There’s a lot of controversy right now about over-medicating children for both medical and mental/emotional reasons. Before you let your doctor prescribe any medications for your child, please do some research. Ask questions. Lots of them.
I’m not a doctor or a psychiatrist, but as a parent, I am very protective about my kids. Messing with their brain chemistry or masking symptoms while the root causes go untreated seems like it will come back to haunt us later.
First, a clip from the new movie GenerationRX:
For decades, scores of doctors, government officials, journalists, and others have extolled the benefits of psychiatric medicines for children. GENERATION RX presents “the rest of the story” and unveils how this era of unprecedented change in Western culture really occurred - and what price has been paid by our society.
I find two trends in education alarming: the growing number of schools that eliminate recess and physical education programs and the large number of children on Ritalin for attention problems. As a teacher, I can’t help but wonder if the attention problems some children experience is due to the structure and expectations of education and life in the 21st century. Children were not designed to just sit at desks all day long without much opportunity for movement and interaction.
A friend of mine, who also happens to be our school nurse, has a son with ADD. This child takes rRitalin during the school year; however, during summer vacation, he is drug free. It is only during the structured, restricted environment of school that this child needs drugs to focus. Given recent research on the subject, I can’t help but believe recess and play matters greatly for all children, especially those suspected of having attention problems.
Nature Birthday PartyEditor's note: We're pleased to welcome our newest writer, Jennifer Lance, to the team. Jennifer is the author and publisher of the blog Eco Child's Play, where she reviews natural toys. She'll be covering green family issues for us.
You've probably heard of attention deficit disorder, but have you heard about nature deficit disorder? Richard Louv has written about the link between these two disorders and their
Nature Birthday PartyEditor's note: We're pleased to welcome our newest writer, Jennifer Lance, to the team. Jennifer is the author and publisher of the blog 
