I’m back, maybe a year after first joining and asking about advice pro and con medication for our 8 year old son.
we did a few trials over the summer, none of them positive but just before school started we tried focalin and it seemed to actually help. Fast forward a couple of weeks and while it seems to be helping in school he’s having headaches at night. And every other day or so very emotional and more aggressive… SO we are on to another trial. While waiting for our insurance to approve this new medication I am still giving him focalin because it’s helping at school. What can we do for him about the headaches? I don’t think pain relievers every night is a good idea!
In addition to the medication we have really worked to improve his diet and sleep and he’s taking natural supplements: L theanine, magnesium, fish oil, lemon balm…
If anyone has experience with these headaches and outbursts from meds let me know any advice you might have to help along the way.
Grateful!
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Vintagecollector
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hi! Thank you, he drinks water throughout the day but a she’s back at school I’ll keep a better eye on it since I have no idea how much he’s drinking there… thank you!!
My son tried different stimulants over a 2 year period, and was on Focalin for nearly a year but he had to stop due to severe tics, amongst other side effects. Does your son eat/drink during the day on Focalin? That could be causing his headaches. My son’s appetite was non existent for long periods of time which also didn’t help his mood, especially coming off the meds. The immediate release was better than the extended release. My son is now on Guanfacine and so far so good. Non-stimulants might be something to try if the side effects of stimulants are too much.
thank you! He does eat, he’s still on the lowest dose possible and it hasn’t effected his appetite so far. I would prefer non stimulants so I’ll ask his doctor about the one your son is taking- thank you so much!!
I used to resort to the herbal remedies with my son but this was in lock downs before he was even diagnosed- I was desperate.
I used for my son all what you did and more. Now I stopped this except the omega (fish oil, multi and finger for nausea ). I found that following several months on l theanine my son developed iron deficiency. At first I didn’t link it. Then I started digging in medical journals and there was a case study of a man who used to drink 2-3 and more litres of green tee per day and inky when he stopped his anaemia could have been successfully treated. L theaine is extracted from ‘many many litres of green tea’. Of course I can’t cite any case study of this but since I atoooed giving him l theaine and he was on high dose iron for 3 months and never had deficient again.
I’d stop all the herbal and see a few weeks if this helps for headaches.
I stopped lemon balm because I read it affects hormones etc (might be mixing facts now but it didn’t sound good).
I think if your child likes drinking tea then a cup or so is fine. The same a cup of lemon balm tea every now and then, I am sure that’s fine.
If you can do check his bloods- is everything fine, no deficiencies, no electrolytes imbalances…
I can’t comment on the stimulant medication that your child is on as for my son stimulants were causing too many side effects (so I am definitely bias to it). Probably best to monitor his blood pressure as stimulants can raise it, also good to look up the list of side effects and even the ‘rare’ section. My son has suffered from the ‘rare’ and psychiatrist was dismissing it as he kept saying ‘He’s never had it in his years of practice.’
wow thanks! I heard that about l theanine and I think I’ll stop giving him that. Thank for you the info about lemon balm - maybe I’ll stick with fish oil and magnesium. Really appreciate your input!
No worries. I bet we all’ been there, done that’. Now with all the herbal, vitamins I started the rule ‘If enough evidence shows that this is safe for pregnant women then I can safely give it to my kids’ hence like you I will continue with Omega3 fish oil. I am a great fan of ginger capsules as so many of these meds for ADHD cause nausea, vomiting, indigestion etc and I can see it makes the difference (he stopped feeling nausea ) and hey, it’s also safely used in pregnancy so surely can’t be bad (I hope!). But I don’t think ginger helps with headaches.
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