meds for sensory child | ADHD Information

My daughter, 5, has anxiety, adhd and sensory integration disorder. We are due to go to the pediatric neuro next week so we can talk about how the Strattera is working. Well, we are wrapping up our fourth week and so far she is a bit calmer, but no focus, and has started having tantrums, even after we backed down on the dose. Also lots of trouble sleeping. She woke up FIVE times last night, even w/ melatonin. I am exausted!

So, my question to all of you, what direction should we go in? Anyone have a sensory child whose meds have worked? Or at least sort of worked?

So far, we have been on Vyvanse (intense anger), Vyvanse plus Intuniv (still angry), Intuniv alone (sleepy and it didn't go away), Zoloft alone (crazy), Zoloft plus Concerta (crazy and angry), and now Zoloft plus Strattera (overtired, emotional). I was thinking of suggesting Tenex, and eventually adding a short-acting stim, neither of which we have tried.

We are also thinking about trying to find another doc, which is difficult as we are a few hours away from any city. I'm losing faith in ours. But then again I realize from these boards that finding the right med takes time.

So, what combo have your sensory children succeeded on? Is there hope?

I don't have the answer, but just wanted to say that the responses your dd had to the various meds are similar to my son's reactions with the same dx.

My ds is just doing Straterra (without Zoloft). When his dose was too high he had the same reactions you describe: tantrums, emotional crying jags, night terrors, bed wetting, and finally verbal tics.

The funny thing was that ds was doing fine on the lower dose during school, and I was the one who mentioned he was really wild after school so the ped thought he could up the dose. It took about three weeks to realize that the higher dose was too much. The side-effects came on so subtly that I just thought he was having a bad week (or two).

I hope that the good results he was having at school will show up again now that we have lowered the dose, but he is on winter break right now so we won't know until next week. I'll let you know, because when he first started on 25mg of Straterra he was doing really, really well at school. I'm hopeful that going back to that will be the answer.

BTW, the hyper side of things sort of stayed the same either way, but the impulses, focus, sensitivity, and defiance were much better on the 25mg and only got worse when we upped him to 35mg. I'm not a neuropsych, but just from this it seems to me that these sorts of meds do not work on the same principle as the stims. It could be that less is more for some kids.For a while Ritalin worked for my son as long as he was on Tenex help soothe the sensory stuff that was aggravated by the stimulant.  The problem came in when he got a little older and we needed to up the Ritalin dose.  He just didn't tolerate the higher dose of Ritalin.  It aggravated him too much so that's why we added Straterra instead of raising the Ritalin.Our DS is 7 has ADHD and also has sensory issues.  He is on the 30mg Daytrana patch and also takes 4mg Guanfacine (2 at night, 2 in the morning) which I think is similar to Tenex if I remembering reading about that before.  The Guanfacine "mellows" him out & helps him sleep at night, it also helps keep him calmer during the time that the patch is kicking in.  Is your son on any kind of sensory diet?  Our DS has a weighted blanket that he sleeps with & we use the brushing technique right before bedtime.  He has anxiety issues as well and would wake a couple of times during the night w/bad dreams, as soon as we starting brushing at bed & using the weighted blanket while sleeping...he started sleeping better!  It was amazing that just those two things could help him.  He also uses a weighted lap blanket along with his wiggle seat at school & they have helped him also.  Don't give up!