The first side effect can be recognized on ADHD medication takers is the decrease of appetite. However, report suggests that the effect is mild and usually, can only be seen on lunch time. The solution for this problem is to make the food that the person with ADHD wants to eat to increase their appetite. Changing the foods can also help.

Insomnia is the second recognizable side effect of ADHD medication, both in children and adult. Many people said that since they take the medication. They find it difficult to stop thinking and falling asleep.

Increase of heart rate can be expected when taking the ADHD medication but this is not a seriuos health risk. However, it is necessary to take a note when the family has a history of heart disease.

Those above are the most usual side effects of ADHD medication. There are some more minor ones such as headache, dizziness and stomach ache. Remember, in most cases, ADHD medications are safe and the side effects are not serious.

The early signs of ADHD consist of problem in social interaction, difficulties in following a sequence of instruction and their ease to get bored with tasks that require attention. In some cases, which are not very popular, you can see the kids suffer from sleep problems.

While normal kids can have such behaviors, it is necessary for parents to take their kids to the doctors to do the test to make sure whether they have ADHD or not. Only when the kid take the test, you can know if she/he has ADHD. Recognizing the problem in the early age will make it a lot easier in the treatment phase.

First of all, we need to distinguish the two main types of ADHD, the one with hyperactivity, impulsity and the one without those (ADD). It is quite easier for parents to recognize the kids with hyperactivity, impulsity as the child’s behaviors speak all. However, it could be difficult, or even impossible to recognize the kids with ADD.

For ADHD kids, you will recgonize that they are a lot more active than other ones at the same age. It could be difficult, or even impossible for them to stay at the same position for a while. They can’t stop running, jumping and even screaming. The toddlers usually find it hard to follow a sequence of instruction. It is easy for them to be angry for no reason and you can see they are usually the trouble makers. Toddlers with ADHD can hit their peers, bothers/sisters without any specific reason. As parents, you will find that they don’t have much patience. When they ask you to buy something but you don’t, you will mostly suffer their anger. That’s why many people think that they are naughty/nasty and apply punishment. This is the wrong thing to do.

For kids with ADD, the ones without hyper activity, it is quite hard to recognize the problem until they get to higher grade. Because of their inability to concentrate, they will find it hard to follow the study pace at school when they move to grade 3 or above. This is when the workload can be challenging and require more attention. You then can notice the drop in their study result. Poor school reports are expected. Don’t blame them though, there are better ways to handle the problem than just blame them for the problem they do not intentionally cause.

I need to repeat this again, it is vital to recognize the early signs of ADHD soon so the treatment will be a lot easier. Pay attention to your kids and find the abnormal signs.

First thing first, help the child to concentrate and be less hyperactive

This is the first and foremost step that parent should do. It is very important to help the child reduce his/her hyperactivity, inattentiveness… The reason is you are going to make the kid feels good about himself by suggesting him do well and things he likes. If the hyperactive and inattentive is not treated, the subsequent tasks could be very difficult.

In order to help the kid becomes less active, it is necessary to help him sense the speed of his behaviors first. As you might know, kids with ADHD almost have no idea about their hyperactivity. They do things follow their instinct. Playing games with different frequencies can be a good thing to do to help the kids recognize and regulate his behavior.

Stop punishing frequently

While a good punishing/rewarding system is vital in order to train the children with ADHD, you must know that punishing too much will not do anything good, especially when the kids’ self-esteem need to be improved. What you need to do is to be close with the kid.

Punishing Is Not Good For Building Self-Esteem

Find things he does best

No one was born without any special ability, so does your kids. Don’t think he’s all bad. Open your mind and find what your child does best and encourage him to develop that ability. While finding things that your child can do well is important, it is also important to not force things that the child doesn’t like to do. Choose things he can do well and also enjoy doing that. When you have selected the right major that your child can excel, be sure to praise him for every progress he makes. Praise is very important but don’t give false praise simple it won’t work. Praise must be genuine and sincere.

Build self-awareness

Kids with low self-esteem usually feel bad about themselves. They think that they are not good at anything and consider “there is something wrong with their brain”. As you encourage the kid to does what he does best, you also show him his strengths and weaknesses. It is very important to teach him that no one is good at everything. Help the kid have a clear image of their strengths and weaknesses (which is self-awareness) will help him has a better view of his life and increase his self-awareness.
Increase self-esteem of children with ADHD is a very important thing that parents must do. In addition, this is not a simple task and can require months, even years. However, you must know that if you fail to improve the kids’ self-esteem, their lives can turn out to be a disaster. If you need a clear instruction, find a psychiatrist or a pediatrician.

Does the kid with ADHD really want to be “annoying?”

While the kid appears to enjoy his hyperactivity, researches have shown that in most case, though they are conscious about their problem, they are unable to stop. The sensory craving problem forces the kids to move around. They even don’t understand why they do that and as mentioned above, even when they don’t want, the problem urges them to move. In these cases, punishing will not do anything good.

How to deal with hyperactivity in children with ADHD by using behavioral therapy

As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, the method to manage hyperactivity in ADHD kids is very simple. The real problem with these kids is they are not “bad” but in most case, they cannot sense and see they are causing the problem. Teaching the children how to regulate their actions is the key to control hyperactivity.

Playing Drum Can Help Kids Regulate Behaviors

The principle of the behavioral therapy is very simple but it does require a lot of time to implement. You cannot expect after one or two hours, the kids will learn how to regulate their behavior and become “normal”. The training course can last for a month, even two but the results have been proven to be very rewarding.

