Ritalin

nesf

xxmarymoxx wrote: »

I stupidly agreed to my daughters psychiatrist prescribing Ritalin when she was ten. She has ADHD and a learning disability. Me being to trusting thinking hes a profession he must know what he is talking about.

Two weeks in my hyper child turned into a zombie and went and told my mother one evening that she wanted to be dead. Stopped the ritalin immediately rang psychiatrist and when i explained he then said oh well thats one of the rare side effects.:mad: He then said we will try her on another one i politely told him to shove them that they were not going to make a guinea pig out of my child.

Shes thirteen now and yes her concentration is bad but she gets by in school. And i can handle her hyperness. The triggers for her are fizzy drinks and any sugary sweets.

Bad side effects happen, it's a standard part of trialling any medication. Seriously to refuse to try an alternative just because the first gave bad side effects is a really bad idea.

Example: I've been on two anti-convulsants Epilim and Trileptal. The former caused me to throw up two or three times a day every day. The latter has given me minimal side effects for 6 years now.


What is extremely irresponsible of you is to post your story on a thread asking about Ritalin. You could very easily scare a parent off a drug that could work very well for their child. At minimum you should have noted that it was a rare side effect and very unlikely to happen to any one child who starts Ritalin. All drugs have side effects! We don't (and shouldn't) go on about rare lethal allergic responses to penicillin related antibioitics when someone has a chest infection now do we?

xxmarymoxx

nesf wrote: »

Bad side effects happen, it's a standard part of trialling any medication. Seriously to refuse to try an alternative just because the first gave bad side effects is a really bad idea.

Example: I've been on two anti-convulsants Epilim and Trileptal. The former caused me to throw up two or three times a day every day. The latter has given me minimal side effects for 6 years now.


What is extremely irresponsible of you is to post your story on a thread asking about Ritalin. You could very easily scare a parent off a drug that could work very well for their child. At minimum you should have noted that it was a rare side effect and very unlikely to happen to any one child who starts Ritalin. All drugs have side effects! We don't (and shouldn't) go on about rare lethal allergic responses to penicillin related antibioitics when someone has a chest infection now do we?

Sorry but theres a big difference between side effects that make you sick and side effects that make you suicidal. Ritalin is thrown out there from professionals to often.

I wasn't informed that she would have any side effects just told to give it to her. She does not need any meds id rather have my happy hyper child than a child who is doped up on ritalin or any other drug her psychiatrist deems fit for her.

Am also aware it does work for some people but shouldn't people know that this can happen. Sorry if i have offended anyone this is not why i posted.

Kildrought

What is extremely irresponsible of you is to post your story on a thread asking about Ritalin

What codswallop. It's a free country, we have freedom of speech, the poster is entitled to relate her story and her opinion.

Splendour

xxmarymoxx wrote: »

I stupidly agreed to my daughters psychiatrist prescribing Ritalin when she was ten. She has ADHD and a learning disability. Me being to trusting thinking hes a profession he must know what he is talking about.

Two weeks in my hyper child turned into a zombie and went and told my mother one evening that she wanted to be dead. Stopped the ritalin immediately rang psychiatrist and when i explained he then said oh well thats one of the rare side effects.:mad: He then said we will try her on another one i politely told him to shove them that they were not going to make a guinea pig out of my child.

Shes thirteen now and yes her concentration is bad but she gets by in school. And i can handle her hyperness. The triggers for her are fizzy drinks and any sugary sweets.

This is one of the side effects I am concerned about in an already melancholic teen. And it's funny you should mention 'food triggers'; it amazes me that none of the professionals in the clinic my son is attending have ever discussed his diet and the effects that has on his brain and his mood.

Splendour

nesf wrote: »

What is extremely irresponsible of you is to post your story on a thread asking about Ritalin. You could very easily scare a parent off a drug that could work very well for their child. At minimum you should have noted that it was a rare side effect and very unlikely to happen to any one child who starts Ritalin. All drugs have side effects! We don't (and shouldn't) go on about rare lethal allergic responses to penicillin related antibioitics when someone has a chest infection now do we?

