ds much worse suddenly -- experience with ADHD medication

[pr40]

We thought we were almost out of the woods last spring when ds8 had his first exacerbation in some time.

summer was difficult -- moody, irritable, by himself -- and last two weeks have been . he is very aggressive and has almost no self control. there was no specific illness we can point to as a start of the most recent downturn. the only thing I can think of is chocolate which we avoided in the past and suddenly introduced.

 

We did not change his treatment at all -- he is on long term abx, many supplements, and gluten and casine free diet. My thoughts are going now toward ADAH medication and I wanted to ask if you all have experience with it and what kind. why and why not?

 

[qannie47]

My kids did the genoomind gene_cept dna test. It was not expensive. It will tell you by type/brand that your child will react best too. I would do this first.

I am not sure how well stimulants would work when flaring..however...if impulse control is a major problem than they could be helpful.

[MomWithOCDSon]

If you child has any anxiety-type PANDAS/PANs behaviors, I would be wary of stimulants; our psych felt those were a bad mix with anxiety, tending to increase it, generally.

 

We tried one of the non-stimulant meds for a short period with our DS when he was a little older than yours -- around 8th grade: Intuniv. Straterra is another one. We initially thought it was helping his attention somewhat, but it really lowered his blood pressure at times, so he would get dragged out by the end of the day; he had to have snacks on hand. Anyway, after about 3 months of taking it, we re-assessed it, and no one -- not DS, not us, not his teachers -- could really see an palpable difference with it, so we stopped it. Never went back, as his behaviors improved all the way around as his health returned.

 

Good luck to you!

[Wombat140]

If you're suspecting it might possibly be chocolate, I assume you've tried cutting out chocolate for a bit to see if that does it, before getting on to other options?

Failing that, good luck!

Edited December 15, 2015 by Wombat140