Adderall _new _for 6 yr old | ADHD Information

My sons doctor just prescribed 10mg of adderall xr once a day to start out with , an option to go up after we see how he does.   This is after the patch trial (skin irritation problems) and Focalin (it worked "ok" , but looking for something better) has failed.   Well of course I ran to this message board to read all i could on others experiences w/Adderall.  But most of the threads are towards adults and/or young teens... 

Is there anyone out there that has some insight on adderall and a younger child?  What should I expect?  Is Adderall xr better than most adhd prescribed meds?  The Focalin xr he was taking only lasted about 5 hrs, and we had to do a 2nd dose around 2pm.  Do you think Adderall XR would/will last longer??  Ah..  just any insight or opinion or experiences would be great apperciated.

ptgally38965.6270138889Should not have too much of a problem? Do you mind me asking... What do you mean by that? Actually the 10 scares me.  As in it will not be enough... b/c he has always been on 20 mg of something. BUT they say Adderall is a different makeup than Focalin... so starting at 10 mg is the best thing to do.  Shew...  They do not have to deal with bad notes from the school either!

My 7 year old Daughter was just diagnosed w/ADHD.  We started her on 10 mg of Adderall over the weekend.  I had to take her off the drug.  She became VERY emotional.  Crying over everything then getting angry and throwing things.  I am very discouraged.  If she wasn't doing poorly in school I wouldn't put her on ANY ADHD meds.  I can deal with her but she can't focus long enough to complete class work and is failing because of it.  We are going to start the Daytrana patch in the morning.

 

oh my!  well I sure hope things go over better for us. But thanks for your reply and input..  It gives me some things to look for during this 1st time trial on Adderall.  You mentioned the patch...   you will love the patch i bet! It worked wonderful over all with my son...EXCEPT for the skin irritation.  There is a thread i was very active on call "Daytrana Anyone?". You should check that out.  Anyway,    I hate the fact that we have to go back to pills...  I hope the patch is the right thing for your child, and I hope we find the right thing for us as well.  shew...  depression is alive in me.... I pray it all works out.    good luck. Since its only 10 mg you shouldnt have too much of a problem. Good Luck!
Ok my son has been on Adderall xr 10 mg for 2 days now..  (and still today, with this being his 1st time at school while on it)  I'm not sure what to think about it.  I know that is odd.   I'm used to how Focalin xr affected him.  He did well on that, but with Adderall XR....  Does adderall make you tired?  He seems sleepy at times.  Should I see the same focusing rersults with Adderall as I did with focalin?  Or does Adderall affect the brain differently?  I think he might can go up to 15 mg for more control and focus, but I would not be sure about 20mg.    And I think an afternoon dose might help for the end of the day.  His appiette is better than ever!   I'm just rambling I know, but i'm shocked on how much different Adderall XR is compared to Focalin XR? For the Addy's out there, Any insight or advise?  Have others experienced the same? 

My 6 year old has been on Adderall XR for about a year and half.  He went through the same anger, rage symptoms that one person posted their child going through and we stuck with it and it got better and also the sleepiness is very common.  It gets better too.  Everytime I have increased or lowered a dose for him, he goes through the emotional changes and drowsiness.  Just acts differant.  He will be 7 this weekend and he only got up to 15 mg.  He started with 5 mg and gradually increased to 15.  I am in the process of weaning him now so for 3 months he was on 10 and actually did pretty good.  He even grew finally.  He has been on 5 mg for the last couple days and so far, so good.  I am going to try the diet change finally.  We are just getting started trying to find things without dyes and preservatives.  In just 3 days on the 5mg he has gained a half a pound.  OH DID I MENTION HIS WEIGHT..... HE IS ONLY 39 POUNDS. So the dosage has to do with weight not age. 

Has anyone done a pick up dose in the evening (say around 4:30) once the morning dose of Adderall XR has worn off?   

We've done this with Focalin XR (granted it was not lasting until 4:30 like the adderall) but it gave us more control in the evening, thus making evening time nice and pleasent.  But the Adderall XR is wearing off around 4:30 and he is hyper and implusive all evening til bed time 8:30.  I spoke to my dr's nurse over the phone during our "how is he doing check up call" and the doctor recommend that we bump him up to 15 mg and see how it goes.  The nurse asked his dr a question I had asked her..  It was " can I do an late afternoon dose and he said no.  I was wondering if the reason he said no was  It is not allowed on this medication or is he wanting to see how he would do in 15mg. 

