Ritalin for two year olds…?

I am not the first mother to have had her pre-school child fast-tracked to a shaky diagnosis [of Ritalin].

Two mothers told me of similar experiences. Six years ago, Clare, a mother of three, was told by a nursery school teacher that her three-year-old son had suspected Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, because he was so difficult to control. “They pushed for him to be referred,” she says, “and I was made to feel terrible for not noticing. They were wrong. Eventually I went to a psychologist, who gave me fantastic help. She said that some children need more ‘parenting’ than others. She advised a fixed routine, to set rigid boundaries and to allocate a period of time every day to spend alone with him – even if it was only fifteen minutes. It transformed his behaviour.”

Margaret, who is a doctor, was told by her son’s teachers that he had ‘real problems’ when he was only four. “He’s a bright spark but he was the youngest child in his class, born at the end of August,” she says. “The teachers complained that he was no good with the other children, but the gap of understanding was huge.” Margaret says that her son’s behaviour levelled out as he matured, but only after a two year battle to prevent him being given a ‘special needs’ label. “I’ve since discovered anecdotally that this is a common problem with boys.”

Children as young as two have been prescribed Ritalin, sleeping pills and anti-psychotics.

Helen Samuels, The Times, Saturday 21 November 2009

This was a truly alarming article, where doctors can prescribe such drugs to the youngest members of our society purely because they display behaviour that COULD be diagnosed as ADHD.

The problem today is that so few people parent properly. They are too busy/too lazy/too soft/too weak to set proper boundaries for their children and then enforce those limits.

Continual over-indulgence in an environment where their every whim is satisfied immediately and there are no repercussions for bad behaviour. Where proper bedtimes are not adhered to and where there is no quality time for anyone, parents or children.

The psychologist had it right.

She said that some children need more ‘parenting’ than others. She advised a fixed routine, to set rigid boundaries and to allocate a period of time every day to spend alone with him – even if it was only fifteen minutes.

With so many distractions and demands upon our time, kids today need to know that they have the full focus of their parent at least once in a day or they start using attention-seeking techniques… even if it only gets them bad attention. They need some form of fixed time with us when we interact properly as parent and child in order to feel loved and cared for, just as much as we need quality time without their interruptions in order to preserve our own marital relationships.

And don’t get me started on the effects of all the chemicals in our foods. Surely it doesn’t take an Einstein to link some of these attention deficit disorders with the horrendous diets of the sufferer. Of course no child will eat vegetables if they are able to fill up on sweets, biscuits and fizzy drinks to their heart’s content before a meal or in lieu of it if they veto the content. No parent wants their child to go hungry!!!??? Can you remember your parents giving you pudding if you didn’t eat your main course? So why are we doing that for our own offspring?

Something has gone horribly wrong when our toddlers and pre-schoolers are being drugged rather than shown how to behave properly.

Originally posted 2009-12-13 10:04:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter