guanfacine/benadryl? | ADHD Information

My child takes guanfacine and Allegra together on a regular basis, and he occasionally takes Benadryl as well if there's a particularly bad allergy flare-up.  HTHDoes anyone know if you can take benadryl while taking guanfacine? The
package insert states that there could be an interaction from too much
sedation but dd's psychiatrist told me that it would be okay.

Thanks in advance!

My child's appetite went up with the guanfacine.  Before it, he ate no lunch due to the stimulant.  After starting guanfacine, he ate a small lunch.

Thanks- I have seen a big difference between a total of 1 mg per day vs.
1.5mg per day. That .5mg really gave more control of
hyperactivity/impulsivity and allowed us to greatly reduce her stimulant. I
would like to get her up to 2mg per day spilt between 2 doses. I feel like
we would see more benefits. She just seems tired and a little out of it
whenever we increase the dose. Have you guys noticed any weight gain
from the guanfacine? At the higher dose my dd was putting on weight
quick which was okay to a point. I just don't want her to go in the wrong
direction. At this point she doesn't need to gain too much weight. She is
close to 5 feet tall and weighs 87 pounds. I was wondering if the
guanfacine might even cause water retention???

Thanks!

Thanks!Thanks to both of you for the responses re: guanfacine. I also notice that
the guanfacine helps with the anxiety that the stimulants bring on. I know
my dd needs more guanfacine than .5mg 2x per day. For most of the
summer I had her on .5mg 3x per day with 27mg of concerta. I really liked
the effect on her personality but it was not enough effect on focus and
motivation. I tryed giving her a full 1 mg in the early evening but it seemed
like too much at one time, but as soon as camp is over we are going to try
increasing the guanfacine again. What time do you give your evening dose?
We've been doing late afternoon/early evening for afternoon coverage but
maybe bedtime would be better.

Thanks!!!The first dose, we do first thing in the AM whenever she happens to get up (if varies greatly this summer).    The 2nd dose we do in the evenings anywhere between 8:30-11.  It kind of depends on what we are doing that evening or when we remember to give it.

It does take a little while to adjust to an increased dosage.  When we upped her to 1 mg x2 day,  she was a little tired with the AM dosages but adjusted after a week or two and have been fine.
My daughter takes 1 mg guanfacine x2 day with 27 mg of Concerata.    Adding the guanfacine has helped with tics and the evening bouncing off the walls.   It has also helped anxiety as well.   In general, she is much more even keel.    For us the combination works really well.

My child had been taking 1 mg guanfacine 2x/day and a long-acting stimulant in the morning (he's on Metadate CD 60 mg).  We started the guanfacine to help w/ the stimulant wearing off in the evening.  We got the "bonus" effect of its helping his anxiety.  However, it stopped helping as much in the evenings as it used to do, so we phased him off the PM dose of the guanfacine.  Since doing that, we now see that it helped control the impulsivity and hyperactivity more than we had thought, but not enough to warrant continuing the medication.  Also, his anxiety has increased enormously since we phased out the PM guanfacine dose.  Dr. agrees that it's better to put him on an SSRI to deal w/ the anxiety than re-introduce the guanfacine, which wasn't fully controlling it.  So, he's now taking Zoloft.  He started it a couple of weeks ago, so I can't say much about it yet.  I can tell you the daytime anxiety is MUCH better.  Nighttime has remained the same, but dr. says that it's too soon to judge it.  Getting back to the guanfacine, I'd like to try eliminating the AM dose and seeing what happens.  However, we need to get the Zoloft figured out before we change anything else.

I should add he also gets a little over 1000 mg of Omegas per day.  I've seen that helps settle him down some, and school noticed better concentration a few weeks after we started it (I didn't tell them anything.  The teacher asked if I'd changed anything).

Mom2ADHDboy39650.6259375Thanks that really does help! Does your child take guanfacine with a
stimulant? If so, which stimulant? What benefits do you see from the
guanfacine? We started guanfacine in April and while I see that it does help
with impulsivity and hyperactivity, I am still trying to figure out best combo
for when school starts in a month. We are giving her .5mg of guanfacine 2x
per day. I think we see better results with 3x per day but she is going to
sleepaway camp next week and I thought 3x per day was a lot for camp.
How do you dose the guanfacine?
Thanks so much!