Btrcup
11-08-2004, 03:22 PM
Hi all, my almost 8 year old son is going to start Strattera this coming weekend. He started having problems in Kindergarten and was unofficially dx with ADHD. His pediatrician said they do not usually like giving meds to young children unless absolutely necessary. They said most children with ADHD begin having problems in 2nd grade with their school work and they would wait until then to discuss meds. Well he's now in 2nd grade and not doing well. He is very intelligent and knows the work, he just can't focus or sit still. His Pre-K teacher summed it up..."he will find a cure for cancer, but won't be able to find his keys."
I am scared to death of the thought of my baby being on meds, but we don't know what else to do. He's become a problem at home and with his playmates. It breaks my heart when he comes in the house and says no one wants to play with him :( .
I would appreciate any feedback on children taking Strattera. He's an otherwise healthy child, but we are so afraid of side effects. Thanks for listening.
Linda
I am scared to death of the thought of my baby being on meds, but we don't know what else to do. He's become a problem at home and with his playmates. It breaks my heart when he comes in the house and says no one wants to play with him :( .
I would appreciate any feedback on children taking Strattera. He's an otherwise healthy child, but we are so afraid of side effects. Thanks for listening.
Linda
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mudhound
11-10-2004, 08:41 AM
My child is 18 years old now. There are others that can be of help.
bashful
11-10-2004, 09:59 PM
My son is 6 and is taking ritilan and has been on it since he turned 5. At first we tryed others even the med your son is starting but it didnt do a thing for him. I have found the med he is now takeing is doing wonders. He started taking med in headstart and the teacher he had then became his kin teacher and she says there are major improvements she says he is a totally differnt child. So i really would not worry about your son but remember it does take time and alot of work to get the med right this may not even be the right med for him i know of three others besides the one he is starting.
JT95
11-12-2004, 10:13 AM
While your son is too young for this to be an issue, a lot of adult men have complained of sexual side effects when taking strattera. I got my first prescription for ADD meds a couple months ago and my doc gave me strattera. Before going to the pharmacy, I investigated and decided I'd rather not try this drug due to the wide complaint of these adverse sexual side effects.
Now, those should not be of concern to a 2nd grader, but since the drug company hasn't really investigated these claims yet, as a parent (and I too have a second grader) I would worry about a possible ill effect on sexual development at the onset and during puberty. The drug probably doesn't pose a problem there, but I wouldn't want to take that chance.
I can understand your concern about your son saying no one wants to play with him. As a parent, we hurt more from our kids' social problems than academic any day. As far as school, if his grades/academic development is going well, I'd think again about medicating...unless the problems seem severe. Our educational system is NOT designed for males (and I'm a teacher), so it is common for boys in the lower grades--ADHD and not--to get in trouble for not sitting still. God did not make little boys to sit still. Granted, ADHD can cause some serious academic and social problems. Medication works wonders for some families, and for some it doesn't seem to help as much.
Before putting my child on a medice--one that will be a long term daily routine--I would get that diagnosis from a specialist and not rely on my family practice doc.
Is he finishing his school work? My son was having a lot of behavior problems at school, but it was largely due to the fact that the kid has no control of himself when his mind is left to wander. He started a new school this year--second grade. By the second week his desk was already scooted beside the teacher's. His problem is that he has to keep his mind engaged. At his previous school he had extra work to do or he was allowed to get away from his table and go the "centers". (He almost always got in trouble after finishing an assignment/activity.) Now he has been moved to a third grade classroom and is doing much better behavior wise. The work is harder for him, but it keeps him under control. If he keeps busy and is challenged, he keeps focused on work and leaves people and things alone. Well, for the most part he does...Might it be a challenge/boredom issue with your son?
I'm not saying don't medicate him. If you haven't looked into presenting him with a different academic approach or haven't had that official evaluation by someone who specializes in ADD/ADHD children, then do so before starting him. Medicine can be a blessing for many, but I have also seen family doctors rush to put school kids on a medicine for ADHD rather quickly.
