Minimum Age For ADHD medication.

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 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!

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

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.