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Medications
Cindy; My son is now 9 and has been taking Concerta for 2 years now. He's had the common side effects, not sleeping and barely eating. We're now finding he's a bit emmotional when the meds are wearing off in the evening. The sleep problem was much worse in the first week or so after he started on the medication, but has improved since, and he's now more times than not getting to sleep at a reasonable time for him. As far as eating goes, its hit and miss for lunch, most days he eats everything, some days not. We've pushed out family dinner time out a while 6:30 to 7, so he's feeling hungry and will sit still long enough to eat. The emmotional issues are farely new, so we haven't got a handle on them just yet. We still have a host of other ADD related issues we are dealing with that medication can't 'FIX', like self esteem and social skills. While the meds won't deal with those problems directly, they certainly help overcome some of the things that contribute to them. We lucked out having the first medication we tried work well for our son. We've had to increase his dosage a couple times, since we did the opposite of what some other people seem to do, starting with a high dosage and work down. Our son started with the lowest dosage, which eventually did little to help him. But, as many others will tell you, you may have to try something, then something else, and so on until you find what works best for your own kid. It will probably involve more than just medication. You might need to establish routines and modify family schedules, add in some counciling and of course education. Educate yourself and others that will need to invest in your daughter's future. We've never gone for any of the holistic treatments, but I'm always looking for things we can do that might lower our/his dependance on medication. I'm not so much affraid of him taking medication as I am of him one day waking up and saying "I'm 18 and I choose not to take the medication anymore." We'd like to be a little bit prepared for that possability by learning how to better cope with a life without the help of medication. So, I read up on some things with an open mind, but always with caution. One rule I've set for myself, stop reading something (unless I have time to waste and might need a good laugh) if the author of an article goes out of their way to bash 'medications' or the companies that make them, or says anything like 'its safe because its natural'. When I hear that phrase I always laugh and think, water is natural and drowning is a natural reaction to filling your lungs with it, obviously an extreme example but it disproves their point non-the-less. Good luck with finding the best way to help your daughter.
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14 Apr 2008 @ 12:21 PM
14 Apr 2008 @ 1:03 PM