A new report by the Australian government showed Ritalin prescriptions for children as young as 2 in the New South Wales province, Australia’s most populous state. Yes, because 2 yr. olds are normally so calm and collected. Wow….what the hell has happened to people? Bear in mind the figures in the report only cover those prescriptions charged to a government health plan. Private insurance and out of pocket payments, which account for a significant portion of ADHD prescriptions, do not have publicly available numbers. Read the sad details here.
311 Children Aged 5 and under prescribed Ritalin through government health plan
- 40 Five yr. olds
- 58 Four yr. olds
- 13 Three yr. olds
- 5 Two yr. olds
These sad numbers reminded me of a cartoon I saw yr.’s ago and just found by using a Google search. Courtesy of Hempmuseum.org
Tags: ADD, ADHD, Australia, Children, Drugs, Health, Medicine, New South Wales, Over medicating, Ritalin, Toddlers
May 30, 2008 at 10:45 am |
I’m stunned. Doesn’t ADHD have to do with Attention Deficit? My 2 year-old has an attention span of about 2 minutes, which is completely normal! How could you expect a 2 year-old to pay attention to anything? As for Hyperactivity, maybe parents should stop feeding junk food and processed (read sugar-enriched) foods to their kids. You think that has anything to do with their general demeanor? No, we’ll just counteract it with DRUGS!