I am new to this forum, I recently got married, but we have been together for 3 years. My stepson who is 11 has been on strattera since he was 7 years old for adhd. I worry about the side effect. He is only 42 pounds and 3'5 inches. He is also in some ways not where other kids his age are. he gets along better with 7 year olds (has the same interests and such) however he is getting to a point that he is noticing and beginning to get very angry over the fact that he is not only shorter but alot smaller than other boys his age. especially since his 5 year old half sister is the same size as him already. my husband has read that taking him off of the strattera for the summer would help him gain some weight and maybe grow a little bit. His mother is dead against it, and I just don't know. My question I guess is would it hurt him? I cook with him alot and he talks to me, and he is really upset over his size and my heart breaks but I don't know what to tell him, I usually just tell him that everyone grows in there own time. The mom doesnt' seem to worry she tends to treat him like his size ( which upsets him too) my husband is not only concerned about his size but how he sees that his son is not acting like or enjoying the same things that boys his age like. I am concerned about it all but also about how upset he is. Any ideas or experiences would be helpful.
Thank you,
DD had appetite INCREASE with Strat, and gained over 40lbs in 2 years. Have to agree. Strattera couldn't possibly be the root cause. There is some other issue and it is hard for me to understand how his mom could not have pursued the matter. Maybe she doesn't know to ask her pediatrician to see a specialist. There is more to this story. Keep us posted. I know everyone is different, but my daughter takes Strattera and her appetite is completely normal. I would think that he needs to see a doctor who can evaluate the whole situation. My daughter is 11 and tall for her age, but 3' 5" and 42 lbs seems WAY out of the normal range for that age and I think you are right to be very concerned.
My son switched from Concerta to Strattera in hopes of gaining some weight and he hasn't. He eats a better lunch, but he doesn't eat that big snack at bedtime that he used to with Concerta. He turned 12 in February, is 4'8'' and weighs 65 pounds. So Strattera didn't really help him for weight gain. He does like it better though- he likes being able to eat lunch! This is a kid who has had trouble with poor appetite since the day he was born. So it is not totally a medication issue. I do feel there is less appetite suppression on Strattera, but because it is in their system all the time, even the smaller appetite suppression can cause issues for those kids who have appetite issues anyway.
That being said, I agree with the others, this seems like more than a medication issue. He needs to be seen by an endocrinologist. His pediatrician can give a referral.
Hey Guys,
Thanks for all of your responses. As I have said I worry about not only his size but also his mindset, he has alot of problems with kids his age making fun of him, my sons are always defending him because he is 11 and still plays with toys in the bathtub, still watches things like dora the explorer I mean his total mindset is that of someone between 5 and 7 years old it is hard to explain. He has a lot of difficulty in school he can't even write, he still needs to have his dad type stuff into the computer for him. I am not telling you this to sound mean, just to emphasize why I am worried, he can also get very violent sometimes, he choked his sister once because she wasn't making her bed right, he took a picture of his private area once with my camera and when I confronted him, he started screaming and rocking back and forth holding his ears just saying "goddamit" over and over. His appetite isn't always poor, he goes through spurts where he will eat good, however he still doesnt' gain weight. He steals money from my sons alot and makes up stories that his mom gave it to him for allowance and when we ask his mom she says no she did not. He either blames someone else or makes up a very long story about it. He is always very calm when we are cooking together. That is where him and I really bond, he likes it because I let him do the whole thing himself. In his mothers defense I think she doesn't or perhaps cannot see she took him once to the pediatrician at the urgency of my husband, he couldn't make it because he lives 3 hours away from us, we only get him on the weekends. she told my husband that the doctor said he is on the very borderline of normal for his age. As I have said his mother just treats him like his mindset he acts between 5 and 7 so she treats him like he is between 5 and 7 which works for her, but my husband feels like he should be treated as his actual age. I worry most about what all of this does to him, he gets very hurt by people making fun of him, and it really breaks all of our hearts. so is all of this normal for adhd? I am surprised, I thought maybe alot of it had to do with the medicine. I guess you are all saying it doesn't? I am a new stepmom just trying to understand my sons adhd as all of this is new to me, none of my sons had adhd or anything. So when I saw this forum I figured it would be a good place to learn and understand. Should we take him to an endocrinologist? does he maybe need a different medication or more of it, he is on 25 mills of strattera once a day right now. Any replys you can give would be great as I just want what is best for him.
