new to this message board "thing" | ADHD Information

[QUOTE=wendi]I've had my son on stratera, but for the past two school years, no real change. He still gets poor grades and the teachers seem to loath him by the end of the year. i'm thinking about concerta? Any comments about this drug?[/QUOTE]

Boy, i suggest you take him off Stratera soon.  my son did really well for the first year and then it slowly wore off and then he was worse, grades suffered and then when we did take him off of it, well, i'll just say that it was the worse experience of my life!  my little 8 year old went through h*ll and back during withdraws. 

here's my story for strattera.  My son was on it for 2 years.  He is now 8.  the med worked great for the first 5 or 6 months, then we had to up his dosage to right around 30 something mg.s  then about 6 months later, upped again to 60mg!  Went well, but over time (so slowly) we didn't realize how the meds were not really working  Then he started getting into trouble alot at school.  So, about 4 weeks ago, we took him off it and put him on adderall 10mg XR.  Night and day difference.  But the withdraws from the strattera were horrific!  my little 8 year old was out of school for a week, was having thoughts of people killing him and him killing himself.  After 5 nights of pure hell, the thoughts slowly stopped.  Now he is back to his self.  with less meds and happy, and he almost never gets into trouble.  This is just our story.  It may not happen to any one else, but it happened to us. 

I know people that love it, but the med works for them, but if it doesn't work and makes him suffer in any way, you really should not hesitate taking him off of it.

Welcome, Wendi!  Connecting with others DOES help! I knew virtually NOTHING about ADHD before my Daughter was Dxed & had no one who really understood! Just knowing there are others going thru the same things helps immensely!

I also understand ALL ABOUT denial! I didn't want to believe it either, but once I did I was able to get her the help she desperately needed & it was such a huge relief!
I've had my son on stratera, but for the past two school years, no real change. He still gets poor grades and the teachers seem to loath him by the end of the year. i'm thinking about concerta? Any comments about this drug?

Hi all! I'm new to the message baord thing. Please bear with me as I get more comfortable

I have an eight year old boys with ADHD......there, i said it! i finally admitted it! Yes, I was in denile that my son actually has a problem.

I guess that the first step for me. I hope that connecting with people (parents) liek me, i can learn to help my son.

Welcome Wendi.  Whew, you did it! You admitted it and now you can get some help!  My dd was first on Strattera.  She started on a low dose, then ramped up.  We saw some improvement initially, but by about  6 months we took her off because it wasn't helping anymore.  We then went on Concerta and tried that out for a few months.  After trying different dosages, we stopped Concerta and and now using Ritalin LA, with a short-acting ritalin in the afternoon.  So you might have to try a few different meds before you find the right one for your kid.  Good luck and keep us posted!

If you are not seeing results with the strattera then you need to go back to the doc and perhaps try something else.  I had my son on strattera and while it worked at the beginning we had to up the dose and he was also acting weird ( moody and grumpy)We slowly ( under doctors supervision) took him off this med and tried Adderall which works wonders.

good luck , it seems as if getting the meds right takes lots of trial and error

Thanks for all of the replys. I'll get him to the Dr. ASAP to discuss other meds. I would like to have him on a new med before school starts to hopefully get him through some of the side effects.

He is such a sweet and caring boy. I hate that I have to put him on meds. I get so sad when the teachers are on him all the time. It does help to talk to others that really understand. Thanks again!

Welcome Wendi! This is a great sounding board and full of usefull advice and info. It also helps to know that our feelings and frustrations at times are only human. Best of luck to you and your son! Thanks for helping me feel so welcome!

Welcome Wendy.  I'm new to the message board too. 

We put our son on Metadate back in January.  It lasts for about 6 hours, so it gets him through most of the school day, which is nice because then he doesn't have to be medicated at school.  Plus, you can open the capsule and sprinkle the meds on apple sauce or yogurt (making sure he doesn't chew the sprinkles).  Our son did really well with it with only a few minor side-effects (little bit of trouble falling asleep at night and VERY chatty).

We've taken him off Metadate to try other avenues (herbal stuff), only because I don't like having my son on a stimulant.  There weren't any side-effects when we took him off because Metadate doesn't build in his system.  If we have any luck with the herbal remedy, I'll let everyone know.  If the herbal doesn't work, we'll put him back on Metadate when school starts.

It's all a trial and error type thing. 

Hi Wendi,

You will find many people at the same stage as you. We just completed a long period of diagnosis and are starting treatment (behavior mod and meds). Started behavior modification in the middle of last school year and the meds part as school was getting out. The meds part cannot optimized until school starts again, but we have had some good results so far (with no side effects other than no weight gain over the summer).

I really like that there are so many people that have gone through this before me on this forum and they are willing to share their experience and information.