Hi everyone we are having a hard time finding a medication for my 9 year old. The DR has prescribed two drugs and neither one is covered by our insurance. If you have a child on medication can you please let me know the name and your personal thoughts on the drug? Thank you.

I'd recommend you talk with your insurance company and find out what's on their formulary, then take that list back to your doctor.

We can't recommend drugs but DD has tried intuniv (or guanfacine) and I don't notice any obvious differences so far. She did better on stimulants (i.e. ritalin) but there were too many side effects. What works great for one kid won't work for another. Also, I recommend getting into a psychiatrist. Our experience is that the pediatricians are just blindly guessing for the most part. They may have a lot of experience with ritalin or adderall, but not the less used medications like intuniv, strattera, etc.

Some companies offer discount cards that you can use for up to a year. Check out the drug companies website and look for discount cards or shoot them an email and ask if they offer one. The long acting stimulant my oldest child takes sent me one. I pay $20 with the card. My insurance covers it but it would be over $150 a month without the drug companies discount card.

We are looking at Qullivant. Anyone familiar with that?

I looked it up and it looks like a different version of ritalin...basically the same drug but maybe longer acting. Have you tried regular ritalin in pill form? I would go for that before trying one of the fancier versions, since regular ritalin isn't all that expensive. You can at least get an idea if it helps in the time frame that it is effective (before it wears off).

Extended release oral suspension. Probably its selling point is that you don't have to swallow a pill, so some children may be more compliant. And, I suppose, one could play with the dosage on a continuous scale.

Yes, I am. It works very well for my oldest. Get about 11 hours of relief and 1 hour of a slow let down. We use it because of GI issues that cause regurgitation with pill swallowing.
Attention to his surroundings increased day one. He noticed streets signs, billboards, books on our shelves, toys he never touched and best of all other kids space, feelings and opinions.
Reading span increased, attention to mistakes increased, etc. etc.
We may have a side effect every now and then. Headaches and not being able to fall asleep. Have not yet figured out if related to meds.
Of course this is just my childs experience. It may or may not be the same for other kids.

We had DS9 on Focalin XR for about a month earlier this year. I saw a noticeable improvement in his ability to focus on schoolwork. However, the side effect for him was having frequent intense, angry meltdowns, which included trashing his room. No amount of improvement was worth it, so we took him off.

DD takes both Adderall XR and Intuiniv. One of the side affects of the stimulents for her was to increase her anxiety, which increased meltdown-y behavior, especially at the time the Adderall is wearing off. The Intuiniv is mainly prescribed to moderate the anxiety, but I do notice a difference in her behavior after the Adderall wears off, too. Her day is just much more smooth all around with the Intuiniv.

FWIW, she started with Adderall non-extended-release, and the non-extended-release pills are great while they're working, but when the dose wears off it's like she falls off an emotional cliff. She's a total emotional wreck for, oh, 20 minutes. The XR wears off more gradually. She's still a bit of a wreck, but not on the same scale.

DD's psychiatrist said Adderall is notorious for causing moody behavior because there are two stimulants involved rather than just one. We had tried it for a few months with DD in second grade and my normally happy, exuberant girl became paranoid and overly sensitive, over-dramatizing small things like people looking at her the wrong way. At first the teacher said she was doing great in terms of focus on the Adderall, and then a few months later she emailed me and said that DD was moody, weepy, and could not accomplish the simplest of tasks. That being said, one of her best friends has been on Adderall and Intuniv for years and the mom loves that combo and he's doing really well. It just depends on the kid and their particular brain chemistry.