I asked for people's experience with Ritalin and want to hear the good with the bad. I agree with you that we each react differently to different drugs but from my viewpoint I'm glad xxmarymoxx shared her story.

xxmarymoxx

Thanks Splendour I don't see why I should not have shared it. It could help another parent to watch out for this side effect if their child is on Ritalin. It did not work for my daughter but it might work for someone elses child.

nesf

Kildrought wrote: »

What codswallop. It's a free country, we have freedom of speech, the poster is entitled to relate her story and her opinion.

There's a responsibility involved in any of this. Anyone posting about rare side effects should make it very clear that what they're talking about is very unlikely to happen.

If you don't get why this is an issue then you haven't seen people going off drugs because of being scared by side effect stories which is a really bad thing.


Scaring other people or parents with really nasty side effect tales is something that should be strictly avoided. Saying "oh my kid had a side effect and I'm never giving them a drug again!!" is markedly different to saying "my kid had this side effect but it's supposed to be really rare."

nesf

xxmarymoxx wrote: »

Thanks Splendour I don't see why I should not have shared it.

What you shouldn't have done is phrase it the way you did, i.e. "I was stupid to give my child Ritalin" when in reality it was no one's fault because it's impossible to predict side effects for a child. Casting it all as a mistake and swearing to never give your child a similar drug is both bad for your child and extremely misleading for other parents because it makes it seem like giving your child any medication like Ritalin, a mistake and that the parents are responsible for any side effects, which is bull**** bluntly.

nesf

Splendour wrote: »

I asked for people's experience with Ritalin and want to hear the good with the bad. I agree with you that we each react differently to different drugs but from my viewpoint I'm glad xxmarymoxx shared her story.

What I worry about is some relatively naive person googles this, stumbles upon this thread and refuses to give their child Ritalin because of one story of an unusual side effect. Stories about bad (and good) side effects need to be very carefully worded so as their chance of happening is accurately reported.

e.g. one of my drugs now has about a 66% chance of helping me. It also has around a 5% chance of causing life threatening side effects. If I fail to include the former number the latter number looks very scary.

Kildrought

...stumbles upon this thread and refuses to give their child Ritalin because of one story..

Aside from the patronising (and rather silly) element of your comment, I think you grossly underestimate the ability of the average parent to give every aspect of a decision involving their children full consideration.

nesf

Kildrought wrote: »

Aside from the patronising (and rather silly) element of your comment, I think you grossly underestimate the ability of the average parent to give every aspect of a decision involving their children full consideration.

I've seen people stop taking meds because of one careless post on a website. Seriously, this is definitely not a non-issue.

xxmarymoxx

But it does happen its not a rare side effect with Ritalin. I have spoken to parents who's kids had the same experience as my daughter.

Parents will make up their own mind but also have the right to know that these side effects can and do happen.

For me putting my daughter on a similar medication without her psychiatrist giving me the facts is just a no go for me. My daughter had taken melatonin for months and it helped her sleep.

For me changing her diet worked also I now know that sugary sweets fizzy drinks etc will make her hyper.

Splendour

Decision made-for better or worse, my son will be starting Ritalin in the next couple of weeks.

At the end of the day I really had no choice; if I refused to let my son try it I know he'll just totally down tools in school and do absolutely nothing. I'm giving it a few months to see if it helps at all and will monitor my son very closely for any side effects.

xxmarymoxx

Splendour wrote: »

Decision made-for better or worse, my son will be starting Ritalin in the next couple of weeks.

At the end of the day I really had no choice; if I refused to let my son try it I know he'll just totally down tools in school and do absolutely nothing. I'm giving it a few months to see if it helps at all and will monitor my son very closely for any side effects.

Best of luck with it. It will probably make a huge difference to your sons concentration. Just because it did not work for my child doesn't mean it won't work for your son. And once it is monitored you should have no problems as only you know you child best and will be able to watch out for the signs good and bad.

