Only 4yrs old and starting adderall
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Only 4yrs old and starting adderall
| Fri, 05-02-2003 - 10:47pm |
Hi everyone. I didn't think I would be posting to this board being that my son is only 4 years old but I am so frustrated! He was just prescribed 2.5mgs of adderall. His diagnoses leans toward ADHD but since he is so young I am told it is difficult to be certain. After reading the other posts, I am apprehensive to start him on the drug. He is already so aggressive..hitting and kicking me...doing the same to teachers and kids at pre-school and from what I am getting out of others' experiences, adderall seems to not inhibit aggression. The dr says it is such a low dose and would have to be raised and "let's just try it"...I am at the end of the rope...I do feel that I have no other alternative because his behavior is having such a negative effect on his daily life.
He is so young! All the teachers say how smart he is but his behavior gets in the way of appropriate interactions w/others, be it adults or children. He is scheduled to start a new pre-school program at another facility in August...such a short time away...Is it possible to see results in a short period of time...I would appreciate any and all advice on this...I am afraid if I don't make the right choice, he won't even make it thru PRE-K!
Thanks for reading...
Hope
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I've known some kids to become more aggressive on Adderall, but not every kid reacts the same way to every med. I've also known some where it's been an absolute life saver.
Really, the only way to know how your DS will react is to try it. With a stimulant like Adderal or Ritalin, your results are almost immediate. They enter the system quickly, and leave quickly, as well (that's why multiple daily doses are sometimes needed) We started my DS on 5 mg of Ritalin. Didn't see much positive or negative with that, so within a few days we upped it to 10 mg. The results were dramatic. One day you could barely read his chicken-scratch handwriting, and the next day it was BEAUTIFUL.
I had my then-5 year old evaluated and diagnosed earlier this year, and the pyschologist who did the evaluation was pushing Straterra as a possibility. We have not started him on meds yet. For a while school was really bad, but for now he's doing great. Not sure what the difference is - maybe a little maturity, and maybe a little bit of patience or rapport-building on the teacher's part.
I would echo your doctor's sentiments of 'go ahead and try it'. But also suggest that maybe some counseling or some behavior mod techniques might also be helpful. Also, if Adderall is NOT the ticket for you, there are other meds out there that you might try. After a while the 10 mg of Ritalin (with 2 5mg 'boosters) didn't seem to be doing the trick for us, so we switched to Concerta. After some trial and error (18 mg, 36 mg, etc) we finally settled on the 27 mg dosage of Concerta.
Good luck!
Karen