Why Medicate Preschoolers?
Ritalin is a stimulant medication that can make about 75% of school-age kids with ADHD act like their peers without ADHD. It can also stunt a child’s physical development. Why give such a powerful medication to small children? A major reason is that kids with moderate to severe ADHD already are at high risk of physical harm. “They have difficult peer relationships due to lack of reciprocity and perhaps aggression. And they are very prone to accidents,” Greenhill says. “Many of them were attending emergency rooms with cuts and bruisesbruises and broken bones, because their fearlessness and activity level made life dangerous for them. They had no idea how dangerous it was to lean out a five-story window, or to speed into traffic on their roller skates. One child saw his mother cooking on the stove, and perched on the stove and turned it on to see how hot it would get. They are fearless and reckless.” Another reason for the study is an eye-opening 1999 report showing that about one in 100