Thank You,
I dont think most of these behaviors sound like only ADHD or meds. IMO he needs a full neuropsych eval. ADHD kids do tend to be about 30% behind in maturity though. It could all be ADHD and the mood swings could be the Strattera. His dose could go up some on that, his range would be 22-36. Too many "could be's" for me. I think it's worth digging deeper. What is is academic level at school? Has he been evaluated for co-existing learning disabilites?
As far as treating him as his age as opposed to his mental matruity. I think you need to walk a fine line with this. Pushing him into behaving older than he's ready to be is going to cause him excessive stress and anxiety. "babying" him wont help him grow. Behavior charts work wonders on some of these thigs. REally, so what if he plays with toys in the tub and watches Dora, at home in comfort. Explain to him that other kids may be more interested in different shows and encourage him to also shower and watch some older prgrams even for social discussion. I have a 13 year old daughter who still plays with stuff in the tub. If I let her she'd take a bath with bubbles and squirt guns and water crayons every day. We have encouraged morning showers (no time to pay before school) and every once in a while I let her take a "leisurely" bath and just leave her alone to do whatever. You dont want him to be teased, but you cant force maturity. Give him more responsibility, praise mature beahvior, encourage age appropriate activiteis.....etc.,. etc.
His academic level is he is in 4th grade and he is in a normal classroom however his mom gets a call from the principal almost daily. He doesn't do very well in school, as I stated before, he cant write all that well, he can't spell, it takes hours upon hours to do his homework the whole day can be wasted. he has been to 7 different schools, because when the staff of the school starts getting frustrating to his mother she pulls him out, she has even tried homeschooling him but that didn't even last a whole year. So then we need to walk somewhere in between of where we are now? don't treat him like his mother does and don't treat him like we do but find a nice medium? As I have said my son's are always standing up for him because they really like him, however my youngest is 18 months older than him, just turned 13 and does get annoyed sometimes when like he is talking with his girlfriend and his stepbrother is in the driveway singing the Tim and monica sitting in a tree song. To which we always tell chandlor that he needs to leave tim alone and to stop teasing him. But when we try to tell him things that he is doing wrong or punish him he just smiles at you like he thinks it is cute. Anyway I will talk to my husband, perhaps we can set up an appointment with a specialist down here for him. You have all been very helpful, I have been reading other posts on the various topics here and am really beginning to understand it a little bit more. Perhaps we can see about getting him a stronger dose. Also what can we do about the staying up all night, he is up till almost 2-3 in the morning just playing and we don't know how to get him to go to sleep. any suggestions?I think your first step is a solid diagnosis and figuring out exactly what is going on. Wehn I say academic level, I mean what is is his cognitive level and where is HE academically, not his grade. He may be in fourth grade, but academically at a first grade level. You may not have any idea, especailly if he's never been tested. Homewrok shouldnt take hours and you shouldnt need 7 different schools. It's time to sort this out. Good luck, you are on the right path. He needs his Dad to help. I think having his father make an appointment for a neuropsych eval is a VERY good idea. I dont think punishing him for being immature will help. Praising for acting mature and maybe developing some queues between him and you guys when he is behaving inapproriately as "reminders" is a better step.
ALL kids tease their brothers that may never go away .
Diane V39544.4872800926I agree, and my son use to stay up till all hours of the night after we went to bed, so i got to where i take his lightbulb out of his room, and unhook his cable from his tv so he has nothing to do but go to bed. one time we caught him getting up and getting on the computer. he was grounded for 2wks from everything. We haven't had a problem with it since. Every now and then he has trouble falling asleep, but generally by 10:30 he doses off on his own. Guess he gets bored. LOL