The Medicated Child

I am absolutely fascinated with the human brain....how we learn, how we perceive, our emotions, addictions, retrieval of information from infancy to adulthood. I've done numerous posts on this ranging from depression to addiction to how exercise is linked to increased test scores. I believe that nothing changes in our environment until it first changes in our brain. I'm also a mom, and I believe that growing children into healthy, responsible members of society is probably both the best and the most difficult job ever.

I want to thank PBS for bringing these two together for one of the most provocative, disturbing shows. The Medicated Child provides anecdotal evidence as it follows a few children on their medicated journey.

There is no question that children can be born with congenital diseases. Type I Diabetes didn't just spring up from nowhere, so it makes sense that a child can also be born with problems that could affect learning and development. However, I also believe that in this society we often choose medication over modifications to our environment. Controversial as it is to say, some of us choose pills over parenting.

We choose to feed our kids a diet of corndogs and ketchup washed down with soda day after day and then wonder why they cannot concentrate. We often call that ADD when it's not. We have moved them from the outdoors to the indoors and then medicate when they cannot control their temper or their energy. We often refer to that as ADHD when it isn't. Now, we're medicating young children for bipolar disorder.

I am not going to attempt to tell people how to parent...I've already made that mistake. I cannot imagine the heartache, frustration, and numerous questions any parent considering psychiatric medication for their child asks themselves. Instead, I beg anyone considering these meds for their child to first do the following:

- Watch this show

-Look at their child's environment and ask themselves....really ask themselves...if they've given their child every tool they need for success that day. This includes their nutrition, their sleep, their rigorous exercise time, and their parent's attention.

-Think about behavior modification options, visiting a child-psychologist before seeing a child-psychiatrist to see if there are non-medicated ways to change the child's behavior and focus. Is medication the only way out, or is it the easy way out?

- Ask about unbiased studies. These are not studies done by pharmaceutical companies, but by the National Institute of Health (NIH). They are funded with grant money, researched by the best and brightest neuroscientists, and their results do not sell books, pills, or generate profits.

May your children be fed and watered well so that they can grow into beautiful adults who accomplish amazing things.