My 12-year old daughter's been on Adderall XR for eight months now and I haven't seen any negative side effects. She has a little bit of a decreased appetite, but given her body type, that's not entirely a bad thing. She is still at a healthy weight and eats three meals a day. We started at 10mg in September and moved to 15 in January. Honestly, Adderall saved our relationship and I'm so glad we did it. Her school work has improved by leaps and bounds and although things are far from perfect, we're in a much better place than we were a year ago when she was diagnosed.
My son, who is 5 1/2 just started taking adderall for hyperactivity and ADHD. We had him tested and it confirmed what we and his kindergarten school suspected. He is extremely bright, but is hyperactive and has trouble with impulsive behavior.
The first week he took 5 mg of Adderall XR (time release) once a day and it had a little effect of calming him down. He had some trouble getting relaxed at bed time. The second week we upped it to 10 mg, once a day and it had a dramatic positive effect. His hperactivity is virtually gone and he started writing for long periods of time, where in the past he would avoid writing, (he started reading at 3, but his writing is way below his reading) and it was leaps ahead of where he was without the med's. Almost immediately, his teachers reported tremdous improvement in behavior. They asked what we did at home? Our pediatrician forbid us to tell the school until we settle on the dose. He wants un-biased (blind) feedback from the school. After about two weeks, we thought our son was still a little wild at home, and we upped the dose to 15 mg once a day (with the doc's consent).
Almost immediately, our son became very moody and emotional. He had a lot of trouble cooperating on play dates. After two days, we called the doc and we dropped him back to 10 mg, once per day. That will probably be our dose. Our son weighs about 45 pounds, so it makes sense based on the dose/weight recomendations for the drug.
As far as side effects go, we see a rebound effect when the stuff wears off. It lasts for 10-12 hours, so about 7 PM our son gets very wound up, at least compared to his relatively calm days, and is restless at bedtime around 8:30. So far that is the only negative. He is harder than normal to get to sleep. We hope this will go away with time.
The higher dose (15 mg) had the side effect of being very emotional, cried at the littlest thing, which has never been our son. We didn't stick with it very long, and the doctor said we could try to go up in the future. Maybe, but we are pretty happy with the results we see so far and will stay on the 10 mg for a while. You want to keep the dose as low as possible with these med's, so being on the low side is the safe side.
i've realized that adderal and alot of the other adhd medicines make u very irritable and u get very annoyed and adjitated very quickly.My experience with Adderall XR has been WONDERFUL. My daughter, now 11, has been on this medication for about 18 months. We started at 20mg, now she takes 25mg in the morning, and another 10mg at the end of the school day. The change in her was IMMEDIATE, saw it with the first dose. She's gone from struggling to maintain C's in school to getting almost straight A's, even in Conduct and Effort! She has normal friends now. She READS FOR FUN!!! She's active in every sport they offer at her school. She's no longer climbing the walls at church. This medication has absolutely lifted a giant weight, and allowed her to thrive. We still have our issues, but nothing compared to before.
Without this medication, there is no way she'd be getting the level of education she's getting now. She'd still be hanging with the misfits. She'd still be driving me NUTS! I agree with kts_mom, this medication has saved our family.
DOES ANYONE HAVE POSITIVE EXPERIENCE TO SHARE ABOUT THEIR CHILD USING ADDERALL? MY SON WAS JUST DIAGNOSED AS HAVING ADHD. HE WILL BE ON 5 MG. I'VE READ SOME PRETTY AWFUL MESSAGES ON WEBSITES. THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP.
LINDA
Adderall XR and Concerta made my son RAGE! Standard Ritalin works great for him 3 times day!