Deana- it is nice to hear someone else has experienced the sleepiness.   I was begining to worry a bit.   How long did the adderall XR last for your son?  It seems to be lasting close to 10 hrs for my son.  I have to admit I was a bit shocked b/c focalin xr claims the same, but only lasted about 5 to 6 hrs for us.  Another thing I have noticed on adderall xr is my son actually eats!!!  We have been battling meals with him since he was 1st put on medications years ago..  now he eats like a horse!  (This is a good thing!!) For my son, I give it to him around 9 in the morning and it seems like maybe around 6 or so it begins to wear off but he is much more controlled in the evenings on it even though it is worn off.  I have to force my son to eat on Adderall.  You just really have to be patient because they have to get used to it.  As long as your child does not have an upset stomach, then I would stick it out.  Starting at a lower dose of any med is a good idea, since a person may react differently than on previous ones. Also, adderall is about twice as "potent" as methylphenidate based meds, so doctors often start at a lower dose because of that as well. Although, it is also recommended that people starting focalin begin with half the dose of their current methylphenidate product. I'm not able to be active here very much, but I'm sure thankful that this board exists.  It's also great to know you're not alone :)

My son is 11 now and just starting grade 6.  After only one week of school, I've already had long talks with his principal and teacher about his behavior.  They don't know how to deal with him.  At home, he argues constantly.  Even if he knows he's wrong he'll argue, just to have a debate.  Last year was terrible, with several suspensions.  He wasn't even allowed to go on his year-end class trip because the teachers had no control over his behavior.

He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 5, and we had him tested and diagnosed again when he was 8.  In a few weeks, we're going to start more counselling along with more testing to see if there is something else we're missing.

We tried the red dye diet for nearly a year with no noticeable improvement.  He's been on ritalin, concerta and strattera.  Each drug had a "better than nothing" result, but nothing showed a true improvement.

Today we were back at the doctor and he is going to start Adderall this weekend.  The pediatrician told me that the majority of his patients who do not respond to ritalin or concerta DO improve with Adderall.  I'm hopeful that this is going to work and I've been reading quite a few encouraging things in this forum.

I know he is very frustrated as well.  He says he doesn't know why he has to argue.  He wants to do his work at school, get along with the teacher, and stop making everyone angry.  It breaks my heart that he really has no friends, and most kids his age don't want to be around him because he likes to be bossy and argue all the time.  I know there are still more drugs out there if this doesn't work, but after 6 years of "searching" I really hope we have found our solution.  I'm looking forward to seeing how ptgally's son makes out on this medication as well :)


Deana - good for you for trying the diet!  I do know of people who have had success with it so best of luck.

I didn't want to try drugs without trying "natural" options first, and we tried the diet for just under a year.  The biggest difference we noticed was that if our son ate something that was NOT on the diet, he would have a very bad reaction.  Over all, it just wasn't showing much improvement.  Even though it wasn't enough, it was a very healthy diet and it played a huge part in my current shopping and cooking habits.

The hardest thing about the "diet" is that you have limited control over what your child eats when they are in someone else's care.  Even though others knew about his special diet, if you aren't a parent following it yourself, it's easy to forget.  Parents will think, "just ONE won't hurt".  Teachers occasionally give students treats, and of course it wouldn't be fair to miss our son.  Halloween and Christmas were especially difficult, since he had to watch other children eat just about anything they wanted while we tended to have "alternative treats" on hand for him.  It was a lot of work and was often very frustrating.  I remember one day the teacher called upset about an incident he had with another child at afternoon recess.  When my son got home, I found several candy wrappers in his backpack - treats that his teacher had given the class about 30 minutes before the incident.  Of course, the teacher knew about the diet, but "forgot". 

I had a few people give me a very hard time when we gave up on the diet and started using medication.  I wanted the diet to work, but finally had to admit that it just wasn't enough. 

You quickly get used to reading labels on absolutely everything and the shopping part does get easier.  Planning can take more time, and we found that our grocery bill got a bit higher (unfortunately it costs more to eat healthy).  Stick with it and give it a good shot - hopefully it will do the trick for your child :)

My son was a little older when he started Adderall. He was 10.

