Anyone's child lose weight from ADHD Meds?

Yes. This is very common. Many of my students have this issue.

Focus on nutrition and eating nutrient dense foods. Also, shakes and smoothies seem to help. I have allowed students to have them at school.

DD is on Focalin XR, so I don't know if there is a difference in the side effects for extended release capsules. She has never had it interfer with her appettite.

She started with a very low dosage (5mg IIRC) and worked up to her current dosage. We also let her go med free in the summer until she started driving. 

Good luck figuring it all out.

Love this! 

Yes, DD is on Concerta (generic version) and what helped us is this - 

Blender smoothies - in the morning she JUST wasn't hungry, even if I decided she wasn't getting her pill until after she ate breakfast, it was too much of a struggle to get her fed and remember for her to take her pill. Then I did smoothies and oh my that was the key. So yogurt - I buy the Stoneyfield Farms big quart containers of vanilla and then add bananas and berrries - yum and we were able to get her fed every day this way. Smoothie plus her pill and she was ready to go for the day. 

Lunch - she was never a lunch eater to begin with, so adding her pill just made this all worse. I decided to work around this and pack her many little snack items for her to pick on throughout the day - not sure how your child's school is set up but she is allowed to eat in various times through the day - so this worked for us. Picking the right type of snacks was key as well. PROTEIN was important - we buy Luna protein bars and Kind bars and she eats those, bags of cashews, and then would pack bags of cheerios or other cereal as well to snack on as well as grapes or other things she could grab and eat during study hall, etc. Yogurt another thing to pack, the small ones she could eat in  few bites either at lunch or later in the day. Small snacks throughout the day helped IMMENSELY. She is allergic to eggs but I know other friends of hers that pack hard boiled eggs for lunch as a quick protein as well. 

Then by the time dinner rolled around, since she took her morning dose at 6:30 am, and had sports practice after school, picking her up at 5 and eating dinner at 6 = by then she was hungry. Again keeping protein in mind, more protein less starch/carbs (although honestly every once in a while she binges on/craves pasta or waffles so I let her given that she doesn't do it often). Oh yeah, frozen waffles - not sure what to tell you but it's a key snack to have on hand, apparently a lot of the other girls on her team think they're the best thing to grab after a game as well, so we follow suit, keeps her happy and fed!

Hope these ideas helped as to what we do - oh we also buy every once in a while the premade yogurt smoothies from the grocery store but not that often - Odwalla juice as well, the ones with juice and veggies in them, though the protein powder ones she said were disgusting as she could taste the protein flakes in it so you may need to avoid those ones, ha ha. I find a lot of other ADHD kids also have food issues with texture so you may find that an issue as well as the getting your child to eat - makes it so much more challenging but once you find what they like, just go with it - I find it easier than fighting with her!

Sorry I forgot this as well - this summer we have taken days off - mind you she has been on it since January so I felt fine doing this, but I think our doctor wanted us to wait to do this until the pill routine was well established - last appt a month or so ago he said we could give her days off from the pill so we do. So this summer she works 3 or 5 days a week depending on her schedule. We give her days off her meds on the day she has off from work so she can sleep in and get a chance to eat normally and sometimes she wants something with caffeine which she CAN'T have on days she is on her meds so on her days off she can get a coffee coolada or something like that for fun. But we generally only give her 2 days in a week max, usually only one day a week off her medication. And we have done 2 days in a row but we didn't like how that worked out when she went back on them, she was pretty foul tempered so we don't do more than a day off. That may be different for others but that's what our experience has been.

We had the same issue when we started J on concerta
He's naturally thin but was losing weight on the med
We had him drink the high calorie boost at least 2x per day in between meals
He wasn't hungry for it, but he knew he couldn't continue to play sports if he didn't have enough calories
I believe it was the first 6 months he was on the med that we insisted on the Boost 2 x per day
We did give him weekends off of the concerta in the beginning to help him catch up on calories.

Please please please do not do medication vacations with your child. I have had so many clients parents do so many "summer med vacations" and "weekend med vacations" and almost all of them wound up having to be on different mess because the original became ineffective. Not to mention the erratic behavior swings caused by the more frequent med vacations. It screws with the system and with the kids mentality. Not worth it in my opinion.

You just sort of need to force her to eat. Offer her her favorite foods and snacks multiple times a day. Let her know that even though she doesn't feel like eating she still needs to do it to stay healthy.

My DD too. She has actually maintained weight on vynase (sp). She lost a lot of weight on concerta. Our dr. gave the advice of 2 breakfasts or if she'd eat 2 dinners. So she gets a protein bar before breakfast and usually eats the protein bar and picks at breakfast. She is much more likely to eat a snack than a meal so she gets lots of high calorie/protein snacks. I think she gained a pound this year! But also grew like 2 inches.

My son was the same. He was already underweight but almost never wanted to eat except for breakfast when on concerta. So we made sure he was up early enough before school that he could eat as much as he wanted of healthy foods. Usually it was 3 meals worth in one sitting, and not only what most would consider breakfast foods. Dinner for breakfast was pretty common for him when he was on the meds. Now he no longer needs the meds and eats constantly but still doesn't gain weight. Oh to have the metabolism of a teen boy!

My nephew takes Concerta. He never wants to eat. We make him eat at least 3/4ths of what we give him but it's a struggle. He keeps saying "I'm not hungry". He has always been small and thin even before the meds. Nothing we do makes him gain weight. He brother who is two years younger is taller and weighs more than him. The doctor tells us he is in the low range in weight for his height. All his friends weight about 20 lbs more and are about a foot taller than him but as long as he stays in the range for his height the doctor is ok with it. We take him off the meds for the summer. It makes him have a better appetite but he doesn't gain any weight.

No experience with a child on this medication, but Vyvanse has been approved to treat adults with Binge Eating Disorder

My kid is not hungry during the day, but after dinner, unlimited peanut butter sandwiches are allowed, as well as other foods in moderation (cookies, for example, do have a limit! LOL)

Breakfast is a protein-packed meal: milk, cheese, toast on bread that has at least 5g of protein per slice, and a snack bar that has 10-15g protein. My kids take regular vitamin supplements, as well.

I'm a big believer in milk for nutrition, but it can be an appetite suppressant. I encourage him to have a glass at lunch when he's at school, since he doesn't usually eat much more than a bagel.

"Med vacations" are something to be worked out with your child and the doctor on an *individualized* basis. They are an excellent tradeoff for some children and quite hazardous for others. Our doctor has been great about guiding us, and my kid is taking the reins more and more. He will be off to college in a few years, so he needs to learn how to manage his ADHD and the medication on his own.

When I started to take Adderall I lost two clothing sizes. As an adult woman, I was pleased. I can see it being a problem for a child, however.