Ask your doctor or consult a nutritionist about what vitamins & minerals (& in what quantities) would be good for your ADHD child. Our doc suggested adding the following to my son's diet because he wasn't eating good and because some have been thought to help decrease certain symptoms :
1) A regular daily multi-vitamin, 2) an additional 500 mg of calcium a day, additional 200 mg of magnesium, 3) 12 mg of zinc.
He also suggested 100mg of DHA which is a fatty acid. I had a hard time finding this last item. I think it can be found in things like fish oil, but only in smaller mg and I didn't want to give my son 5 fish oil capsules a day - not knowing how the fish oil would affect him. I specifically wanted a DHA pill. I finally found it at a health food store called "Hi-Health". But it was under a brand name I can't remember (sorry!). It wasn't called "DHA tablets".....it was under a general name like "Henderson Labs Fatty Acid Tabs" or something like that. But it is 100% DHA and nothing else. If you go to Hi-Health, tell them you're looking for DHA alone - not as an added ingredient in something else - and tell them it's for ADHD. When I told the salesgirl this, she knew immeidately what I was looking for and directed me to the only item in the store that is sold like this. In fact, the manufactuer's label says it's made specifically for ADHD. GNC doesn't have it.
Hope that helps!
Hello
I am at my wits end with the ADHD medicines my son has been taking. He first started with Concerta, but couldn't swallow the pill (he was only 6 years old) so the dr. switched to Aderall XR. We started out at 10 mg and within 6+ months have gone up to 20 mg. It just didn't seem to work anymore, even with the increased dosage, so we switched to Metadate, 40mg., which seemed to work ok for the first week, but now in the 2nd week, its like it isn't working AT ALL. We are limited in the medicines he can take because of the issue that he can't swallow a pill (we've tried practicing with m&m's, tic tacs, etc. nothing works) Now I am thinking of calling the dr to go back to the Aderall 'cuz at least it worked better than what is taking now.
Has anyone had any similar experiences?
Thanks,
Susan
My son is 7 now and was diagnosed last December. Thanks for the reply, it's so nice to hear I'm not the only one having these problems with the meds. I think I will stay with the Metadate for another week and see how it goes and then if its not working, I will go back to the Aderall XR. I haven't tried any of the natural things, I will check that out this weekend at the vitamin store. Is there a specific vitamin that you give your son that you can recommend for me?
Thanks again for your input.
-Susan
How old is your son and how long has he been taking meds? I can share with you our similiar situation......My son was diagnosed at 5 and is now 8. Luckily, he learned to swallow pills from the very beginning. Finding the right med is trial and error and will take time. My son started on Ritalin and it worked okay, but at the time, only a 4 hour pill was available and it was hard to keep him on schedule. So we switched to Concerta just because it's an all day med. It seemed to work for about 6 months, but then it's like it stopped working. So we then switched to Adderall.....again worked for a few months, and then all his bad behaviors came back. We increased the dosage, but still no improvement. We finally found Metadate CD and this has worked the best - for the longest time. He has been on it now for about 3 years. But, we still had to make "tweaks". He started on 20mg, then we increased it to 40mg. But 40mg made him act like a zombie, so we went to 30 mg. Even though this is supposed to be a 12 hour pill, it seems to last only about 8-9 hours, so I give him another 10mg about 5pm to get him thru until bedtime. All of these changes of medicine took about 2 years to get it right. Meds don't make him perfect - he still has many problems, but the meds help decrease the severity of his symptoms to where he is at least manageable. And yes, still try "natural" things like added magnesium & zinc to his diet (in the form of vitamins) - along with the prescribed meds. We have found that both works best. Thanks, I'm gonna check it out right away. Hope you are having a great weekend when stimulants stopped working with my daugher, it was suggested to add a low dosage of Tenex and it's amazing, although it's only been four days on it. I am keeping my fingers crossed cause it's all so frustrating to see her so uncomfortable in her own skin. The last few days have been amazing and she is actually enjoyable to be with........more mature, calmer (but not zombie like at all), friendlier to her siblings, etc. I just pray this continues. :)