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Caffeine's affect on those with ADHD

Scarlett

By Scarlett,
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Insertcreativenamehere

Insertcreativenamehere

Posted
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I've heard that, too. It's interesting that you post this because I've started giving my two boys a small amount of caffeine in the morning to help them focus for school. One child finds it immensely helpful and it indeed does help him focus. It makes a big difference in how engaged he is with his work. My other child complains that it makes him sleepy. Neither have been diagnosed with ADHD, although I strongly suspect that they both have ADHD tendencies. 

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Guest

Guest

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I have a friend with adhd--adult.  He self-medicated, pre-diagnosis, with coffee.  32 cups a day.  When he figured out the deal, he got on Ritalin or something and went coffee-free...and was completely better off.  The caffeine was self-medicating.

 

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Katy

Katy

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IDK about studies, but it sometimes makes me sleepy, and has since I was a child.  At least in small doses.  In large doses I tend to get stomach aches.

 

Tea, on the other hand, will keep me up at night if I drink a bunch of iced tea in the afternoon or evening.

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Liz CA

Liz CA

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There is definitely evidence since it's known that an "upper" or stimulant like coffee (and Ritalin)  has a calming and focusing effect on ADHD people. Researchers found their frontal cortex is less active and the stimulant activates some of those areas.

Here is one article that explains a little more:

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/caffeine-for-adhd/

 

For truly peer-reviewed scientific report, you typically need to me a faculty member or student of a university / member of a research group or pay for it.

Edited by Liz CA
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Insertcreativenamehere

Insertcreativenamehere

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Can anyone that gives their child caffeine advise me on the amount and what you give? DS could probably benefit from it.

I give 80 mg of caffeine in the form of a pill. A cup of coffee typically contains between 80-100 mg of caffeine. 

 

As I was thinking more about this, I realized that my husband and I have vastly different responses to caffeine so it makes sense that our kids do, too. My husband and oldest son both can drink caffeine at any time of the day or night and not have trouble sleeping. It's this child for whom caffeine is actually sedating. On the other hand, I can't have caffeine after noon because it will keep me awake at night. I haven't ever given our second son caffeine at night so I don't know if he responds similarly to me, but he is the one that finds the caffeine helpful for focus. 

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Guest

Guest

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Not sleepy, focusing. The "calm" refers to calm brain, not getting sleepy, necessarily. Though of course if you can't sleep, being calm only helps.

 

I like this link.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/caffeine-for-adhd/

 

I vote adults, sure. Kids, maybe not.

 

I do not caffeinate my add kids fwiw. No free lunch with this lot...

 

Plus, I rarely see ppl giving their kids coffee without a GRIP of sugar. Every day.

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PinkyandtheBrains.

PinkyandtheBrains.

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Caffeine is a stimulant.

Stimulants bring the ADHD brain up to normal stimulation levels. This is the calming affect people talk about. Once the brain isn't fighting to get up to normal stimulation levels, it makes sense some might be tired. They can finally relax.

 

 

Yes there is science behind this, google stimulants and ADHD.

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Lady Florida.

Lady Florida.

Posted
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Caffeine is a stimulant.

Stimulants bring the ADHD brain up to normal stimulation levels. This is the calming affect people talk about. Once the brain isn't fighting to get up to normal stimulation levels, it makes sense some might be tired. They can finally relax.

 

 

Yes there is science behind this, google stimulants and ADHD.

 

^^^This^^^  

 

The common misconception is that the stimulant has an opposite affect on people with ADHD.  It just allows them to focus. Sometimes that ends up being a focus on the fact that they need sleep. 

Edited by Lady Florida.
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Katy

Katy

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Can anyone that gives their child caffeine advise me on the amount and what you give? DS could probably benefit from it.

 

Start with half a cup of coffee and fill the mug up with milk.  Try that.  Increase dosage slowly and see for yourself.

 

We find caffeine pills to be irritating to the stomach, and if there's something a kid with ADHD doesn't need, it's another distraction in the form of a bad headache stomachache.  Can you tell I was distracted when responding to this?

 

A large glass of iced tea (never after 3 pm - the theanine or whatever the other stimulent is in tea will keep you from sleeping deeply) might be an easier, cheaper, and arguably healthier way to try caffeine. 

 

Edited to correct moronic distraction.  Apparently need more caffeine myself this morning.

