My son (4th grader) has been on this slow progress and trial of Strattera and he has reached his max dose for his body weight. His MD suggested to try Guanfacine next. Appointment is this Thurs.
A little background on what he has used. He has tried adderall (turned him into a zombie and had crash) and focalin (we are holding that because it worked good on him but it’s something he will need when he is older ie: High School so want to save that for those times where he needs it and we would have room to increase his dose on it. Also he does t eat all day with focalin)
Has anyone tried Guanfacine? Would like to know your experience on this?
Thank you and happy new year!
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Sy5636
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Hello! Our son takes guanfacine. Although every child’s experience is different, we have found guanfacine to help a lot with emotional regulation—dampening the fight or flight reflex—impulse control, and executive functioning. It’s a medication that you have to take regularly, unlike stimulants. Important to start at low dose and go slow in making any increase.
Our son is a 4th grader as well and has been on Guanfacine since last year. I think it has helped a lot with mood and emotional regulation. Our doc didn't want the side effect of loss of appetite (my son is already an extremely picky eater) so that is the nice thing too about Guanfacine. We thought it would help with his hyperactivity more but it seemed only to slightly improve. This summer he went off it briefly when transitioning to vyvance and he became so angry and irritable and his tantrums were more intense! So we went back on it with a low dose in combo with vyvance. Our newest hurdle is the vyvance did make him lose weight so we are having to do milk shakes. Hope that helps!
We use vyvanse in the am and guaufacine in the evening. Guaufacine seems to help with the emotional outbursts and anger when the vyvanse wears off. When my daughter had bad reaction to focalin shen ook guafacine alone. It didnt help with the hyperactivity, it did help with sleep and it also increased her appetite.
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