Hi it's been a while since I posted. My son has been taking guanfacine for over a year and the Dr is switching him to Straterra. Does anyone know if he needs to be tapered off and if he'll have rebound hypertension? Also does anyone have information on Straterra and it's success? Or if it affects children's liver alot? I did his labs before he starts and I'm waiting on results.
He switched because his attention and focus in school are still not good or they fluctuate and he was at the highest dose.
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DJKJ
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Hello, my son was on guanfacine. You do not have to taper him off this medication. After that he was on Stratera. It worked very well to calm him down and create less chaos at home. The side effects were tiredness, loss of appetite and aggressive behavior. There was a let down when the medication wore off but the doctor was able to adjust dosing to help with that. I took him off the Stratera because he was sleeping too much, especially in the classroom.
Thank you for your reply. He is doing very well at home but it's the teachers who say he is not doing well in school, distracted and fidgety. He had been aggressive but is doing better so I hope he doesnt experience that again. The Dr also said him being drowsy isn't very likely. That's why I needed another parent's opinion and experience. Thanks again.
Every child reacts differently to the medications. Your son may do very well. I think Straterra is a great medication with little side effects. He's been on 4 others that caused him to be zombie like with mood swings, no appetite at all, difficulty sleeping. Honestly the other medications he has been on really scared me. I just wanted my son back when he was on the others. I'd love to hear how he does with the Straterra.
Sometimes Guanfacune needs a weening off period - I’d ask the prescribing physician, though if they didn’t mention it, you are probably good. We did not have to ween off of it, though we were at a very low dose.
My son seems to be sleepy the first week or two if ANY medication - stimulant or non. Nothing extreme though, and it went away fairly quickly.
My son was on guanfacine for a few weeks. It definitely calmed him, but didn’t help enough with focus. It also seemed to flatten his personality just a tad.
Next we tried Stratera. It helped his anxiety slightly, but also made him a real jerk and also didn’t help enough with focus. After @ 6 weeks we moved on to stimulant & that has been working great for us.
Best of luck finding the right med! Every kid is different with what works for them and can be a bit of a moving target finding what works for your own child.
I asked the Dr if we could keep both and he said no because it's not helping but it has helped him to become less moody. I may have to ask him to send in a script so he can try both.
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