melt downs

My 6 year old grandaughter has just been diagnosed with adhd and put on Adderall (adderrall). Before rarely thought when she would get worked up of over tired she would have what we called melt downs. That was she would screammingly cry absolutly refuse to budge and just melt to that spot till she calmed down. The more the attentions the longer it would go so just quiet time was best. Now since she has been on the medicine for two weeks she has become very mouth aggressive and daily melt downs. She looks aggitated and just not herself at all today she got in alot of trouble in school and has had multitudes of these melt downs. When her mom called the doctor no return calll has happened. I'm very worried. She a sweet good litlle girl usually this is not norm for her. Help

[jdtm]

Many times when a child is given medication for ADHD and it does not work, the diagnosis is incorrect.  Maybe it's time for another check-up with a specialist who is experienced in childhood mental health issues.  I believe the mother is correct; it is time to go back to the doctor.

[Agiesmom]

I know nothing about medication, but I would think that if she's worse, that's not good.  I'm surprised the doctor didn't call back.  I would call the after-hours doctor and tell them that she is much worse on the meds and see what they say.

Did her mother try behavior modification techniques (and counseling to get ideas for this) before medicating her?

My son used to do the same thing when he was younger and there was a huge change in him at 7 years old.  And my pediatrician told me he wouldn't even discuss the possibility of ADHD until he was 7 (and I've had other qualified people (one a psychologist) whole-heartedly agree with that).  At the time, I thought it was odd when he said that, but I was glad he did when I saw that my son really matured and calmed down at age 7.

I learned what his triggers were and would avoid them.  I'd watch him carefully when we were at a park or birthday party...when I'd see him getting worked up or overstimulated, I'd quickly take him home.  I focused on ending things on a good note--quitting while we were ahead.  (If a party was from 2-4 p.m., we'd say we couldn't make it to the party until 3:15).  The more he had successful outings, the better he felt about himself and the better he behaved.  And it got to the point when he would come to me, pull on my shirt and tell me he wanted to leave.  He learned to recognize when it was getting to be too much for him.  The goal for me was to teach him to know his own body, realize what he needed, and do what he needed to do to make things right for himself.

I like the book "Raising Your Spirited Child".  There are a lot of good ideas in there.