My youngest is almost 9 years old and was diagnosed officially last summer with ADD. We have always eaten healthy, but since diagnosis we have done our best to amp up the clean eating and eliminate processed food, sugar, food dyes, etc...We also have him on several vitamins which did help somewhat. His grades are excellent but he does struggle with in class work, and homework can be a major pain trying to get him to focus. His pediatric neurologist has recommended trying out 1mg of Intuniv. There were several posts about this that I searched before posting this question, but they were all from 9 or 10 years ago. So I thought since it's been around for more than a decade now, is there anyone out there who can tell me their experiences? I read on the web site ADDitude under the comments section that it gave several kids nightmares, along with some others strange side effects. We have held off as long as we could before trying medication and we were hoping to hold off longer but I think it's reached a point where it's only fair to him to give something a try. The reason she suggested this is because he has ticks sometimes and stimulants can greatly exacerbate this problem. He also sees an educational therapist twice a week which has also helped. any advice greatly appreciated! thank you
Before you go the medication route try martial arts. The effect of having to use both left and right limbs to perform the same moves, such as punch right then left - kick right then left, helps to connect the energies across the brain from right to left. I am dyslectic and it helped me a lot.
Also, MSG can have an effect on kids with ADD - ADHD and autism, so take that out of his foods also. It's not easy MSG is in a lot of foods.
Our son has ADHD (inattentive type, which is what I believe ADD is) and Autism and tics. We did try ADHD meds at one point. They did help him, but focusing on behavior modification and sensory issues was more effective in his case. He does now take a med for his tics.
The thing about ADHD is that it really is a medical diagnosis and it really may be a situation where medicine is going to play a huge role. You're not going to know unless you give it a try, and you can always decide to stop using the meds.
Our society has done many kids a disservice by putting such a stigma on ADHD meds. I grew up in the 80's, and I always thought that ADHD meds were really so that parents and teachers could cope with kids who were behavior problems. There were so many adults around me who honestly thought ADHD meds were really just a poor replacement for bad parenting. I am so glad that I had conversations with many parents about this before our son was even diagnosed. So many parents I talked to said that finding the right med wasn't easy, but once they did their child's life changed. They were able to really function for the first time.
I know you are really trying to do what's best for him, and that's probably why you have been hesitant to try the meds. This isn't an easy decision, and it's really ok to ask your doctor more questions. But do keep in mind that giving him medicine just might be what's best for him.
The good part is your son is old enough to give you and the doctor feedback on how he is feeling on the medication.
Our son has been on Intuniv for years. We haven't had any issues with it and have overall had a good experience. He is on 4 mg now (started a 1 mg initially) and he used to take in in conjunction with Adderall, but now takes it with Strattera instead. The generic is guanfacine and although we started out on name brand, we did get switched to generic 2 years ago and haven't noticed a difference. The nice thing about Intunive is it is a "non-stimulant" medication, which generally carries less risk/side effects than a true stimulant drug, including exacerbating ticking.
As a mom to a child who has SEVERE ADHD (not kidding - we've been told that he has the worst case most doctors have ever seen, but he also has a host of other issues that play into his ADHD behaviors), we've worked with just about EVERY medication on the planet. The one thing that I learned is unless the side effect is really serious - like life threatening - wait until your child has been on the medication at LEAST two weeks and optimally 30 days before making the decision that it "doesn't work" or your child "doesn't like it" or whatever. Many of these medications need a leveling off period before you a) see the true benefits and b) work through some of the initial side effects. I'd see so many parents that would say after the 3rd day - oh, Johnny is too tired/not hungry/doesn't like it/had a nightmare/etc. and just drop it. However, if they would have waiting a couple of weeks, they would have realized that Johnny isn't tired because his body adjusted to the meds, the nightmare was due to a movie he watched the night before, and his appetite is right back to where it was previously.
Good luck!
check out the side effects of the medication
https://www.drugs.com/sfx/intuniv-side-effects.html
Sounds like your doctor needs to KNOW your son a tad bit more before he administers a drug to him. If the ticks are exacerbated by medication - you need to find one that won't make it worse.
Agree 100% with Gidget. My best advice to make the leap and get most of your information from your medical team. I've been dealing with our son's ADHD for 13 years now, since he was three. It's scary trying medication the first time, but your doctor is being super cautious. Intuniv is one of the mildest non-stimulants. It was like water for our son and he had no side effects, not even drowsiness. It started off as a blood pressure med. We tried that one when our son was three and a danger to others, and were reassured it was considered very low risk as far as meds.
We've since been through just about every ADHD med on the market over the years. One would work well, then not, or our son would get random side effects out of nowhere. Eventually, our son had to quit stimulants (which worked tremendously) because they triggered tics at the onset of puberty. He went on Strattera after that.
I'd take what you read online with a grain of salt. Your son's psychiatrist, therapist and others on the medical team are the ones who should guide his medical care.
What we did with my youngest is gave him caffeine. Which pretty much works the same a meds. It brings him down. He can drink something with caffeine in it and lay down and go to sleep. When we talked to his dr about it she said that if it worked to keep doing it. That caffeine doesn't have the long term side effects that most meds will have. We also put him in gymnastics as he was always trying to flip all over the place. That helped him learn how to focus and something to put all his energy into. Now he's 16 and is an Elite Trampoline and Tumbling Gymnast. You have to do what is right for you and your child!
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