aderall for my 9 year old | ADHD Information
Hi thanks for the replies,
Im not sure if he was mad the whole day, but he sure was when he cam home from school, Im hoping it works, because unfortunately we have tried mini m&m's even those he cannot swallow. He cries hysterically every time we tried to get him to swallow the pills. Im so upset about this whole thing, Would you be kind enough to tell me what high protein snacks would be good for him? I thought that the aderall was supposed to last alot longer than 3:00
thanks guys for your advise
My son has just started to take 5mg of aderall 1x daily
today was his first day he went to school came home in the afternoon 3:00 & he was very mad. He was fresh & kept answering me back, on & off till he went to bed. when I had asked him why was he so mad today he said I dont know.
Im so afraid now did we do the right thing for him by giving him these meds, is this normal behavior, will this happen on a daily basis, does anyone know if there is something else he should be taking when this happens.
does it take 4 days to see anything diffrence? maybe today was just a coincidence, please anyone that has any info, please email thanks alot
p.s. he cannot take pills
Give it a few days. Unfortunately with ADHD meds you may have to try a couple of different meds to find the one that works for him. Not every medicine works for every child and you just have to tough it out and keep with it to find the one that works for him. Also, sometimes it can take a few days for the medicine to really work the way it is supposed to.
Heck our daughter was on 4 different meds until we found the one that worked for her.
You may want to work with him to try to get him to swallow pills though. Our doctor had us try tic-tacs. It actually worked. We just gave her a tic-tac and some water and practiced a couple times a day until she could swallow it.
I hope this helps a little! Good luck and keep your chin up!
Same thing happened today at 3:00 he came home from school & was just very angry again, I told his doctor & he says to give it a few days, Im thinking that the meds is probably starting to wear off at that time everyday. He thinks that he might prescribe another dose of the meds to continue where the morning dose is leaving off, has anyone ever done this? thx guysyup, lots of people do that, it worksI have never had to deal with 2 doses of meds a day so I don't know anything about it and I'm curious if he gets angry when the 1st dose wears off isn't he going to be angry when the 2nd dose wears off?for us there is less "rebound" with the short acting meds than with the longer acting, so no, we did not see rebound when we added the pm dose. Plus you are generally just giving a very low dose of short acting med.
Do you know if he felt that way all day or just when he got home?
It could be rebound. This is the body's reaction as the meds "leave their system". Some people experience it some dont/ Some get moody, some more hyper some extra silly. There are some ways to deal with it, usually excercise and/or high protein snacks can help. Others cannot tolerate rebound and have to switch meds.
I agree to give it some time (2 weeks if you can) and work on the pill swallowing it gives you so many more options. You may not need options though, it may just take some time for his body to adjust to the meds.
good protein snack suggestions are anything with nuts? Maybe a peanut butter sandwich? Cheese? Yogurt? The sell all kinds of protein bars? Some one on this board once posted that she bought her child Wendys chicken nuggets after school every day! We use carnation instant breakfast milkshakes for high protein a LOT. That gets osme calories in there too. Celery with Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter crackers, cheese crackers, hard-boiled eggs are all filled with lots of protein. You could also talk to your doctor or a nutritionist.We tried aderall also because my son could not swallow a pill and he had the same type of behaviors. After 1 week our dr switched us to Focalin XR and everything has been great since. After a couple of months of the meds I started taking the empty focalin capsule and having my son try to swallow it. After 6 0r 7 tries he was able to start swallowing pills. By the time the 2nd dose wears off he will be sleeping, or so they say we are so confused, dont know what to doThank you for the information. It is good to know this is an option. IFF THE ADDERAL IS TOO STRONG, WE TAKE VYVANSE 30 MG AND YOU CAN OPEN THE CAPSULE AND PUT INTO FOOD OR WATER IS BEST. NOW MY SON GETS HIS MEDS AND HAS ADDED 1 MORE HE HAS TO SWALLOW AND IT IS SMALLL....OR YOU CAN HIDE IT.Jaqci, keep hangin' in there! when I started on Adderall, its side effects (including how I felt when it was wearing off (aka reboud)) changed over the course of weeks (for the rebound) and months (before my appetite and "feeling tired" at bedtime came back). For me, the regular adderall's effect only lasts 4 hours--that's when the rebound hits. And when I started taking it, rebound did cause me to be cross and very impatient. At least I had a clue what was goin' on, and that helped me get through it and get over it (as in thinking "Whoa! this stuff is really blowing my reactions out of proportion...better try to ride this out!). I imagine when rebound exacerbates anxiety, impatience and annoyance, it's a lot harder on kids than on adults. Kids don't have full knowledge (and can't expect them to, really) about such side effects--they just think life is just as crappy as they are experiencing it at that moment! Maybe your doctor has a good way of explaining it to your son without laboring over unnecessary detail. Oh, and just to punctuate that meds affect all folks differently, I found that when taking the long acting Adderall "rebound" was much milder, much smoother.Just a couple of other tips to help to teach him to swallow meds.
Does he chew Jello or Yogurt or just swallow it? If he just swallows either one of these try putting the pill inside a spoonful and have him swallow it that way.
Have you tried taking a pill with him? Maybe take a tylenol and show him how you swallow it?
Have him try putting water in his mouth, tipping his head all the way back, dropping the pill in, take another drink of water and swallowing.
Just a few things we have tried or seen other people use and they worked.
As far as meds...our daughter had to take 2 pills a day before and the let down wasn't as hard when the second pill wore off. But all kids are different. Our DD is on Concerta, which is a long-acting med and we don't see any rebound affect at all. It just depends on your child. Give it the 2 weeks but if the behavior keeps getting worse you may want to call your dr.