My son is 7 and a half and we are just starting the meds. I have put it off as long as possible and I'm not sure what he needs. The Drs have evaluated him - he shows giftedness, but slow processiing and has ADHD, and probably mood or bipolar and ODD. Sounds like a lot, but the psych says he'll grow out of the ODD. We were told to stay away from stimulants (Ritalin and Concerta) because they can cause a kid with mood problems to go way off, but I pushed because all of the side effects from mood stablizers scare me. So we've had some success on Ritalin and are now trying Concerta - 27 mg in the am. He's been kind of cranky and snotty, but I think his attention has improved. He can be extra difficult in the evening, but I really don't think it's much worse than before. His little sister is 5 and she is starting to get some of his attitude (defiance/argumentative). Any suggestions?
My son is very successful with concerta, along with guanfacine. We moved up quickly and he leveled off at 72mg when he was 7, still there and he is almost 10!
At first we had rebound, but it eventually went away. I would get him to eat something, fruit or chocolate for sugar. His eating was lousy back then so calories were a plus!
Now he gained 22 lbs last year and the doc wants him to watch it! He is now 5ft tall and 100 lbs. So the myths about the adhd meds stunting growth are NOT true, I have someone at home who is living proof!
The Guanfacine can help with with rebound issues also, alot of people have success with that. It sounds from Bethann as though the Guanfacine in combination with the food at "rebound" time works well for them. Higher doses can help too, but you would be VERY careful here with the added mood disorder.Diane V39245.0822222222My son would have rebound after school when we first started. We found that it was because he was starving. He started to have snacks, including chocolate, which helped. It would ease him as his meds were wearing off slower than the "being dropped to the floor" feeling from what I have been told by doctors. The meds leave their bodies so quickly that it is uncomfortable, that explains the irritability.
He is still on concerta after almost 3 yrs now and has learned to manage it for himself. DS will be 10 the end of June.
He has really grown in both height and weight. Doctor says his body has adjusted to his meds. It no longer effects sleep and eating.
He does need an incease or an additional med to get us through baseball and upcoming football I will note. Other than that, he has been on the same dose since he was 7 1/2.
He also takes guanfacine, which was started about the same time as the concerta, 2 1/2 years ago as well!
...for my 7 yo ds, seems to be getting worse. He gets teary and has temper tantrums for the littlest thing. I am thinking about getting a script for something he can take at night for next year when he goes to cubscouts. We tried caffine at a wedding a couple of weeks ago and he was much worse that usual.
What would you do?
thanks,
L
There a few of things you could do.
One switch meds.
Two, add a short acting stimulant in the afternoons we've done this).
Three add Tenex, some people have seen (myself included) in rebound when combining Tenex or Guanfacine with a stimulant.
My son also had HORRIBLE rebound in the evening which in turn affected his sleep and the whole morning routine. We ended up switching him to Daytrana which helped tremendously and also added Clonidine before bedtime which helped early on, but now he seems to need to increase the dosages more.
I never thought of BETHANN's idea of the food issue. I would certainly look into that before switching the meds if everything else is going good.
Well, I don't think it is the food thing since he gets a snack at aftercare about 4:00 pm . Then we eat at 6 pm. I just found out our ped is moving so I am trying to decide if I am going to go the child psych route or find another ped.
I have to figure out who the good ones are I guess.
I have to get this part taken care of before thinking about changing meds but I will keep all informed.
Thanks,
L.
Is he teary etc just at night? His current dose could be too high or not appropriate meds. The rebound at night can be horrible yes an afternoon dose could be very important.
Your son is also 7 and getting alot of imput from school. At this age, school is exhausting not just physically but also emotionally and mentally. The stimulus is so great. Find out what he is like at school. Ask his teacher is make a note every hour as to his attention, general mood etc.Just a few words or even + - = to indication the levels. If this is kept on a clip board in the classroom, teachers can make a note. This needs to be done for a few days to see if there is a pattern. This would be very handy in taking to the specialist.
If the day time meds are good then look at introducing a quick release med at 4:00 ish so that your child's levels remain topped up.
What do you think about guanfacine? Have you read any of the posts about it? It helps relax my son due to overstimulation. It seems to calm them down.
Can you tell me about guanfacine - not sure whether we have this in Australia. It might be under another name.
The other name is tenex. You can google it. It is a med that was prescribed to my son for his overstimulation. It relaxes him when his impulsiveness can get the best of him. Instead of giving a short acting dose of "something" we give him a extra 1 mg at 5:00pm when he has baseball or football etc.
It also helps them to be hungry while the stimulants are in their system, which is a good thing for most!
He takes 72mg of concerta and 1 mg of guanfacine/tenex EVERY morning. Then if there is something going on early evening, etc. we give him another 1 mg's of guanfacine/tenex.
He is in need of an increase, we will be working on that this summer with his doctor. I think just to increase his concerta since it has been so successful.
DS has really grown both weight and height, more in weight actually, height needs to do a little catching up says the pediatrician. It is time to add some mgs to the concerta!!
Regards!!
The Tenex is in the Clonidine "family". The Tenex is less sedating than the Clonidine, we tried both. Are still using the Guanfacine (Tenex), but am still having some sedating issues and am going to cut back. It does help calm them though. We originally started it to help with tics and it did some, not enough to stay on stimulants, but some.