Edited by Katy
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Scarlett

Scarlett

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The reason I was asking is because my almost 17 year old disbelieves that caffeine has the opposite effect on people with ADHD.  He is not diagnosed....although I feel sure if he had been in public school all of these years someone would have tried to diagnose and medicate him.  Anyway, I did not allow caffeine until he was about 12....then limited....and then in the last year or two I've not really regulated it.  He doesn't seem to go crazy with it but the one thing that bothers me is the energy drink he has once or twice a week.  I keep telling him how bad those are for you...so then we went down the bunny trail of how it affects him....doesn't keep him up...in fact, he is well known for drinking a Mt. Dew in the car and then promptly going sound to sleep for a 2 hour drive.  So our circular discussion went like, 'mom, I am not adhd and caffeine doesn't keep me up, so your theory is bad with no evidence except anecdotal which is no evidence at all.'  'son, maybe you ARE ADHD and that is one of the big symptoms.' 

 

Darn critical thinking classes!

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Katy

Katy

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The reason I was asking is because my almost 17 year old disbelieves that caffeine has the opposite effect on people with ADHD.  He is not diagnosed....although I feel sure if he had been in public school all of these years someone would have tried to diagnose and medicate him.  Anyway, I did not allow caffeine until he was about 12....then limited....and then in the last year or two I've not really regulated it.  He doesn't seem to go crazy with it but the one thing that bothers me is the energy drink he has once or twice a week.  I keep telling him how bad those are for you...so then we went down the bunny trail of how it affects him....doesn't keep him up...in fact, he is well known for drinking a Mt. Dew in the car and then promptly going sound to sleep for a 2 hour drive.  So our circular discussion went like, 'mom, I am not adhd and caffeine doesn't keep me up, so your theory is bad with no evidence except anecdotal which is no evidence at all.'  'son, maybe you ARE ADHD and that is one of the big symptoms.' 

 

Darn critical thinking classes!

 

Correlation is not causation.  It's also possible this child simply genetically processes caffeine very quickly (there's a gene for that), and has blood sugar issues so the rapid increase of sugar triggers a release of insulin that makes him sleepy.  It may have nothing to do with ADHD.

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SparklyUnicorn

SparklyUnicorn

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The reason I was asking is because my almost 17 year old disbelieves that caffeine has the opposite effect on people with ADHD.  He is not diagnosed....although I feel sure if he had been in public school all of these years someone would have tried to diagnose and medicate him.  Anyway, I did not allow caffeine until he was about 12....then limited....and then in the last year or two I've not really regulated it.  He doesn't seem to go crazy with it but the one thing that bothers me is the energy drink he has once or twice a week.  I keep telling him how bad those are for you...so then we went down the bunny trail of how it affects him....doesn't keep him up...in fact, he is well known for drinking a Mt. Dew in the car and then promptly going sound to sleep for a 2 hour drive.  So our circular discussion went like, 'mom, I am not adhd and caffeine doesn't keep me up, so your theory is bad with no evidence except anecdotal which is no evidence at all.'  'son, maybe you ARE ADHD and that is one of the big symptoms.' 

 

Darn critical thinking classes!

 

I don't know.  I'm the same way.  I am not effected by caffeine.  But I am pretty darn certain I don't have ADHD. 

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PinkyandtheBrains.

PinkyandtheBrains.

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My DS is diagnosed ADHD, but not medicated. (He's really small and low appetite so I'm terrified to put him on a known appetite suppressant.) There is a marked difference in his impulse control when he has an EnerGem. He won't try coffee. 

https://www.energems.net

 

I have a child with ADHD and is small. Feel free to pm me, we do medicate and have manage to compensate for the appetite issues. We also do a couple other things.

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ElizabethB

ElizabethB

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I give 80 mg of caffeine in the form of a pill. A cup of coffee typically contains between 80-100 mg of caffeine.

 

As I was thinking more about this, I realized that my husband and I have vastly different responses to caffeine so it makes sense that our kids do, too. My husband and oldest son both can drink caffeine at any time of the day or night and not have trouble sleeping. It's this child for whom caffeine is actually sedating. On the other hand, I can't have caffeine after noon because it will keep me awake at night. I haven't ever given our second son caffeine at night so I don't know if he responds similarly to me, but he is the one that finds the caffeine helpful for focus.