Splendour

xxmarymoxx wrote: »

Best of luck with it. It will probably make a huge difference to your sons concentration. Just because it did not work for my child doesn't mean it won't work for your son. And once it is monitored you should have no problems as only you know you child best and will be able to watch out for the signs good and bad.

Thanks xxmarymoxx to you and everyone here for the comments and advice. I really appreciate all the information written by all posters; have taken it all on board and will keep it in mind while monitoring my son.

Sad mother, I hope your son is doing well,and hope you're coping ok too...

nesf

Best of luck with it Splendour. I apologise for my strong views in this thread, have seen too much crap in this area over the years.

Splendour

nesf wrote: »

Best of luck with it Splendour. I apologise for my strong views in this thread, have seen too much crap in this area over the years.

Thanks nesf and no need to apologise as far as I'm concerned;I asked for and welcome all opinions. Anyhow, if one seeks advice on Boards they should be prepared for the diversity of answers the will receive - such is the beauty of this site

LegacyUser

Hi to all, thank you for your well wishes, my son is still in the clinic, but will hopefully be coming home soon. He is doing great, he has had some ups and downs in the last 4 weeks, but overall seems to be improving.

Thanks again for all the well wishes, and good luck with the Ritalin, please let us know how you get on.

Royal Legend

nesf wrote: »

There's a responsibility involved in any of this. Anyone posting about rare side effects should make it very clear that what they're talking about is very unlikely to happen.

If you don't get why this is an issue then you haven't seen people going off drugs because of being scared by side effect stories which is a really bad thing.


Scaring other people or parents with really nasty side effect tales is something that should be strictly avoided. Saying "oh my kid had a side effect and I'm never giving them a drug again!!" is markedly different to saying "my kid had this side effect but it's supposed to be really rare."

Are you a doctor?

Personally I dont think Ritalin should be given to kids. My own son was diagnosed with ADHD over two years ago and was prescribed ritalin. It was a pretty traumatic time for him, he was always getting into trouble in school, mostly messing and disruption, not anything physical or agressive. When he was diagnosed, he was a bit upset, plus we were upset with the school that they had not noticed the symptoms a lot earlier.
Anyway, he went on ritalin, there was a marked improvement in his concentration in school. His teachers commented that they could not beleive the change, which I found to be condesending considering he was being medicated.
One major side effect was palpatations, it made him give up sport as he was afraid he was going to die. He left school 3 months later, and he stopped taking the meds. That was last christmas 12 months, he is working now and leading a normal life.
One other option that we looked at was a nutritionist, he was open to this and the nutritionist was willing to work with him for free to look at the possibility, (which he believed to be very strong) that by changing his diet that he would improve symptoms of adhd, and thereby ridding the use of ritalin.

There is a lot of debate in the USA on the use of ritalin and phychiatrists prescribing ritalin as the cure for all ills

By the way, people with ADHD usually have an increased skill, in my childs case it was spatial awareness. He was good at sport and gave it up because he was scared, he plays a bit of 5 a side now and again, but thats about it.

I won't give you advice on if you should or should not let your child be medicated, but I would not accept that ritalin is the answer to any childs behavioural problems.
One other point, they say that ADHD is heriditary, so maybe you or your husband had it, is that possible? If so, I take it neither of you were medicated, do you lead a normal life?

Royal Legend

Sorry, I did not read many of the previous posts.

The other major side effect my child has was appetite. He stopped eating, which for a 6' 2" 15 year old was not good. Working with the psych we tried waking him up at 6am to give him his ritalin, so that he might eat breakfast before school. When he came home, he was not interested in dinner. We ended up buying protein shakes which he took. Doctors explained that ritalin worked in a similar way to the illegal drug speed and E.
I was amazed today listening to Today FM's the Last Word, that a father whose child has developed Narcolepsey from the Swine Flu injection, (I think she is 5 or 6 yrs old) has been prescribed ritalin, this is the main reason I came on here to post tonight.
Ritalin, IMO the easy way out for some doctors and shrinks.