Posted on 08/27/2004 11:41:39 AM PDT by Joe Republc
My pedetrician has just recommended that my 10 year old boy use Ritalin.
The issue of Attention Deficit Disorder has come up every so often throughout most of his life, but this is the first time our pediatrician says it's time to try medication.
What questions should I be asking?
What do I need to find out?
Any good resources?
Thanks,
-- Joe
P.S. My wife is in a hurry to do this, now that the doctor says so. I'm not.... my wife and I had some strong disagreement about this last night ;) When I ask around, it seems like men are less inclined to go for this than women.
Try it yourself for a month and get back to us.
Woman are much more inclined to fall for any old sh*t a doctor recommends. I am positive pills and medications consumption is higher among women than among men.
Guys:
Hate to go to doctors
Take their advice with a grain of salt
I know this is a real problem, please excuse me as I was being a smartass and making a joke about it. Didn't mean anything personal.
I still to this day fidget and can not sit still. I have no patience whatsoever either. I used that to my advantage when I worked on issue advocacy campaigns during 2002 - by getting involved in projects. I'm a stickler for details and one of my goals in politics is to be the next Atwater. It takes time to find the details I need, but it's a competition to me. If I'm not working, the other guy is. It goes back to my football mentality.
I needed to be active, and needed to be involved in 'adventures'. Still do. I also need to see a reason for doing something. I don't like wasting my time nor being forced to waste my time which is something I've had to deal with during some classes I had to take(I had to tell myself that I needed the piece of paper - diploma or degree).
The best thing that happened to me was football and the weightlifting program that went with it. It taught me discipline and I could see and experience the results(Going from a 140 lb stick to 185lbs solid). I later coached football for 4 years.
Disclaimer - I'm not a doc, and I don't have kids. That said, based on my own experience, I don't see where Ritalin would be needed from what I've read. I graduated High school with a 3.0 while coasting(I planned for that a bit by schedule choice) and got into a Big Ten University. I took time off for awhile with burnout and I'll be graduating this fall with a degree.
My recommendation based on what I have read so far, is to decline the drugs, and to encourage you kid to get involved in an organized activity he is interested in. In my case it was football. His may be the same or different.
It sounds like he's bored.
Anywho, when we rejected their expert diagnosis, they said we needed to take him to a psychologist or neurologist to have him tested. We sought out the best neurologist we could find, not the psychologist they referred us to, and his findings were very interesting. He said that any tendency toward attention deficit could likely, in our son's case, be greatly corrected by an increase in protein and exercise. And guess what? It worked!
At my wife's insistence we took him out of the private parochial school he was in and she began homeschooling. Our son will reenter school next year, advanced one grade over his former peers, as a freshman in high school.
The moral of our story is that if you take your concerns to God in prayer and follow your gut, instead of all the expert advice, your children will fare much better.
Ritalin is, (like Codeine, Demerol and Morphine) a Class II narcotic. How did all previous generations survive without drugging their progeny? It's your child's future mental well being they want you to experiment with. Ever read Huxley's, Brave New World?
No problem, but thanks for saying that.
-- Joe
It is oxymoronic to consider a disorder an advantage.
All this was a non-issue when I was a child; it is hard to believe that a chronic, non-infectious disorder has sprung up so recently and become virtually endemic within schoolroom walls.
That is a side effect, sometimes, of Ritalin. Whether it directly stunts growth, or simply suppresses some kids' appetite so severely as to reduce growth (as do the related amphetamines), is a question I can't answer.
However, thank God, that didn't happen to me. I ended up normal height for my family. Possibly this was because I was taken off Ritalin in the summers. As I recall, I did more than my share of growing during that time of year.
The contention is that it isn't really a disorder, just a normal variation of the species.
Well if I were facing a tough decision, I might come to FR as one source of ideas about the questions I should be asking. I figure some posters might give me links to other information or have some personal stories to relate. (And a few might just engage in some unsympathetic criticism or mockery.)
For gods sake, quit trying your kid to measure up to your expectations! Give him a chance to manifest his own being! No matter how small it may be to you.This problem could be a sign of greatness if you have the patience to see this excess energy is a frantic search for him to reach you. Your child is a separate creation from God. He may be bored, but aren't we all? Let go and find the treasure.
Concerta IS ritalin, just in an osmotic membrane time release format. Works better that way.
I don't know. I just wrete it. Answer if you wish.
Start here: http://www.feingold.org/home.html
They have chapters all across the US. You'll get to meet folks who are doing it and have been through what you are doing now.
No to Ritalin.
g'luck
This is the best place to go to with a problem. Somebody on here has had problems just like the one a person is describing. This is not only a political site but real news. I would never put a child on this type of medicine unless several doctors have said so. Even then, I would try diet. Like someone said, food can cause severe symptoms. When our grandson was a toddler, our daughter did not like for him to eat very much food with sugar. Hubby did not agree until one day when he got into some candy. He was off the walls. Her point was proven.
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