Parents/Teachers: RITALIN?

Subject: RE: Parents/Teachers: RITALIN?
From: Raptor
Date: 18 Dec 03 - 08:50 AM

Guest I have sat on the educators side for the Last ten years!

When it comes to the learning there is only one side! The students!

Talking medication, the students are the ones to consider. NOT what is best for the teacher! Teachers do not have the qualifications to guess, or recommend any treatment! That is left to Doctors like Mark Cohen here!

Being on the side of the educator I have seen to many teachers say that they don't care what the problem is they just "Hope the Little bastard took his pills!"

I'm not implying that you are one of these teachers but they are out there and they are Not educated at all about ADHD!

Raptor

Subject: RE: Parents/Teachers: RITALIN?
From: GUEST,LRNAKATA
Date: 01 Aug 04 - 05:29 AM

Hello lyrical Lady. I have read everyone's comments on your situation. I'm 27 with a 3and a half yr.old. My brother(25) is on 20 mg of ritalin. He started a 10mg. This is the 1st time in his life to be on this drug. He goes to school 4 days a week, works full time at night. He went to the Dr. with complaints of not being able to concentrate as well as he used to. He was immediatley prescribed ritalin. He takes a dose before he goes to school and it really seems to have helped his concentration alot. He was not diagnosed with a learning diability of any kind and I was surprised the Dr. prescribed that so soon. But it helps...he never had much trouble in school when he was a child and is not hyperactive. There are days that he does not take the medicine,like when he doesn't have school, and there are no adverse side effects. This is the only knowledge I have about this but I do agree that a 2nd opinion is a good idea. A change in diet sounds good too. I wish you much luck in finding the correct answers you need.. L

Subject: RE: Parents/Teachers: RITALIN?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 01 Aug 04 - 10:31 AM

I retired early last year after 30yrs of Social Services Child Care in the UK. During that time I made many of my feelings clear on the use of Ritalin to "control" behaviour.
ALL children are affected in some way by the foods they eat as Mary Garvey lightly touched on in an earlier post.
The staff I worked with, who believed in my "theories", monitored the foods that different children, who had been diagnosed as ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), were ingesting. Reactions to certain types of food are easily recognisable by behaviours exhibited.
If your child is exhibiting beahviours which make him/her appear to be under the influence of something then please monitor them. Keep a record of all meals eaten and particularly all sweets and carbonated drinks. Many of the reactions manifest themselves within half an hour of ingesting the particular type of food so it is not difficult, by a process of elimination to establish what affects your child.
There have been a very minimal amout of children who cannot be brought down to earth by diet and have ended up on Ritalin but please give this a try. It is a tedious task to record all foods eaten and varying reactions, which is time consuming and boring but...you want your child back to normal without the use of drugs...Go for it! Best wishes.

Subject: RE: Parents/Teachers: RITALIN?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Aug 04 - 01:33 PM

Last year i taught a class of thirty three grade seven students.four who were diagnosed as add. They had been on medication for years by the time they came to my classroom. If any one of them came and had not taked the meds..the class became unbearable for the other students and for teachers. Many add students are disruptive in school and that makes learning very difficult for others. We do need to find soloutions that are best for all students, not just add students. The simple fact is that many students are not able to participate in many class activities....we must find alternatives that benefit all students.

Subject: RE: Parents/Teachers: RITALIN?
From: Rasener
Date: 01 Aug 04 - 03:13 PM

Can I add my 2 penneth.
I have one duaghter who is Autistic and One who has been professionally diagnosed with ADHD/ADD.

My adhd daughter was put on Ritalin. The main purpose as I understood it was that the drug acted as a substitute for a substance missing in the brain (can't remember what it was now), which helped the concentration and allowed them to absorb what was being taught.

Six months later We took her off Ritalin after receiving lots of info about Ritalin that nobody talks about - namely it can affect the growth of a child and it also can destabalise the blood. We were horrified and have stuck to our guns. Its not been easy but it is infinately better than leaving her on such an horrific drug.

Of course add children are diruptive, they can't hold there concentration for longer than a second and if the education is not interesting enough they lose the plot. It is not their fault.

Our teacher was very good at the time and supported us taking her off the drug, and worked out ways to involve her without making her lose her self esteem (which in my opinion is the worst thing that can happen)

Oh and those people who don't understand ADHD/ADD and make out that the parents can't handle their children are so far from understanding the real situation. My own family (parents and brothers) used to constantly criticise our handling of her becuase of their ignorence.

As it is, my daughter who is now 13 is doing remarkably well at school and together with the teachers, have ensured that she is not too disruptive in her classroom. She is well mannered and understands morality. She got very goods marks this year and has had to probably work twice as hard as other "normal students" to acheive it.

Ritalin I thought could only be prescribed by a peadiatrician after consultation and tests from the psychologist and psychiatrist. If a doctor prescribes it without such authorisation, they should be struck off the register.

Sorry about that, needed to get that one off my chest.

Subject: RE: Parents/Teachers: RITALIN?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 01 Aug 04 - 03:24 PM

Les, I didn't know. Well done and did you read what I added to the thread? Best wishes.

Subject: RE: Parents/Teachers: RITALIN?
From: Rasener
Date: 01 Aug 04 - 04:38 PM

GS, I hadn't read your post, but have done since. You are to be commended for sticking to your beliefs. We haven't bothered too much with diet, but we do keep her off things like coke etc which gets her hyper. It really is disgraceful how Ritalin is handed out to children just to shut them up - I consider that criminal.