ADHD Medication New Findings
I have never been a fan of giving medication (except Motrin and Tylenol) to children full stop. I don’t give medicine to my children on long plane rides and I wouldn’t give medication to my children to calm them down enough to learn at school. But then again I am blessed to be able to take them out of school and teach them myself.
I have been in classrooms with kids bouncing off the walls and I have tried to teach them. I have found it a lot easier to teach children who have been medicated. I can understand why it suits everyone in the equation to medicate a child, even the child.
However, recent articles in the Washington Post state that long term studies are showing that in children taking ADHD medications:
- Improvements disappear after two years. In other words, kids who were medicated, were no better off two years later than those who were not.
- In addition, medicated children were somewhat inhibited in growth as a result. “Stunted” was the word used; 1 inch in height and six pounds in weight, on average. (Sizzlebop.com)
There are millions of children being medicated in the US. Not only are they not learning to learn with their symptoms but they will be shorter. It’s about time we came up with good alternative schools for distractable children!
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Now that is spot on! Using chemicals to make the square pegs (or in some cases the octogonal ones) fit into the institutional round holes may give the superficial appearance that the system is working and producing “functional” people but according to whose standards? How many beautiful, creative, brilliant minds who operate best when their bodies are in motion end up fitting someone else’s definition of success? I am so grateful our kids are given the opportunity to develop their own path under the guidance of a passionate and compassionate, creative and thoughtful role model that allows their inner drives to percolate and blossom. Well done….really well done….