An American Phenomenon: The Widespread Psychiatric Drugging of Infants and Toddlers

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
Thanks for bringing this article to our attention, OP.

I think it is awfully sad that so many parents are willing to drug their babies.

I have worked in daycares, and at these ages, most if not all the behavior exhibited can be explained in age appropriate ways. But some lazy parents would rather label a strong willful child as defective and medicate them, instead of working with the blessings and gifts the maker endowed in them.

Why does a baby need prozac or ritalin? Even though these drugs are mild, no baby needs them. I cringe at parents using homeopathic medicines like melatonin, and st johns wort even, at these ages.

Little kids in this age group have valid reasons for the behavior they exhibit it is up to us adults to be tuned into them and educated enough on child behavior that we recognize normal from abnormal.

I agree with you, but Prozac and Ritalin are certainly not mild drugs. While I agree that a parent should not give their child melatonin or St. John's Wart, Melatonin is actually created in your pineal gland anyway. So there's usually no need for anyone to take it, unless your natural levels are below what they should be (which I guess you know that, since you said homeopathic).

Prozac is a horrible drug, and I don't really think anyone should take it... especially teens and children. Prozac has been shown to make depression much worse in teens and children. Anti-depressants are a sham, anyway. It's just a lazy way to "combat" depression, when it actually does nothing but # your head up. Ritalin is an amphetamine, and a parent giving their child this drug is lazy and also irresponsible, because he and/or she is setting the kid up for drug addiction.

So I agree, parents should NOT be giving their children these drugs, for obvious reasons. Children are naturally curious, and are easily distracted. But yet, ignorant (and/or greedy) doctors will write this off as ADD or ADHD. Ridiculous. Honestly, I don't think that adults should even take these drugs as a medication. Ritalin, for instance, will only help you with your so-called "ADD" while you're on it. When you're off of it, the so-called "ADD" will be even worse, especially if you're withdrawing from the drug. See the vicious cycle yet? These kinds of pharmaceutical drugs are money traps. It's even worse than having a recreational addiction to Ritalin (or Adderall), because you have a solid belief system in place which tells you that it's going to help your "mental problems," which was set in place by Big Pharma and your ignorant doctors.

So, in short:
- Prozac will not cure anyone's depression.
- Ritalin and/or Adderall will not cure your "ADD/ADHD" (a made-up disorder), as everyone's curiosity in the world can wander all around and cause people to be distracted. If someone has a focusing problem, they should try doing something that they are actually interested in . Nobody needs Ritalin or Adderall.

Peace.
One Love.

[edit on 24-4-2010 by Fangula]

reply to post by ImaginaryReality1984


There are other things going on here with respect to how parents are essentially regulated by the school system. If you spank your kid, better hope that he doesn't tell his teacher and that his teacher is one of these folks who will turn them in to CPS. Some have and many parents have been jammed up by the system for providing legitimate discipline.

Putting the drugs into the kids is a way to move them into a place where they need less discipline because they are dopped up and lethargic.

A question I have is what is going to these kids, especially the boys when they get to be about 17, have physical mass and strength, have been on these drugs for more than a decade (and in most likely a mixture off them) and has not been given a system of discipline?

My guess is that we're going to have violent people, people who are unable to hold down jobs and likely people with serious and chronic medical conditions as we begin to understand the long-term effects of using these drugs on developing brains.

Wow, that is really interesting to hear this huge difference.. no i am not native to the UK, and was raised until the end of my schooling in the American educational system (a whole rant thread of its own)!..so its very scarily interesting to know of such a drastic opposite, where as during the same time period in the U.S that many, many friends and other kids in school with me were being medicated and labeled, the UK was not doing so, either at all or at such a horrendous extreme.. making me believe further that America is a testing ground nation, the populace as the test rats..

reply to post by nik1halo

Sorry forgot another part to your initial post, it isnt really irresponsible of me to say and believe that immunizations are dangerous, -and yes, only certain ones have been brought into question (such as Autism cases for one example), as its a personal opinion..if my post didnt make that clear, my sincere apologies.. but i am certainly not telling anyone to believe me or trust me and wouldnt expect any one to read my post and personal distrust of injections for children from birth, and make their decisions based on that alone.. if they do, their an idiot. I was expressing a view that i do not believe them to be safe, especially for very young children with developing immune systems..i tell no one to listen to me, so really, it would be irresponsible of me to go around and force that belief onto others, or for me to claim to know some kind of 'truth' or information that they, immunizations- are indeed evil incarnate, and try to get others to rally against big pharma over it and stop innoculating their own children.. none of which i do or ever would do.. THAT is irresponsible.. at the end of the day, its up to the parents individually, and their choices as parents and as adults in general..
~Light and warmth to you~

reply to post by dolphinfan


I remember when infants Telenol came on the market and thought "they will stop at nothing to make a buck."
I am glad people are at least discovering the hazards and consequences of frivolously pushing drugs on children. It is inexcusable.

While I agree that in many cases medicating children is simply a cop-out by the parents, I want to address the claims people are making about things like depression and ADHD not being actual disorders. If one looks into current research you would find that there is a physiological basis for all of these disorders, such as an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex and overdeveloped motor cortex in people with ADHD, and an underdeveloped hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex, as well as low levels of BDNF in people with depression. As there is distinct physiological differences between these people and people who don't suffer from these disorders it would indicate that these disorders are indeed real and not just made up.

As for the claim that vaccinations cause autism, check some of the recent research connecting autism to the locus coeruleus. It has been found that people suffering from autism have reduced symptoms when they are experiencing a fever. This has lead researchers to look at the locus coeruleus as it is one of the few places in the brain that regulate body temperature as well as behavior. While research in this area is still in its infancy, it is definitely promising. And if it pans out it would mean that it is impossible for autism to be caused by anything that occurs after birth, as the locus coeruleus is located in the pons, which is one of the first structures to form during neurogenesis.

reply to post by dolphinfan


What worries me more is that it is fairly commonplace for mothers to use an antihistamine like Benadryl to make their babies sleep through the night. These are available for children without a prescription. When I lived in Florida and had my first baby I was horrified that it was suggested to me on more than one occasion. One person was told this by their family doctor. I don't care how many people say it is harmless you can't just drug up a baby to make your own life easier, who knows what damage this could be causing.

I think its funny when you ask people if they have ADD on internet message boards, its always the Americans who have it. I've never heard of any one outside of America with this condition.

[edit on 29-4-2010 by SKUNK2]

reply to post by Xcalibur254


You're correct that these are real disorders and need to be recognized as such. The issue is the caviler prescription of the and the perscribing them at ages at which these disorders can not possibly be diagnosed. The brain develops differently in different people and the brains of kids develop rapidly. Any parent of multiple kids knows this. I have twins. One walked and had a good vocabulary at about 13 months. The other didn't walk or talk much until he was close to 2. They are both rock stars in school and the latter of the two a couple of years ahead of grade in math. The issue is that you don't know and can't and these medications are more often than not prescribed to benefit the parent, not the child.

People need to learn to cope with thier issues, be then physical or emotional and should only medicated as a last resort. When you think about history, some of the greatest works of art were produced by folks, who today would be be troubled.

Van Gogh's paintings were a result of his depression and his purposefully seeking places that were peaceful to paint to extract himself from life. Tchkofsky's tormented psyche and his battle with his sexual identity caused him to create music of depth, anger and beauty. Kurt Cobain's torment enabled him to create challenging and fantastic music, as did Jim Morrison's. Thomas Edison probably had ODD.

How many great things will this and the next generation not get because we are assuming that life should be easy and are medicating folks to make certain it is?