I read an article that I can't find now that states that the half life of coffee was 14 hours on average for women vs 8 hours for men. The current articles I could find only focused on higher half life for women on oral contraceptives. There were several other interesting articles about all the things that influence coffee's half life. Edited by ElizabethB
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Carol in Cal.

Carol in Cal.

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Yeah, I don't really think he is ADHD..  But I did think that caffeine affected people with ADHD opposite of everyone else.  I am apparently wrong.  

There actually IS a school of thought that says this, and it's got a lot of anecdotal evidence backing it up on these boards.  Whether it's been formally studied/proven/disproven I have no idea.

 

The line of thinking is more or less that ADHD folks routinely have the executive function parts of their brain less 'aroused' than other folks do.  So they don't focus as well as most, except when they hyperfocus, which is not exactly typical either.  

 

So if you give them a stimulant, it arouses the executive function part of the brain more than the rest, and so paradoxically they get calmer.  Hence the Ritalin calming them down where it would ramp up neurotypical folks.  That being the case, half a cup of coffee for an elementary aged child might do the same thing, and indeed, this has been the observation of many here and also of some people I know.

 

For my own child, caffeine gets her so reved up that she loses her self-control entirely--but she doesn't seem to have ADHD.  

 

I am pretty sure that DH has ADD and self-medicates with coffee.  

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Lady Florida.

Lady Florida.

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I have a child with ADHD and is small. Feel free to pm me, we do medicate and have manage to compensate for the appetite issues. We also do a couple other things.

 

Ds was small (actually middle of the chart height-wise but very thin) and he was/is medicated for ADHD. Not all ADHD meds affect appetite equally plus there are ways of getting around those that do. The medicine doesn't build up or stay in your system, so you eat (or feed the kid) before and after the dose. It's tricky but it works.

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Lizzie in Ma

Lizzie in Ma

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Can anyone that gives their child caffeine advise me on the amount and what you give? DS could probably benefit from it.

 

I single tea cup of it in the morning and another later in the day when she has homework to do usually does it.  She is in school now and I bought her mints with caffeine and B vitamins in case she needs a pick me up to focus while she is there.

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BlsdMama

BlsdMama

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I have a friend with adhd--adult.  He self-medicated, pre-diagnosis, with coffee.  32 cups a day.  When he figured out the deal, he got on Ritalin or something and went coffee-free...and was completely better off.  The caffeine was self-medicating.

 

 

I'm so glad you posted this.  I was feeling really guilty about 4-5 cups a day. :D  Now I know I can increase it, lol.

 

Coffee is what I get when I sit down to do table work.  It is probably silly and mental, but I feel relaxed with coffee so I can sit and do things while sitting.  I am a *busy* person (in that I don't sit still well, not that I do a lot, kwim?)  Sitting in a theatre for a movie is my idea of extreme torture.

 

No proof.

 

However, I admit I always thought it was in people's heads that they couldn't sleep if they had coffee.  :P I have never ever had that issue.  Drink a cup (or two) while doing late night homework then pop into bed.  No problem.

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caedmyn

caedmyn

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Caffeine has no effect on my DH, except withdrawal headaches if he quits, and he doesn't have ADHD.

 

From what I have read, 1-10 mgs of caffeine per kg of body weight is the recommended amount for ADHD, with the liw end of the range just as effective as the high end.

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2ndGenHomeschooler

2ndGenHomeschooler

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My DH drinks coffee all day long. He says it calms him down so he can think about only one thing at a time. He drinks a lot of coffeee at work because his job is very demanding and requires him to remember lots of details and switch quickly between different types of situations. Coffee helps him keep it all straight. He drinks regular coffee at all hours of the day and sleeps fine. If he doesn't drink any he's almost more wild than our 7yo DS. There was that one Sunday he didn't drink any before church... 🙄😜He's not good at sitting still on a good day (unless a screen is on). I'm fairly certain he has ADHD but he doesn't have an official diagnosis.

Edited by 2ndgenhomeschooler
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Lady Florida.

Lady Florida.

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Here's some actual science on the subject, with links to pubmed studies.

 

The problem with caffeine vs. ADHD meds is in the dose. A "dose" of caffeine is inconsistent from day to day and beverage to beverage. Anecdotal evidence is not evidence. If, as an adult, you find caffeine works for you that's great. I wouldn't prevent an older child with ADHD from drinking caffeinated beverages (and I didn't prevent ds from having them), but I wouldn't count on it in place of medicine and/or behavioral therapy.

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