Now, those should not be of concern to a 2nd grader, but since the drug company hasn't really investigated these claims yet, as a parent (and I too have a second grader) I would worry about a possible ill effect on sexual development at the onset and during puberty. The drug probably doesn't pose a problem there, but I wouldn't want to take that chance.
I can understand your concern about your son saying no one wants to play with him. As a parent, we hurt more from our kids' social problems than academic any day. As far as school, if his grades/academic development is going well, I'd think again about medicating...unless the problems seem severe. Our educational system is NOT designed for males (and I'm a teacher), so it is common for boys in the lower grades--ADHD and not--to get in trouble for not sitting still. God did not make little boys to sit still. Granted, ADHD can cause some serious academic and social problems. Medication works wonders for some families, and for some it doesn't seem to help as much.
Before putting my child on a medice--one that will be a long term daily routine--I would get that diagnosis from a specialist and not rely on my family practice doc.
Is he finishing his school work? My son was having a lot of behavior problems at school, but it was largely due to the fact that the kid has no control of himself when his mind is left to wander. He started a new school this year--second grade. By the second week his desk was already scooted beside the teacher's. His problem is that he has to keep his mind engaged. At his previous school he had extra work to do or he was allowed to get away from his table and go the "centers". (He almost always got in trouble after finishing an assignment/activity.) Now he has been moved to a third grade classroom and is doing much better behavior wise. The work is harder for him, but it keeps him under control. If he keeps busy and is challenged, he keeps focused on work and leaves people and things alone. Well, for the most part he does...Might it be a challenge/boredom issue with your son?
I'm not saying don't medicate him. If you haven't looked into presenting him with a different academic approach or haven't had that official evaluation by someone who specializes in ADD/ADHD children, then do so before starting him. Medicine can be a blessing for many, but I have also seen family doctors rush to put school kids on a medicine for ADHD rather quickly.
PatriciaB
11-12-2004, 01:38 PM
Btrcp, please don't worry. As another poster said, this may not wind up being the right drug for him but at least you are on the right track to getting him some help. My "just turned 15 year old" daughter started on meds for ADHD in 4th grade and what a difference it made for her and for us. I had resisted starting her on them for various reasons but none of them were really valid. I didn't want her labeled "ADHD, I thought it would change her basic sweet personality into some kind of unrecognizable zombie, and I wasn't sure that drugs would really help. As I said, none of those reasons turned out to be valid. It turned her around in almost every aspect of her life. It didn't happen overnight but her grades picked up drastically, she was able to gradually start making and keeping friends, and mainly she gained confidence in herself that had just plummeted.
She didn't start out on Strattera but wound up on it a couple of years ago, and while she loves the affect of it on her, she hates the side effects. It makes her sooooo nauseous for the first hour after she takes it.
Anyway, good luck with your son, as his mom you will know the best thing to do for him and way down the road you'll both know you did the right thing!
She didn't start out on Strattera but wound up on it a couple of years ago, and while she loves the affect of it on her, she hates the side effects. It makes her sooooo nauseous for the first hour after she takes it.
Anyway, good luck with your son, as his mom you will know the best thing to do for him and way down the road you'll both know you did the right thing!
Btrcup
11-12-2004, 02:11 PM
Thank you all for your responses. My son will start the Strattera tomorrow. I feel so bad. He says he feels like a weirdo to have to take meds. I explained to him that if it will help him concentrate and do well in school, it will be worth it. I told him it's not a bad thing to take meds. I take Synthroid everyday and my husband (who has cancer) is taking a few different meds. I said that a lot of people take meds for different reasons, it does not make you weird. Of course it tore me apart when he asked if he was going to have cancer like daddy. I think he has sooo much on his mind right now. I pray this helps him.
Well, thanks for listening. I will let you all know how things turn out.
Linda
Well, thanks for listening. I will let you all know how things turn out.
