My DD was also on this medication for quite some time and we did see a lot of benefits but we had to take her off of it this year (age 10) because the doctor wanted her to gain some body fat for puberty. She was between 3-5th percentile while on the medication and now is at about 7th 8 months out. Obviously not a huge difference but she does eat more and will sometimes even ask for food which NEVER happened before. Just wanted to share our story and let you know you are not alone.

If it is a known side effect, can you check to see if there is any appetite stimulant that might be given to children?

Losing weight seems like a lot to go through to have a kid on medications. This is not a parenting failure, it's a medication failure.

OP, I feel for you. I have a FTT child who eventually gained enough weight to start ADHD medication when he was 8. The FTT years were tough, but adding medication was, in some ways, worse than having a baby in the house. My son would eat in the morning, but, I had to sit with him - and I actually had to sit with him and sometimes feed him all the time. Then he went all day until about 8 pm before he'd put a single other thing in his mouth. He either never felt hungry or didn't respond to the feeling of hunger. From 8 on, into the middle of the night, I'd be feeding him. On top of this, he hated the feeling of food in his mouth and there were few foods that he would eat. There was no joy in food in our house. At one point, his doctor told me that if my son would eat, I had to respond, no matter when it happened, day or night. So, when my son woke me during the night, I had to get up and make food. If my son had lost weight, he would have had to give up the medication, and he was seriously disfunctional without it. So, it was really a high pressure situation for me to keep weight on.

Good luck.

OP here. Food and sensing hunger has always been an issue with DS. He's extremely picky about the appearance and texture of food. Loss of appetite is a known side effect of strattera and so far the only side effect we've seen. I posted separately about pursuing a neuro psych evaluation.

Right now he eats mostly healthy food and we try to add calories where we can but he literally doesn't feel hunger like most people. His dad is actually the same way. He can go a day or more without eating and not feel hungry.

Strattera had the same affect on my dc. We took him off the meds every summer. It also made him so tired that we kept reducing his dose. We've taken him completely off the med for a year and his growth spurt was amazing. He eats non stop now.

OP: sometimes ADHD is co-morbid with Sensory Processing Disorder. One of the ways SPD showed up in my DS was that he really could not sense when he was hungry or full. How much food did your child eat before? Yes, the drugs do supress appetite, but was this an issue previously?

If it was, here is what we used to do: I would tell my son to eat one forkful (a full one) or bite for every year of his age plus one "to grow on". Having a goal seemed to work. He ate at least what was expected and once he started eating, he ate more. It doesn't sound like much, but doing it 3 times a day kept him gaining weight albeit slowly. Most of the food was high protein - eggs, meat, cheese macaroni. If he could still eat more, he got fruit for dessert.

Can you skip the drugs on weekends and fill him up with calories then?

I know ADHD meds are associated with eight loss and nutrition issues and growth issues. Is Strattera one of these drugs? Can you try lowering the dose of Strattera or discontinuing and see if his appetite improves? Battles over food can have lasting consequences I would think.

Is there resistance at every meal? Many people I know have the kids eat hearty breakfasts and lunches b/c by dinner they're not all that hungry.

We have not noticed a change in appetite with 7 year old DS on Straterra. Could it be other factors?

Is he in school? Does he eat better around peers?

He's 6.5 and on strattera.

I'm now a protein shake pusher ... lol. More seriously .. Our scale isn't very precise so I hadn't realized he lost until our appointment yesterday. Unfortunately eating has been such a struggle for so long that we've both become entrenched. I push, he resists. But if I don't push then he doesn't eat or he has a couple of bites and says he's full. It's lose lose.

How old is your child OP? Are there medications involved? You are not a failure.

I feel like a parenting failure.