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Thanks Cil for that...I was hoping anyone had any first hand experience with it? I have read many articles too, but I wanted to find real experiences....
We finally dumped all ADD prescribed meds due to side effects. My son for years has been doing spectacular on a LOW sugar HIGH protein diet, fish oil & vitamin daily supplement and an all natural pill called ATTEND. Even our doctors were thrilled. His liver was tested & it's 100% safe. Mostly cutting out sugars helped & the protein first thing in the morning is awesome. Eggs,pizza, bacon,grill cheese. Anything high in protein. No donuts, cheap cereals or JUNK! He can still have a weekend poptart but that is his ONLY sugar fix that day. He learned to live with bananas & peanut butter & feels GREAT! Grades went up & he's sooooooo relaxed. Good luck! Oh and just google ATTEND if it interests you.
My nephew used the diet described above by Coyote Blond and it helped alot. He did not have the pill Attend though. He is now 11 and had to go onto the Adderall as the diet was not enough to keep him in class. Adderall works well and he has little in side effects. My 41 yr old husband just started on Straterra because his doctor feels it has the least amount of side effects and is a new "non-stimulant" medicine. It has done wonders for him. He wanted the Adderall at first because a sample day showed tremendous improvement. He is now happy he went with Straterra since it takes longer to take affect and he won't crash if he forgets his pill. It is also less addictive. He only takes it once a day and that is nice because Adderall has a morning pill and then another in the afternoon for many. You can always stop the medicine but you won't know if it is better for him or not if you don't try it. My husband was floored when he saw what life was supposed to feel like compared to what it used to feel like. He does wake at 3 or 4 am but for him it is a small price to pay. Good luck to you. It is an odd thing but can be managed well.
I might mention on ATTEND there are NO SIDE EFFECTS! And do not confuse it with FOCUS. But whatever works for him and such good luck! Oh and, unfortunately you will have to be his 100% advocate because teachers are not required to attend any type of updates or courses about ADD or ADHD beyond their initial degree. They tend to mainstream and think hands on is enough experience! Look online for discussions & advice from other parents.
I was hoping anyone had any first hand experience with it? I have read many articles too, but I wanted to find real experiences....
I'm guessing we were like you. We knew there was something wrong with our son and once he entered 2nd grade the school agreed. So I took him to be diagnosed. They had him do all kinds of test and determined he is ADHD. The doctor perscribed Adderall XR and started him at 5mg raising it until his teachers and we agreed that it seem to be working (that is when he was doing his school work). Here were our problems: He wanted to sleep all the time that he was home. He was having major mood swings, it was hard to live with him. His appetite increased some but not enough to do the damage it did, he began to put on a massive amount of weight to the point that they increased his dosage to the max for a ten year old (40 mg). Then they started talking on the news about children suffering with heart attacks and blamed it on Adderall. We immediately started taking him off by decreasing the mg. every day until we got him down to 5mg and we stopped.
Our son is 14 now, he's 6'2", but the bad thing is he weighs 300 lbs. We had been working on his weight with doctors and not seeing any results. We stopped that because they to kept putting him on stimulants in order to bring the weight down and they all seemed to increase his appetite. He would sneak into the kitchen at night and eat while we slept. Now there are no meds and we all watch the amount of food we eat plus walk a lot. He has lost weight but it is taking a lot longer to get it off than it did for him to gain. But at least now, he isn't sneaking food and we don't have that awful temper to put up with.
I definately would not use Adderall or any other stimulant that is considered a controlled substance.
We work with him on his studies and he is learning to control his ADHD. But that along with changing his diet to high protein has made a huge difference and we have our son back. Happy, not moody. I'm not saying his grades are the best in the world, but he is passing and he understands what he is being taught. It's hard on us at times to keep him focused but he has reached an age where money talks! LOL
My son's on ATTEND because it's natural & those other meds were terrifying! Side effects UGH! Basically low sugar, high protein & restocking his inner shelves so to speak with vitamins (fish oil) & other natural supplements PLUS a regular daily schedule has changed his life. Within a week we saw a HUGE HUGE difference just by altering a few things. And yes, he has severe ADD. Most people cannot tell now. Yay us!
