Ritalin side effects

[ilovemyboys2]

Hello.  My son, age 6.5 years, 56 lbs, has just started taking ritalin on a trial basis.  We started at 5 mg twice a day and that was fine.  We noticed small but positive changes.  His appetite was somwhat affected but everything else was fine.  When we bumped it up to 7.5 mgs, he says that he gets funny feelings in his stomach and has a really good fun feeling and that he feels like having fun.  He says he loves this feeling.  My concern is:  can ritalin give you a 'high' type feeling?  Could this just be that he feels better?  Other than appetite, no other effects that I can see.  
thank you.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

Dr. Gould is on vacation and will reply on sept 2o.

[Nebula]

Yes, you can get high from taking prescribed ritalin.  I used it as a teen.  I'm sure you know all the backlash on Ritalin.  Well, a lot of it is true.  Have you tried modiying your boys' diets before you got them prescriptions?  Did you try having them do aerobic exercise to focus before you got them prescriptions? Do they spend a lot of time getting spoon fed their television shows?  Just checking!
  [My sister-in-law is trying to get my beautiful nephew Ritalin because he's hyper, like any other 9 yr. old. (It seems to be the trend).  As a child advocate, I don't like to see this until all other avenues are exhausted].