I chose to take my son off all his medications and we have just started week four of no medication and he is doing WONDERFUL!! Every now and then he has problems paying attention but I stay in touch with his teacher everyday and she told me last week that he is doing so good without the medication and she is now getting to see his personality and she said he is great! As long as he keeps doing well at school, I will NOT be putting him back on medication. Two years ago, we wouldnt be able to function without it but now is a different story. He always had dark circles under his eyes and started developing ticks and I would rather deal with my son WITHOUT medication than to see what it does to him.
Housej,
my daughter is now 8 and, since when decreased her concerta she stopped pulling out her eyelashes. One very strange thing, in December I ran out of her 18 mg pills and couldn't get anymore for 2 days. At the same time she was having some trouble focussing in class and completing her work, so I thought I would try her on the 27 mg tablets for a few days. I gave them to her 2 days in a row, and she pulled a bunch of eyelashes out on one eye (but not all of them). I quickly changed the meds back to 18 and no more pulling. It was that clear of a correlation!! so, for her we need to under medicate a little inorder to avoid the side effects, but we can live with it. At the moment I give her 18 mg concerta and a little boost of 5 mg ritalin in the morning, and with that she is fine.
One thing I would suggest is don't make a big deal about the eyelashes, the more you talk about it the more they think about it and want to do it. My daughter really did not seem to be stressed/anxious either. She also said she did it because it felt good, or her eys itched - like cracking their knuckles etc. But, try not to let anyone talk about it in front of her, you don't want her to be self conscious of it, but I would talk to her docter about it privately.
Thank you Im going to just go back down to her regular dose of 5mg in morning and 5mg in afternoon. Its really nice to have a place to turn to w/ others like my daughter. I will be sure to make sure no one makes it a big deal.
My daughter who is 8 has been on focalin 5mg since 5 and about a week ago we upped it to 10mg. Yesterday after school I noticed she had pulled all her upper eyelashes out. Im convinced that it is her meds. She has not expressed to me any stress or others teasing her at school. She did say she pulled them out b/c she was bored and it feels good. She said she wont do it anymore but Im not sure that she wont and Im not sure everything is as she says it is at school. She hardly has any friends come over and is rarley invited anywhere. Maybe its a combo of the meds and anxiety of having friends. Its nice to know Im not the only one dealing w this. How can I get her to open up more?My son is 7 years old and takes concerta. When he began the medication I also noticed that around the 3rd month he had bald spots on his head. He had been twisting and pulling his hair out to the point that it was bald. He aready had a crew cut, but the doctor told us to cut it shorter.thankfully the hair grew back and he does not seem to be doing it anymore. It is very alarming when it first happens and then everytime you look at him you just want to cry.my 6 yo dd is currently on 27 mg concerta, she has been on this since the start of the school year (Feb. here), and it is working extremely well for us. Behaviour and academic work is great at school and we are all so happy. However, a few months ago she started pulling out all her eyelashes. Once they were gone I hoped that the habit would be broken by the time they grew back. Over the next few months they grew back until last week, just as they were starting to look good, she pulled them all out again.
I am trying to down play this with her, I don't want to cause anxiety if none is there. She doesn't seem stressed, seems happy at school etc.
I saw in another post that pulling eyelashes/eyebrows is a little like a tic, and could be a side effect of concerta. Does anyone know anything about this?
I kind of want to ignore it for a while as I know it is not that uncommon and certainly some thing we can live with, however I am wondering if reducing the concerta a little might help.
I would be gratefull for any insight.
Aussie Mum40424.0096412037This is my first time to post. My son is 7years old and he was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 5. I knew he had it when he was 3 years old but the doctors wouldnt test him because they said there was a chance he could grow out of it. To make a long story kind of short, he had to be put on medication after seeing the schools behavioral specialist and she referred us to the doctor. He was taking focalin and was on the 15mg from kindergarden to now, which is 2nd grade. I didnt give it to him in the summer because I dont feel like he needs the medication. When we started 2nd grade he started back on his medication and to me, it didnt seems to work as well as years before so I called his doctor and asked to switch. I should also mention that my son is already a sensitive person by nature and being on the focalin only made it worse. He got upset very easily and cried sometimes for no reason and about a year after being on it, he developed dark circles under his eyes so that was some of the reasons why I wanted to change his medication. His doctor changed him to concerta on the medium dose and he's only been on it for two days. A week or so ago, I kept looking at my son because something looked different about him but I couldnt put my finger on it until last night. I realized my son has pulled out all his eyelashes on both of his top eyelids. I must say my son used to have the most gorgeous lashes and they were so long that sometimes when he blinked they would get tangled together. When I asked him why he pulled out his lashes he started sobbing and crying. I told him he had done nothing wrong and was not in trouble. I just wanted to know why. Then I started doing research and reading and came upon all these post of you parents who are going through the same thing and it breaks my heart to read all this because I dont want my son to be this way and I know its his medication. I called his doctor and she said to take him off the medication for about a week and see how he does. I hate giving my son medication!!! Unfortunatly giving him medication helps him focus very well and pay attention and he can complete his work, but I hate the side effects. Without medication, he struggles and cant complete his work and it affects his grades. I would rather not give my son medication and do everything possible to help him in school than see the person he has become on his medication. I am going to do research on foods he should not eat and look into herbal medicines for him. On top of having ADHD, my son has bad breathing problems. He had his tonsils and adnoids taken out over two years ago and he is still having difficulty breathing out of his nose. He was also diagnosed with migraines last year, but I still dont think it was migraines.thanks heatherr1, we have an appointment in 2 weeks, in the mean time I am decreasing medication to 18 mg and hopefully that will be enough to reduce anxiety. does your daughter take another med now?She is taking Luvox CR for her anxiety/OCD and it has really helped. She just started this about a month ago, and she will probably go up a dose or two before she is where she needs to be. After she is stable on Luvox we *may* try to add a small stim dose to see if she can hold steady on it.
She was on Zoloft for about two years for her anxiety/OCD combined with various types of stims, Vyvanse for the longest. We just could never find a stim to work with the Zoloft, still had skin picking. We put her on Intuniv for about 6mths, but I didn't see any improvement, and actually saw some more irritability and attitude on it. She is a happier kid off of it. We have not tried Strattera and probably won't.
When she was diagnosed, her diagnosis was ADD with GAD related to the ADD. The behavioral psych who did her testing felt that her GAD would improve once she was on ADD meds to keep the ADD under control. But, that wasn't the case. She actually had anxiety unrelated to the ADD, and the stim made it worse right off of the bat. If I had to do over, I would get the anxiety/OCD under control, and then add in the ADD med. That is kind of what we are doing now.
Hope this helps, sorry so long!! Good luck!
Heather
I have reduced my daughter's medication slightly this week and her behaviour and school work has not suffered at all. I might try to go down a little more next week.
Kaibasparents, I don't think any of us ever wants to put our child on medication, however for us, I really don't know where we would be without it. My gifted, beautifull, full of energy little girl was suspeded 3 times in kindergarten. She COULD NOT sit still and do her work, and the horrible teacher would punish her and make a big deal of it, make her do the simple boring work, even though I told her she was bored, etc. When I eventually came to the decision to medicate everything changed. Unfortunaely it was too late for that school, her reputation was ruined by the terrible teacher, and we have changed schools to a private school. She is now 3/4 of the way through the school year without a single incident, in the highest reading and math group, excelling in every area. Without meds my only option would be home school. My daughter was miserable without meds because she was always in trouble!
I have talked to so many people that have said they pulled their eyelashes out as a kid. I think it is quite common, someone said it is basically the same as biting your nails. Actually, both my boys went through a nail biting phase in first grade so maybe it is something about the process they go through in first grade?
Kaibasparents, if your son has had large adenoids, did he have problems with his ears? My twin DS's both had large adenoids which caused fluid in the ear/hearing problems which makes it very hard to pay attention. My boys both had their adenoids out TWICE. They can grow back so if he is still having problems breathing from his nose have the adenoids checked again. If he is not sleeping well due to breathing problems, or is having trouble hearing, or both, these both can cause the same symptoms as ADHD.
I have talked with many parents and have not heard of pulling eyelashes out as a common occurance. And actually, nail biting can be a anxiety/OCD tendency. I do not want to sound like an alarmist, just want to be sure your doc knows what is going on. If stims are causing this issue, it is best to figure it out as soon as possible.
Good luck!
thanks Heather,
I will definately talk to the doctor.
