My son is having a reaction to ADHD meds

Not every one can take the medication without side effects. Medications are "quick fix" solutions. "Pop a pill and feel better." You may need to get to the actual SOURCE of the problem. 70% of ADHD children actually are having an allergic reaction. Those allerges can be artifical colorins, preservatives, etc. It is very difficult to isolate the specific allergen. BUT, there is a diet called the Feingold diet. It is designed to remove the most COMMON allergens from an ADHD child's diet. It can take a couple of weeks to remove ALL of the sources of these foods AND have his body eliminate them. BUT, if this is the source of his problem; he would no longer need medication (some medications even have these ingrediants IN them as fillers and coloring). It is a little more work than popping a pill; but, it is no harder than controling the diet of a child with peanut allergy, lactose intolerance, or gluten intolerance. It only works for 70% of the children; so, it is possible he could be in the 30% whose ADHD is NOT caused by allergies. But, it is worth a try. Here is a link to the website - http://www.feingold.org/ or you can also try the "Failsafe Diet" it is very similar and has helped a lot of people - http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/index.htm#buttons

This is a side effect of the meds, but it is sort of like a tic and your son can't control that yet. But if you talk to your son and get to what makes him want to lick his lips then maybe you can redirect him before or while he is licking his lips. My son had the same reaction to his meds, and before long we found that pulling his eyelashes and eyebrows relieved his anxiety. Made him feel better. Soon enough, we found the triggers to this stress and anxiety, and we were able to redirect him or talk out what the stress or anxiety was and get him past the moment. Let me think for a minute, you say your son is nine and he keeps losing the chapstick. hhhmmmm I am actually trying to think of something to help him from losing the chapstick. You know, they do make little caddies for chapstick that you can put on a keyring or even a belt loop.. yep thats all I got for now. Main thing is though, once you get your son redirected, you need to review what happened the minutes before he started licking his lips and address the issue that caused the anxiety or stress. Basically the meds are increasing his anxiety or stress levels. Suprised you didn't see this with the Adderall. But then every kid reacts differently to every medication.

My son also did this when he was on meds for his ADHD. I have one school picture where it looks like he put red lipstick around his mouth, it was just extremely chapped. I am not sure what causes him to do this when he is on the meds,but he is older now and he knows more how to control himself and wishes not to take the medication anymore, so I don't make him take it as long as his grades and his behavior are fine in school. The only thing that I did to try to stop it was to put the medication you can get for thumb sucking on the outside of his lips, it helped a little but I was not there to put it on all the time. You might want to ask his doctor to try something else or see if they have any other suggestions. Sorry I couldn't help more! good luck!

Stop, his lips are dry as less saliva production is a side effect. just get him to drink a good amount of water