Minimum Age For ADHD medication.

QuirkyFriend said:

If he's on paediasure he's seeing a dietitian already.

Hopefully so but it is available without prescription in Boots.

The good news is that you can mix up to 5 ml of oil in 1 TBSP yoghurt before things start getting suspicious (yep, we checked). Get a non flavoured one that gives at least 1000mg of omega 3 per 5 ml, aiming for 500mg per day

The main thing is with all these interventions, they work for some kids and not for others.

My own experience as an ND adult is Omega 3 oils only have worked for me when I've not been anaemic and that means they've only worked since my early 40s when my current GP was confident enough to decide the hormones and anaemia were a worse risk for depression than the risk incurred by use of the oral contraceptive pill over the age of 35.

My SO is also ND and the only thing fish oil does for him is to give him fishy burps ;)

The Equazen chew/capsules arrived. He won't chew them properly... bites them and bursts them all over his hands and face haha... so before I read your post I burst a few into a munch bunch yogurt (it seems we think alike haha), but he doesn't eat every bit of it so that's not a permanent solution.

He takes liquid well kid vitamins in a syringe, so I'm thinking that's the way forward. I was going to get Equazen Eye Q in liquid format, but then I noticed some bad reviews on Amazon from people with autistic children. So I'm trying to work out what liquid one is the best to use that I think he'd take.

You can get omega 3 oils made from algae that are much easier to hide in munch bunch yogurt. If you do want to try omega 3 there is a recommended dose per kg to try, I would have to look it up!

If he's on paediasure he's seeing a dietitian already.

My quick eyeball look suggested that I'd cook the hell out of some carrot rounds, cool them and serve them alongside banana rounds...

I'd also try sneaking in some high quality meat sausage (get a butcher to make them if needed, so they were very plain)

Chris, don't worry about the sugar in paediasure, it's not that high, it's sweet because they use an enzyme to reduce the lactose and the two sugars from the breakdown process are roughly 1.8 X the sweetness profile of regular sugar.

NAS24356 said:

his diet is so limited that I can't resort to food elimination too much, I even give him Pediasure shakes to help him get the protein and vitamins he needs, although I think they have a fair bit of sugar. His diet is very limited as it is... Sausage Rolls, Cocktail Sausages, Munch bunch yogurt, Rice Cakes, Peanut butter on bread, bananas... White, Beige, Yellow and Brown coloured foods

I think you should keep a food diary for a week and then consult a dietitian that understands autistic kids. 

Go back to a potty if toilet sitting is trouble. Seriously, I know lots of autistic kids who worry they are going to fall in. It also allows a better position for gravity assistance which is working if he's pooing a few minutes after :-)

Also consider a sparkly shiney toy only used for toilet sessions...bribery but justified.

I found a couple of great BSL dictionaries online that will give you sign language to try. In my experience use them as single words and reinforce with the spoken word. Eventually it will connect.

It's hard to know where to start but focusing on toileting using all the tools, visual reminders, sign etc is a great start

QF,

Thanks for the informative reply. I assume my sons pediatrician won't prescribe the ADHD meds anyway due to his age. The vitamins Jo mentioned look worth trying, with fish oils helping brain function and a number of people reviewing them saying them help with their child's behavior etc

I need to learn more about bringing up a child with Autism, got a lot of other stuff going on in life at the moment so hard to make time... but that should be changing soon.

He's being assessed by the councils special education team at the moment. He's on Pathway 1, which is for children with Complex needs. They've not decided to do his EHCP yet, which is a statement declaring what support he'll require at school. But anyone who's seen him says they will agree to do it when they have all the evidence they need... so when he goes to school I guess his education should be more extensive.

But I will work a lot harder at it myself... in terms of toilet training. He hates sitting on the toilet. I try to time it after he's eaten... I even give him a spinning toy such as a fidget spinner or helicopter for sitting there. But it's like he holds it in, and two minutes after being taken off the toilet, his nappies full.