I'm guessing we were like you. We knew there was something wrong with our son and once he entered 2nd grade the school agreed. So I took him to be diagnosed. They had him do all kinds of test and determined he is ADHD. The doctor perscribed Adderall XR and started him at 5mg raising it until his teachers and we agreed that it seem to be working (that is when he was doing his school work). Here were our problems: He wanted to sleep all the time that he was home. He was having major mood swings, it was hard to live with him. His appetite increased some but not enough to do the damage it did, he began to put on a massive amount of weight to the point that they increased his dosage to the max for a ten year old (40 mg). Then they started talking on the news about children suffering with heart attacks and blamed it on Adderall. We immediately started taking him off by decreasing the mg. every day until we got him down to 5mg and we stopped.
Our son is 14 now, he's 6'2", but the bad thing is he weighs 300 lbs. We had been working on his weight with doctors and not seeing any results. We stopped that because they to kept putting him on stimulants in order to bring the weight down and they all seemed to increase his appetite. He would sneak into the kitchen at night and eat while we slept. Now there are no meds and we all watch the amount of food we eat plus walk a lot. He has lost weight but it is taking a lot longer to get it off than it did for him to gain. But at least now, he isn't sneaking food and we don't have that awful temper to put up with.
I definately would not use Adderall or any other stimulant that is considered a controlled substance.
We work with him on his studies and he is learning to control his ADHD. But that along with changing his diet to high protein has made a huge difference and we have our son back. Happy, not moody. I'm not saying his grades are the best in the world, but he is passing and he understands what he is being taught. It's hard on us at times to keep him focused but he has reached an age where money talks! LOL
Goodness - what an experience! Is he healthy otherwise - thyroid ok, no diabetes or any other endocrine issues to account for the weight issues now that he is off the meds.? Does he like sports at all - swimming, track, baseball, etc.? My 30 y/o daughter has ADD - it was diagnosed when she was in middle school. The child psychiatrist suggested that she do video games ( ) - something about how it helps with attentiveness and staying on track. Since she'd been swimming for years, she continued with it and NOT the games. Good luck to you, especially through these next few years - teenagers are definitely not for the faint-of-heart!
Goodness - what an experience! Is he healthy otherwise - thyroid ok, no diabetes or any other endocrine issues to account for the weight issues now that he is off the meds.? Does he like sports at all - swimming, track, baseball, etc.? My 30 y/o daughter has ADD - it was diagnosed when she was in middle school. The child psychiatrist suggested that she do video games ( ) - something about how it helps with attentiveness and staying on track. Since she'd been swimming for years, she continued with it and NOT the games. Good luck to you, especially through these next few years - teenagers are definitely not for the faint-of-heart!
His blood sugar went up while he was on adderall and they had put him on medicine for that. Once we took him off and started watching his sugar intake more (pasta, bread, etc.) it dropped. Now he takes nothing. We to are just watching his diet. And no he isn't athletic yet. He is too embarrassed by his weight. Although he does get exercise playing with the boys living around us. We are hoping by the end of summer he will lose enough to build up self esteem. We are in the works of putting in a pool. That is one of the best ways to exercise and you don't even realize it while you're doing it!
Thanks for asking that was really sweet of you!
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We weaned our son off of it a year ago.
I definately would not use Adderall or any other stimulant that is considered a controlled substance.
I'm not saying his grades are the best in the world, but he is passing and he understands what he is being taught. It's hard on us at times to keep him focused but he has reached an age where money talks! LOL 
) - something about how it helps with attentiveness and staying on track. Since she'd been swimming for years, she continued with it and NOT the games. Good luck to you, especially through these next few years 
- teenagers are definitely not for the faint-of-heart! 
he isn't athletic yet. He is too embarrassed by his weight. Although he does get exercise playing with the boys living around us. We are hoping by the end of summer he will lose enough to build up self esteem. We are in the works of putting in a pool. That is one of the best ways to exercise and you don't even realize it while you're doing it! 
