Reuters reports that 1 in 4 children took drugs for chronic conditions in 2009. That is 25% of children! I am blown away. As a person who takes no drugs for anything (except the occasional headache at work), I am flabbergasted! As parents we're here to protect our children, and the sad thing is, our over-protection is leading to a new form of abuse- over-drugging children.
This quote scares me: " Children were the leading growth demographic for the pharmaceutical industry in 2009, with the increase of prescription drug use among youngsters nearly four times higher than in the overall population, according to a report by Medco Health Solutions Inc." Have we become so complacent with immoral marketing tactics that we allow the pharmaceutical industry to infiltrate our homes, schools and doctors offices? Why are children the targets and what are we doing to protect them?
I am so sick of the argument that pharmaceutical companies are out to "make the world a better place with medicines and vaccines." People need to wake up and see that IT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY!!! It has always been about money. If they find a cure for something, they make a lot of money.
The article seems to blame obesity on the rising use of medications on children, but truly, is obesity to blame? I know plenty of obese individuals who take no drugs.
Hopefully this article is a wake up call to many parents out there. My heart breaks!
Well as a parent of 3 well adjusted boys - one of which has severe issues and is one of those children - we don't all resort to that automatically! It took 3.5 years for us to come to that point (when he was uncontrollable at school and he spent 2 wks in a partial hospitalization setting). I always had a lot opinions about things like this until I had a child with those issues. He suffers from severe Social Anxiety, ADHD, ODD, etc. Believe me, I tried it all before we went this route. But he is so much happier now. We have even gone to homeschooling so that he doesn't have the fight of trying to fit into the mold of a school setting. But we wouldn't be able to function without his meds.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I totally understand. Ardun is only 6 months but when we finally decided to put him on meds for acid reflux it really did make our lives much easier and I know it made his life even better. I think that there are times that kids really do need meds to function, I have a good friend who has a son much like you. He wouldn't function without them, in fact, I'm convinced he would burn the house down without them. In her situation, they are necessary for the safety of all around him. I think that as long you try to explore every avenue and then try meds you have done it right. I wish we were superheroes for real and could make our kids function perfectly without meds, but sometimes it just isn't so. I saw on FB that you were homeschooling, I'm so eager to hear how it goes for you, I would love to be home. I know KC has a pretty good homeschool community, I hope that in your new town you find that same support!
ReplyDeleteThanks Becky - and I knew you weren't saying it like that either. I am just hyper-sensitive about it mostly because I was quick to judge others before I was in the situation with my own child! And there have been medications the drs wanted to add that we turned down so that he doesn't have to take any that aren't absolutely necessary.
ReplyDeleteSo far the homeschooling is going well! It was hard to see him be so crazy intelligent and not be able to do any classroom work because of the rest of it. I think all my boys struggle with that to a point - school isn't designed to let the smarter children work ahead. Some kids can cope with that (my oldest is happy just finishing and reading a book!) and others can't. I think it will benefit them all to be able to work at their pace and not someone elses. I hope you give it a try when the time comes! Apparently it is really popular out here, but we haven't gotten into a group yet. Trying to get ourselves figured out first!
Emily- You totally rock. Those drugs are 100% necessary for a small number of children and unfortunately your baby was one of those children. Thank god that those drugs exist! Becky struggled with using medication too.
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