If your child takes medication for ADHD, come on in.

Which one? Did you try others before you found the right one? You can fm if you feel more comfortable.

Re: If your child takes medication for ADHD, come on in.

I was on medication for my ADD but stopped when I got pregnant and haven't went back on it because I EBF. My husband has ADD as well. We are both on Adderall XR. I will share with you our experiences....

I was diagnosed right after college when a friend talked about the problems her sister had with school and something clicked. I had ALWAYS struggled with school work and college was quite the challenge for me. I went to see a psychologist and it was confirmed that I had ADD. I went home and heavily researched all the medications that they have out there and decided that I wouldn't want to be on anything besides the Adderall, it seemed like the best overall to me. Some of them could cause liver problems, etc. My dr. agreed. He put me on Adderall XR which means that it is time released. I eventually started seeing a neurologist for my ADD at the request of my regular dr because he said that they are more equipped to handle ADD, and that since I didn't have any mental health problems that it "looked better" that I saw a neurologist. I did switch and am much happier.
I started off on 10mg a day. I needed to take them as soon as I woke up at 7am or I wouldn't be able to go to sleep at night. Getting used to it was tough, I don't think I slept more than 4 hours in those first 3 days. My schedule was that I was working 9-5 m-f and took masters classes 4 days a week after school. The adderall started to wear off by then and I was put on 5mg of regular Adderall (not the XR so I wouldn't be up all night) to last me through my classes. Overtime, your body gets used to the drug and you need to increase. Before I stopped taking it, I was at 25mg a day.

My side effects... even though I was on an XR I had a lot of trouble falling asleep at night. Some nights I wouldn't sleep at all and others only 4-5 hours and it was never a deep sleep. Also, my breath was always bad because your mouth gets really dry on these meds. You need to drink a lot of water. I also lost a lot of weight. I either always felt full so I wouldn't want to eat or concentrated so much on my tasks that I wouldn't remember to eat. I got really thin but as my body adjusted I went back to a normal weight. Also, I tried not to take it on the weekends because I didn't need it. I would almost crash from not having it. I would sleep like 14 hours and be so slow and sluggish.

DH was diagnosed when he was 20. He takes it every morning. His side effects a minimal, he has the dry mouth thing going on and the not wanting to eat. He says he eats about half the amount per meal then he used to because he just gets full so much faster. He has NO trouble sleeping though. He takes the adderall at 7am and is falling asleep on the couch by 8pm but he also has espstein barr so that could be the reason why. When he doesn't take it, it's so obvious, he just isn't himself, can't even focus if we are having a conversation.

We both saw great results with the medication. I had an amazing GPA in my masters program, even tasks like driving improved for me, same with DH.

Hope this helps, feel free to FM if you need any more info.

Re: If your child takes medication for ADHD, come on in.

My DS is on a new non-stimulant medication and we are very happy with it.

Intuniv