ADHD and Nutrition issues

[joelleconlin]

Hi everyone, I was just wondering if any of you had any experience with yourselves or your children with CF also being diagnosed with ADHD and what meds you chose?
My daughter who is 8 is quite definitively ADHD, has trouble in school quite often with focusing and impulse control, etc. We tried the absolute lowest dose of Ritalin possible for almost a year which improved things, but decreased her already low appetite dramatically. She was basically just receiving her nutrition at night through her G-tube feedings.
We took her off of all stimulant meds about 6 months ago and she is back to eating great during the day and gained a few pounds finally but we are dealing with the same problems at school. All meds her psychiatrist has been looking into seem to have the same appetite decreasing effect and I am very wary about trying anything that would set her nutrition back again. Although I want to give her the chance to succeed at school.
Any advice?

 

[jshet]

Have you tried Intuniv? It is a non stimulant ADHD medication that doesn't affect appetite. Talk to your childs doctor, it is a very safe med. Janelle

 

[joelleconlin]

Yes this is actually the next med her psychiatrist recommended. It doesn't lower appetite? I was researching it and it seemed like it might have all the same side effects as the others. Thanks for replying!

 

[jshet]

It is not supposed to. The only thing it can do is lower blood pressure which should not be an issue unless they already have a problem with their pressure.

 

[mindy515]

Our son is on Vyvanse and while it does affect appetite we have added Cyproheptadine - an appetite stimulant to counter act the side affects and it works!

 

[CureCF4Teo]

Hello! My 11yr old son w/cf suffers with adhd and bipolar. So for the longest time, all the stimulant drugs made him aggressive because he wasn't being medicated properly given the diagnoses of the bipolar. When I did find the right psychiatrist, it made all the difference! But back to your question, my son is doing very well being on Strattera. He also takes the cyproheptadine that someone else mentioned. He is a "bird" eater as I call him too and has overnight g-tube feeds, but he is gaining weight and succeeding in school. Now being that he has bipolar-he takes buspirone and clonidine too. I hope this helps some and if I were you, stick with the non-narcotic adhd meds. I think the others just are not good for our kids who need to gain weight! Good luck!

 

[BrycesMom]

My son has has cf, adhd, and anxiety the only adhd med that seemed to work was the daytrana patch but we do have eating issues he has tried the ciprohyptadine(sorry spelled wrong) but there was barely any difference and he was already on a Allergy med the tried to get him on mirnenol but insurance wouldn't approve it. So needless to say he basically only drinks 3-4 cans of pediasure 1.5 per day and maybe has something little with that and he has remained around 42 pounds for over six months now.

 

[rmotion]

It seems that this is a common problem with younger cf kids. Is this so. Do you follow a gluten free dairy free diet for them? If ADHD is so prevalent amongst the regular population and the cause is hotly debated, but nutritionally is suspect, I would think CF kids are more prone to more adhd and gut problems then the regular population. We are at a huge nutritional disadvantage with CF we have to be more vigilant then anyone. What are anyone's thoughts.

 

[jshet]

My son has cf, ADHD, autism and celiac disease. Now in his situation, he has been following a gluten free casin free(milk,dairy) diet for 9 years now. Though it has helped immensely with his stomach aches and has helped soooo much with some of his autism symptoms like, eye contact ad interacting more I feel it has also helped with his ADHD symptoms. Not enough to not require the need for medication but the diet and medication complement each other well. When your child is reacting to these types of foods, it can sometimes take up to 6 weeks to see result. We were lucky ad noticed improvement within 1 week and continued to see improvements for about a month ad then ongoing.

If my son gets something he shouldn't, we know right away. It is a very difficult diet to implement. Gluten is in so much of the foods thar we eat and it can be quite expensive. For example a loaf of bread that has 12slices in it costs 5.79. Anyone considering this diet for their child should meet with the dietician first. My son because he has celiac disease has no choice, he has to be on this diet. But it is one of the best things we could of ever did for him. It is worth every penny.

 

[zeeannie]

My daughter has been on Strattera for a while. It helps, and is not an appetite suppressant. I think it was originally approved as a mild antidepressant, but is used off label for ADHD. Recently she has started taking Concerta. It is a stimulant tho. The one she takes is long acting so she doesn't have the problem of the drug high then crash that some people experience. It does suppress her appetite a little bit. It starts to wear off around late afternoon so it doesn't affect her sleep.
Fortunately her weight isn't difficult to keep up. The benefits she gets from it outweigh the cons. She has better concentration in school and while doing homework and less stress because of it. That was a BIG problem and caused her grades to suffer.
Good luck...

 

[LittleLab4CF]

I ran your issue by a neighbor who is a PA and the mother of two "autistic" children. Generally speaking rittilan lowers the hyperactivity of a person if they are indeed ADHD. Your caution may be the problem since stimulants used for ADHD are more effective at greater doses. More rittilan (up to a point) should be more calming and such and not making your child respond characteristically as if it were a stimulant.

LL

 

[CyrilCrodius]

Have her do daily dual n-back tests.

http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/

This is supported by research and helps improve focus of people with ADHD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/magazine/can-you-make-yourself-smarter.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

It's fairly simple and you only need to dedicate about 20 minutes every day. I advise that she starts with 1-backs to get used to the controls. Once she has the controls down, bump it up to 2-backs and keep it there even if the scores are going down. If she gets good enough, like after a week, bump it up to 3-backs and so on. Get her fidget toys for school, like Tangles : http://www.tanglecreations.com/