Medicating Children

http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec01/medicating.html

This article on the APA website discussed the medicating of school children with ADHD and other options besides medication.

Last year I did a presentation on ADD/ADHD and one thing that I found very interesting was that more and more kids are becoming diagnosed with ADHD, kids as young as 4, sometimes even 2 years of age. In my personal experience, I have yet to encounter a toddler or preschool-aged child who was not running around with excess energy. It suprises me that parents are assuming the worst about their children instead of dealing with the childrens excess energy and the process of growing up naturally. A 6 year old can't seem to focus in kindergarten so we immediately assume the child has ADD, or maybe it's that young children often have a hard time focusing on one thing for a long period of time (Sesame Street Syndrome).

I have seen first hand what unmedicated ADHD in children can be like and although it may seem unbearable at times to deal with, at some point a parent can only do so much. So yes, I support the medicating of children with ADD/ADHD, however I think the guidelines for diagnosis need to be stricter and more clear-cut, because I am positive that many of the children who are being diagnosed aren't ADHD, but simply regular kids with pent up energy or other things on their mind.