Replies

Make sure when you post an article here that you give the source--from the format, I assume that the above article is a Salon.com special.

My autistic son was given meds several times when he was younger. When he was three, it was prednisone. I am 100% positive that the prednisone had the effect his pediatrician hoped for--to fix some small part of his brain that was becoming inflamed. His autism hadn't manifested AT ALL until after age 2, and it was his developmental pediatrician's belief that steroid therapy can stop and even somewhat reverse late-onset autistic symptoms. My son began again to actually communicate with us, make eye contact, and many of his autism symptoms became much, much milder after this. So you see, the success we had then made me much more willing to try meds than I should have been. But I have to give credit to the prednisone. I wish this treatment was being tried with more autistic children while they are still toddlers because even if it doesn't work all of the time, there's no question it worked for my son. I think he's doing as well as he is, and he is doing great--fully mainstreamed and getting mostly As with a few Bs.

Later, when he was 3 and 4, he had a terrible time with anxiety. He had always been a happy child, but suddenly he was afraid of many, many things. Again, I suspect a physical cause. This time another pediatrician tried Prozac liquid. I had severe doubts about this and I had to be talked into it, not just the first time, but several times afterward. He did indeed settle down. It helped his concentration and his ability to attend to things other than what he wanted to do. Still, I was not very happy about it. He did not grow at all while he was on Prozac, about eight months, and I wanted him to LEARN how to pay attention at school, not be drugged into paying attention. When it seemed he had adjusted well to the things that used to bother him, I tapered him off against medical advice. Unfortunately, his first grade classroom was not an ideal environment for any child: too many children and a stressed-out teacher. The pressure from the first grade teacher grew so great that they were documenting that "all of Ricky's problems stem from his mother's ill-advised withholding of his prescribed medication." Back to the doctor we went because it looked like we had legal trouble coming. I wanted to be backed up that the child's difficulties stemmed from a bad teacher and bad classroom. Unfortunately, what happened instead is that the child was put back on meds--this time, Ritalin, since it was attentional difficulties, not anxiety, that worried his teacher.

Ritalin has a common side effect not listed above. It stunts growth in most children who take it. Against my better judgment, the pediatrician agreed with the teacher, and Ricky was put on Ritalin. I endured all kinds of hassles any time his behavior made his teacher thing I'd taken him off of it. This teacher seemed to think I was deliberately sending the kid to school undrugged.(I later found out that this teacher had pressured the parents of ALL OF THE BOYS IN THE CLASS PLUS THREE GIRLS TO GET THEM ON RITALIN! And several were insecure enough, like me, to bow to the pressure.) Anyway, once again my son was on a med I didn't trust. Prozac affects bloodflow in the brain (is that a good thing to do to a growing brain???) and Ritalin is a powerful central nervous system stimulant. My son spent the many months he was on Ritalin once again not growing. He didn't even outgrow his SHOES. When have you seen a little boy who stayed the same shoe size for four seasons in a row?

He went without Ritalin for a summer, and then he had a better teacher who wasn't so uptight about how little kids fidget! Funny thing, with a teacher who didn't scream, the kids were quieter and calmer and my son did much better. He was able to get by without a one-on-one aide in 2nd grade. We pulled him out of the public school entirely after that, because of dangerous buses and scary bus drivers, and he has THRIVED in a Lutheran school. Nobody says anything about him needing drugs anymore. I don't know if he will make up for the lost height, however.

Parents should trust their instincts, not someone else's agenda. If parents think a trial of ritalin might increase their child's chances of enjoying and succeeding in school, that's between them and their doctors. A pharmaceutical treatment CAN help with severe problems, but to prescribe any drug to a CHILD needs to be done with trepidation and caution. Remember their brains and nervous systems are growing and developing, and you mess with their biochemistry at your peril. Teachers and schools who prescribe or pressure parents to use meds on their kids should be jailed!!!!!! I don't know if my son will make up for his lost inches of height. Maybe his growth was permanently stunted. My husband has several kids in his high school who have been on Ritalin all their lives, and several seem abnormally short, especially when you see them with their parents. Short isn't the end of the world....but...neither is fidgeting and being a noisy kid at age 6.

I have a son, so I can appreciate what you say, and I can only hope and pray that our pediatricians would have as much insight if we were to find ourselves in the same predicaments. But my argument is that Ritalin is being abused as a social engineering tool by feminist run school bureaucracies. The eveidence to back this up is overwhelming. Referrals for medication should not come from teachers or social workers.

The positive effects of certain stimulants, including caffeine, on boys who have so much excess energy that they are literally climbing the walls and harming themselves are well researched and proven. That kids are being prescribed drugs like Prozac given the absence of studies of its effects on children, is a little troubling though.

I have a son, so I can appreciate what you say, and I can only hope and pray that our pediatricians would have as much insight if we were to find ourselves in the same predicaments. But my argument is that Ritalin is being abused as a social engineering tool by feminist run school bureaucracies. The eveidence to back this up is overwhelming. Referrals for medication should not come from teachers or social workers.

The positive effects of certain stimulants, including caffeine, on boys who have so much excess energy that they are literally climbing the walls and harming themselves are well researched and proven. That kids are being prescribed drugs like Prozac given the absence of studies of its effects on children, is a little troubling though.