Hello,
Thank you for writing at HCM.
Stattera is a medication used for
ADHD and as any other medication and especially in the case of this one, for the best interest of your child, you need to have a doctor's prescription and advise to start it to your child.
Just as a general information I am explaining how
dosing for stattera works but please talk to your doctor before giving it to your child: Stattera dose depends on the child's weight and age. it is not much recommended under 6 years old and if it needs to be used under that age special monitoring should be done.
Normally Stattera is first started at 0.5 mg/kg a day, which means a 20 kg child takes 10 mg a day and a 30 kg child takes 15 mg a day and so on. It should never go beyond 40 mg a day as a starting dose.
Than the dose is increased gradually within weeks up to a total of 1.2 mg a day which is the optimal dose. So a child 20 kg takes 24 mg a day and a child of 30 kg takes 36 mg a day up to a maximum of 100 mg if no effect is gained with less doses in a few weeks.
Depending on the weight of your child the dose of the medication can be calculated. In your child's case, if you start with 25 mg, your child should be at least 50 kg. So starting daily dose is calculated by weight (kg) x 0.5 mg and the optimal dose that can be reached in a few weeks is weight (kg)x 1.2 mg.
Hope this gives answers to your questions and I would encourage you to take the opinion of the doctor that follows up your child before deciding on treatment start and dose.
Best regards,