Hi clkasa
Try not to worry (i know, easier said than done) As Cindy said, your little chap is now seeing things differently, Maybe 10mg is too much could you maybe try 7.5mg. We found this with my little lad. On 10 mg he was so different moody, depressed, weepy. We dropped it to 7.5 and found a happy medium the school would have liked it at 10mg , but as i pointed out to them he is an 8yr little boy and we as the adults should be working a little harder it left them a little redfaced!!
As for his appetite i know where your coming from. we fill Dan up before and after meds we have even been known to give him a cooked meal at 10.30pm before bed!!!
Good Luck let us know how you go on and remeber we are always here!!
Donna
Thanks for some insight right now he is off the meds and looks so much better and is playing again and i'm going to take him back to the docter to see what can be dun.i know his school is not going to like it but right know i think this is what needs to be dun. thanksclkasa, my daughter has been the same way on ritilan. i am calling her dr. today to see what can be done. I know how you feel about the weight thing. My daughter is already thin for her height and age so it really concerns me that she hardly eats anything now until the meds wear off. i'll let you know what we switch her meds to and if it seems to work.Hi i remember when my son was five, and was on Ritalin, at first it worked great, but after a couple of months it just didn't do the trick, so it was changed, and has been changed many times in 5 and a half years. He's on 72mg. of concerta now. As for the weight i used to get upset because he is light for his age, but the Dr. always said he was fine, he did say to give him milk shakes, and carnation instant breakfast with whole milk whenever he wants, and this has worked He's gained almost five pounds,his goal is to be lbs, so he can play football next fall.
Thanks alot i would like that very much. is always been very thin and when he started to lose weight it got scary becuse you could see every bone in his body. he would not eat or even snack i would get all kinds of things he likes and nothing would work. he got to where he wasn't wanting to go out side and play or come out to even talk to us. and that bothers me. thanks for everyones help
If your doctor thinks that his weight is ok... then it probably is. If you are worried about it get a second opinion. As far as the changes in his personality, you have to keep in mind that he is seeing the world in a completly new prospective! Things that he never noticed before in his entire life... he is noticing now. My son went throught the exact same thing, and he has doing better than I could have ever expected now. Talk to your doctor, and again if you are still unsure... get a second opinion. hi my son is 6 yrs. old and has been on rytiln for 3 months and is taking 10 mgs now it started at 5 mgs and has went up to 10mgs twice a day. He started off doing really good no problems and now he dosen't like to be around anyone gets really upset over nothing. he started to lose alot a weight and was looking like skin and bones. because he had no appatite to eat or snack. he just is so diffrent from the little boy i know who had som much ambition to go do stuff and play. so when christmas break started i stoped using the drug and he is doing so much better but he still is very hyper. at the house it is fine but when he goes back to school i have to start him back on the drug because he can't do anything there he can't focus and is hard for the teacher to handle because he disrupts his class. i've talked to the doctor and he says his weight is fine and he is ok but he just seems diffrent when on the drugs. Thanks for listening hope someone has a sugestion.
My son is also 6 and had difficulty when he started on Ritalin last year. He was immediately moody, tearful, uninvolved and we made the decision to take him off after 10 days. I immediately felt like I had my child back and the psychiatrist agreed that it was the right decision. We started on 5 mg of Adderall XR 2 days before school started last September...it has been a godsend! His teacher describes him as "attentive, involved, social, and academically on target!" Our psychiatrist asked us to try a 10mg dose and within 3 days we, again, returned to the 5 mg dose.
I hope you have found another medication that works for you. Your description of your son's experience was EXACTLY my son's experience on Ritalin. Adderall XR has not been without its downfalls...my son is a peanut! He is 45 inches tall and weighs 40 pounds. He lost two pounds immediately when placed on Adderall but has maintained his weight of 40 ever since. Food is an area that we have struggled with continually. Right now we "graze" through the day. There are no absolutes when it comes to eating in our house..."meatballs for breakfast, ice cream with waffles...you get the picture. Evenings are often a struggle. The Adderall has worn off and I don't want to try an evening dose for fear he will not sleep at night. Does all this sound familiar to anyone else?
My son is 6 years old to. He started on Adderall xr 15mg about 2 months ago. Within a week we were calling the doctor to lower the dose to 10mg because it was like he lost his personality, spacey, and wouldn't hardly eat anything. Since we lowered the dose everything has been great so far. Except we do struggle in the morning and sometimes at night. (Before the Meds and when they wear off). But we can live with that! Not a big deal if we look back on how things were before medication. He definately doesn't eat as much as he used to but it has gotten a lot better, basically I let him eat whenever he's hungry as little or as much as he wants. This was hard for my husband and me to adjust to because we eat 3 regular meals but it's a small price. We still try to do the regular meals but they are smaller and with snacks inbetween. I bought a digital scale to monitor his weight a little better. My son is going through the same thing right now, but i cant change his meds..becasue we have a chewable and it is the only chewable.. he has lost weight and our PED said we needed to gain weight if not she would take him of the meds..so i have been giving him high fat high cal foods per her request..teh kid is loving it at 7pm every night he gets an icecream sundae and throught the day he drinks smoothies..More times than not, if the child is experiencing symptoms of getting over emotional, its usually because the dose is too high or its not the right med for that particular child.
Dcarsen......you mentioned that your son is taking a chewable so I thought you should be aware of this. If this applies to your son, please contact your doctor.
MedWatch - The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program
FDA and Alliant Pharmaceuticals notified healthcare professionals and
consumers of the voluntary recall of one lot of Methylphenidate HCl Chewable
Tablets, 5 mg strength,indicated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder and Narcolepsy. After testing and evaluation, Alliant found that
lot number #AMT50402A [expiration date April 2006] might contain up to three
times the active ingredient, and elected to recall the medication as it
could pose serious health risk for some patients.
Read the MedWatch 2005 safety summary, including links to the Firm Press
Release, at:
http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/SAFETY/2005/safety05.htm#Methyli n