Ritalin and Speech----3 year old Please respond if you have had first-hand experience.?

My son has recently begun taking a low-dose of Ritalin (NOT for behavior, but for severe speech apraxia). My son's neurologist and pediatrician both recommended the drug, which is also given to stroke victims to help with the same problem.

My question is this-what side effects have you seen with your child at this young age? We have slowly increased the dosage, and, right now, there are no side effects that I've noticed. I'm a little concerned about increasing the dosage to the recommended amount b/c I worry about side effects. What dosage have you given a three year old, and what side effects have you noticed?
If anyone's child has apraxia or another severe developmental speech disorder--what has your experience been with Ritalin? The neurologist said that one out of three children respond really well to the drug, but I'd like to hear some antecdotal information.

Thanks!

(Please do not respond with cautions about the safety of the drug--I've already done my research.

Just to reiterate--my son is NOT taking Ritalin for behavior---He is a great kid and NOT hyperactive. His behavior hasn't changed at all with the drug, and I'm curious to see if that has been true with other children as well.

More people are going to have experience with Ritalin being taking for ADHD. Which is most always given to school aged children. My son did take Ritalin for a week due to help with behaviors and he was very soon taken off it. He is Autistic. His behavior changed dramatically and he became very violent which was abnormal for him. I know with most ADHD meds which Ritalin is in the family appetite and sleep is a big concern. It is just something to look for. My other concern always for my son was is he growing at the right rate just something the pediatrician should look at. Obviously if you see any changes in your child that don't seem right to hesitate to tell the doctor. I did a quick search online a found a few people talking about there children with speech apraxia and having them on Ritalin. Here is one page:

http://www.apraxia-kids.org/site/apps/mb...

Good luck in finding what works for your son. Having a child with a disability is a long road.

My ex-girlfriend was on both Ritalin and Prozac at the same time. She was 24 then and was teaching little kids about art. She went crazy and did bad things on the Internet. I dumped her after that.

Well if you want to know a bad experience because of ritalin just look at Kurt Cobain. He spent his childhood taking ritalin to get rid of the pain and what did he turn to when he got older? Heroin. I'm not saying this will happen I'm just saying it encourages a dependency on drugs to solve all of your problems.

Both of my brothers were on Ritalin for hyperactivity when they were younger--I know it's for different reasons but maybe this will help. One of them reacted fine to it--calmed him down with no side effects. My other brother however did have side effects--He would get really angy and stab the couch and throw over-the-top fits of rage/anger. My mom had him stop taking it and now she's trying some natural supplements. Hope that helps even if it's different circumstances.

Then your research sucks the bag big time...Ritalin has been known to put the kidneys and liver through hell. I know this because I had to do real research on this dam drug. My child had ADHD and they wanted to put him on that. Side effects are side effects no matter what the hell the Doctors say. The pharmaceutical business is a multi-Billion dollar business...Do you really think that the Doctors who are getting paid to prescribe this drug will actually tell you of the side effects? Come on now, There has been on record that a 14 yr. old boy had a heart attack due to this pill. Think about it and re-do your research...If you don't want to hear it then you should not be on Q & A.