ADHD and Adderall for a 4 year old?

Question

I have a 4 year old who was just diagnosed with ADHD. The doctor put him on a low dosage of Adderall two times a day. He starts that today. What should I expect? Will he have immediate effects? Will this medicine work right away?

Answer 1

Well, I guess doctors know best, but I'm 23 and I used to take Adderall when I was in university to study for finals, and I would never give it to a 4 year old!!! I used to hate the way it made me feel. It's closely related to speed, and thats exactly how it makes you feel. It will work right away, but watch out as he may have trouble sleeping, and I found that when I was on it I had no appetite either. Just from my personal experience with the stuff, I wouldn't be giving it to a 4 year old. Let the poor kid be hyperactive, there's no need to start medicating him so young. Also, just so you know, Adderall was pulled off the Canadian market for a number of reasons. Might want to look into why.

Answer 2

I suggest you look into that drug and learn how destructive it can be.  It is your decision, not the doctor's that you must make.  Doctors will only give you an opinion and there are many ways to deal with this problem that do not involve drugs.  The only options doctors have are drugs and surgery and they know nothing of nutrition and the honest ones will tell you so.

ADHD is due to deficiencies you had when you were pregnant and most particularly fatty acid deficiencies.  Take a piece of litmus paper (pH paper) and put it in your mouth and make sure you get lots of saliva on it and find out what your saliva pH is.  It should be between 7.2 and 7.4.  If it is lower, you are deficient in Essential Fatty Acids.  The SAD diet (standard American diet), combined with those stupid prenatal vitamins that are not vitamins at all, only chemical activators masqueraded to look like vitamins, are junk and damage your DNA.

I strongly suggest you get to a Certified Nutritional Therapist to have him checked for his deficiencies and make some serious diet changes and you will see a marked improvement.  The drugs will damage his liver and compromise his immune system and as I said, look at all the side effects.  It's amazing what are being approved to give to children with little regard for how it affects them, all in the name of PROFIT.

good luck to you

Answer 3

Adderall has not been sufficiently tested for children under the age of 6. Most testing has been done on children in treh range of 7-10.  While this does not mean is shouldn't be used, it does mean that the effects on small children have not yet been sufficiently studied.

Deaths have been noted in children due to undiagnosed heart irregularities.  Adderall IS an amphetamine (an"upper"-- 'speed') . . .!

Adderall does slow growth in children.

Source

http://www.adderallxr.com/assets/pdf/pre...

(adderall prescribing information)

My suggestion would be that you get a new doctor!

You also need to work with a psychologist or psychiatrist who can teach you some different methods of parental control, which might avoid the need to apply potentially unsafe and as-yet-not-fully-understood drugs to your child.