Weight Loss and Other Symptoms in My Son

the adderall is the reason he is losing the weight. My son Michael has been on add and adhd meds since he was five. and recently the dr. tells me he is taking michael off everything and starting over. He gain like ten lbs. in a week when i talk to the dr. the dr. told me that is his weight just catching up after all the time of being on adderall and other meds. For some reason the steriods and other meds speeds up there metabolism. I would not worry to much mikey was never really skinny. i hope that helped.

my son was also on adderall and after some experimenting I realized he really did not need it and it did seem to cause alot of stomach aches and his weight/appetite decreased...He is just on abilify now and he is gaining too much weight!

Pls. go to the hospital immediately. Weight loss is nothing to be taken lightly.

My six year old son has severe ADHD and ODD and sensory integration dysfunction and I will tell you I will never ever put him on Adderall again. Last year he was on Adderall in the morning and then Ritalin in the evening and he was losing weight not growing and was just in general not happy and very different. He had no personality and was not doing well in school. I decided over the summer I was taking him off the meds due to all the bad things I had heard about what it does to kids hearts and work with him. I have done positive discipline and lots of love and work work work we also put him in counseling at school and at home. Now a year later we are completly med free and he is making straight A's, loves school eats better and has gained 10 to 12 pounds and eats better and has a sense of humor. He is much better but it took alot of work and love and you have to figure out what makes him tick. Kids who have problems like this have what the doctor described to me as bouncing marbles in their heads they are just very different so you have to figure out what their different is and it will work. Please email me if you have any other questions I am very passionate about these kids and think there should be more parent awareness out there. ____@____.com

B.
I'm not sure how old your son is since it was not mentioned, however, unless he was young and overweight at 90 pounds, that kind of weight loss is not good. 3 years ago, the same thing happeded to my (then) 13+yr. old stepdaughter. She was continuing to loose weight, had stomach aches, and complained of diarhea alot. (of course boys won't always tell you that) We had her seen many times by the pedatritian, who also had us have her evaluated for an eating disorder. (which you might investigate also) Eventually she saw a GI doctor who diagnosed her with Crohn's Disease (an inflamatory intestinal/bowel problem). She ended up in the hospital for over a month and got as low as 59 pounds and almost died. With proper eating and medication (sometimes lots of it) She is now 17 and a healthy 115 pounds. Though she continues to suffer minor relapses on occasions, she is doing well.

If that happened to my child and I noticed the things that you stated I would be taking him into the dr.'s and asking the dr. what to do that you are extremely concerned. It might be his medication depending on how long he has been on it. Please let me know what happens. When my oldest started loosing weight they put her on Ensure Plus where she has to drink at least 24oz a day. She goes through times where she isn't hungry; due to the Ensure Plus; however that was only temporary. My e-msil address is ____@____.com

my 13 year old is on adderall he to lost some weight at first and he eats like his food is going to run away. he still eats like this but his weight has steadyed out finally. my opinion is that you should have your doctor give him a check up just to be safe.
Good Lcuk
Kathy

Please check on the possibility that he may have Celiac Sprue disease. My daughter does. This is a condition/disease that creates an intolerance to gluten from wheat, rye and barley. The diet used to treat this disease is one that is commonly used to treat people with autism and ADD. My daughter's symptoms were stomach aches every day and frequent migraine headaches. Her father has it and he was misdiagnosed for over 10 years with IBS. It is an auto-immune disease and as a result my daughter was always catching every little bug that floated in the air. It is better now that we've been after it with diet changes for three years.

I don't think it would hurt to check into it. It is much more common than one would think.

www.celiac.com

thanks, R.

I would suspect the drugs or maybe he's not eating lunch at school although continuing to be very active. I would also suspect that he needs to see a doctor.

There's a form of IBS that has severe diarrhea. Like Chron's disease the food doesn't stay in the system long enough to actually absorb into the boy's system. My 5 year old has this and so do I but I've learned to control it. Acidic tummy aches, overfull feelings all the time, painful gas and cramping go along with both conditions.

The best thing for us was a change in our eating. There's are dietary guidelines for ADD ADHD kids on DrPhil.com that have eased both of G-Man's afflictions and brought peace to our snacking habits.

At this age I would hope a doctor would skip all the tests and insertions I went through as a child before they had a syndrome classification.

My daughter also had this problem while on Adderroll but her Dr. would not keep jher on anything if she lost more than 10 pounds. We have her on Concerta now and I love it there havent been any side effects no more belly aches or weight loss. I would definately talk this over with your Dr. that is alot of weight loss if you feel he is still eating good.

I have a friend whos kids are on this med...

Can you try to feed little mini meals... I know she was told to let her daughter eat anything.. ice cream, cookies all that...

I would almost push better foods but I dont know how it works..

She takes her daughter off it in the summer and weekends I think that is wrong.. Many dr's will say that too....

I hope things get better.. How long has your child been on this med????

Talk to dr if anything maybe they can switch to something elce..

but do try some small meals for a few weeks.. See if that helps to keep tummy full so no probs...

Good luck!!

You really should make an appointment with your son's doctor immediately, because that is a lot of weight for a child (or an adult!) to lose, and it could be (though hopefully isn't) a serious medical problem. With that said, Adderall is a stimulant, so it raises the heart rate and therefore, metabolism, so it could be the cause of the weight loss. The med. might not agree with him, or he might be on too high a dose. The stomach pains are concerning though, and sleeping more doesn't go along with too high a dose of Adderall (too much of a stimulant would cause insomnia). Good luck, and please tell us what you find out! PS- I agree that you should make sure it's not Crohns, too.