My 7 year old son takes Vyvanse 20 mg. At first I thought it was great, but now, after over a month, I don't think it is the best for him. He gets very emotional as it is wearing off and then later on in the evening silly and hyper. Also, lately he said his hands feel numb. This seems to be mostly when he first wakes up, so I was thinking they just fell asleep because he was sleeping on them, but he says during the day sometimes too. I'll have to watch for this more closely. I don't know if this is a side effect or not.
His teacher says he is okay during the day, a few emotional times on and off, but he's starting to ask her for help when he needs it (or so she says). I've noticed the past two weekends, when he is with us during the day, he cries and gets mad and very anxious. He wants to be home and play and he doesn't want to go anywhere. Even if we go out to lunch, which would seem like a fun thing to do for a child, he says we are wasting time - he wants to go home.
so, unfortunately, this medicine isn't working either. This is our fourth. How many different ones have people tried until they find one that works for them? Is there anyone who can't find any medicine to help? Maybe I need to look into other alternatives.
Kathy
My son (also 7years old) has been on Vyvanse sinceMy understaing about Vyvanse is that the medication makes you not sleepy?? My son who just turned 8 is on 20ml. I only give him 1/2 the capsule and mix it in smoothies for him. I do not think at this time I do not want him know he is on meds.
In my parenting opinion @ 11 yrs old the child should understand that you cannot break a window to get in the house and if it is time to come in at a certain time set - then it is time to come in. I too have the same problem on what behavior is ADHD or just plain "boys will be boys" mis-behavior. I always considered Chris to be this way until he teachers thought he may have some issue because of him not following rules and school work. At the same time -I barely discilplined Chris on alot of his mis-behavior when he was growing up; i definitly play a major part in this.
I will keep my son on 1/2 the medication for atleast 3weeks.
All stimulants can cause sleep problems. Those with ADHD fully understand rules. They don't have perception problems but what needs to be understood is that the child is acting on impulse. The child is not making a choice to misbehave. They don't misunderstand the rules, they forget the rules because they are in the moment. You cannot punish or discipline ADHD away and as long as people think ADHD is a behavior problem they will assume the child is willfully being disobedient or a boy is being a boy. Behavior becomes an issue because the child doesn't have the ability to make a choice in the absence of effective treatment. A boy being a boy doesn't send parents into a doctors office looking for a diagnosis. A true disorder impacts on the child's quality of life on a daily basis. That's the distinction between ADHD and a "boy being a boy".
Everyone responds differently to medication and what is good for one person isn't for another. Rebound is common with ADHD med's but there are solutions to eliminate rebound. ADHD med's should go in quietly and leave quietly. Speak to your doctor about the fact that your child may be rebounding on the med's. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right fit for the child where med's are concerned so its extremely important that you keep in close communication with the treating physician.
We moved from our apartment into a new apartment and my landlord is the same owner of both apartments. He commented that we were pretty rough on the apartment and hoped were weren't that hard on the new one. The old apartment had doorknob holes in the wall,in the bathroom and bedroom, where my son had forcefully pushed the doors in anger, the carpet is to be replaced because it was soiled. I have a hard time getting my son to eat at a table. the broken window doesn't help, and the blinds were broken with some missing vertical pieces. It left me feeling my son is hard on things on the inside and his quick responses to his own feelings of anger or frustration or even "fun" from throwing an object inside or running and being rough around the house, caused me more money than I can afford. He was throwing his tools, from fixing his skateboard, up to the balcony right where the glass sliding glass door was!! I tell him all the consequences of doing that type of stuff, but is it getting to him? will he ever stop and think? how will I know if he is on the right medicine? I give him his pill daily with a sense of sadness because there are days he won't eat!! I feel he's an 11 year old addict that takes his meds but they still just don't give the results I'm looking for.I feel he's an 11 year old addict that takes his meds but they still just don't give the results I'm looking for
Addict? It is really critical to get accurate information. The medication is not addictive when taken as prescribed and if was addictive regardless, so many adults with ADHD wouldn't often forget to take their med's. When your addicted, you don't forget. Those who abuse the med's and use them as street drugs have to crush and snort the med's or inject them. Totally different delivery system. There is so much bogus information and misinformation on the Internet so when we research information, we also need to consider the source of the information.
When effectiveness wears off the ADHD symptoms return and for most who take med's, they don't get sleepy when the med's wear off (this is the norm but there are exceptions) nor do the med's suppress energy while they are effective. The med's allow the child to focus so that they are not hyper and all over the map. Once the medication wears off they are unfocused again so the hyperness due to the return of the lack of focus and distractability . If the child is not stopping and thinking while on the meds then that means that that the medication isnt working and the parent needs to go back and reevaluate the med and the dose with the treating physician. As I mentioned in my last post, you cannot talk or punish a child out of ADHD behaviors in the absence of effective treatment because they are not even hearing most of what you say and when they do misbehave they are not making a choice to misbehave, they are in the moment.
Sounds like he needs his meds adjusted.my son is 11 and has been on vyvance for about 2 months and we stopped him on 50mg, because it seemed to help him the most. well, i think that once it wears off, in the evening, usually after school, he is worse. He forgets his keys at school, tries to get inside through our window, breaks the window. is that normal behavior or the adhd? he doesn't want to come in when its time and he isn't following the rules about how to behave after school. i want him to keep his phone on and inform me that he is outside, so in know where he is until i get home. he is home for about 2 hours, alone. i'm not sure if i'm expecting vyvance to work how it's supposed to. he is doing extremely well in school, but at night we have no sense of order and i am not being listened to. i talked to my advisor at the college i am attending, as well, she has a son that is 17 and knows about adhd, since he has it as well. she says in order for me to study, which right now is impossible because my son won't ever settle down, the medicine is supposed to just taper off, and he is supposed to get sleepy and get to bed, instead of the extra, pent up energy that the medicine has been surpressing all day, is coming out in the evening making it difficult to get him to bed early and to just be calm. ??????????
My son then 9 was on Vyvanse 30, the 50 and he was super asggressive and angry all the time. We finally pulled him off after 8 months or so. He also got small tics that got bigger when we upped it to 50. No more adderral products for us.