Not weight loss related... other parents of HFA and ADHD children I need advice please.

mweckler

We have been trying Ritalin for a few weeks for our 5.5 year old son, he was having a hard time emotionally when the meds would start to wear off. He was on a short acting version since he is not able to swallow pills yet. His doses started at 5mg twice a day, then 7.5mg twice a day, then 10mg in the am, 7.5mg in the afternoon, and a possible third dose to taper him down. The doctor said these were ok to try to help him come down from the meds a little softer. He would have emotional tantrums and crying fits over the slightest things. So we talked with his Dr and started him on the Daytrana patch 10mg. Since starting the patch our son has developed a crippling fear of bugs. To the point he will not walk outside, he has to be carried, he panic freezes if he sees something that even resembles a bug at all, and has also become extremely overwhelmed by crowds and loud noises. Has anyone else experienced these symptoms? My wife is ready to stop all medications to treat his ADHD all together, but as someone who suffered with inattentive ADD undiagnosed his whole life I know how hard school is going to be for my son. Any advice or help is appreciated. Thank you.

vespiquenn

Is it possible to switch meds? Ritalin is obviously just one of many out there.

However, I do not know your situation, but I can understand your wife's frustration. You are currently in a situation that medicating is doing more damage than good. I also was an individual with undiagnosed ADD until I was in college but I always knew I had it. The only reason it was diagnosed is because a few other red flags came up due to another condition. Just because he has it, or you had issues, does not necessarily mean he will do poorly in school. He may struggle, but that does not mean doing poorly. Break away from that mindset as soon as you can, because as a teacher, I see this often. Eventually the children feel that they are inadequate students without medication, and their work can suffer from that alone.

I would continue to discuss options with your doctor. I'm a little more concerned about the fact that he just seems to add on medications rather than testing with others. If he does not acknowledge these issues, it's time to find a new doctor.

threekidsandi

You have to try other meds. There are more out there. I have an ADHD kid who does fantastic on Clonidine ER and an HFA kid who has to take anti anxiety meds. Neither of my kids responded well to the typical stimulants, and they cannot take the same things as they respond differently. Make sure you have an IEP in place at school and get off the meds that don't work and find some that do- because it is so worth it. Every child is different, it is a trial and error process. Don't give up, just get back to the doc so he/she knows these meds are not working!

vespiquenn

threekidsandi wrote: »

You have to try other meds. There are more out there. I have an ADHD kid who does fantastic on Clonidine ER and an HFA kid who has to take anti anxiety meds. Neither of my kids responded well to the typical stimulants, and they cannot take the same things as they respond differently. Make sure you have an IEP in place at school and get off the meds that don't work and find some that do- because it is so worth it. Every child is different, it is a trial and error process. Don't give up, just get back to the doc so he/she knows these meds are not working!

Also this in regards to IEP. I will say that just because he is ADHD does not automatically mean he is qualified for one, but if you are concerned, bringing it to the school's attention can get the ball rolling for observations and such.

mweckler

vespiquenn wrote: »

Is it possible to switch meds? Ritalin is obviously just one of many out there.

However, I do not know your situation, but I can understand your wife's frustration. You are currently in a situation that medicating is doing more damage than good. I also was an individual with undiagnosed ADD until I was in college but I always knew I had it. The only reason it was diagnosed is because a few other red flags came up due to another condition. Just because he has it, or you had issues, does not necessarily mean he will do poorly in school. He may struggle, but that does not mean doing poorly. Break away from that mindset as soon as you can, because as a teacher, I see this often. Eventually the children feel that they are inadequate students without medication, and their work can suffer from that alone.

I would continue to discuss options with your doctor. I'm a little more concerned about the fact that he just seems to add on medications rather than testing with others. If he does not acknowledge these issues, it's time to find a new doctor.

He has inattentive, hyperactive ADHD and has a hard time sitting still, and concentrating on things outside of his interests. We are going to talk with his Dr tonight and see what other options are out there for medication. My son was on a very low dose of Ritalin to start, then the Dr changed his dosage because we noticed the potential it had to work in settling my son down. We went to the 7.5mg dose and he responded well but the emotional outburst when the meds were wearing off got stronger, so I called his Dr again the day she was leaving for vacation and she did not want to change his meds while she was on vacation, so she instructed me to give him a higher morning dose then taper it down throughout the day. My wife looked into other options and found the Daytrana patch and since it is an extended release medication through the patch we thought maybe he would not have the hard time when he came down off the medication. Well he has an easier time but has now developed the irrational fear of bugs and being outside. So we are thinking that has to be a side effect of the patch. So today is his first day of kindergarten and he is not wearing the patch, and as I said before we will be going to speak with his Dr tonight to see what other options are available.

mom23mangos

Sometimes it's hard to tell what is a side effect and what is just presenting at a time you might think it is a side effect. But to be sure, I would take him off/switch the medication. You might try Intuniv at a low dose. 1mg Intuniv with Focalin works well for my son. But higher doses of Intuniv made him hallucinate. I pulled him off of that immediately. There are other non-medication things you can try as well like Interactive Metronome. We saw great results from that, but have a hard time getting our son to keep it up as he finds it very boring. He had some pretty severe OCD/anxiety crop up around age 7, which our Dr said is perfectly normal and the age you usually see it present. Your son is a little younger however. We had the exact same issue when we tried anti-anxiety medication. It was terrible. He would just fall apart at night after he took it. Just complete melt downs, outbursts, hysterical crying. I finally told the Dr. we wanted to take him off. We've found that his anxiety/OCD stays fairly well under control as long as his ADHD medication is right.

Another thing just to be aware of if it presents down the road...ADHD/OCD/Anxiety together tend to come part and parcel with Tourettes most of the time. My son's tics started presenting around age 9 and were really, really bad for several months (during the summer when he was not taking his ADHD medication) and gradually tapered off once school started and he got back on his meds. They would come back anytime we did a medication break for more than a couple of weeks. He's 12 now and we decided to try a medication break again this summer just to see how he did and didn't have any issues with tics, so hopefully he's grown out of it.

7elizamae

You sound like a great dad.

I'm a teacher, and meet children like your son each year. Teachers are most able to help when they know the child's need from the start. I suggest setting up an appointment with the teacher and hopefully the school counselor so they can begin supporting your son right away. Perhaps you've already done so, but I just wanted to suggest it in case you hadn't.

Five is so young, and time is on his side! He has so much time to grow. He'll gain maturity, new skills, and learn all the time as he grows. And he has a dad like you who really cares. Best of luck to you!

mweckler

We sat down with his principal, school psychologist, and his teacher and came up with a 504 plan for him. His teacher is aware of his conditions.

vespiquenn

mweckler wrote: »

We sat down with his principal, school psychologist, and his teacher and came up with a 504 plan for him. His teacher is aware of his conditions.

Aside from working with medication, which you are actively doing, it sounds like you guys are doing all that you can. I wish you good luck!