Ritalin side-effects?

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Our pediatrician has diagnosed our 6 yr old daughter with ADHD and we are about to start on a course of Ritalin to address her ADHD issues.

I have researched the side-effects of Ritalin and I am really confused at the different viewpoints from both scientists and parents on the long term side-effects.

I'm interested to hear from parents of kids with ADHD or people with ADHD if any of the following are true;

- Ritalin is an appetite suppressant and kids stop eating
- Ritalin interferes with sleep
- Ritalin dries out the mouth and causes thirst
- Ritalin stunts growth

I am really worried about the side-effects and would like some assurance that you can manage behavior/ADHD with Ritalin over a long period without major disruption to your child's life.

I'm not off hand sure of the dates, but our son took Ritalin on a low dosage for a few years. I believe he had some minor side effects of appetite suppression (mind you he is always picky with his food) and also some trouble sleeping. I would class the side effects he suffered as minor. It does not appear that his growth has been affected (he is seventeen and nearly my - his dad's height). Rightly or wrongly we did give him Ritalin holidays at weekends and on holidays. Our son stated that the Ritalin helped him and we have recently re-started it.

I'm not a parent, but when I personally was on it I found I really didn't eat or sleep a lot. I think it differs person to person though. Better to find out(if it works to satisfaction) early I think.

Just my opinion, and I'm just another teenager that knows everything

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT9XUMlbo3o[/youtube]

My daughter takes Ritalin (ADD) she is 15yrs, did interfere with her sleep and appetite at the beginning but not now. No problem with growth.

Her grades improved at school from C,D to A,B and she manages herself much better. She continues to improve. Did take her off this holiday for 3 weeks she found it difficult concentration and focus.

She has the choice but feels they help her and doesn't like the idea of stopping over holidays but doctors and the drug leaflet does mention to take a break if you are using them for 1yr.

All of those you listed are potential side effects, but plenty of kids don't experience any of them. If they do, stopping the Ritalin reverses the effects - even with the growth suppression they'll grow faster to make up for it, which is why Ritalin holidays are recommended in case they need time for catch-up growth. (I suspect Ritalin holidays also help the kid to learn coping skills other than taking medication, as well as giving a sense of whether the medication is still needed.)

Every medication has potential side effects. You just weigh, on an individual basis, whether the benefit outweighs the cost.

In Temple Grandin's book, Thinking in Pictures: My Life With Autism, she writes: "individuals on the lower end of the spectrum often have bad resullts with ADHD medications" (p. 148).

My son's psychiatrist warned that a potential side effect of Ritalin is anxiety, and my older son with classic autism certainly experienced that. He already had a lot of anxiety (which the psychiatrist said was to be expected in an autistic child), and the drug caused worse and longer anxiety attacks and decreased the effectiveness of his Prozac, his anti-anxiety med. (It is used for both depression and anxiety).

We ended up increasing his Prozac several times until he became overmedicated, and I just said that I wanted to cut the Ritalin and see if Prozac alone could control the anxety without Ritalin in the mix. It worked, and I was even able to reduce the Prozac level.

Several other moms in the local Autism Society with kids with classic autism have also had very poor results with Ritalin and other stimulants.

Some kids with AS do well with Ritalin, though.

When I placed my son on Ritalin, he had not yet been fully tested for learning disabilities. He later scored a 70 on the information retrieval section of an IQ test administered by the school district. (Basically, he is unable to recall much in the way of facts and information without being "cued," having his memory "jogged.") His short-term memory IQ was 86, considerably lower than his overall IQ of 98. Considering the fact that he does well at school conduct-wise, and when I went to observe him one day, he appeared to be paying attention, learning disabilities (not ADHD) appear to be the main source of my own son's problems. (100 IQ is average, and my son scored over 100 on most sections of the test, resuting in an overall score of 98).

The IQ tester from the school district told me that information retrieval issues and different performance on different sections of the IQ test were common in kids with autism.

Side effects i can list from experince with ritalin.
Headaches, nausea, stomach discomfort, growing up being told there is something wrong with you, but thats ok you can fix it with drugs. As opposed to being taught coping skills and given meds only as a secondary therapy to help overcome the immediate symptoms so that you can function.