Should I increase his dose? | ADHD Information

Hi, and welcome to the boards! Just a question...is the tutor at the end of the day, when the medicine could be wearing off? If so, maybe a bump up would be better, rather than an increase in the overall dosage....just a thought. I am of the opinion that when you decide to medicate, moderation is the best approach initially. But. just remember, if you decide to try the 15 mg. and he seems overmedicated, you can stop it. It's all trial and error and unfortunately you may have some bad experiences along the way. Just always remember that YOU know your son best, and if something doesn't feel right, then it probably isn't!  Good luck on your journey and I hope you continue to be helped by the boards.

Kathleen051540382.9155208333

I agree that if the 15mg is too much you can stop it immediately.  That's the good thing about stimulants!  Also, increasing the dose may reduce his appetite but it should come back like it did before.  Increasing the dose for my son has never really had an effect on his appetite (no worse than it already was on the meds) and his appetite came almost completely back after about 6 mo. 

But when you mention that his personality has changed a bit it makes me wonder if Adderall is the right med for him.  Adderall did that to my son and as we increased the dose (which he needed for the hyperactivity) his personality got futher from the true "him".  We switched to Ritalin and we haven't had that problem again!  Good luck! I hope it works out for you no matter what you decide!

Thank you for the encouraging words and advice.  I love that we have a community where we belong.  I can't talk about this stuff with my closest girlfriends because they do not understand. 

Well I am pleased as punch today.  I gave him the 15 mg this morning and he has been wonderful all day.  Ate about the same for lunch.  He actually swam today, has been talking at a normal level and I noticed his body movement, hand wringing, is about gone.  I don't want to jinx myself because I know dinner and bedtime is still ahead of us, but so far I am very, very pleased. 

 That's great!  Hope it continues for you! Hello,

I am new posting to this site. I have been coming to the site for months silently and I have learned so much. Thank you.

My son (age 7) was diagnosed with ADHD last Dec. We long suspected it. He started 10 mg Adderall XR in Jan. We were lucky in that he responded as well as could be expected. We did get past the initial outbursts, he lost weight in the beginning, but that is better. He still does not eat the main entree of a lunch, but does have a decent appetite in the evenings.

Now to my question- My son is seeing a tutor once a week to keep things fresh. I, of course, am doing my part at home too. The tutor is a 1st gr. teacher at his school with 20+ yrs. experience. This teacher is loved by all parents and has a great reputation. My son had a different 1st gr. teacher. At the last tutoring session this teacher told me that my son is still real fidgity and could focus more. She has seen kids on meds that are much more still and able to pay better attention. She thinks his dose needs to be increased.

At first I was really put off by this. I know this is not her place to tell me, but she does have way more experience at seeing how a child should act when properly medicated. I spoke with my son's ped. who said I could give 15 mg a try. Especially since it is summer and this is the best time to do it.

I have not done this yet because I just don't want to over-medicate him. Should I just try it? Am I making too much of this? I don't want to supress his appetite any further, expecially since he lost weight the first 4 months on the meds. He has picked up slight tics (we think). He doesn't blink hard or excessively blink, but when he's talking to you he will close his eyes for a couple seconds like trying to think of the next thing to say. We are not sure if this is a true tic or not. His personality has changed a bit too. For example, he loves swimming and would spend time just exploring underwater. When not medicated he will do annoying things in the pool, like bob up and down and slap his hands on top of the water. You can tell that his mind is all over the place. This is not a good quality of life to me. On 10 mg he will not swim and sit by the side of the pool with me to talk. We have good conversations. He is very into talking about inventing spacecrafts, boats, etc... He is very science-y. This almost makes me sad though as I wonder why he is not in the pool with the other kids having fun.

Sorry for the long winded post. Just wanted to give you a good background history. Should I just increase to 15 mg to try it out or stick with the 10 mg since it is obviously doing something for him. I want the meds to work to their full potential, but I also want him to eat, have fun and be a little boy.

Also, his schoolwork did improve on the 10 mg ( not a miracle by any means), but the teacher did see improvement across the board.

Thank you!