Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 5yo recently started a low dose of a stimulant to treat his adhd. It has been very helpful behaviorally. However, he is not hungry at lunchtime (when the short acting were trialing is wearing off) and he has apparently been emotional not wanting to be unlike his peers and not eating.

I obviously just want him to eat. I make sure he eats a big meal before and after school and before bed, but is there anything that worked for other parents to help the appetite suppression, at school in particular? Is this a normal side effect we should live with or would another drug be better?

I would keep an eye on the emotionality--it's possible it's more about the medication wearing off than about lunch, and you might want to try something with a bit of an extended release so that the medication leaves his system more slowly than the short acting one you're trying now. He probably still won't be hungry at lunch time, so at least you've gotten some good ideas on that!

Just a guess--so much of medication management is trial and error.

Totally agree with this! While the appetite suppression is here to stay w/r/t stimulants the emotionality is more likely a sign of the med wearing off midday. Try extended release.

For the lunch itself it is going to become more a snack - he might need a bigger dinner or an extra snack later in the day to make up for it. I personally would not go the nutritional shakes route. We saw some undesireable weight gain with that.

I swear mine lived on Orgain. Had a case at the nurse and when she went in to take her noon pill, she gulped one down. Anything else she ate at lunch was a bonus.
We chose Orgain as it has vegetable and fruit concentrates in it as well as protein. Kid still drinks it in college.

I work in a school…many, many kids don’t eat lunch, even if they aren’t on meds. They talk too much or are having too much fun with friends. So, some of this problem is environmental and hard to solve.

That said…for my kid on stimulants, who stopped growing and fell off all of their growth curves, we just sent in whatever they were willing to eat. Cookies, milk, chips, favorite fruit. We didn’t care, as long as it wasn’t candy and it had calories and some fat. We were a little embarrassed about it, so we explained the issue to the teacher. We also asked the teacher to allow our kid to eat snacks if they asked to eat something.

Eventually for us, though, the only thing that worked was adding an appetite stimulant. And then when they gained weight but not height, it turned out that they had stopped growing because of a growth hormone problem, which we sort of missed because we thought it was just an eating/calories issue.

Never a dull moment when your kids have special needs!!!

Anonymous wrote:Why is he emotional at lunch? Are you sure it’s the medicine or could it be anxiety?

Op here- didn’t expect to see this post pop back in. Yes, he definitely had anxiety. We’re seeing a new doctor soon as we haven’t been thrilled with his current care.

Why is he emotional at lunch? Are you sure it’s the medicine or could it be anxiety?

The red flag here is that he is sad not to be hungry like his peers. For that reason I’d ask about changing the dose or med. Maybe you can even retry this med in a year or two since it’s working otherwise and kids grow so fast. Just my two cents because having taken these meds and also known others, a big part of what becomes dramatic and difficult is when kids start to resent the medication. It makes them so much more resistant to interventions that may help them. At minimum, show them you take this seriously and are willing to try new things.

I hope this is helpful bc I know it is stressful to decide what’s right.

Anonymous wrote:My 5yo recently started a low dose of a stimulant to treat his adhd. It has been very helpful behaviorally. However, he is not hungry at lunchtime (when the short acting were trialing is wearing off) and he has apparently been emotional not wanting to be unlike his peers and not eating.

I obviously just want him to eat. I make sure he eats a big meal before and after school and before bed, but is there anything that worked for other parents to help the appetite suppression, at school in particular? Is this a normal side effect we should live with or would another drug be better?

I would keep an eye on the emotionality--it's possible it's more about the medication wearing off than about lunch, and you might want to try something with a bit of an extended release so that the medication leaves his system more slowly than the short acting one you're trying now. He probably still won't be hungry at lunch time, so at least you've gotten some good ideas on that!

Just a guess--so much of medication management is trial and error.

1) Get the child into therapy so they can work to process the feelings. This is the most important thing.
2) Don't force anyone to eat when they aren't hungry.
3)Have good healthy food around for when the medication wears off.

Our child ends up not eating at school but eats a full meal when they come home and the meds wear off. It is 100% fine.

I went through this. Have a head full of gray hair to prove it. Supply your child with what they love. For mine it was chicken nuggets, mini corn dogs, Subway turkey or tuna on wheat and what ever fruit or vegetable he would eat. Sometimes he would eat, most time he wouldn't. Most times he ate his lunch after school in the car on the way home. For mine is was more than the meds being a suppressant, he was to shy to eat in pubic.