future learning will take place.
i wish you good luck- and remember you're not alone in this!
patty
My son is 5 and is on Focalin XR 5mg. It has worked wonders for him. Its only been just over 1 month and he is a completely different kid. Hes happier, loves school, plays t-ball, sits and draws amazing pictures and builds huge castles with legos...something that he never could do befor. He is however more emotional then befor and dare I say terrified of bugs now, he was crying hysterical yesterday because there were ants crawling on our hose. His teachers have seen such a drastic improvement they are amazed. His OT teacher who was very nervous and anti drugs has since recanted everything she had originally said, he can finish all his work and he actually enjoys it all!
This is his first and currently only med and we were very lucky that its worked so well. I held out on medicating him for atleast a year but his behaviour and attitude got so out of control that it became a must. He goes to a counciling group with kids his age, just started that so im not sure if its any good yet, but I cant even begin to say how happy I am with this drug choice for my son. The past year has been a nightmare, hes only in preschool. This drug doesnt work for everyone but im damn lucky it works for us
hello, my son dillon is only 4 and he is currently taking depakote and seroquel.. he is bipolar..
it was very hard to put him on medications. its still hard. we have tried the lets take him off all the meds and see what happens
big mistake..you know what is right for your child so don't worry about what others say to you..good luck and remember your a good mommy..AZMOM,
I'm just curious if you have tried Foacalin XR before? My 4 year old is taking this and it doesn't seem to be affecting his weight either direction. I've also heard of others that have said the same. Just food for thought. This is just me being curious, nothing more. I guess I wonder why some doctors prescribe different medicines for the same age child with same types of diagnosis.
[QUOTE=OlderMom]What kind of doctor prescribed it? [/QUOTE]
A child psych. 
I meant Focalin XR not Foaclin XR. Is anyone else out there? I find it so hard to find info on preschoolers and meds and so on. Everything I find is for older children. Does anyone have any med recommendations that are working well for their child? We are in the middle of trying to find a med that does more good than harm and I was wondering if there were any that tend to have success with the younger crowd.
P.s- My son is 3.5. Right now he is on 5mg of FocalinXR. Unless there is some MASSIVE turnaround in the next 4 days, I plan on bringing him off it and having a 2 wk break before trying a new one, on the advice of my sons Dr's.
Thanks for any input.
What kind of doctor prescribed it? Snowbunny631, I think you are right. It is a form or lighter version of ritalin from what I've read. My son's doctor says so far, it is suppose to be one of the safer medicines available according to studies.Focalin xr is a form of ritalin...if Im not mistaken. My son is on it as I stated earlier. His hunger was curbed at first but no loss. He has gotten it back and is now eating normal again. I suddenly saw him going in the fridge every 5 minutes and was like..."hes back!" Hes 5 and he is doing great on it.
Hi 4myson,
No, we were on Adderall and that was not working, so we switched to Ritlan.
If he continues to not gain weight, we will have to make a change. I will definately ask my doctor about this. Thank you for your info.
I know, it is funny how the dr.'s differ with their prescriptions.
paty... I agree with you and your doctor. Preschool years are critical. This is exactly why I finally agreed to medication for my son. I hope other people can find what works for their children too. It is so awesome to see your child grow and learn under better conditions. They have so many more smiles on their face because they are not always getting in trouble.
My son is 4 and has been on Ritlan for a few months now, it works well but our doc will not let him have the time realeased so he has to take throughout the day.
He is taking a total of 15 mg. each day, we start our day early, so he is at preschool by 6:30. He takes 10 mg at 6 and 5 mg at 10:30
The thing that we are having a problem with is weight gain, in that he is not gaining weight. So we are trying to encorparate PediaSure in his diet as well as make some changes to his eating routine in not relying on his preschool so much.
Good Luck!
AZMOM38873.3463541667
my son is 5yrs he will be 6 in September, he has been on Adderall XR since last summer before he started kindergarden.
My personal opinion is 3.5 is very young and the medications don't recommend usage for that age. I hope you find your way, its very fustrating and hard and its only been 6 years for me so good luck!
don't take head of our resident nutter,she has no basis to her claims and her research is or dated or from sientology .binformed is a boy - probably a child of a scientologist. Look where he gets his info - the church of scientology paid ritalindeath. Yeah - that's one people will believe!!you think that he preaches hitting young kids because that what he got from his parents,that would explain the fact that he sounds a little bit unhinged.
i pity him really all he knows is intolerance and ignorance.must be jealousy because our kids are loved and can think by themselves
THIS IS JUST SICK, PRESCHOOLERS ARE BABIES! GOD PLEASE DON'T DRUG YOUR PRESCHOOLERS PARENTS....RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH!
RITALIN IS CANCEROUS CHICKY. GET YOUR KID OFF THAT CRAP FAST WHATEVER YOU DO. CHECK OUT RITALIN...CONCERTA, FOCALIN, METADATE, METHYLIN AND MORE .... IS RITALIN. CHECK OUT CHROMOSOMAL CHANGES, CHECK OUT THE TEXAS STUDY..ALL 12 KIDS HAD SIGNIFICANT CHROMOSOMAL CHANGES AFTER A SHORT TIME...THAT'S GENETIC DAMAGE FOLKS, HELLO?
in britain,docs refuse to medicate before 5 if possible 6.
they think that at such a young age play therapy,behavioral therapy and alternatives have a good chance to work.they don't need to concentrate for school .
it is hard work and you still have the temper tantrums,the destruction,the clumsiness,the non listening ect... but with therapy you get it less.
our son just turn 4 and we are doing all this things and we have to constantly monitor him,he has a teacher at nursery just for him.
maybe next year he will have to go on meds but i agree with our docs,preschool is too early for meds.
Our past Dr.'s didn't try meds until age 8. A good well rounded diet can help alot also. Vitamins also help. SF also can help. Read the alternative section here. although i am sure it is fine! 3 and half years old is below what the manufacturers of focalin will accept responsibility for btw. and personally (for me) not knowing anything about your situation it still seems a little YOUNG - i'm actually amazed that a doctor would prescribe for a three and half year old! but i am sure your doctor knows what he is doing and if it is helping - it's helping. and that's good.but if you look at focalinxr. website it does say clearly:
focalin xr should not be used in children under six years of age since safety and efficacy in this age group have not been established.
just so you are aware of that - i'm sure you are anyway.
good luck with it.
chjones38865.8594328704
In all due respect...there isn't a medicine out there that doesn't have something that can be dangerous or harmful for us or our children. We all have to do what we feel is best. As far as that goes there are few foods that we can eat without some group saying that it can be harmful for us. Our pharmacist gave us a paper on focalin xr and it says that it is a lighter version of ritalin and is thought to be much safer than some of the other medicines for small children. Focalin xr is easier for small children because it dissolves in soft foods more easily. You don't have to worry about swallowing pills at a young age.
most children of cults are beaten and molested from a young age. If this one doesn't get help he'll end up being just like his scientology parents. I just hope he never gets kids of his own he has proven he'd end up perverting their lives based on his lies and twisted view of the world.All I can say is that my son is doing awesome. He is both lightly medicated and on a nutritional diet as well as involved with play therapy. When your four year old can tell the difference and is happy more than angry and frustrated then you know that you have done the right thing for the child. Is this route for everyone, of course not! But it was the right one for our child. YES! He deserves to have success at home and school. He deserves to have the best! We go monthly for checkups. We work closely with our families and our child's school to make informative decisions for our him.
p.s. placing my son on drugs was not an easy choice...but I feel that it was the right choice after much research and testing...we had to weed through a lot of opinions on the subject to make the choice we did. We feel confident that we have done the right thing.