Medication for children??.

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Stimulants help concentration. Don't even ask me anything until I have had my coffee. Smokers understand this too.

Teachers have been brainwashed into using stimulants for concentration because whether or not a kid has ADHD, they concentrate better in school on meds. The thinking then goes, "all kids do better, no apparent harm, therefore, why not?"

Sadly, the docs, esp pediatricians follow this. My son was on Concerta for a while. No workup, just "let's try it". Now, I think he does have ADD, but he does well in school without stimulants, so he's compensated well. Some kids cannot.

One teeny point - please, please, *don't* dump drugs 'down the toilet', have them properly disposed of. Anything that goes down the toilet potentially affects the environment adversly .

Excellent point and you are exactly right and don't throw them in the trash can either, but the act was too impulsive to control, in my case. (You really don't want details!)
I promise, I am much more environmentally concious 99.99% of the time. This particular incident was very emotionally charged and it was my way of fighting back and regaining my control. I will never make the same mistake again!

Thanks, Chef.

one big news network here did an investigation about the fact that so many people are on things like prozac etc it has gotten into the water table because of the way we loose the meds via using the tiolet. they said in several years it will change the brain chemistry of the whole world. I never thought of it that way really that as long as I was not on it i would not have use to it. but since so many people are on it and lets face it you need to use the bathroom they are unable to filter the drugs out of the water table. so not only do you need to worry about dumping the meds you need to worry that in about 50 years it will be part of the chemistry make up of every living person. and I think we all think about dumping the meds down the toilet because for years that was what you were thought was the best possible way to get rid of the drugs so it would not cause harm to others. i will have to ask my sister in law how she feels the best way to get rid of old meds and I will let you know. she is a DR of pharmacutical meds. she is a college professor she might have very good ideas on who can use these drugs for research etc.

This American is disgusted with how meds are pushed and prescribed. My son was in preschool and had fairly big sleeping problems and the "Helen Keller" behavior. One day, I brought up the sleeping issue with the family doc and he said, "do you want a sleeping med?"
"No, his teacher suggested I tell you, you might know something that helps or if it's a phase"
"Well, we can run tests but otherwise, I'd just prescribe a sleeping aide"
Okay, so then when discussing his symptoms (aggressiveness, hyperactivity) the neurologist suggested Ritalin. This was in 2002 and he said that it hadn't been tested in autistics, it was experimental. We wanted to know more about why it would help, if it hadn't been tested.
"Well, it would help you. It could reduce the behaviors, which would help you relax"
This is at a time when the experts weren't teaching us on how to help our son. No one knew more than us. Drawing cartoons to explain social skills and rules and watching Teletubbies together taught my son more than any experimental dope could.
I resented the idea of giving my son stimulants so that I could cope with being his parent.
Later on, a (special ed) teacher suggested anti-anxiety meds, when his behavior was clearly a situational problem-something he needed to learn about and have adaptive skills for.
Now, he is doing really well and when something comes up, we deal with it in an educational way. A lot of deep tissue stimulation (hugs, tickling, the wheel barrow does wonders) and picture stories (hand drawn cartoons we call "schedules")
He only goes to the doc for an annual physical and infections.

glad that the no-meds route works for you......you could be on the other end, though~our son's new psychiatrist wants nothing more than to pull son off of all meds even though son is finally doing fantatstic and has no more suicidal thoughts.............

I had a friend who was a pre med student and he claimed to not trust doctors. He said he would go to a pharmacist for advice on medicine. That would work if you can get a willing doctor to write prescriptions that you tell him to. I have found that pharmacists and pharmacy techs are much more thorough and helpful in regards to side effects, instructions and cross-interactions.
My husband was clueless with meds his doc prescribed and if you asked him if it was safe to take ____ with ____, he'd shrug and say, "I don't see why not". When in fact, there was a lot of risk to cross those medications.

I personally don't think it's such a great idea to f**k around with the brain chemistry of developing children.
The US is overdozed on everything and loves their pills, but the things that can be fixed with a "magic pill" are very few.
The only ones who can be sure of success when everyone is on drugs, is the drug companies.

my sister in law is a PHD in pharmacy. she is a professor as Albany College of Pharmacy here in upstate NY.. She is my medicinal DR.. she is the one I use to bounce the medicinal stuff off of. she is the best.. so yes use you pharmacy.. their computers will tell you about drug interaction.. but they can tell you case studies.. I must tell you here in NYS a pharmacy tech has NO education in pharmacy. My husband was a Tech for 2 years and he had no education... they do a lot of the work also but get paid like crap.. retail stores do this.. I do think it varies from state to state as to see if the techs have to have a degree in pharmacy.. My sister in law also can practice pharmacy in a few other states because she qualified by taking their tests.. but yes trust their findings.. I find that our DRS hate when I question them on meds and my sons DR has asked me point blank where I know this info from??? they get very put out when I tell them who my sister in law is.. my husband has found that with certain meds you can not take things like advil or tylenol. so iuts best to question the pharmacy...

Pharmacy techs (or whatever their titles are) make up the bulk of people working to fill prescriptions. They may not have specialized training or education but they handle prescriptions and over the counter meds all the time and manage to memorize (or will easily look up) drug interactions and anecdotal advice for mild problems. The biggest problem is mixing over the counter meds with non narcotic prescriptions. People just don't think about it.