Linda
eric's mom
11-13-2004, 01:27 AM
Hello! My 5-year-old son was precsribed Strattera 18mg in July. We suffered through the side effects for the first month, extreme drowsiness, loss of appetite, dry mouth etc. At the beginning of the second month, the drowsiness was a problem so the doc lowered the dose to 10mg. The difference was amazing. I thought I had found the answer. Three weeks ago my once fun loving, highly artistic child was angry, aggressive and depressed. He had no interest in anything and seemed almost numb to his surroundings and his emotions. I immediatley took him off of it. We had an appointment with his child psych. yesterday and now we're back to square one trying to decide what to do. Since taking him off the Strattera his ADHD is in full force and is not doing as well in kindergarten. I know what a hard decision this is for you. I realize medication effects everyone differently, but I would approach Strattera with caution. It seemed great at first then something went very wrong and I have read since then, other people have had the same experience. For us it was like a false hope. I hope my story helps. Good luck and God bless!
downawell
11-13-2004, 09:25 PM
Hi there :wave:
Unfortunetly I am not a child, but an adult who is/was on Strattera up until a week ago. All I have to say, is that it's SUCH a strong medication to take, and I am an adult, I can't imagine giving it to somebody that young. I had problems in school too when I was a kid but didn't start taking medication until later. If I could relieve that moment again I would wish that people like my teachers and school counselors, would have used what was to my advantage instead of compaining how I space out and stare at the celing(lol, kind of makes me chuckle now that I think of it).
It is such a beautiful thing to be a child with such a unique way of looking at the world And I am sure your son is probally very gifted. :) I should know!
I was put in gifted class and that helped a little tiny bit. Things change when I went to day camp and found some extracurricular activities and went to after school programs that grasped my interest. I would play on your son's over abundance of energy when he's not in school and take him to a karate class or some kind of thing or sport that will teach him disclipine,calm him and teach him how to focus. Wher he will HAVE to focus no matter what. And maybe change his diet in some way so he's not eating foods that will make him more sluggish. My doc says try to not eat foods that lower your blood suger. ADD is supposed to be a reduction in some kind of energy and then your brain tries compensate in some other kind of way and it makes you act hyper-active or in my case innatentive.
You probally already know this, but the Strattera or whatever drug he takes, is supposed to compensate for that deficiency so his brain doesn't have to over pump the other chemicals that are making him hyper.
If you don't want to take the easy way out, try use other methods to build up his focusing energy and
, not only will he kick out all that extra energy just sitting inside of him piling up, he'll learn disipline to, those martial arts teacher's sure make sure your paying attention,lol. I know someone who benefited from it , he was about 13 and was completely out of control really bad with acting up and cursing teachers out everyday, until he took karate for a year, then he was teachers pet.
As for me I have the unattentive kind of ADD and tried it as an adult and it probally would help me too if only I stuck to it.
Sorry for getting off subject,anyways in my opinion taking all these phychatric drugs are pretty serious stuff. I think all right when your an adult, but when your a kid the side affects can just not be worth it. I wish I would have waited until I was older to start taking what they put me on when I was younger because you will change so much and as your developing and these drugs just interfere with that.
Unfortunetly I am not a child, but an adult who is/was on Strattera up until a week ago. All I have to say, is that it's SUCH a strong medication to take, and I am an adult, I can't imagine giving it to somebody that young. I had problems in school too when I was a kid but didn't start taking medication until later. If I could relieve that moment again I would wish that people like my teachers and school counselors, would have used what was to my advantage instead of compaining how I space out and stare at the celing(lol, kind of makes me chuckle now that I think of it).
It is such a beautiful thing to be a child with such a unique way of looking at the world And I am sure your son is probally very gifted. :) I should know!
I was put in gifted class and that helped a little tiny bit. Things change when I went to day camp and found some extracurricular activities and went to after school programs that grasped my interest. I would play on your son's over abundance of energy when he's not in school and take him to a karate class or some kind of thing or sport that will teach him disclipine,calm him and teach him how to focus. Wher he will HAVE to focus no matter what. And maybe change his diet in some way so he's not eating foods that will make him more sluggish. My doc says try to not eat foods that lower your blood suger. ADD is supposed to be a reduction in some kind of energy and then your brain tries compensate in some other kind of way and it makes you act hyper-active or in my case innatentive.
