my son who is 12 has ADHD and ODD (oppositonal defiant disorder)..... he has been on Strattera for the last 2 years, some adjustments have been made here and there and recently had him on Focalin (which is a form of Ritalin) for a short while. right now he is up to 80mg of Strattera a day and he just seems to be getting more aggressive. i am losing my mind. keep in mind that i have a 10 daughter who is just an angel (most days) and a 7 year old niece (who i have custody of at the moment). My niece also has ADHD (which my sister decided not to treat at all). my son is very emotional and just totally clams up whenever he thinks that there is going to be a confrontation about anything. (he fights horrible with my niece).... he actually put her in a chokehold yesterday and totally freaked me out. his doc is on sabbatical right now, so he is going to see a different doc in the same practice on thursday.... maybe getting a different point of view will help. i know that different meds work for different kids, but does anyone have a successful ADHD story they'd like to share? i would love to hear it. i even give him coffee in the morning to calm him down right before school (which works wonderfully). just totally stressed right now.

Concerta (another ADD med) sometimes also calms or "mellows" out kids. Maybe that would not only help his ADD but also his ODD. Might discuss it with his doc. Good luck.

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thanks for the advice... at least i can go into the doc appt armed with some info.

I'm so sorry you're going through this. Can you find a developmental pediatrician to help you go to the next level with this? They are better at dealing with this than a regular pediatrician. They can help him w/coping skills (and you can ask for some, too...that's what I did)....Good luck to you, and feel free to come and vent, ask questions, share accomplishments or challenges anytime!! Tell us more about your son when you have the chance! And more about you!

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Make someone's heart smile today.

of course i scheduled his appointment the same day he has his 6th grade class field trip.... ok, a little about ds... very emotional, very loving, he has to give me a kiss at every opportunity. (which is nice, i'll miss it when he's older) has a hard time in school focusing, the teachers and i have come up with a way for him to test without the whole class being there... he simply stays in for 1 recess and takes his tests without all the distractions. he is very athletic, loves to play basketball. he will simply play basketball in our driveway for hours by himself. very moody.. the best way i can describe his moodiness is that he's like a teenage girl on PMS. gets his feelings hurt very easily especially if we are confronting him about something he did wrong. immediately starts to cry. has a very aggressive nature. he took a swing at his dad about a year ago. (that didn't go to well) ... anything else?? a little about me.... had tyler when i was 18, had his sister when i was 20. moved to MT almost 6 years ago to get out of a bad marriage, ended up meeting Mr. Perfect For Me (MIke) and we've been married for almost 3 years. DH adopted Tyler and his sister 2 years ago. he has the patient of a saint. i am just very stressed and frustrated most days, am i doing what's right for ds? i don't know, but i guess with ADHD or anything else, its mostly a trial and error process. what doesn't work, we don't do again, what works, we take advantage of somedays i just feel like a kid stuck in an adult body and have no clue what i'm doing. Anyone else ever feel like that?

My 15 yr old is adhd, she was on concerta for years and did great on it, then she was on the highest dose. So we switched her to adderal. Not sure what I think yet. Are you giving him his meds everyday? Very important too. My daughter is also an athlete and does better in life with the sports. So get him involved in whatever you can. It helps drain that extra energy! Teach him that if he feels a break down coming on, either the anger or crying, teach him to go into his room and relax, for how ever long he decides he needs. Being a minute to hours. Leave it up to him. He then feels in control. We call them nuclear meltdowns haha. Going through pubirty (cant sp that word right now) can also mess with their meds. Cause they are growing and changing so much.

Umm not sure what else you want to know haha. Feel free to send me a message if I can help!

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Casey loving wife to Steven mom to 4 bratty girls Amanda, Rebecca, Jessica and Makayla
Where did my baby go

well, we rescheduled his appt, but it's not until June 26th so.... he's still on this dosage that's not right for him. he's at the highest dosage he can take for his weight. he is very into sports, so that does help, but we also give him melatonin at night to knock him out because his meds keep him up very late (like he doesn't fall asleep until around 4am)
so, we keep doing what we're doing until his appt. alot of talking goes on and why he can't continue to be so aggressive. he is definitely going thru puberty and i'm sure that's not helping either, but what can you do but your best??