Our doctor started two of my children (one diagnosed ADHD the ot...

Our doctor started two of my children (one diagnosed ADHD the other ADD) on Adderall after watching both of them struggle at school for a couple of years. The older one was held back for lack of attentiveness and disorganization (diagnosed ADD). He was 14 at the time. My younger son was 9 and was not only inattentive but terribly disruptive at school. Upon taking Adderall the younger son calmed down noticeably (20mg of Adderall XR). It was absolutely amazing. The teacher noticed immediately that this restless boy who would ask the same question over and over without listening to the answer was suddenly attentive and well-mannered. The side-effects are concerning however. This child is naturally thin and not a terribly good eater. His eating diminished and I took to forcing him to drink an Ensure every day. He also was not sleeping as well. I noticed that the side-effects passed after the first couple of weeks. I refrain from giving him the Adderall on weekends and days off, as I am worried about addiction and long-term addiction. He has now gone all summer without any - but there are days that his ADHD is especially frustrating (for everyone around him - and him too. I will see his face fall when he has annoyed someone and he gets barked at for bothering others) and I wonder if I should have continued so as not to shock his system again when school starts in the fall. The older child takes the Adderall very rarely now. When he knows he will have a big test at school or feels "out of it" he will take one...but seems to have learned to deal with the ADD problem a bit better naturally. He is not a straight A student - even though I know he has the potential to be one. I feel that for him it is optional and at present, he dislikes the feeling he has on it - so chooses not to take it. I can only hope that the decisions that we've made are the right ones. I have read a lot of posts here about not giving this to children. We have tried other methods, but nothing else seems to work. One person here mentioned focusing for 10 minutes a day on something and giving the child more attention. Sounds like a good plan, but in action nearly impossible. This child's attention span is almost non-existant at times. He cannot focus on the activity at hand and interupts constantly. He will ask a question and when I respond he will ask the same question over and over. I can tell him something 10 times and it doesn't seem to "sink in" to his brain. When he takes the Adderall he is focused and attentive and I will only need to tell him something once in order for him to understand.