My son's doctor has prescribed Vyvanse for him.

Up until now, he's been taking Focalin. My wife and I are nervous about switching to the new drug. Our Psychatrist has never prescribed it to one so young - which certainly doesn't ease our fears.

Does anyone else have young children on this drug?

I'm taking it myself, but I think I would be hesitant to give it to a child as young as four years old. My oldest daughter is 6 1/2 and also has ADHD. She's currently taking Concerta, and with her I 'may' consider Vyvance only because the Concerta doesn't last long enough to do her homework she now has in 1st grade.

I share your concerns. I'm leary moreso because of the dosing. The lowest dose is 30mgs. My daughter's only taking 18mgs of Concerta.

On Drugs.com it says to not use under 3 years of age (which your son obviously is older than that) but it also says to use with Extreme caution with children under 6 years. They have not tested the safety and effectiveness in children under 6. http://www.drugs.com/cdi/vyvanse.html

My son is on Vyvanse also. He is 4 1/2 years old. The biggest things I've noticed with him is shakiness and being quick to tears. But he's only been on it for about 4 days. he is taking half of the 30mg capsule. I'm waiting out to Saturday to see if these side affects wear off.

Greybeard,
I saw your question about taking half a dose of Vyvanse under another thread. Here is a link from a website that describes how to dissolve a Vyvanse capsule in water.

http://www.corepsychblog.com/2007/08/addadhd-treatme.html

(#7 is the line that specifically describes how to do this) This doc states that he uses this for a couple of his younger patients....don't know how young, but you can email him w/ questions/concerns about your son's age and Vyvanse usage. There's a lot of useful and fascinating information on his site.
Good Luck

Interesting 2scattered. I didn't realize that you could do that with Vyvanse. I'd seen people do that with other meds. One thing that confused me on that site was mixing the entire amount of the capsule in 2oz of water and then only drinking 1oz a day?

I suppose it's not time released like some where if you do that you may not get an effective dose. What about storing the remaining dose? I've read on some that you can't store unused doses. Interesting that you can do this with Vyvanse.

Maybe he has them drink only 1 oz of the water so that his patient can get a half dose? He states that Shire is coming out w/ half doses sometime soon...this fall or early next year, I think is what he wrote. As far as storing the rest of the water/dissolved med, that's a good question.

Interesting 2scattered. I didn't realize that you could do that with Vyvanse. I'd seen people do that with other meds. One thing that confused me on that site was mixing the entire amount of the capsule in 2oz of water and then only drinking 1oz a day?

I suppose it's not time released like some where if you do that you may not get an effective dose. What about storing the remaining dose? I've read on some that you can't store unused doses. Interesting that you can do this with Vyvanse.
Is it possible it's easily done with vyvanse because of the way it's broken down...the needing the stomach enzyme thing?

My 4 1/2 year old son started the 30 mil capsol yeaterday. He drove me nuts. he was whinny, overly talkative, rolled his tongue constantly, and stayed up all day from 6 am to 1:30 am. I hope it gets better then this.

I don't like the idea of someone 4 years old to be on Vyvance only cause it's not FDA approved for that age group. I don't know any that are at the moment but I'd be careful for right now since it's being used "off-label".

My 4 1/2 year old son started the 30 mil capsol yeaterday. He drove me nuts. he was whinny, overly talkative, rolled his tongue constantly, and stayed up all day from 6 am to 1:30 am. I hope it gets better then this.I was VERY talkative myself the first couple days on 30mg, but that went away. Actually all the good effects went away too within a few days, and I had to up it to 60mg, then 90mg over a few weeks time.

I honestly find vyvanse very effective for myself (21) but I don't even think about eating or drinking until I get a headache and then when I do eat I have a very small portion because any more than that makes my stomach uncomfortable.

I would worry about that side effect on a child that young.