You probally already know this, but the Strattera or whatever drug he takes, is supposed to compensate for that deficiency so his brain doesn't have to over pump the other chemicals that are making him hyper.
If you don't want to take the easy way out, try use other methods to build up his focusing energy and
, not only will he kick out all that extra energy just sitting inside of him piling up, he'll learn disipline to, those martial arts teacher's sure make sure your paying attention,lol. I know someone who benefited from it , he was about 13 and was completely out of control really bad with acting up and cursing teachers out everyday, until he took karate for a year, then he was teachers pet.
As for me I have the unattentive kind of ADD and tried it as an adult and it probally would help me too if only I stuck to it.
Sorry for getting off subject,anyways in my opinion taking all these phychatric drugs are pretty serious stuff. I think all right when your an adult, but when your a kid the side affects can just not be worth it. I wish I would have waited until I was older to start taking what they put me on when I was younger because you will change so much and as your developing and these drugs just interfere with that.
lsj99
11-21-2004, 08:31 PM
Hi there. I've been searching for help for my 9 year old daughter's behavior for years now. I've tried natural methods like the Feingold diet and supplements like fish oil, high b's, etc. We dabbled in meds - ritalin and concerta made her heart race and two years ago we tried strattera but it made her stomach hurt and she felt groggy so we quit. In the mean time we tried some stuff called Attend that we got online but when she started having visual migraines we quit that first and they went away. Talk about scary. It was then that I realized that despite my resistance to modern meds, they were probably better tested and thus safer than some of the things we were doing. We are now seeing a psychiatric nurse who can prescribe and we find her much more helpful than our family doctor (a GP) who doesn't specialize in children and their behavior. Having a therapist who can prescribe is so much nicer than before when we had a counselor diagnosing and a doctor prescribing. She started her on Strattera again over a month ago. After telling her our history with it, she suggested starting out at 10 mg. increments and taking it at dinner time. 2 years ago we were giving 40mg first thing in the morning and she suffered the stomach problems all day. We switched to bedtime dosing after she started feeling stomach problems after dinner. She doesn't seem to have any stomach issues if she takes it right before sleeping and doesn't feel anything negative the next day. After a month and an increase to 20 mg, our daughter is showing some slight improvement. We moved to 30 mg this weekend and we'll stay on that for another month. If we don't see alot of improvement our specialist said we'll talk then about other options. The symptoms we are dealing with are inattentiveness, defiance, hyperactivity, anger, impulsiveness, vandalism to name most. I wish you the best of luck - it's so hard to try medications, yet it's so hard not to, also. It's definitely an ongoing journey. Hang in there!
index.html
11-22-2004, 04:45 AM
If you don't want to take the easy way out, try use other methods to build up his focusing energy and
, not only will he kick out all that extra energy just sitting inside of him piling up, he'll learn disipline to, those martial arts teacher's sure make sure your paying attention,lol. .
While I think your suggestion of martial arts is a very good one, I have to disagree with your comment that taking meds is the "easy way out". As a Mom who tried every other option available first and agonized for years before beginning medication, I can assure you that medicating my son has NOT been easy. When he started calling himself a "retard" and "weird" and saying that "being dead would be better", we could no longer justify NOT medicating him. I continue to struggle daily with this decision.
An easy way out of treating ADHD? I sure wish there was one!!!
, not only will he kick out all that extra energy just sitting inside of him piling up, he'll learn disipline to, those martial arts teacher's sure make sure your paying attention,lol. .
While I think your suggestion of martial arts is a very good one, I have to disagree with your comment that taking meds is the "easy way out". As a Mom who tried every other option available first and agonized for years before beginning medication, I can assure you that medicating my son has NOT been easy. When he started calling himself a "retard" and "weird" and saying that "being dead would be better", we could no longer justify NOT medicating him. I continue to struggle daily with this decision.
An easy way out of treating ADHD? I sure wish there was one!!!