Is this med related or normal 6yo ’tude?? | ADHD Information

You mention in your signature that he also takes meds for asthma and allergies. Could the ADHD meds and these other meds be reacting together in some way?

Also, how long as he been on Clonidine? I ask because we tried Tenex with my son and it was horrible! It made his anxiety and anger worse and actually caused his sleep patterns to become worse, not better.

It also sounds like he could be experiencing some rebound in the later afternoons at home. A short-acting stimulant might help here. Have you tried any other ADHD meds? Another one might give him less rebound.

Another thing to consider is a mood stabilizer like Trileptal and/or an anti-depressant to help with anger management and anxiety.

He could be worse at home because he has been trying to hold it together all day at school and then explodes once he is home.
My 6yo has always been very verbal, bright and highly pretentious. As he's gotten older, I've noticed a huge increase in his attitude and bad behaviors. I'm not sure if it's ADD related or not, but I have noticed that since he started the meds in early December (which have been working AWESOMELY during the day, btw!) his attitude and anxiousness has worsened SIGNIFICANTLY in the early AMs (before meds) and afternoons after school.

Some examples:
1. he has a very sensitive gag reflex and he's refusing to take all meds unless they are liquid. When I can get a pill in him or even the Vyvanse powder in pudding or something, he screams holy hell like I'm killing him and it's a good 20-30min fight get him to take his meds. Even then he'll gag and throw up about half of the time. He didn't start doing this up until about a week or so ago.

2. when he gets mad... HE GETS MAD!! He'll stomp his feet, hit things (the wall, the pillows, etc....) He will start screaming at the simplest of demands that are placed on him ("Come eat dinner" to which half the time I get NOOOOO I DON'T WANT TO EAT....) This usually happens with when he's being punished or anything of that nature. To make it worse, when he screams, he gets my other son going (who is autistic and doesn't like to see anyone else punished or yelled at). My son will make growling noises and makes fists and stomps around.

3. he seems very anxious (in the early AMs, afternoons & evenings....) he picks at his fingers and bites his nails all the time. His cute little soft hands are looking ragged and hard and picked at. He also bites at his lip a lot. I'm not sure if these behaviors are just since starting the meds or not.... I seem to remember him doing this PRIOR to the meds but it's gotten worse now.


I had a LONG talk with him yesterday morning and explain that the anger/temper thing scares me... A LOT. I told him that if he doesn't learn how to control his anger/temper that as he gets older, he might progress into hitting/kicking people when he's mad and that could get him in serious trouble, both at school and at home. Although, he's only like this at home. He doesn't get like this with anybody else except his Dad and I.

Any suggestions?? To me it almost seems as though he needs something in the afternoons to get him through til bedtime. And the mornings aren't that bad, although it can be a miserable 45mins before he gets on the bus if he doesn't listen and behave while his medicine is taking affect.
I wanted to add that most of the behaviors that are concerning me, started long before the meds. They just seem to be worsened now.... I don't think they are present BECAUSE of the meds but the severity of them I think is partially due to the meds.  "My 6yo has always been very verbal, bright and highly pretentious."......My son, who is 24 now and diagnosed with Adhd at 5 showed everything that you described. He still has major issues with the gag reflex. Eventually he grew out of the overt temper tantrums but he is still capable of them only now he argues vociferously instead. He's extremely verbal too, as you described and extremely anxious especially about change. Any change to his living environment will cause him to drop out of his college classes. These changes ma seem normal and minor to most people but to him they are disasterous. He also has a great deal of difficulty throwing or putting things away that he no longer uses. That of course drives us crazy. It's hoarding of the worst kind. Every once in a while we pressure him to declutter some of it, but I haven't been too successful. I must say, he is a good driver. He lives nearby on his own, with help from us. He is in the process of transfering to a 4 year college. He has a couple of friends. He attends science fiction conferences with his buddies, stays in hotels, etc. So he has a measure of independence and we continue to see some maturity. My son is also 6 with ADHD and was put on Vyvance for 3 months.  We noticed severe changes in behavior right off the back which almost seemed as if there were more issues to deal with other than just ADHD.  Come to find out, after visiting with our child's psyciatrist, Vyvance was bringing out all of the behavioral issues which included excessive fits, anger, anxiety, etc.  We switched to Focalin which has made a huge improvement.  He has gotten his personality back and is back to his happy self.  Although its never perfect, getting off the Vyvance at least for our son did wonders.  We were told Vyvance is great for kids over the age of 9 and for adults but it was not good for younger kids.  Might be worth checking into to see if the Vyvance is causing some of those issues.  Best of luck.

I feel for you and wanted to give you a .  I too am going through the same with my 6 yr old son with the lip biting and the nail biting/ finger picking.  He was on Vyvanse and it made his stomach feel absolutly terrible all day till bedtime.  He lost 8 lbs. in one month (he has only gained 3 lbs in 3 years and for him to lose weight in only a month makes him look emaciated).

We switched to Adderall XR 2 months ago but he just started in the last 3 weeks to bite his lip and now recently he throws a crying fit at the littlest thing.  I had to pick him up from school early yesterday because he scratched his arm up and he was clawing at his chest. I have a dr.'s appt. to change his meds a 3rd time.

I think you should talk to his dr. about his behavior. It just might be his medicine.  Hang in there.

We found alot of that behavior on the 30mg vyvanse. It might be the meds. We recently switched to Concerta18mg which is holding it's own during school. It does nothing in the am or pm, but seems to be working at school.  son,DS, was throwing fits, talking dark, just something wasn't right. that's when we made the switch.oddly enough, those behaviors seem to have gone away!

I think it was because he was feeling slightly off due to having a minor cold and he wasn't feeling 100%. Now that he's feeling back to normal, his behavior is a LOT easier to manage and he doesn't let himself get so out of control.

I will definitely keep tabs on this though to make sure it doesn't escalate again and I will be letting the doctor know in April about the behaviors we had experienced.