jad n rich

Morning news is on, yesterdays story of 13 kids in bris being taken to hospital with overdose is being re hashed (kids selling ritalin for a high), 12 and 13 year old so hardly a scandal more silly behaviour.

Anyway a Doctor is on the news saying 37% of australian kids now have ADHD How on earth can it be so high, its a joke! does anyone remember 20 years ago at school, hardly anyone had bad behaviour, pre PC mode, we had disclipline for a start, and diet, did anyone go to school with a box full of packacked junk. And if your parents took you to a specialist for learning problems were you offered drugs within the first 3 minutes of the consultation ( I add that one as we were ) .

If that figure is correct its crazy. I realise there must be a genuine % in there but 37% ?

spalen

20 yrs ago nobody had aids. They invented it and now lots of people have got it, shocking. And some of them are even getting better ! diabolical what these pharma companies come up with to make money, ADHD, Aids, whatever next I ask myself.

You seem to be a clinician yourself having drawn a link between packaged food and all of society's ills - are you in on the conspiracy

Thankfully my family dont have this issue - however I'd be mightily pissed at you for making glib statements putting the blame on a parents lunch box choices for their childs clinically diagnosed illness if we did.

Vash the Stampede

What proof did the doctor present in support of his claim? I'd be very interested to know.

In any case, a throw-away "statistic" from some doctor on a brief news story hardly counts as a reliable and authoritative source.

I blame a number of things for the ADHD "epidemic."

Over-diagnosis; there's plenty of lazy doctors out there, many of them keen to make a good commission from the pharmaceutical companies who encourage them to push the latest "must-have" drug. Plenty of neurotic/lazy/uninformed/hypocondriac parents out there too, and I'm sure they're doing their fair share of mischief.

It's becoming rather fashionable to have an ADHD child in the family these days. I wouldn't put it past some "social climbers" to talk up their child's "problems" in some sort of weird attention-seeking ploy.

Personally, I am very skeptical about the whole ADHD thing. If it's a genuine disorder, why does it only appear to have existed since the 80s?

I would say that the real figures for ADHD (if indeed there is such a thing) would be a damn' sight lower than 37% - probably closer to 10% at most.

Children are massively over-stimulated in today's affluent Western society. They are bombarded every day with ludicrous amounts of advertising, socio-cultural influences, peer pressure, and the constant message that the world revolves around them.

Their recreational pursuits have become increasingly static, putting them in the role of passive receivers rather than active participants.

Small wonder that their attention spans have plummeted - and small wonder that this is often results in hyperactivity.

Vash the Stampede

I think it's fair to point out that the empirical evidence for AIDS is indisputable, while ADHD has been a source of constant controversy ever since it emerged. Experts can't even seem to agree on the definitions, let alone the treatment. That sends up a few flags for me.

I would think very carefully before pumping chemicals into a child, but some people seem to feed their kids Ritalin like lollies. It's rapidly becoming a sort of "Prozac for youngsters."

I am of the view that this is not a good thing.

Sir Les Patterson

well vash i totally have to agree with you on this one .... when i went to school in the 70's-80's no one in my schools had adhd or whatever they want to call it in this decade .... to be quite honest i would rather give a child a mild space cake than put ritalin in them

Hutch

Totally agree with everyone else. Naughty kids are being given a superb cop-out by parents who aren't prepared to accept that they went wrong somewhere along the line when they were bringing up their child. The kids lap it up "Yea that's right mum, I've got attention defecit disorder, now buy me an XBox 360."

sassenach

ritilin,prozac,zoloft,etc,etc all government controled drugs to keep us all stupified.Am i paranoid

MrsDagboy

Are you sure you didn't mishear & they didnt say 3 to 7 percent, as I think that is the average number that is now quoted.

spalen

How many generalisations can you fit into one post? So there are what 10milion/15 million xbox's in the world is there a 1:1 correlation or is it some fractional relationship?.

As if any sensible parent would let their child take a drug without giving it serious thought - especially something like ritalin - yeah because every parent loves it when their children are sick. What a load of twaddle.

