newly diagnosed | ADHD Information

Ok, I'm new here.  My 7 year old was recently diagnosed ADHD, although we have thought about it for quite a while.  When I took him to the DR and he started assessing his Copelands, he scored over 85 % on each section.  I delayed out of fear of the medications.  He has been on FocalinXR for 2 weeks, 5 mg.  It's not working.  I have been looking through the posts as a non-user for a few weeks, and I am so glad I am not alone!  He has most of the symptoms discussed.  My major concerns for him are the side effects.  We have a history of mental illness in our family, and I worry about the depression angle for him.  I also worry about there being something else going on, as I have seen through the post that a lot of the kids with adhd have other issues as well.  Anyway, I just wanted to get my foot in the door, and get used to this idea.  Any helpful hints?  Thanks for letting me rant, I don't really know how to go about this whole posting process.      

Hi and welcome.  I hope that you will be able to get your son on the correct med/dosage soon.

We were on Focalin with our son, and it worked great for a while - we moved up to 15 mg pretty quickly, and 15 mg worked very well for about 3 weeks.  When that stopped working, we tried 20 mg and it was too much for him.

I wonder if 5mg is not enough.  My son is 5 1/2.

One of the main side affects is decreased appetite - so be sure he gets a good breakfast, and allow him to eat later in the day when the meds wear off.  my son lost about 3 pounds at the beginning, but has been maintaining since, and has grown 1 inch since September (we started meds in October).

 

 

 

Thanks.  I am waiting to hear from the DR now.  He is supposed to be on 10 mg for his weight, but his pediatrician wanted to start him slow.  This is so huge for me, and I am glad I found this board.  How does anyone stay sane with this going on?  I feel like such a bad parent sometimes, because I don't know what to do, and can't make it all better for him.  I am learning through reading past posts that he has all of the classic signs, that I attributed to him just being a boy.  But I have also learned that it gets better....................eventually.