ccustomed to how the page looks and how the comments work. My son is 5 and he started on lamictal and it was horrible!! He almost immediately became MORE emotional. He is very timid unless he is at home and comfortable then he goes balls to the wall. The meds seemed to amplify the symptoms. I stopped his meds 1 week ago now. He started becoming even MORE depressed. Crying all the time for small things. I’ve tried adderal IR 10mg and it seemed like it didn’t do anything, neither good nor bad. I personally take vyvanse lexapro. Do you think it would be worth asking to give him something similar?
Lora, how is your son doing? I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to respond. It's very hard to see your child emotional and depressed. It's sometimes hard to tell what meds are to blame for because there's often an adjustment period. That's why docs usually like to stick with a med for awhile, or will have parents and teachers fill out observation logs to track and measure behavior. Since you know your son best your observations are very important; tell the doctor right away about any negative reaction to find out if it's dangerous or something that may resolve.
As for your question, if your son's doctor is a pediatric psychologist or psychiatrist, I'd say it never hurts to ask. They know more about how medications work in children. There isn't enough research done with kids. Drug companies do medication studies only on adults. If your son's prescribing doctor is a primary care physician or your family doctor, I'd hope you could obtain a referral from them to a specialist who knows more about how medications work in children as young as your son, and whether a med is or is not recommended.
The medication road is a bumpy one for a lot of kids. There are so many meds out there for ADHD and the only way to find out if they work is to try them. Unfortunately that often makes you feel like you are turning your child in to a guinea pig. :-(
Hang in there are try to be patient. It took us two years to find the right medication, and even then it isn't perfect. I think if there is something that works for you, yourself, I would definitely ask your doctor about your child trying it. Your child is 50% genetically similar to you, so meds that work for family members are a good place to start.
And trust your own instincts when it comes to your child's reaction to medication. Sometimes you do need to wait a month or so to see if something is working (or if side effects disappear). but other times you will know in your heart right away that this isn't good for your child. Don't be afraid to be an advocate on their behalf!
Good luck and I hope you get some resolution soon.
So we have switched meds 3x already lol. He started on lamictal which made him wayyyyyy worse. Then respirdol which had no affect at all, guanfacine made him sleep all day and night. Then we tried Ritalin and that made him cry for no reason. NOW we are doing a combo of Ritalin and guanfacine and so far it seems to be working. It’s only been 1 week with these meds. I’ve been trying to document how he does so I can take more details in to the dr. We have also tried adderall but that really didn’t have much affect either. I personally was taking lexapro and vyvanse and it was working great. Then the lexapro stopped taking care of my anxiety and I was switched to effexor. It’s working slightly but I have been needing a half a Valium every other day or so. My anxiety comes on for no reason and quite often. Very exhausting trying to deal with myself and Julian 
but I’d rather figure his issues out now because if he waits it will get worse like mine did
My son is on Intuniv (guanfacine) and it took quite a while (more than a month) before the sleepiness got better. It helped when we gave him the dose at night instead of morning. And it worked really well for him. He has been on several stimulants, and while they work great for his focus, all of them have ended up causing a huge increase in his anxiety.
We really like the Intnuiv. He is not nearly as agitated as he used to be. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be wokring very well for his focus and school is still a daily struggle. but in terms of mood stabilization it's been amazing.
Lora T said:
So we have switched meds 3x already lol. He started on lamictal which made him wayyyyyy worse. Then respirdol which had no affect at all, guanfacine made him sleep all day and night. Then we tried Ritalin and that made him cry for no reason. NOW we are doing a combo of Ritalin and guanfacine and so far it seems to be working. It's only been 1 week with these meds. I've been trying to document how he does so I can take more details in to the dr. We have also tried adderall but that really didn't have much affect either. I personally was taking lexapro and vyvanse and it was working great. Then the lexapro stopped taking care of my anxiety and I was switched to effexor. It's working slightly but I have been needing a half a Valium every other day or so. My anxiety comes on for no reason and quite often. Very exhausting trying to deal with myself and Julian :) but I'd rather figure his issues out now because if he waits it will get worse like mine did
Sounds like you're making some progress with your son's meds. You're both very patient. Wishing you good things ahead!