Re: [SPAM]Re: PBS - Medicating children

[Guest guest]

I Noticed that too.. The amount of and kind of processed foods and artificial colors etc ... And.. was there one scene where the mom ( jd's) was putting all the kids to " bed" on the couch? Did or do those kids ever get outside.? And the one little girl.. was so aggressive.. what in the world was she watching at age 3-4 where peoples heads were cut off and busted?

And the cocktail. I mean it was not just Focalin or Just prozac.. it was coctails of maybe 8 meds - and with NO reasearch. I just think it is totally IMPOSSIBLE that that many kids are truly bi polar.!

So my take was about the same.. there needs to be SO much more reasearch and a coming together of minds.. like what has been done for cancer.

Steph

[sPAM]Re: PBS - Medicating children

nna,

I saw this last night. It was frightening and enlightening. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone planning to try focalin or prozac but the total ingnorance and guesswork involved in psychiatrists handing out untested meds for children was appalling.

I couldn't help but notice also that the kids they were featuring who were on tons of meds were shown eating the crappiest foods! And that didn't seem to matter one iota to anyone reporting...one kid on the corn dogs and the other on ice cream bars. Couldn't they maybe have eliminated a couple of the meds if the kids were on a decent diet???

I definitely recommend watching it at the URL nna posted....if you dare. I'm already planning to get jamie off the clonidine she needs (?) to sleep at night.

Glad someone else saw this too.

Sherry

[Guest guest]

Hi guys,

I am just jumping in on the very end of this....and don't have the whole story, but wanted to make a quick comment. I have a 9 year old daughter with Autism....she takes both 15 mg of Prozac (for anxiety)and 2.5 mg of Focalin and 18 mg of Straterra (for ADHD) and we are doing awesome...it took us about a year to figure out the right meds for her, although the Prozac we started at 2mg at first and was the best thing ever for her. We are on the right track....I was it very closely and have a very good MD.

Also....if you know anyone who has Autism and needs some support, you may want to share this link with them. This was formed last March in 2007 and we have now over 300 parents in our county in our group.

Jane Grimes

www.hcasg.org founder

[sPAM]Re: [DownSyndromeInfoEx change] PBS - Medicating children

nna,

I saw this last night. It was frightening and enlightening. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone planning to try focalin or prozac but the total ingnorance and guesswork involved in psychiatrists handing out untested meds for children was appalling.

I couldn't help but notice also that the kids they were featuring who were on tons of meds were shown eating the crappiest foods! And that didn't seem to matter one iota to anyone reporting... one kid on the corn dogs and the other on ice cream bars. Couldn't they maybe have eliminated a couple of the meds if the kids were on a decent diet???

I definitely recommend watching it at the URL nna posted....if you dare. I'm already planning to get jamie off the clonidine she needs (?) to sleep at night.

Glad someone else saw this too.

Sherry

[Guest guest]

Two things: Does your daughter have DS as well? On the PBS show, do you see how lucky we are (I mean, DS). We have a mouse model. We have a good understanding of what is happening. THey have no idea. They just throw one drug on top of the other. Jane Grimes <grimesje@...> wrote: Hi guys, I am just jumping in on the very end of this....and don't have the whole story, but wanted to make a quick comment. I have a 9 year old daughter with Autism....she takes both 15 mg of Prozac (for anxiety)and 2.5 mg of Focalin and 18 mg of Straterra (for ADHD) and we are doing awesome...it took us about a year to figure out the right meds for her, although the Prozac we started at 2mg at first and was the best thing ever for her. We are on the right track....I was it very closely and have a very good MD. Also....if you know anyone who has Autism and needs some

support, you may want to share this link with them. This was formed last March in 2007 and we have now over 300 parents in our county in our group. Jane Grimes www.hcasg.org founder [sPAM]Re:

