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!

I just worked out my son has taken over 26,000 mg of methylphenidate over the last two years

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_needs/5057892-starting-adhd-medication-and-staying-on-it-ongoing-support-thread-for-newbies-and-experts-including-medikinet-equasym-concerta-strattera-and-others

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_needs/5057892-starting-adhd-medication-and-staying-on-it-ongoing-support-thread-for-newbies-and-experts-including-medikinet-equasym-concerta-strattera-and-others

Would be interested to hear if anyone has struggled to get DLA. I don’t know anyone yet who has been refused for a child with ADHD, although I’m sure it must happen

Some final thoughts then! I think I’ve learned a lot over the last two years. I’ve gone from being terrified of medication to much more confident, but for us we need breaks and a carefully calorific diet

I also have an unmedicated dc with ADHD and I’m not sure if we might revisit that in future.

i just need to make this post now

It used to be much easier to do this but now they clearly have checks to stop you

Lots of socks, sensory stuff, learning on the job about what’s scratchy

Ignore all the ADHD is over diagnosed posse

What do they know!

Unless they are medics, researchers, I’m not sure how they would know

Posts post Posty posting away down the thread

Almost there finally

On we go to the end

can I do one more post to take us a bit further

A couple of random thoughts so I don’t trigger the multiple post blocker, ADHD is very different to how I used to think it would be before my dc was dx. I thought it meant climbing the walls. I had no concept of inattentive ADHD at all

My oldest is combined type but also has ASD

Right on the home straight now. I’m pretty sure I have ADHD myself

Posting a few words to get us up to 1,000

Only five more posts to go now until the end

Actually four more to go and I’m determined not to get placed into no post mode again

ADHD meds are really powerful for sooo many kids

Thanks for another amazing thread all!!

Please come over to thread three….

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_needs/5057892-starting-adhd-medication-and-staying-on-it-ongoing-support-thread-for-newbies-and-experts-including-medikinet-equasym-concerta-strattera-and-others