re: Young kids on ADHD meds?

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Don't do it. It gave me chronic depression and suicidal thoughts everyday i took it.

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vyvanse is actually the opposite for me. I have pretty chronic depression, and vyvanse actually helps that when I am on it. I'm not saying to take it for depression or anything, just commenting on how it affects people's brain chemistry differently.

Future school shooters or irrelevant stoners

Think it can be a lot of help for adults.

My son is 5 (soon to be 6) and he was diagnosed with Autism and ADHD. My wife thought that he may need meds, but I was dead set against doping him up pre-diagnosis. We had him evaluated and were told he was high functioning autistic with ADHD. We have him in a behavioral "school" were he receives ABA therapy which has done wonders for him. Hopefully he will be ready for regular school within the next year. We didn’t give him medication for the ADHD for some time because we thought the therapy alone would be effective for both problems. My wife suggested that he may benefit from meds to control his ADHD to help him focus while in school which we hoped would lead to more improvement in his therapy. I was hesitant, but wanted to do whatever we could to help him. The school somewhat discouraged medicating him, but we went with it anyway and have seen vast improvement. He is on 40mg/day of Vyvanse and you can definitely tell when he comes down from it. It does not make him a zombie at all. Just a regular little boy.

We also have a 3 year-old daughter (soon to be 4) who can be a MAJOR PITA. She's very advanced and demanding as hell which makes it very difficult to deal my son.

Get a medical professional to evaluate your baby girl and see if they think meds will help. Give the meds a try, if they work great! If they don't or make her a zombie, re-evaluate the situation.

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It's really a tough call. We love having a joyful, fun 6 year old, but how do we know medication couldn't do wonders for her?

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I take Vyvanse but didn't start anything until after I graduated college.

I just can't imagine medicating a 7 year old for ADD/ADHD. No amount of attention or focus is going to matter at that age. If she is still having trouble in 6th or 7th grade, perhaps you should take action, but it just seems so unnecessary for a child that age.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, so perhaps you should consult one or two for different opinions.

We are rasing our grandson( he's seven) . The school wanted to hold him back a grade because of the same reason as your child. We tried everything when he was diagnosed with ADHD . We put him on the meds reluctantly . He's an honor roll student now and I haven't noticed any change in his personality except that pays attention more

IMHO I would NEVER put my children on any ADHD meds.

Sounds like your daughter is a normal kid.

Teachers have a taxing job, but too many are are perfectly fine with over-medicating if it makes their job easier. Too many parents, too.

Your first step is see a specialist for an evaluation and discuss options. The thing most on this board don't get is all kids with ADHD are different. We found the Meds to be a life saver for our son. Like night and day when it came to academic performance.

Serious question: will her school allow her to have a standing desk?

You would need to pay for it, but these have shown real promise for little kids.

Diet, exercise, etc should be priority #1

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I apologize for offending you in advance. I'm passionate about this, I was forced to take Ritalin for years as a kid. It stunted my growth, delayed facial hair until my mid 20s. Not even mentioning the physical side effects, it made me very bitter towards my parents. I didn't want to take it.

it seems like everyone wants their kids to be able to sit still in a cubicle all day. Forget that, I'd rather my son play.

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I was prescribed everything between second grade and college because I have dyslexia. The meds did nothing but make be awkward and not hungry.

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Serious question: will her school allow her to have a standing desk? You would need to pay for it, but these have shown real promise for little kids.

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I need one in my office

Having said that, there select people that they work wonders for. There is a difference between a kid with ADD and a kid that needs to run around. People with add absolutely need to take something to function.