Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Treatments for ADD?

MumOfThree and Blackcat-
A big concern for our family is the size of our daughter and the issue of meds and appetite. It's a real concern as she is very tiny and only in the 20th percentile for weight. The psychologist is going to do behavioral work with her to see how that works before trying medication. I just finished reading an article about gifted kids and ADHD, inattentive type, and it made me wonder if we should not revisit the idea about meds. DD may be grade accelerated and face more need for executive functioning skills.

Is appetite a part of ADHD inattentive? We've really been worrying about DS lately (always, but more lately), because he doesn't seem to want to eat. He can just totally not notice that he hasn't eaten anything, and it doesn't even bother him.

I think the issue is that appetite loss is a common side effect of many ADHD meds. We worried about it before starting DD10 on Concerta, but she seems to be fine with it. She may eat a little more at dinner and a little less at lunch, but she's still getting enough calories as far as we can tell.

I think loss of appetite is a common side effect (but not with everyone), and we see it with DD, but she is growing fine anyway. She makes up the calories later in the day after the meds wear off.

My DD has experienced loss of appetite twice, and neither was related to ADHD. The first time was when, as a toddler, we were providing too much access to milk and juice, and she was getting all her calories from that. We curbed that access, and she immediately began eating normally.

Recently it's happening again, and it's related to a finding of hypothyroidism.

Oh, dear. We definitely wouldn't want to add any more loss of appetite to what he has already!