Low dose stimulants

[Anonymous]

Has anyone gone with low dose stimulants?
Thinking that side effects would be less.
Also, I don't want a perfect child, just a slight improvement would be fine for us.

[Anonymous]

My 7 year old is on a 27 mg dose of Concerta, which is pretty low. She does beautifully on it with no side effects other than some appetite suppressant during the day. We are about to start meds for my older DD for primarily inattentive. The doctor wants to see how she does on a 20 mg long acting for the school day and a short acting only as needed on weekends. She is almost 13 and weighs 90 pounds, so that is a pretty low dose.

[Anonymous]

Yes for weekends and evenings where there is sports practice but low dose would never get my son through a school day. Obviously we do t have a situation where slight improvement will cut it.

[Anonymous]

I am thinking the same thing OP.

[Anonymous]

My 9 year old takes 10 mg. of Metadate CD. We've seen improvement. I think a higher dose might show more improvement, but Im not sure I want to experiment. We see the developmental pedi in a few weeks so we will discuss.

[Anonymous]

We're starting on 5mg of Focalin because we were told it's the shortest-acting (getting through a school day but no longer).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're starting on 5mg of Focalin because we were told it's the shortest-acting (getting through a school day but no longer).

Any appetite or sleep side effects?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're starting on 5mg of Focalin because we were told it's the shortest-acting (getting through a school day but no longer).

Any appetite or sleep side effects?

Not the PP, but we used low dose of stimulants for years. Due to the way my son metabolized them, the medication didn't even get him through the school day - we were able to adjust his schedule so that the classes where he needed intense focus were taught when the medication was most effective (thanks to the IEP). We did see both sleep and appetite side effects. My son age almost nothing between breakfast and after dinner. Then he would eat voraciously. Also, he had some difficulty sleeping, especially in the beginning. But, only occasionally did it take more than a half hour or hour to fall asleep.

[Anonymous]

We used Quillivant for a while and may start up again. It's a liquid Methylphenidate - quite new - and lasts for about 8-10 hours. We were giving our 8 year old about 3mL each morning (which equates to 15 mg). That is a pretty low does...the nice thing about being a liquid is that you can adjust the dosage slightly to figure out exactly what works best for your child.
For her, that dosage got her through the school day but pretty much wore off by the time she got home. She would't eat at all at school but ate pretty much all afternoon. Even though it seemed to have worn off, she still had a lot of trouble falling asleep though, so that was frustrating, and part of the reason we haven't started again this school year. It also really exacerbated her anxiety and nervous habits, which is a side effect any stimulant can have.
The other alternative is a non-stimulant (like Strattera?) but we haven't tried that yet - scared of those possible side effects too. Wish there was a perfect solution!! Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Our son is 10 yrs and about 75 lbs (I think...it's been a while since we've checked and he's growing like weed). We do 15 mg of Focalin on school days, and 5 or 10 mg on weekends/holidays depending on what activities are on the agenda. Loss of appetite is apparent only when he's on 15mg, but like someone else said, it wears off soon after the school day is done, at which time I have to have a food trough ready to go. Last year we could have gotten away with 10 mg on school days IF the teacher had been well-positioned to help us with a rigorous behavior management program. It wasn't the teacher's fault, but circumstances made that impossible, and since the side effects are close to NIL, we decided to keep him on 15. This year, I feel like the 15 is the exact right amount for him - not too much, not too little. I do wish it would last a little bit longer to help get through homework!

[Anonymous]

My 9 yo dd takes 30 mg of Metadate daily. She is tall and weighs 69#. She seems like she's not having any bad side efx, except for a little appetite suppression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9 yo dd takes 30 mg of Metadate daily. She is tall and weighs 69#. She seems like she's not having any bad side efx, except for a little appetite suppression.

...Sorry, she's 10. Oops!