My son is 10 years old, 4’9”, 65 lbs. Has been taking 7.5 mg of adderall a day (5mg in the morning and 2.5 at lunch) - He’s skinny as rail!!Grinds his teeth at night, tosses and turns, etc etc He takes that that dosage daily -whether school day or not - I took him in to the MD last week due to a concern with his inability to gain weight.
The MD suggested strattera and gave us a ‘starter pack’ with 4 18mg tablets and 14 25mg tablets.
I’m wondering if I should wait for spring break (he would be off for 9 days), wait for summer vacation(2 months off) or start him on it immediately. They say hindsight is 20/20 - so my question to those who have been there is what would you do if you had to start your child on it today?
Anyone have any info regarding if the insurance companies are ok with paying for strattera instead of controlled meds?
Should I get the Doc to give me more med than I have to start with - from what I’m reading 18 days of medication might not be enough?
Thanks to all for putting your experiences on this site - I guess we all know the empty feeling in our stomachs as we try to decide which are the
good and not so good treatments for our kids!
Tom
Re: Right time to switch?
Don’t know about the meds, but low blood sugar is a clear route to behaviour problems in our family — including ME! Could probs be simply due to the missing lunch? Any idea if acting out was worse after lunch vs am? This might make sense if she IS eating some dinner, and then behaves…
Good luck with this — you’ll nail it down!
Re: Right time to switch?
WOW! Very interesting thought!!! I’ll take that to heart and ask her teacher to MAKE SURE that she’s eating SOMETHING during the day to keep her blood sugar up! Good thought! Really appreciate it!
Loves :)
S
Re: Right time to switch?
Hi Tom,
Don’t know if you’ve switched yet but I would start slowly on the Stratera.
Our son is also 10 and weighs 71 lbs.
His doctor, who I may add is no longer his doctor, initially gave him 25 mg.
My son called me from school, basically exhausted and passed out in the car.
The doctor said - who ran clinical trials on Stratera - oh yeah, I had another patient who slept for 2 days.
I learned my lesson that I wouldn’t try a new medication - our pediatrician and many other docs we consulted feel the same way.
In a year or 6 months they’ll find all these lousy side effects.
Good Luck!
Re: Right time to switch?
I have been in your situation and it is the worst one there is to medicate or not to medicate how much, how often, and what kind my son was on adderall for a year he lost weight couldn’t sleep, and most defintly could not have caffine. my doctor finally put him on concerta. He had to go up on the dosage 3 times but it works really well now he has gained wieght. H e doesn’t have any mood swings and he is very loving and friendly. He only has to take it once a day.
My daughter is new on STRATTERA too and you’ll see my “concerns” in the post above yours.
Lauren is 8 yrs and weighed 55 lbs last wk at the Dr’s…she’s currently not eating lunch at sch bec she comes home w/ a full lunch bag that I packed that morning. She is eating breakfast and partial on dinner.
I’m concerned about her recent (last 2 days) of massive behaviour change school….where as at home - she’s been great! I’m totally confused now.
Have a call into the nurse at the Psych’s office. I’ll let you know what I find out.
Dr told us the same, (and was going to give us that starter pack as well but he’d run out of it already so we just got a 30 day supply of 25 mg pills to start)….anyways…Lauren’s been on it since last Fri…tomorrow will be one wk on it so far. People here have said it takes 3-4 wks to “kick in”……I’m just not sure……I can’t tell you when to start it…….
Loves,
S