[DownSyndromeInfoEx change] PBS - Medicating children nna, I saw this last night. It was frightening and enlightening. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone planning to try focalin or prozac but the total ingnorance and guesswork involved in psychiatrists handing out untested meds for children was appalling. I couldn't help but notice also that the kids they were featuring who were on tons of meds were shown eating the crappiest foods! And that didn't seem to matter one iota to anyone reporting... one kid on the corn dogs and the other on ice cream bars. Couldn't they maybe have eliminated a couple of the meds if the kids were on a decent diet??? I definitely recommend watching it at the URL nna

posted....if you dare. I'm already planning to get jamie off the clonidine she needs (?) to sleep at night. Glad someone else saw this too. Sherry

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

No, we have high functioning Autism, Hearing Impairment, ADHD and some LD stuff.....

Throwing a drug ontop of another is just suicide....and NOT right for the kids....I thought parents learned that in Peds 101...try one thing at a time and change one thing at a time....its the ONLY way it should be done.

Jane

[sPAM]Re: [DownSyndromeInfoEx change] PBS - Medicating children

nna,

I saw this last night. It was frightening and enlightening. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone planning to try focalin or prozac but the total ingnorance and guesswork involved in psychiatrists handing out untested meds for children was appalling.

I couldn't help but notice also that the kids they were featuring who were on tons of meds were shown eating the crappiest foods! And that didn't seem to matter one iota to anyone reporting... one kid on the corn dogs and the other on ice cream bars. Couldn't they maybe have eliminated a couple of the meds if the kids were on a decent diet???

I definitely recommend watching it at the URL nna posted....if you dare. I'm already planning to get jamie off the clonidine she needs (?) to sleep at night.

Glad someone else saw this too.

Sherry

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

<<On the PBS show, do you see how lucky we are (I mean, DS). We have a mouse model. We have a good understanding of what is happening. THey have no idea. They just throw one drug on top of the other. >>

True! I also wondered if Jane's dtr was dual dx DS and Aut. I thought one of the most important issues on the show was that it was mostly geared toward children with a bipolar dx...and even they had to admit that diagnosing a child with bipolar is a mushy process at best. With straight autism we have a bit more information and history and with DS...a long (comparatively) and documented history of research. Would that that were true in the dual dx community where...in MY opinion...we are also throwing meds and treatments at a condition with not much research or study behind it. It's still pretty much a guessing game except for Dr. Capone at Kennedy Kreiger, and a couple of others.

Sherry

[Guest guest]

<<Throwing a drug ontop of another is just suicide....and NOT right for the kids....I thought parents learned that in Peds 101...try one thing at a time and change one thing at a time....its the ONLY way it should be done.>>

Amen. On our single trip to a psychiatrist we left with an rx for Risperdal, Trazadone, and prozac and he insisted we start them all at once. Unbelievable. We work with a great neuro now who is very cautious and experienced with autism....but not so with the dual dx. Our daughter reacts badly to everything so we've not had much luck in the med or suplement department.

Sherry

[Guest guest]

The only thing I can say about the meds other than one at a time...is start our with very LOW dosages and work your way up...even if you have to divide and make them into liquid if the drug is able to do this.....my daughter is very sensitive to meds.....so we go slow...but in two years we are so much better....took us a while to get there and did not believe that meds were the way to go...but now we know....we treat the symptoms, not the disability.....and focus on the disability in how we work on behavior supports and learning.....and with an amazing elementary school who GETS it!

Jane

Re: [sPAM]Re: PBS - Medicating children

<<Throwing a drug ontop of another is just suicide....and NOT right for the kids....I thought parents learned that in Peds 101...try one thing at a time and change one thing at a time....its the ONLY way it should be done.>>

Amen. On our single trip to a psychiatrist we left with an rx for Risperdal, Trazadone, and prozac and he insisted we start them all at once. Unbelievable. We work with a great neuro now who is very cautious and experienced with autism....but not so with the dual dx. Our daughter reacts badly to everything so we've not had much luck in the med or suplement department.

Sherry