help for my son on Ritalin la 30mg - ADD / ADHD Message Board

heddy73 · 06-19-2005, 04:56 PM

My son has been on the increased dose of 30mg for a couple of weeks. He has been on Ritalin for about 6 weeks total. Since the increase he seems very depressed and cries easliy. He is 6 yrs old. I am worried about him as is his teachers at school. He was impulsive and had no attention span. Now is a little too focused(if that makes sense) and really serious. My son was a happy little boy who loved to kiss and hug people now he acts like a robot and will hug you if you ask but with no emotion behind it. When he was on the lower dose he was calmer but not so sullen. I'm wondering if this med is not the right one for him or if the lower dose is more appropriate.... any help as long as its positive will be appreciated. I don't want my wonderful son going thru his childhood like a zombie.

addprogrammer · 06-20-2005, 05:58 PM

Heddy,

Look, I'm no doctor so take what I say with a dump truck load of salt, but 30 mg of Ritalin is WAY too much for a six year old child. It is no wonder so many become ADD med and doctor haters. That is just plain irresponsible. Geeeeeeeeeee. It would be like me taking 300 mg a day.

addprogrammer

Jennita · 06-21-2005, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by heddy73

My son has been on the increased dose of 30mg for a couple of weeks. He has been on Ritalin for about 6 weeks total. Since the increase he seems very depressed and cries easliy. He is 6 yrs old. I am worried about him as is his teachers at school. He was impulsive and had no attention span. Now is a little too focused(if that makes sense) and really serious. My son was a happy little boy who loved to kiss and hug people now he acts like a robot and will hug you if you ask but with no emotion behind it. When he was on the lower dose he was calmer but not so sullen. I'm wondering if this med is not the right one for him or if the lower dose is more appropriate.... any help as long as its positive will be appreciated. I don't want my wonderful son going thru his childhood like a zombie.

My nephew would have a mix of aggression then crying all the time on only a half of starting dose of Adderall. Depression is common with stimulants. Then they tried a low dose of Strattera and that was fine for awhile but then he got severely fatigued.

My in-laws took him off everything and he's actually doing ok. Maybe you could go back to the lower dosage and see if that helps things.

index.html · 06-22-2005, 06:26 AM

I agree with the above posters. Sounds like the dose is too high for him.

heddy73 · 06-23-2005, 10:05 AM

I took my son to the dr's on monday and she did switch him to Adderall 10mg. He seems more like his old self but still in the morning is withdrawn but not at all like the ritalin. Thank you for your replies. It helps to have people to talk this over with who have been there. I'll keep you posted. Its been 3 days on the adderall and he is having a psychiatric eval on friday. His doc thinks maybe bi-polar with the adhd....I'm nervous and scared about this (not the eval) but just the road ahead for my sweet baby.