6 y/o on Vyvanse

[johnsonal19762019]

I have a 6 y/o who has started taking Vyvanse @20mg. He did good at first, now he complains of some stomach pain not to bad, a dull headache, and he is very whiney and very anxious, and acting like he is always in trouble and going to get spanked. What should I do? I am not his birth mother I am his step mom. His mom says he needs more time that the drugs need to get into his systems, but not by what I have read. Can someone give me some insight please? Ty in advance.

[QTinTX]

My son started on Vyvanse at age 5. You might want to start a log of his reactions... what time he takes the medication, when he complains about the stomach pains, and when is he acting nervous. With my son (now age, almost 10), we started at 20mg and over time increased it to 50mg. And now we are about to decrease it. Because it suppresses his appetite, I found he would be whiny and agitated around 2-3 pm, mostly because he was hungry and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. He rarely eats during the day. We put him on Cyproheptadine (Periactin) which increases his appetite. It makes him sleepy so we give it at night. (Also a plus). The trick for us is to give him as big a breakfast as he (picky eater too) will allow, and his medication as early as we can. Try to get him to eat something as soon as he is done with school. And around 4 pm he suddenly starts grazing all the way through dinner. We just leave healthy snacks available (Apples are a favorite) and don’t comment when he grabs them. Sometimes he complains of a stomach ache because it’s hunger, other times it’s constipation. We try to get more vegetables in his diet too. Carrots and plain lettuce are two go-to veggies. Behavior therapy helped tremendously. Therapeutic limit setting was a game changer for us. As the step-mom, you’ll need to gather the data and your husband will have to be the one to report it. My sister is the step-mom with her husband’s ADHD son who is also on the spectrum.... which adds another dynamic to the behavior element. She only has influence with the dad. Not the mom. And he isn’t making a lot of the treatment decisions, only paying for them. And there seems to be a great disconnect with what should be done. The step-son was 5 when they met, and is 24 now. If she had to do it over again, I think she’d have leaned in to her side of influence more, and encouraged him to be more proactive in the treatment process decisions....when the son was younger.

[jam1959]

I agree with QTinTX about hunger. My 12 yo daughter will become whiney and irritable then eat something and be much better. Even at her age she does not recognize the connection. I think for our kids the blood sugar drops really affect them. She is on Vyvanse but it has happened on other stimulants too. My daughter will either eat breakfast or lunch but not both. She usually eats a lot for dinner or grazes all evening. She is an only child so I allow can allow that without having other kids want to do it too. Try around 2 before it hits feeding your son a smoothy with protein or something similar. I think this along with stomach and headaches are part of ADHD and medication. My daughter puts up with it because she knows she needs the medication.

[Elijah1]

Headache and stomach pain can be caused by taking Vyvanse before eating breakfast.