Talk with your clinician about whether a trial on an alpha agonist might be helpful. The medications guanfacine and clonidine are FDA-approved to lower the hyper-active component of ADHD and can be very effective for both hyperarousal during the day and sleep problems at night. The standard response when this happens is to directly lower the hyperarousal component of ADHD using medications called alpha agonists. Sometimes even the stimulant medications are not strong enough to overcome the severe restlessness that sometimes comes with ADHD. You should be able to remedy this problem simply by continuing with the extra evening dose. If your child goes right to sleep, it’s a safe bet that her sleeplessness has been caused by a lack of medication. Have your child take an additional dose of her usual stimulant around 8:00 p.m. To find out, you’ll have to do a little trial-and-error: Pick an evening when sleeplessness is unlikely to prove disastrous (that is, when your child can sleep late the following morning). There’s no easy way to tell which of these scenarios explains your child’s sleep problem. They feel restless, hear every sound, and find it impossible to “turn off” their brain. That is, once the last dose of the day wears off, these children return to “being” ADHD. But other kids are kept awake at night by a lack of medication. Side Effect: Sleeplessnessįor some kids, difficulty falling asleep is truly a side effect of stimulant medication. If switching stimulants doesn’t help, ask your doctor about moving on to a non-stimulant. For reasons that remain poorly understood, some children who experience a loss of appetite while taking one stimulant medication experience no such loss on another. If these approaches don’t work, ask your doctor about trying a different stimulant. They can be made into milk shakes or frozen to make pops. These tasty beverages, such as Pediasure and Ensure, come in different flavors. Then give the third dose.ĭoes your child eat lots of sweets? If so, getting him to cut back should boost his appetite for more nutritious fare.Īnother way to make sure your child is getting adequate nutrition is to offer a food supplement drink instead of nutritionally empty snacks - or in place of a meal that is likely to go uneaten. (During this time, you’ll have to provide more structure and supervision - and don’t expect homework to be done.) Your child’s appetite may return in time for dinner. So instead of worrying about what gets eaten at lunch, create nutritional “windows of opportunity” at other times of the day.įor example, get a good, healthful breakfast into your child before the first dose of the day kicks in. There may be little you can do to boost your child’s appetite in the middle of the day (when medication is at maximum effectiveness). Your child probably becomes very hungry around 8:00 p.m., when the evening dose wears off. Lunch is likely to be a lost cause, nutrition-wise. Breakfast often goes well because the first dose of the day hasn’t yet kicked in. If the problem persists, don’t delay taking action - especially if the appetite loss is severe enough to trigger decrease in total body mass, or, in a growing child, failure to grow appropriately.įirst, observe your child’s eating patterns. This problem often clears up on its own within a few weeks, so I usually recommend a wait-and-see approach. Side Effect: Loss of AppetiteĪlong with difficulty falling asleep at night (see below), loss of appetite is the most common side effect of stimulant meds. Methylphenidate ( Ritalin), dextro-amphetamine ( Dexedrine, Evekeo), and dextro-amphetamine/levo-amphetamine (Adderall, Adzenys) have similar side-effect profiles, and the strategies that curb side effects for one medication generally work for the other two, as well. What Are the ADHD Medication Side Effects for Stimulants? Tell your doctor what you are doing - to see what additional help he or she can provide. Try the strategies with your own child, or yourself. In this article, I’ll explain the strategies that I’ve found particularly effective at controlling ADHD medication side effects in children - which, by the way, also work for adults with ADHD. Often, a simple adjustment in the way a medication is used is all it takes to remedy the problem. No one should have to put up with side effects of ADHD meds. Some people (including more than a few doctors) seem to assume that ADHD medication side effects are merely the price to pay for taking a prescription. But ADHD medications can also make things worse and cause severe side effects, including headaches, sleep problems, and a blunted appetite. The right ADHD medication can make life much easier for children and adults who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD).
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