Need Help For Adhd/odd Child W/ E.d. Posted: 11-17-04 19:37pm
My oldest son is only 9. He has been on
adderall since kindergarten because of
adhd/odd (diagnosed after stabbing teacher
with pencil in leg). Due to the severity
of his adhd/odd, he is required to be on
medication forever; otherwise, he is not
authorized to be in school or around other
children. The medication (adderall xr -
15mg/day) is severely depleting his
appetite. He will eat first thing in the
morning, and that's about the same time he
takes his meds. But after 9 am he just
won't eat anything th rest of the day. I
am very worried about him. He is the same
size as my 7-yr-old. His most recent
growth chart registers him as being in the
lower 15th percentile on everything. He
weighs right around 50 lbs, and is the
smallest child in his class. He is the
same size as most of the kindergarteners,
but he is 3rd grade! I had friends in
high school with e.D's and I myself did
too. It took my boyfriend threatening to
never speak to me again, and a girlfriend
who was bulemic nearly killing herself to
open my eyes to what was happening. But
how do you show a child what they are
doing to themselves? Especially when it
is caused my medication? He doesn't have
any urge to eat, he is just never hungry.
It may be a blessing to some, but it is
going to kill my child. I am at dead
man's curve here. I have to keep him on
the medicine or risk losing all of my kids
because of his behavior; but at the same
time I can't get him to eat anything and I
know it's killing him... This whole mess
is killing me as well, because I don't
know what to do... We tried strattera,
it doesn't help the adhd/odd, it just
makes him ill... I have heard about
concerta, but does it have the same side
effects? Does anybody know of something
that might work for adhd/odd but won't
stifle the eating? I'm desperate... I
don't want to lose my son.
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sheabay
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Posts: 3 Location: Ohio
Adderall/adhd Posted: 11-18-04 23:45pm
I'm not sure if I can be of any help to
you or not, but I was diagnosed with
having add when I was in the third grade.
I am now 20 years old and have been
taking medication for it since I was first
diagnosed (about twelve years now). I
started off taking ritalin, since they
hadnt come out with the newer medications
yet, and then tried strattera and concerta
as well. None of these medications
seemed to be as effective as adderall. I
took adderall for about six or seven
years. For the past four years I have
been taking the adderall xr (30 mg) pills,
and have found them to have sufficient
impact on my performance and abilities.
Adderall is an extremely addictive and
extremely powerful drug. If not
monitored carefully, it can cause major
disruptions to your sons life. In other
words, I would not recommend increasing
his dosage, if at all possible. I have
found that ones tolerance to the drug can
build quite rapidly and can result in
harmful amounts if looked at too lightly.
However, your son is still young and will
have plenty of time to adjust to the
medication and his own behaviors.
Certain behaviors he expresses that may
seem unusual to you or others may be
normal in his mind and perception. I
have experienced countless side effects
from this medication, but have learned to
manage them through the years. The
biggest one being my dependence and
addiction to the drug. I have spoken
with many doctors on the subject who have
all given the same response that that
additive nature of the drug is a part of
the treatment for this particular
disorder, and is not intended to be taken
away. I will say, however, that your
sons rapid weight loss is a normal side
effect, as you well know. What you may
not know is that this loss of appetite has
very little to do with self-esteem or
being self-conscious (especially at his
age). Chances are your son will become
accustomed to his abnormal, or as some
say, unnutritional eating habits as most
do who take the medication. I can go for
days without getting the slightest bit
hungry, and got used to it at a very young
age. As I grew older and learned more
about my health and nutrition, I was able
to better manage my meals, but I will
never have an appetite like most people.
Your son may be smaller than the rest of
his classmates right now, but I can assure
you that probably wont last for very long.
I too was smaller than others at one
point, but once I got accustomed to the
drug I have never gone below my normal
weight range. This is not a problem of
self image or a conscious/unconscious
eating disorder, instead your son will
simply have an increasingly lower appetite
than most. I hope that I could be of
some help to you, and would be glad to
answer any questions you have about the
drug or the disorder considering my years
of experience with it. I wish you and
your son the best, but just remember that
this is only as big of a problem as you
make it. To your son, the only problems
and/or deviations that exist are the ones
that are made apparent to him by you and
others around him. Try to stay away from
that as much as possible and relate to any
abnormal behaviors as best as you can.
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LostandFallen
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 11 Dec 2004 Posts: 5
Posted: 12-13-04 19:17pm
I was diagnosed with add about 5 years ago
and I take aderol. Aderol can have some
really strange side effects to it. You
should ask your son if he ever feels
really gittery in his stomach like he is
about to burst with energy or something
during school, and if it ever makes him
feel over anxious to the point of feeling
a sick like he is going to vomit. If he
says yes to any of these then he may be
getting to much aderol. I had these same
symptoms and it turned out that I was just
being overdosed, so I cut it in half and
now I am fine. Also because of it making
me feel sick I would lose my appitite and
not eat like anything because I felt too
anxious and nervous. Loss of appitite is
a very common side effect with aderol, but
it sounds like with your son it is being
carried out to the extreme. You should
really talk to your docter about this they
would know more about it. Hope I
helped.
Lost and fallen
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sandyallen
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 02 Feb 2004 Posts: 4580
Thanks: 1
Thanked:0
Posted: 12-13-04 19:43pm
Can the Dr. Give your son something for
his appetite, or at least some type of
food supplement such as ensure or
something like this, you might check at a
health food store or herbal shop or
naturopathic shop and see what they might
have to say and you can always get a
second opinion from another Dr.
Sincerely,
sandy