Yesterday my husband and I went for our testing consultation with the developmental pediatrician who tested my 8 yr old daughter. The doctor decided that because she has significant sensory issues and anxiety that we need to treat the anxiety first and then deal with the attention issues. The drawback for this is the amount of time it takes to get the right dose on the Paxil. However we were promised that once the anxiety driven behaviors are reduced, we will be able to get a better feel for the attention problems. RB does great in school, she's an honor roll student but has a hard time socially and gets conduct mark frequently.

Does anyone else have children taking Paxil at this age and how long did it take to find your childs correct dosage? Our doctor is starting with .5cc and increasing every 2 weeks if needed.

I just like to be prepared, and the wait to see improvement is going to drive me crazy. Most of you know that both my 5 and 11 yr olds have ADHD and have been on meds for a while. They both responded well to RX treatments. RB is innattentive type so it took a bit longer to get concerned about, since her grades are so good, and her teachers like her.

I can't address the Paxil question, but I did want to respond with a quick note.

I strongly agree that the mood and anxiety needs to be stable before you can address the attention problems. Attention problems can be horribly debilitating, but mood and anxiety can be life-threatening and are much more painful to the sufferer.

This doesn't come from the textbooks or articles I usually quote; it's my opinion from my experience.

I'm bipolar and have been so successfully treated for the past decade that I almost don't remember the feeling of having mood problems, but I do remember that I literally could not stand it.

When I first started Adderall there was a strange mix-up that resulted in taking 2/3 of the Prozac I'd been taking for over a decade without realizing for nearly a week. By the end of that week, I was feeling rather bad and thought the Adderall had stopped working. The mixture of Adderall with depression was pretty unpleasant. Then I discovered the mistake, corrected it, and got back in the swing.

That experience was enlightening; it reassured me that I was not misdiagnosed with BiP, and it made me aware of how important it was to have a stable mood before taking a stimulant.

She also recieved a referal for OT, but we are waiting until her meds are titrated to even do the testing. She doesn't like taking the meds right now but I think that she will start feeling so much better when it's all said and done.
They did not actually give her a diagnosis for the anxiety, because she is so young and those ED lables stick forever.
I know it takes a while to get the right levels with the paxil, but we're hoping that it will take care of a lot of the probem before we start the stimulants.