Posted by yxibow on October 14, 2008, at 1:34:17
In reply to there's reasons to keep your son's meds private » Lorenzo05, posted by utopizen on October 13, 2008, at 22:38:10
> > Hi
> >
> > I am brand new here but I need some advice about my sons medication. The Dr diagnosed him with ADHD a couple months ago. He already has Acute stress disorder and PTSD. When his hair started falling out and he chewed his fingers to the point of infection they thought it was time for meds.
> >
>
> Okay, I haven't read posters below, but for the sake of your son, and most are likely also echoing this...I'm not echoing this
> please do not listen to your friends. In fact, for the sake of your son I know he's your son, and you're worried, and he's young-- but it's generally not a good habit to get into revealing meds to anyone but his doctor. If you have concerns, seek a second opinion from another _doctor_. Not a nurse, not a soccer mom, and not the lady who cleans your house.This all was stated previously, I for one distinctly mentioned second opinions and I don't think we need to go down into a diatribe vernacular of "soccer mom" or denigrating maids.
> Your son might be young now, but if he's 10 now, in 2 years, he'll be 12. And let's say you'll all agree he'll need Adderall, once he gets behind in his algebra or something. (It's quite possible).Whoah. This is getting a bit scary. There's no reason to predict how a person's child will succeed in the future. We're in the Here and Now. And he's 8, not 10 from the poster's initial comments.
Well, telling a gossipy mom your son's med history means odds are pretty good she told someone, if not her own sons, that told someone else's sons. It doesn't take much.No comment.
> So your son, 2 years from now, switches to Adderall, and some creep at school decides to rifle his bag one day, or hang out with him after school, only to steal his stuff without him knowing. Or, better yet, convinces him to sneak some out to sell. Great. you now have a drug dealer, and the cops just called. (Note: none of these scenarios are remotely rationale for avoiding Adderall, should a doc advise it. 99% of kids don't do any of this).Oh good grief.... I mean you have no idea how someone will behave at school or how the parent will choose to manage medication along with the now predicted adolescent.
> Worst case scenario? No. I told my friends in school I had ADD all the time. One person who I never knew stole an entire month's supply. (My friends happened to mention to some friend of theirs, innocently enough). I failed classes that summer as a result.Actually, in my opinion I feel, that it seems a worst case scenario is being posted. It's like setting up a child's entire life by now.
> Not to mention, anything happens, ever, and it's not the kid, it's the meds. So any normal, awkward behavior, or eccentric style of the day as he grows up, gets reduced to a chemical by all those judgmental gossipy types who know nothing about meds but love to assume they do and how it must explain all quirks in one's behavior. He gets reduced to a chemical, for things he'd do on or off any med. Awesome.
"Reduced to a chemical" ?> So don't do it.
>
> Oh, and it's probably too late to explain, but, the last person you'll ever want to share medicine info with is a teacher. All they do is gossip about kids. And teachers love to gossip about how the medicine they couldn't spell if their job depended on it somehow is the reason why your kid acts the way he acts.
Again, this is an experience with presumably a teacher of yours. True, why share ? But more broad generalizations of teachers, who make some of the lowest salaries in this country for what they have to suffer and endure, including weapons, and all sorts of things I don't need to go into.
> If his ed plan requires extra time, fine, let them infer. But there's all sorts of reasons for that time, so there's no reason to disclose he's on meds.
>
> When I was growing up, lots of kids went to the school nurse at lunch time for their "asthma." Some probably did have it. I doubt it was 100% of the kids growing up in the 90's. Their parents coached them this, so they wouldn't be subject to other kids, teachers and parents gossiping about something that's none of their business.
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> I could go on and on. If anything, the fact it's ADD is way more of a reason to keep it between your son, you and your doctor.
>
> I advise coaching your son to realize he doesn't ever, ever need to reveal what medicine he takes, ever, unless it's to a school nurse, or his doctor. This includes even close friends. And yes, asthma is a great cover.This is about the only statement I can possibly agree in a list of what seems to be broad generalizations and dissections of a particular school system.
> And if he ever does anything stupid as a teenager, he should know never to answer to a cop what "he's on." This can be used in court against him, prescribed or not, to imply all sorts of things. And unlike docs, his medicine becomes public record for the rest of his life-- there's nothing to control that info once he volunteers it.This is getting really morose. Anybody over the age of 18, or 21 in a few states is considered an adult by definition, and must make their choices as an adult. We've now skipped at least a decade into the future while we're still ignoring the Here and Now.
> Honestly. It's your kid, not your friend's. What grand insight does your friend have that your doctor doesn't? Aside from the fact it's silly advice... it's just a bad habit to gossip about your kid's meds. There's 1,000 more reasons why, and I won't get into them here.
How do you know what friend this is. It seems like a grand character assassination of the friend and scaring the parent in the process. Again, so we don't get into multiple side tangents, this is merely my observation of this entire post.
> I'm not trying to be harsh, but, how would you feel if your son went around telling folks about every med you were on? Or, while you have some accident, what opiate you are on, spoken loudly to all your co-workers while he visits your office? Every mistake you do would become "Oh, she's abusing her prescription, poor thing."This, merely my own opinion, is in fact all coming off as harsh and an unnecessary transference about part of -your- experience growing up.
If you want to discuss your experience growing up, why isn't the tone from, again what comes across to me, a little less crass and a little more with some I statements.
Perhaps this has hit your memory a bit hard, and I can understand that but I fail to see how it is helping this fellow (I assume male, it's irrelevant) about their son.
>
> Seriously. Don't. Do. It. No good can come of it. Like I said, if you have doubts, get a second opinion from another _M.D._Said and done.
> and while I'm on soap box: this site is helpful. It's not meant to override the advice of medicine professionals. I do not have an M.D., but now and then I might mention I had a good experience on a med. That doesn't mean my advice is better than an M.D., or should over-ride it. I'm 25. If anyone is going to take advice from me to over-rule an M.D., they need to up their dose.
"they need to up their dose" ?? That's a little offensive don't you think, or am I taking this wrong.
To me, this appears as a multiparagraph essay that does not serve at all the purpose the original question was, which is questions about medication effects on a child that I believe is too thin for his age (I didn't quite get that part -- or is he too short for his age ?).
Okay, whew. Maybe it was important to get out your frustrations of child development. That's fine, the past helps us all understand our present, in a personal nature, but I still fail to see how all of this helps someone with a few simple comments, which were in there, like a second opinion -- good advice, on how to go about someone in the Here and Now, not 2 months from now, not two years from now, not in their graduation day.
Anyhow fwiw,Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:856971
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081006/msgs/857342.html