Common non-stimulant for ADHD

There are quite many non-stimulant for ADHD. The most common one are Strattera and Intuniv. Strattera helps the user increase the attention as well as reduce the hyperactivity and impulsiveness. Intuniv has the same effects as Strattera.
Non-stimulant medications are usually called “off-label” drugs as they are mainly used for older children/adult and not usually prescribed for young children. With that said, you should study well about the effectiveness, side effects and the use of this type of treatment.

Advantages of non-stimulant in treating ADHD
Non-stimulants have some advantages over stimulants:

• It doesn’t cause agitation or sleeplessness
• User don’t have to worry about the risk of addiction
• Have longer effects

Side effects of non-stimulants

Just like stimulants, non stimulants do have potential side effects that the users may experience. Such as:

• Headache
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Decrease appetite

For more information about the usage of non-stimulant drugs, you should check out this page

Just like other types of drug, non-stimulant drugs can bring good results as well as potential harmful side effects. It is always recommended for you to consult the doctor before taking or let your child take the non-stimulant drugs.

Medication is not the cure for ADHD

Many people still think that medication can cure ADHD. In fact, it is not. Medication can help the sufferers reduce the symptoms of ADHD such as hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattentiveness but medication is not the cure. A treatment is considered as a cure when it can eliminate the symptoms even after the sufferers withdraw from that treatment. Both stimulant and non-stimulant drugs that used to treat ADHD cannot achieve that goal. Right after dropping drugs, the symptoms of ADHD will return. With that said, medication alone is not the cure for ADHD.

Medication can bring side effects

Medication Is Not The Best Treatment Of ADHD

Just like other types of drug, medication for ADHD can bring side effects, in some cases, severe. For example Ritalin can cause addiction if use wrong with the wrong dose. Using Ritalin for people who have heart disease can even cause death. This information is not presented to scare you from using drugs but when you decide to use this type of treatment, be sure to use it carefully and don’t forget the let the doctors know about your health condition before taking the drugs.

Medication is not the best choice

While bring instant effects, using medication is not the best choice to treat ADHD. Research has proven that the method that can help the sufferers manage ADHD is the behavioral therapy. However, because the behavioral therapy needs a lot of time to bring the effects, it is recommended to use it in combination with drugs treatment. This combination will bring instant as well as long lasting effects.
Now you can see, medication alone is not a good choice when it comes to ADHD treatment. Treating ADHD is not an easy task, it needs a lot of time and patient to overcome the problem. You can take the drugs to help lessen the symptoms of ADHD but drugs must be followed by behavioral therapy to bring the optimal results.

ADHD and ADD in children under 5

Both ADHD (hyperactive, impulsive and maybe inattentive) and ADD (inattentive) can be found at very young children, even at age 3. While ADHD symptoms can be easily recognized, it is almost impossible to recognize ADD because the kids with ADD appear, act just like normal kids. Only when they go to school and the workload increase, the bad learning results can be the initial warning signs.

Symptoms of ADHD in children under 5

In this post, I will only mention to the hyperactive, impulsive type of ADHD. Here are the most apparent symptoms of ADHD in kids under 5 years old:

- Hyperactive: they cannot stay at the same position for a long time. You may see them running, climbing and words have little to no effects to keep them quiet
- The kids with ADHD usually annoy their peers. They usually have aggressive behaviors toward their peers such as biting, clawing…
- Talking excessively (more than the normal level at their age)
- Defiant: They are usually described as “hard to teach” kids. Words almost ineffective in control the children’s behaviors. Even when parents spank, the kids can defy and repeat the bad behaviors.

Treatments option

It is highly recommend for parents to use behavioral therapy to deal with ADHD in children under 5. The reason is two main medications are approved for kids at 6 year-old or older. Applying a good reward-punishment system can be vital in order to help the kids manage ADHD well.

As you can see, ADHD can be found in very young kids and their behaviors are quite disruptive. Many parents have made the mistakes by complaining, spanking the kids. You must know that the kids themselves find it hard to control their behaviors. A proper approach and treatments will be the best solution. Don’t punish the kids too much. You only make the problem worse if you do so.

Side effects of Ritalin

Ritalin

• Dependent on the drug
• Addiction
• Stomach pain
• Fast, uneven heartbeat
• aggression, restlessness
• Anxiety

Ritalin (as well as other stimulants) can cause death in children and adult if the sufferers have cardiovascular problems. With that said, it is highly recommended that a person should consult his or her doctor before using Ritalin or any other stimulant on himself/herself or his/her kids.
Besides the strong caution for people with serious heart problems, it is prohibited for people who have used Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO inhibitors) within 14 days. Please tell your doctor the list of drugs you have used in the last 14 days before taking Ritalin. You can find out more about MAO inhibitor list here

While Ritalin is effective in reduce the hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattention, if the sufferers are allergic with methylphenidate, they must not take this drug.
You are also not allowed to take Ritalin if you have these health problems:

• glaucoma
• overactive thyroid
• severe high blood pressure
• angina (chest pain), heart failure, heart rhythm disorder, or recent heart attack
• a personal or family history of tics (muscle twitches) or Tourette’s syndrome
• severe anxiety, tension, or agitation (methylphenidate can make these symptoms worse)
• a hereditary condition such as fructose intolerance, glucose-galactose malabsorption, or sucrase-isomaltase insufficiency.

The final notice is for pregnant women and women who are breastfeeding. It is highly recommended that you consult your doctor if you are planning to have a baby, in pregnancy or breastfeeding. There is no evidence of the drug can harm the unborn kids/kids but don’t use Ritalin without telling the doctor if you are pregnant or breastfeeding a baby.

For more information about Ritalin usage and cautions, please check out this webpage.