Hi Jamie,
Let me preface this by saying that I am not a doctor so don't want to give you too much info as I am sure your doctor will...I just have a background working as a mental health therapist with children along with a psychiatrist and other doctors. The majority of kids I have worked with don't have side effects at all. Side effects depend on the med and some ADHD meds are stimulants and some are not. What I have most often seen is some loss of appetite, on some of the non-stimulants I have seen some initial drowsines that usually goes away fairly quickly. There obviously can be others that your doctor can mention but those are clearly the most common when a child has side effects at all. There are also two different classes of stimulants so those work differently as well. So doctors will usually try what has been most effective with the least amount of side effects and go from there...often at a low dose and increase as needed. If it is a stimulant medication then results will be seen quickly, if it is a nonstimulant medication then it can take a few weeks.
I am sure it can be pretty scary, but if you trust your doctor and they start at a good dose then that should alleviate some of your anxiety. And your doctor should be providing you with information about side effects. The doctors we worked with took all of that very seriously and read up on all sorts of research on medications to do what is best. I have been working with these kids for years and side effects are seriously minimal when prescribed correctly despite what you will read in some anti-med slanted articles. And like I said, for some kids you have to consider the side effects of not taking meds. I have seen some major self-esteem damage, continued behavioral problems, failing, not holding down jobs, etc. and and all sorts of problems that are caused from children that never did get appropriate treatment. To me that is much worse. Of course ADHD medication really only helps about 80% of kids from what I have read, but you still have a good chance it will help and can change it if it doesn't. Some kids only respond to certain meds, so while one may work well another may not. I did mention I am not a doctor, right? So take that for what it's worth...2 cents maybe? : )
This is somewhat unrelated but my son and daughter both have asthma and need to take meds for it. I have always hesitated to give them the inhaled steroid because it affects behavior and makes them irritable...but if they really need it then I give it to them for a while because they need it to breathe and hopefully not get worse. Sometimes it frustrates me when it seems that some don't understand that ADHD is real (like asthma) and that as a parent you have to make the right choice even though it isn't always easy. I imagine I would be considered neglectful if I didn't give my son the inhaler and he really needed it.