Swerv-o

I agree with you Vash - As a teacher, I can say that there is a certain 'trendy' feeling amongst parents to swan around claiming that their children have ADHD, and that this is an excuse for utterly inexcusable behaviour in the classroom and in public. I think that much of this sort of thing is generated by the 'excuse makers' to try and generate excuses for the utterly appalling bahaviour of a small element of children in the school system today.

I often feel that the same thing is true about such things as peanut allergies. When I as younger, very few children suffered from such things. Now however, working with children, I note that every other tom dick and harry claims to suffer from peanut allergies, to the extent that we arn't allowed to serve them at school anymore. I often wonder how much of this is fact or how much of it is parents generating attention seeking behaviour for their children.

Well that's my late night rant over with...

S

MrsDagboy

How true spalen, wonder if people are so quick to judge others with autism, dyslexia, aspergers, depression, anxiety disorders, panic attacks, schizophrenia, agrophobia, alzheimers, bulimia, post-partum depression & a whole range of other psychological problems?

And if anyone seriously think that there was no bad behaviour, no bad kids 20 years ago you need a serious wakeup call in the memory department.

Hutch

There was bad behaviour, but it was perpetrated by naughty children, not ADHD sufferers!

petafray

I often feel that the same thing is true about such things as peanut allergies. When I as younger, very few children suffered from such things. Now however, working with children, I note that every other tom dick and harry claims to suffer from peanut allergies, to the extent that we arn't allowed to serve them at school anymore. I often wonder how much of this is fact or how much of it is parents generating attention seeking behaviour for their children.

Well that's my late night rant over with...

S[/QUOTE]

I have a 'problem' son, as defined by his daycare. THey kept on at me to get him tested and 'sort him out' - could it be food allergies or AHDH etc etc.
My response - nope he is naughty, he has discipline at home and knows the boundaries, with daycare, he tries it on and apparently has the staff crying (how can a 4 year old make a grown woman cry is beyond me). I also had the temerity to suggest he could be bored!!

Guess what - he is now in pre school and although not perfect is sooooo much better behaved as he is stimulated. When he is at daycare they have recently employed an older lady who has had kids rather than the 20 somethings and when I have asked her she replies with - yes he is just a 4 year old - no problems.

As far as the peanut thing is concerned I am a believer in the over diagnosis thing - both with this and asthma - (wheezing - no not unfit, mustbe asthmatic). But I do know that a number of processed food lines are cleaned using peanut oil and so our exposure to peanuts is much higher than it used to be, therefore more likely to trigger symptoms in those who are susceptible.

ANyway thats my 2 pennnort

NickyP

My son has always been 'trying' and throughout his short time at school and preschool has gone from being an angel one minute to a nightmare the next. He is very bright and I have had all sorts of diagnoses thrown at me by teachers and doctors (ADHA, Autism etc). Since arriving in Wangaratta in September the school have pretty much worked out what his problem is (if you call it a problem), he is dyspraxic and has mild anxiety problems caused by all of the moving around that we have done and this has basically now gone. He has a mild problem where his joints overextend and have very little strength and for this and the dyspraxia there is probably very little that we can do apart from help him to deal with it and settle into life here. It turns out that my husband is also dyspraxic and has the joint problem and it is a genetic thing but as he has gone on to be a very successful person it has hardly held him back. However the school were very up front in saying that had we seen another pediatrician then we would have been told that our son had ADHD (the pediatrician said that there were no signs of either that or autism) as apparently the other doctor gave that diagnosis to approx 80 % of the kids that he saw. This is what causes the problems with people's perceptions of the disorder, it does exist and thank God that my son doesn't have it as I know that it can be a nightmare for the child and family however it is very easy to misdiagnose when the problem can be a miriad of other things.
As far as the increase in peanut allergies, this is mainly down to the fact that we use peanut oil in most processed foods now whereas in the past it was very rarely used, so kids are overexposed at too early an age. My niece is highly allergic to peanuts and had her first attack from eating fish fingers with peanut oil in the breaded covering.
OK rant over.
Nicky

MrsDagboy

Wow Dr Hutch, I didn't know you knew everyone in the world & knew so much about us all .