Starting ADHD medication and staying on it. Ongoing support thread for newbies and experts including Medikinet, Equasym, Concerta, Strattera and others

[MissHavershamReturns]

Another thread to keep the support and encouragement going as we keep each other company along the journey, starting with considering trying medication for your dc and the earliest days of trying medication. Lots of help here also with potential medication switching and the path of moving up dosages until the right stopping place is found (titration).

There is an amazing pool of parent knowledge on here of the benefits of the medication, management of potential side effects, as well as practical tips on how to make taking the medication more straightforward, taking med breaks etc.

This is a really good place to read about recent medication journeys from the supportive crowd on the thread. I will answer any questions I can from my family’s ultimately positive experience with the medication, through a range of ups and downs. Should say upfront though that I have no expertise and am not an hcp, just a mum.

A really good starting place for reading about the range of drugs available and what they do from a Great Ormond Street specialist with over 40 years of experience prescribing the medication is the Parents’ Guide to ADHD Medicines, by Professor Peter Hill, which is available on Amazon. A really accessible, honest and overall reassuring read, which helped me when I was very doubtful back at the start.

The tips on diet from this NHS factsheet on managing reduced appetite in children on the meds are also really useful www.tewv.nhs.uk/about-your-care/conditions/adhd/weight-loss/ My ds was already very skinny when we started the meds, so with hindsight it would have been good to feed him up a bit so there was a bit of a buffer when he became a bit less hungry.

This is thread 2 and thread 1 can be found here: www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_needs/4466553-Starting-Medikinet-any-experts-around?page=38. I’ve posted my path with my dc from starting meds through to the end of titration here, as have many knowledgeable mumsnetters, so it’s a good place to read back to see a range of ways that meds journeys can unfold.

Looking forward to thread 2!

Ooh @NurseP that’s amazing to read!! How wonderful that there’s been so much progress!

Now that’s a story and a half - the ehcp process!! My daughter has extensive special needs and we had to take the la to tribunal to even get a needs assessment. Total process 22 months to final ehcp. Now going back to tribunal to appeal everything in it….

@Starlightstargazer it’s great to hear from you and I hope soon there will be something to report by way of change and that the next meds will be better. Stay with us on the next thread and keep us posted on what you try next

@Starlightstargazer maybe that’s what I should have put in my op for the next thread - brace yourself if you apply for an EHCP. No wonder we need the parental wellbeing book I recommended

I hope to see you all on the other side

The other thread, not the afterlife

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_needs/4800866-starting-adhd-medication-and-staying-on-it-ongoing-support-thread-for-newbies-and-experts-including-medikinet-equasym-concerta-strattera-and-others?page=38

Nearly at 40

See you on the other thread 🤣 not the afterlife!

I always do this too soon!

I'll help!

Excellent. Across the River Styx

Thank you so much

It thinks I’m a spammer so I keep getting paused from posting!!!

I'm also keen to talk EHCPs on the next thread. As that is where we are going!

I can’t actually quite believe this is two years of these threads

@WesternEasterner it’s such a treadmill isn’t it - dx, meds, DLA, EHCP

Really wish we had got an EHCP when ds was 3! As we should have done

Almost there now

Ok so

I must have been here nearly a year!!!

@MissHavershamReturns - I can’t believe we are almost onto another thread! I can’t thank you enough for starting this and spearheading it. It has made me feel less desperate and definitely less alone. x

I think that my resolution for the next thread should be better self care

@Hels20 thank you for your lovely words. Honestly I’ve felt so much less alone too. There might only be a few of us in every school but we can come together here and share.

@WesternEasterner Wow! That’s a long stint!!