Oh maw4670,
Trying to find the right med is so hard. I am so tired of watching my son like a hawk to try and discern whether this medication or dosage is better or worse. When I see people comment that parents giving their kids pills are taking the easy way out, I want to puke!
My son has been on Strattera since the beginning of the school year. We switched to Strattera from Concerta because while Concerta had helped my son, he still had trouble concentrating and he was at 54 mg and his doctor was unwilling to go higher because my son is extremely underweight.
My son had a lot of stomach trouble before he got used to the Strattera. It took several months before he really got rid of that side affect. We switched to the split dose and that helped a lot and plan to keep it that way. Things were complicated by the fact that he got sick several times this school year. When they are on meds, anytime something happens, you always have a more complicated equation. Is it the meds? Or something else? His doctor chalked up the illnesses to starting middle school, and I think he is right. But I do think the Strattera seems to lower his threshold for feeling queezy. But we have reached the point where now, when he is not sick he has no side affects.
We really like Strattera because we don't have to deal with the sleep problems stimulants bring. We always managed these problems by keeping a strict sleep schedule and using melatonin on occasion. But my son is 12 now so it is harder to keep it so strict. He doesn't want to get up at 7 oclock on the weekends anymore. It also gives us more flexibility. With Concerta, we really had to give it early morning to make sure he didn't have sleep problems. Now, we give the Strattera anywhere between 7 and 9 am on the weekends, and we are fine. Strattera has some appetite suppression, but it seems to be less than the stimulants and that is very important to us. I really like the 24 hour coverage, especially as my son gets older. I like that it will be in his system in the evening when he will eventually be driving and hopefully it will help him make good decisions and stay out of trouble.
Strattera has helped my son focus at school and made our lives better. It isn't perfect- it seems to help my son about as much as the Concerta did. We have tried adding a small dose of Daytrana with it to get his concentration where we want it to be without sucess- the combo totally killed his appetite. So while we haven't had the luck some people have with meds, it has definitely made things better for us.
For my son, the side effects slowly got better over a period of about two months. I would definitely give Strattera a good 6 weeks before I made a decision on it. I would split the dose if you are having stomach issues. I would also always take it with food. We started Strattera about a month before school started so that he could deal with the side affects before school started. If it is really giving your son a lot of trouble now, you might consider starting it in the summer.
Sometimes you feel like you are between a rock and a hard place as far as adhd meds are concerned. Trying to make things better without making something else totally worse! Strattera may not be for everyone, but we are very glad we gave it some extra time before quitting. It is helping us.
Okay for all of you experiencing success with strattera, does your child have hyperactivity? or just inattentive ADHD? I have one child w/ ADHHHHHHHHHHHD and one w/ inattentive ADHD. The child w/ inattentive ADHD is so much easier to treat and I'm just wondering if the strattera works on the hyper/impulsive behaviors?
Thanks!
I HAS helped for us, BUT 2 things, my daughters MAIN issue is inattentiveness. It has helped with the blurting things out, the annoying behaviors of poking and being "handsy" that come along with the impulsiveness, also pretty much eliminated her fidgeting. HOWEVER she is also 13 almost 14 and has outgrown some of this and she was never really the jumping off the furniture kind of kid.
But the short answer is yes for us.
I got a chuckle out of the term handsy! My dd is extremely handsy but also the jump off the furniture type child too when not on stimulants. I remember when she was 3 & 4 years old and not diagnosed yet I would always wonder, why does she have to touch everything! Now I know.
Thanks for the info!
DD did well on Strat, it was ramped properly from 10mgs up, and she had no side effects. We did give it at night for a while, then split the dose, but it worked well overall. We only stopped it due to appetite increase, and marked weight gain, she could not afford to gain the weight.My son began Straterra last school year during spring break. The first day I gave it to him, it made him very sleepy and lethargic. We ramped up and I do not remember the first dose but I switched to giving him at night and that was the trick. I have a son who can focus, do well in school and looks forward to getting tasks done on time. He has now been on it for one year and we have seen nothing but positives from taking it.
Ok anyone have postives of there kids being on this? Side effect lasting only