He was on 20 mg. At first, he was emotional and very tired. But these side effects went away with time. It lasted a good 9 hours. Our only issue was that when it did begin to wear off, he would often "rebound". Become emotional, unreasonable and very active. This would show up in the mornings and late in the evenings. In the summer, we took a holiday. It took two weeks before he was his normal ADHD self.

But it worked wonderfully. It would kick in about 30 mins after he took it and greatly improved his behavior and focus.

Good luck.....

 

 

 

  My son is 5 years old just started adderall today. He takes 10mg xr in the morning and 1/2 of regular adderall when he comes home.  He was very moody today and fell asleep on the bus and not long after he was home.  Is this normal I am so worried He has been on medadate and dexedrine and same types of things went on.  Can anyone relate.

My son was prescribed 10 mg adderall  for adhd and it was wearing off way too early and sending him into emotional turmoil.  We went back in and he was placed on adderall xr still 10 mg.  Things really settled out well for about 3 months but it seemed like he was growing an inch every day and gaining weight so eventually he began regressing back to the less desirable behaviors and the tantrums became more frequent so another visit led to 15 mg adderall xr.  However; he began loosing wieght and we really had to stay on him about eating.  I keep him on vitamins and he has gained back the 10 lbs that he lost.  I have noticed a pattern with an increase in wieght there is a decrease in the efficiency of the med.  The down side of the meds with him is when the medicine is not the right mg he becomes emotional, tired and irritable, he even talks about morbid themes its very scary at times.  He has been on meds for about 10 months now and it seems like every 3 months we are having to fine-tune the meds.  Unfornunately without the medication he would be unable to learn and unable to stay out of trouble and home work would be out of the question.  I give it to him around 7:30 am and it works up untill about 5:00pm. By 8:00 he has turned into a pumkin and bedtime is enforced.  It is time for another visit soon he is not doing as well in school or at home.  Its always changing because of his constant fluctuation in wieght. good luck

ptgally, our doctor  gave us some short acting Adderall ( the generic equal) to use as needed like when  he was in a school play that began at 7:00.  We have not used the short acting this school year.  I have found that my ds seems to do fine when I just give him some  magnesium instead of a booster dose of Adderall. 

joemom38997.7861689815Our son was recently diagnosed with ADHD and he is doing really well. She prescribed 5mg of Adderall XR but gave us a script for 60 pills. She said to increase it to 10 mg's about a week to ten days in. He did well on the 5mg and now is doing great on 10mg's.

His appetite has increased actually not decreased. Only side effect is a bit of emotion but just a bit more than before which we can handle. He is not coming down from it until around dinner time and he takes it in the morning at 7:30. His sleeping pattern has not changed either....

We are very happy for him.
ptgally, From what I have read, magnesium is a natural calmer and many children with ADHD are deficient in this mineral...the Alternative section of this board has a long post on this mineral...they even have a simple test that you can do to determine if your child is deficient...I did the test on everyone in my family and the only one who came up deficient was my son with ADHD ( go figure).

My son is still on 15 mg and doing "ok" I guess.I still wish I had something to carry him on in the evening.  We are due for a checkup with his DR the end of this month.  I think I might ask him what  our options are.  The sleepiness side affect has past, but he seems a bit more emotional...  angry...  irritated.  He is snippy a lot here lately.  I'm wondering if it is the 15mg of adderall...  or just a faze.  I think I will mention this to his DR as well.  

Magneium?  I don't beleive I've ever heard about that helping to control ADHD.  Sounds like it did good for your child.

 I'm a mother of 2, my 10 year old daughter has ADHD and is on 30mg of Adderall XR and my son who's 5 years old is on 15mg of the same medication for autism. Its nice to know that I'm not alone with my daughter and her emotional rollercoaster ride she seems to be on alot lately. I never know when she's going to have another upset. Also, she seems to yell alot when she's mad, which seems to be quite often. I try to get her to calm down but she gets frustrated very easily. I don't have her on any type of special diet but I have thought about it. My son, is a very picky eater so a diet wouldn't really be a good idea for him. Their pediatrician said my daughter was suffering from depression and wanted to put her on zoloft but now hearing from all of you it seems as though her emotional issues could be coming from the adderall not depression. It bothers me how quickly it seems some dr's are putting children on medication without finding out the 'why's behind their emotions.