Are stimulants affecting your teen's growth?

[Anonymous]

DC took an Adderall holiday this summer. DC grew 2 inches and gained 15 lbs. I know the growth might be part of a natural growth cycle, but I feel semi-confident that the weight gain is related to DC's enormous appetite this summer while off stimulants. DC's BMI was OK before and after the weight gain, but I think DC looks better now and performs better in sports (other than the mental/focus struggle while off medication). Is anyone else concerned that Adderall is stunting your kids' growth? Adderall has benefited DC during the school year, so I'm not jumping to stop, but I am concerned based on what I saw this summer.

[Anonymous]

Modern pharmaceuticals are contributing to huge metabolic problems and the medical establishment ignores it. I’d be less worried about suppressing growth with stimulants and more worried about the obesity that can follow when you go off them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Modern pharmaceuticals are contributing to huge metabolic problems and the medical establishment ignores it. I’d be less worried about suppressing growth with stimulants and more worried about the obesity that can follow when you go off them.

Thanks. If it were me, I would wholeheartedly agree, but DC is playing three sports, one at a national level. After the summer break, DC's BMI is still at the lower end of the average. I'm specifically worried about growth, but I realize the summer growth spurt could be a coincidence rather than a correlation.

[Anonymous]

I have often wondered if taking stimulants as a child stunted my growth. I was always in the taller subset of my peer group until I started on stimulants at which point the growth essentially fully stopped (I lost my appetite as a result of the stimulants which may have been the main cause). I paused stimulants when I was about 19 and gained weight and sprouted up an additional inch. Considering 19 was surely the last period when growth would even be possible, I often wonder what height I would have reached had I not started on stimulants so young. Just my anecdotal experience

[Anonymous]

Asthma medication is a problem too.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Loss of appetite.

[Anonymous]

Yes and this is why there is. New market for supplements that increase height in children. It’s and never ending cycle encouraged by the companies that fund the FDA, CDC, AAP etc. - feed kids crappy processed food from birth - get diseases we have never before experienced at rates never before experienced- resolve with pharmaceuticals - etc

Break the cycle with Whole Foods.

[Anonymous]

This is why our doc told house to give our child a large, protein breakfast before they take their meds (breakfast burrito filled with meat and beans, grilled chicken, even pork tenderloin), and similar for dinner. Throughout the day, snack type things.

10th grader currently 6' tall, so it must be working

[Anonymous]

Mine grew 4 inches last year, so I don’t it’s affecting him so far. He takes a small dose though and it doesn’t seem to impact his appetite.

[Anonymous]

relatives kid, yes severely. VERY scary thin and scrawny the kid looks ill, all pale. It's terrible. He looks like his growth was stunted at 11 and stayed that way. She did this to keep him skinny not for any other reason as she's struggled with her weight. Awful, just awful.

[Anonymous]

i think it is a matter of charting the growth - if the curve is following the continuous pre-meds growth curve then there is really not much of an issue. your pediatrician should be monitoring and can also share the curve w you.

i think the research shows that it does affect growth, but that the kids eventually get to where they are meant to be maybe minus half an inch.

I am fortunate that my DC is in the near 100th percentile for height as they need this medicine and a summer break is at least right now out of the question. But it's certainly crossed my mind.

[Anonymous]

It's discussed by the boys in high school. "yeah, he's real short because he has ADHD." What they mean is, he's on medication for it.

[Anonymous]

We can’t tell yet but share the same concerns. It’s the loss of appetite that concerns us. DS12 is falling in height relative to his peers but his brother did too at the same age (late puberty family) so it’s hard to tell. We give him summers and weekends off stimulates.
And now we’re looking at increasing his dose. He just completed his English standardized testing (we live in a different state) and he said he was only able do concentrate on half of the questions and had to guess on the rest because he just couldn’t anymore.

[Anonymous]

I think you can never know. But I also think everything has trade offs. If my son could have been successful without stimulants I would not have used them. But there was virtually no possibility of that. Without them he was a dismal failure and seeing how hard that was on self esteem, academic ability, sports performance, safety and so much more, the potential loss of an inch or two was the choice we felt like we had to make. If there had been some level of success without them, we may have taken breaks.

[Anonymous]

Ha! My son with ADHD who has been taking Vyvanse since K is now 6 feet tall and a varsity athlete in HS.

My other child who is not on any medications is the shortest in the class and always been sub-10 percent on the growth chart.

So clearly my personal experience does not support your theory...