What is your experience with ADD meds? What about diet?

[Moochie Mamma]

Well, my 9yo son's moods are stabilized on Lamictal (he was dx with cyclothymia- mild bipolar in Jan) but he still misses school 2-3 days a week due to anxiety. Our psychdoc has recently realized that ds may have add. He is spaced out, has difficulty focusing to finish any task other than a video game or lego set, gets distracted easily (he's not hyper and doesn't jump around and disrupt the classroom so it's not as obvious as with some kids). Doc thinks this may be the cause of ds anxiety since the anxiety is mainly just due to school and isn't being resolved with antianxiety meds. Anyway we are going to see him again today to discuss add meds- he mentioned Adderal xr, vyvase and strattera as options and hopes to get ds off anxiety meds if one of these works.

Our naturopath has discovered that ds has a gluten sensitivity and absorption issues. He has tested negative to celiac disease though. Thinking of trying ds on gluten free diet, though we have tried before and found it incredibly difficult- he ate gluten at school, friend's houses, etc if we weren't around to remind him, and he is extremely picky eater, barely eats as it is. I'm afraid he'll whither away to nothing if we restrict his diet but I also am very concerned about side effects of add meds.

Side note- I have considered homeschooling but have realized that pulling him out of school without getting some help with the add behaviors isn't going to solve the problem- he will have as much trouble focusing with me as he would at school.


What are your thoughts???

[Evan&Anna's_Mom]

My 7 YO was diagnosed with ADHD this year. Her psychiatrist suggested we start by trying diet changes and suppliments -- she said about 5% of kids with actual ADHD responded to that alone, and that many other kids have a food sensitivity that mimics ADHD. Neither the Feingold program nor Omega-3 and caffeine were effective with DD.

So we began to try various medication options, starting with basic ritalin (some response but not enough and a pain to do throughout the day), longer-acting ritalin (not enough and didn't last long enough to get her through school). We finally settled on Vyvanse (20 mg -- lowest possible dose) in about March. Its been great -- her teachers report major improvement in classroom behavior and I've seen huge jumps in her schoolwork. She reports that she feels better and asks for her medication each day. She was accepted to the gymnastics team because all of a sudden she could stay with her class and not bounce all over the gym. At least as importantly for me is that there was no change in her personality -- she's stilly bubbly and lively and happy. It did turn down her volume (literally, I am not always telling her to bring her voice down), which was a good thing.

We do have to plan our mornings a little because it takes about 90 minutes to kick in, so I have definite time that she must take her meds so they are in place for school/camp/gymnastics class. It generally holds until around 6, which is a couple hours short of the "theoretical" time of 14 hours, but I've always thrown off medication really fast too.

The only real downside for us is that it is a major appetite suppressent. She was underweight to begin with and has lost about 5 pounds since she starting taking medications six months ago. Now I concentrate on maximum calories per bite since she is only going to take a few bites of anything. Which is sort of ironic since all the rest of us in the family are overweight to obese and we shouldn't be eating any of the stuff that I buy for her! She also tends to finally get hungry right about bedtime, so I've tried to build in one more meal for her at the very end of the day.

I hate the idea of her taking medication, but this has really helped her in virtually all areas of her life. She was getting so beaten down at constantly being told to sit down, be quiet, hold still, stay with the class, focus, concentrate, don't do XYZ... She was really starting to talk about how bad she was. The medication has really helped her be calmer, more focused and better able to keep her attention (and her body) where it should be, so now she feels a lot more confident. I still hate the idea of the medication, but I can't really argue with the results. And in the end, the fact that she is happier is really what counts.

[buttercup784ever]

My son just started Strattera this week. He was on Focalin which worked great, but he has some tics as well and the Focalin exacerbated them. He also has some anxiety issues so his doc said the Strattera will help with that too. We haven't seen any changes yet, but it takes a few weeks for the Strattera to really build up in his system and start working.

I have no advice about dietary changes. We try to eat healthily most of the time, but I have NO idea how parents' actually enforce the no gluten/dairy/corn/soy etc. Especially in a kid who was not raised that way. My neighbors kids were on gluten free because of celiac's, and eventually she just gave it up. She said they were constantly getting crackers, pretzels, cookies, etc. from school or friends' houses, so it just wasn't making sense to spend all that money on extra food for them. It's really expensive! I could understand if there were huge results, it might be worth it. But to go through all the trouble and expense for a questionable outcome?

When I asked my doc about diet, he said that if it helps the family eat better he's all for it. He's a vegetarian, so it's not like he doesn't believe in a healthy diet. But he suggested we do it during the summer instead of experimenting during the school year when his grades would suffer.

[NightOwlwithowlet]

We tried medications (Medadate 10 mg to start) with our then 6 year old son for ADHD with a big, big H. He was already on a dye free, casein free, and gluten limited diet with enzymes. He has food allergies. While medication helped him sit still, it really didn't address his focus issues. We also started him in cognitive behavioral therapy and martial arts. He had a slow and steady increase in his anxiety over the next six months.

Eventually, we had to increase the medication due a weight gain and his anxiety was out of control. The we added antibiotics and his anxiety spiraled in major phobias inn less than 24 hours. It was the scariest experience of my life, DH's family has a history of Bipolar disorder and I thought he had developed it overnight. Luckily, all his side effects disappeared when we stopped his ADHD medications. I do sometimes miss how low key the medication made him. I'm not opposed ADHD medication, it just wasn't a good choice for DS.

He's had some success with diet changes, some more with martial arts and a good therapist. We home school and that has made a huge difference for all of us. However, the biggest difference we seen was with seeing chiropractor. The last 12 weeks have made a huge difference for him

[columbusmomma]

Our DS has adhd. We tried neurofeedback and some diet changes for a couple years. He started vyvanse this past school year in 2nd grade. It has been wonderful with few if any side effects.