I'll persevere though... eventually it'll sink in.

Thanks,

Chris

Thanks everyone, I appreciate all your views. With my son, his diet is so limited that I can't resort to food elimination too much, I even give him Pediasure shakes to help him get the protein and vitamins he needs, although I think they have a fair bit of sugar. His diet is very limited as it is... Sausage Rolls, Cocktail Sausages, Munch bunch yogurt, Rice Cakes, Peanut butter on bread, bananas... White, Beige, Yellow and Brown coloured foods basically.

He eats sweets, but its not good for his gut...I give him them because his little face lights up when he sees them. But I've cut them out to infrequent amounts now as obviously the sugar makes him worse than usual. But still the symptoms persist. He refuses to drink water on it's own, and will often wait until he is "very" thirsty before taking it... he takes diluting juice, which might actually be exacerbating his ADHD. So I'll try to cut it out more too.

Those Vitamins that Jo mentioned are coming tomorrow, I'll need to try those, and if he doesn't take them, then the liquid form of them as I can usually get him to take liquid vitamins with a syringe... I'll build it up in his system to see if it helps.

He's getting harder to handle out in public now... I can handle him, but my wife struggles... the thing with kids with ASD/ADHD is they often look normal, my son is quite a cute little boy with strawberry blonde hair, you wouldn't know he's autistic looking at him, until you observe his behavior and lack of speech... so I'm often conscious that other people will be assuming he's just badly behaved. Although I've not had anyone say anything to us, despite some scowling looks... maybe it's because I'm an 18 stone lump... I'm not an easy target haha

Fair point, a balanced diet needs to be maintained at all times.

If doing food eliminations only do it supervised by a dietitian. Often ASD children are already nutritionally compromised by sensory issues and elimination diets can worsen matters. I had to supervise a colleague through a serious case review when a child with autism was identified by this dietitian as developing vision loss from vitamin A deficiency at a first appointment after 5 years of unsupervised dietary interventions

Sound advice from QuirkyFriend. One thing that you can do at any age is try to work out if any foods have a positive or negative effect on his behaviour. There are some additives which are widely linked with poor behaviour (the orange colouring in some drinks) but also some other foods (e.g. green apples and other fruits) that some people are intolerant of.

Hi Chris, the reason to delay ADHD meds as long as possible are two fold

1) they are appetite suppressant and the younger the child the greater the risk of low appetite affecting growth. It's the commonest reason for ceasing meds 

2) Even older kids struggle to give useful feedback on how they feel on medication. Observing calmer behaviour could be a good drug response or it could be a child feeling unwell on the meds.

Having said this if there's discussion about not starting meds then you need to ask for assistance on a behavioural program... totally get how exhausting a wired kid is and I'm dealing with teens! We attended a course (we are in NZ) on behaviour strategies and we are already getting benefits...and this is with teens.

With behavioural programs you need to be a bit of a detective. There will be some things that hold his attention. What are they? Use them and visual prompts in learning e.g. a poo chart with a reward for sitting after a meal on the potty with a something that interests him (e.g. a spinning toy) for a few minutes and a reward for a poo.

If he's non-verbal consider using BSL so he can connect the visual sign for a poo and the action. Likely you will have to use the sign several dozen times but with luck he will eventually use it to tell you he needs one!

Hi Jo,

Thanks for the reply. I've just bought 60 chewable capsules of those vitamins to try them with my son, he loves sweets so hopefully he thinks they're sweets and eats them. If he takes them I'll buy more... I see multiple Amazon reviews from people who have children with ASD/ADHD saying they helped.

Much appreciated...

Chris

Hello Chris,

Our son is 7 and has ASD & ADHD. I've been told when he was diagnosed that minimum age to take medication is 6 (London). In mean time I would strongly suggest ''Equazen eye q'' vitamins. These are normal over the counter vitamins and they really helped our son before he could take his meds. They do take a while to start working tough.. 

Jo