Over-Medicating Our Kids
This school year, beware of those who try to influence you to put your children on drugs.
The number of kids on drugs in the US is astronomical. When IÂ read things about Big Pharma’s push on drugging children, my face starts to turn bright red and I start to foam at the mouth. Although a bit of an exaggeration, when it comes to drugging innocent children, I get pretty darn upset. Don’t you think parents would investigate further when the Dr. wants to put them on drugs, lots of times even before the age of three?
Did you know that every morning, there are 6-7 million children in America who have to take a prescription medication before they can even go to school?
That just makes me want to throw up!
The Wall Street Journal  reports,
Most medications that could be prescribed to children on a chronic basis haven’t been tested specifically in kids, says Danny Benjamin, a Duke University pediatrics professor. And older drugs rarely get examined, since pharmaceutical firms have little incentive to test medicines once they are no longer under patent protection.
Still, a growing number of studies have been done under a Food and Drug Administration program that rewards drug companies for testing medications in children. In more than a third of these studies, there have been surprising side effects, or results that suggested a smaller or larger dose was needed than had been expected, Dr. Benjamin says. Those findings underscore that children’s reactions to medicines can be very different than those of adults. Long-term effects of drugs in kids are almost never known, since pediatric studies, like those in adults, tend to be relatively short.
We know we’re making errors in dosing and safety, says Dr. Benjamin, who is leading a new National Institutes of Health initiative to study drugs in children. He suggests that parents should do as much research as they can to understand the evidence for the medicine, confirm the diagnosis, and identify side effects.
And boy, oh boy, does Big Pharma love the parents who buy into the vaccination schedule, just another one of their billion dollar babies. If you don’t know much about the effects and dangers of vaccinations, read Mary’s post on 19 Things You Don’t Know About Vaccinations. We have plenty more than that on the Natural Healthy Concepts blog as well. Just search vaccine. And here is a list of 150 doctors and scientists that have come out and voiced their concerns about vaccinations.
Today, kids are getting an increase of 200% the amount of vaccinations than they got in 1983, when I was born. These days when a child is fully vaccinated, he or she will receive 70 doses of 18 vaccines by the age of 18. With 49 of those doses occurring before the age of six. That’s not including flu shots. That’s a lot of accumulated toxic stuff that gets pumped into them. And it’s those toxins along with their biochemical make-up that causes health issues or even death for many babies and kids. I just feel so bad for the parents who don’t have a choice.
Since 2012, the amount of antipsychotic prescriptions given to toddlers and preschoolers has doubled. Drugs prescribed to low-income children covered by Medicaid have quadrupled. There are kids on cholesterol (statins) drugs, blood pressure drugs, sleeping pills, etc. According to a report  released in 2009 by Medco Health Solutions Inc., over 25% of children and teens are involved with taking prescription medications, with seven percent taking at least two.
(Source)
Now almost five years later and with certain drugs doubling and tripling – can you imagine what that percentage really is?
(*Read this great article by the Alliance for Natural Health on how Medicaid is Drowning Our Kids in Toxic Psychiatric Drugs!)
Plus, many of these drugs that are given to our children are also banned in other countries. Shouldn’t that raise a big red flag?
Take ADD/ADHD drugs for exmple… the US makes up 5% of our total population, yet 95% of ADD/ADHD drugs are given to American children. Risperdal and Risperidone (generic form) are prescribed 75% of the time and have prompted many lawsuits because there was a dramatic increase in boys developing full breasts that had to get removed. But that’s okay – surgeries just mean more money for them.
Do people even know that there is no scientific evidence to show your kid has a mental disorder? These labels are simply opinion based and they go by a list of common “misbehaviors” to diagnose them.
A study published in the Journal of Health Economics says there are roughly 1 million US children that may be misdiagnosed with ADHD.
And do these drugs even help with the so called ADHD symptoms? Probably not.
According to an article put out by the Huffington post, “The results, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry this week, found that on the whole, children treated with medication did not appear to have markedly less severe symptoms than their medication-free counterparts. Nine out of 10 children with moderate to severe ADHD continued to be impaired six years after their initial diagnosis.”
There is a difference between typical childhood behavior and clinical ADHD. Kids have energy, they are active and eager, they are unique individuals with different personality traits. They want to move a little and have a little freedom from structure. It feels that children are not allowed to be children these days. As soon as they start to act like one, they get diagnosed with a mental disorder.
In the Gary Null’s documentary, The Drugging of Our Children, you’ll find that educators play a huge role in influencing the use of medications in schools. Could it have anything to do with the fact that they get financial aid when they do?
Sometimes it seems like schools are just another part of the system…
If a child wants to get up out of his desk and move around a little, that’s unacceptable and that kid is out of control – time to get some meds, right?
OUR POOR CHILDREN! THIS IS ABUSE!
We stick these poor children in a school desk all day long and expect them to listen the whole time? Of course it’s going to be hard to sit still! These innocent little beings just want to be out exploring and learning things hands on. They shouldn’t be expected to sit all day and focus on someone talking at them. Geez, I can hardly do that as an adult! Besides, sitting for so long is not healthy!
Signs outside of school say “This is a Drug Free Zone” yet once you get inside, school nurses are dispensing millions of drugs to our youngsters.
Did you ever think your kid might not need drugs for acting out in school? Be careful whose advice you trust.
Watch this trailer for Gary Null’s excellent documentary, The Drugging of Our Children.
And before you decide to give your kids medications, why not figure out what sort of nutrition they might be missing out on and what food sensitivities they might have and feed them accordingly. You’ll probably notice a difference in behavior just from that. Also, supplementing with Fish Oils may even be enough to solve the problem based on a research study from the Archives of General Psychiatry.Â
Making sure your child has proper nutrient levels and their toxicity levels aren’t too high. Children can be cured of autism just by correcting these things and making sure they have enough magnesium.
Consider their home environment. Could changes be made in the home to help?
Most children shouldn’t need drugs, unless they have a serious medical condition like type 1 diabetes or cystic fibrosis.
With that said, here is a link that provides documented risks of antidepressants, ADHD drugs, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs, including drug regulatory warnings, studies, and adverse reaction reports filed with the FDA from 2004-2012. If you are in a position of trying to decide whether to put your kid on some sort of drug, please do your research and make an educated decision.
Suggested Book:Â Drugging Our Children: How Profiteers Are Pushing Antipsychotics on Our Youngest, And What We Can Do To Stop It
