mood

[crillmom]

we had our son's conference today. he got a great report for academics. The problem he is way too emotional he cries when things don't go his way. he is 9 years old he is way too old to be responding to situations the way he does. is there any supplement that helps with this. thanks

[free spirit]

There are supplements that might help. Its hard to tell which one will be helpful because theres no way of knowing what chemical is low. Crying all the time would indicate that he's most likely low on serotonin. 5-HTP might be helpful. It increases serotonin. Someone from the old ADHD.com site gave me this link:
Pain & Stress Center: www.painstresscenter.com
They have amounts of each ingrediant listed as well as the symptoms each supplement can be helpful for. There are a lot that are specially formulated for kids. I ordered two products from there last night, it will be enough to last me one month and was $5 cheaper than one bottle of beCalmd(which doesnt seem to be lasting me the entire month). I'm nervous about trying something new since the beCalmd works so well for me, but its just getting to expensive. I did notice while looking through the site they have a 5-HTP mood boosting formula for children.

[crillmom]

Is there a safe amount of 5-htp that you can give a child? How do I know? Right now in tyhe becalmd he gets a total of 25 mg with this other product there is 50 mg in 1 tablet is that too much or will that much help.

[catatonic]

Is your son on any medication? Emotional lability is often a side effect of medication, particularly if he is on Strattera.

The Strattera patient information brochure euphemistically refers to this as "mood swings" and lists it as a common side effect. According to the physician's package insert on Strattera, this emotional lability can become so severe that the medication must be discontinued. Read about it or report side effects at www.strattera.com

If your son is not on medications there are a number of things that might help. I've found that, for my son, a Vitamin B-complex helps keep his moods more level. I also stay away from herbals since he seems to react in an opposite manner to many of them. I try to give his body what it needs to solve its own problems.

On the 5-HTP, there is some fairly decent research indicating its success in helping symptoms of depression. (5-HTP is an amino acid, a seratonin precursor). Too much will cause both liver and brain toxicity. In addition, impurities in HTP supplements have been proven to cause eosinophilic myalgia syndrome, which is fatal.

There have been no studies conducted that evaluate the safety of 5-HTP for pediatric use. For an adult, the normal dose is 50mg given from 1 to 3 times daily. (Maximum suggested adult dose of 150mg daily.)

Be very careful if you use 5-HTP. Amino acids in general are easy to misuse and generally it's safer and more successful to have medical guidance on this. Different forms of ADHD have different types of amino acid imbalances and giving the wrong one will make things worse.