Thank you for the advise. I also feel that my son will have to be on medication. I dont think he can function in school without it. When he was in kindergarten he was sent to the principals office three times..so I know how you feel. The school nurse called me today because my son had a vocabulary test today and his teacher said in the middle of the test he started crying.. a lot! The teacher was worried and sent him to the nurse and she called me. I was able to speak to my son and asked him if he was ok and he replied "I cant do it..its to much for me". I talked to him for a bit and by the end of our call he was a lot better. For now, my husband and I have decided to keep him off all medication for a week to get all the focalin out of his system. If he is still having difficulty at school, we will restart the concerta. He was only on concerta two days when we took him off all medication so I dont think we really got to see what it could do for him. The nurse explained to me that she feels that he got overwhelmed during the test and just broke down and started to cry. We are hoping that we can just start him on a low dose and it will be enough to help him at school and have very little side effects. As with most mothers, this is breaking my heart. I feel like I cant help him and that makes me feel even worse. I must say though that his teacher and the schoool nurse have been ABSOLUTLY WONDERFUL through all this. The nurse talked to the school councelor for me and the councelor is going to talk to his teacher to see how she can help him with this transition of coming off his medication. I know we have to take this a day at a time but I am hoping that after a few days, he will be better and able to control himself. But I know the real truth is that he is going to need help, medication wise, and I am absolutly ok with that. I only want the best for him!!
Also to answer your question, yes he had thick fluid in his ears that was causing him to have a hearing loss. We had adnoids out, tonsils out, and tubes in his ears when he was 5. The doctor told us on his last check up that the tubes have come out. I really feel he needs to go back to his ENT doctor to get his adnoids checked out again.
Thank you all for your advise and just for listening. It really helps knowing someone else is going through the same thing and makes me feel..not so alone.
Sometimes stimulants can up anxiety. My daughter started skin picking on stimulants, and was eventually diagnosed with OCD. She can not take a stimulant now. I would talk to you doc.Well, we have spent much of the last three months doing neurofeedback to treat the adhd. We went 5 days per week for 4 weeks of our summer holidays and have gone 1-2 times per week since being back in school. I have been able to decrease my daughter's meds down to only 10 mg Ritalin per day (5 in the morning and 5 mg at lunch time at school). This is completely amazing for a child that was so out of control before being medicated.
The real test will be when we complete the neurofeedback treatment and stop going, will the results last?
At this point my daughter is no longer pulling eyelashes, however in the past she had pulled them all out, then it took several months to grow long enough to pull again. Right now they have only been long enough to pull for a few weeks so I will wait and see. She is a happier girl overall though, more positive and calmer in general.
I would highly recommend giving neurofeedback a try for anyone that is having trouble with side effects of medication.
[QUOTE=bellas]My son is 8 and on 18mg concerta. He is also pulling his eyelashes. The eye doctor told us to use warm water and baby shampoo ( no more tears ) on his eyes. We wash them every day and he has stopped pulling them. If we miss a few days he starts back up. I guess the meds can cause a build up on the lashes that is not visable to the eyes. I hope this helps.[/QUOTE]
How long was it before the onset of this behavior, the pulling out of eyelashes? Any idea how long on the Concerta before the build up on the eyelashes (if that is the cause)?
I just started taking Concerta about a week ago. I'm a grown adult, though, so I don't know if it would lead to the same behavior, but I'd like an idea of what to look for...and when.
Thanks.
He was on the meds for about 2 months. He is now off the Concerta and we he has stopped pulling his eyelashes out. The doctors said to wash his eyes with baby shampoo every day to clean them. It seemed to help a little but not much.I asked my doctor about the build up on eye lashes and he didn't think that was the reason. He said that concerta can cause anxiety, or make it worse where it existed. It might also make tics worse. The eyelash pulling could be due to anxiety or a tic. I found my daughter was a bit "down" while on concerta, however it was not as bad as being labled "bad", being suspended from kindergarten 3 times, having other mothers tell their daughters they were not allowed to play with her etc. We had to change schools and start fresh, with medication. Medication saved her and our family, I hate to say it but the eyelash pulling was a small price to pay while we got everything else under control.
She is 7 now, just started year 2. I want to take her back to her old school and "show her off" to everyone. I knew she was an amazing child when no one else believed in her. She is top of the class academically and extremely well behaved, and she has lots of friends. Most importantly she is happy! We will keep going with neurofeedback and the small amounts of Ritalin because it is working for us. 18 months ago there was NO light at the end of the tunnel and now the change is amazing! There is hope, just keep trying.