That said, I believe in placing the child on medication designed for that purpose. There are a few adhd medications that have been around for some time now, so we’ve had the opportunity to see children use them over time.

And if the child truly does suffer from add/adhd, placing the child on one of those medications only makes it become more obvious that adhd was the issue due to the night and day difference brought on by the medication. I’ve seen the appropriate use of adhd medication help children regain their self esteem and their momentum in school.

I do NOT think it is safe, nor do I think it is a good thing, to start shoving heavy duty antipsychotic psychotropic meds at young children when we never do studies on anyone but adults, we don’t have dosing guidelines for children, and we don’t know how these drugs will affect the growth and development of the brain long term.

I have seen this happen in particular with children in foster care, many of whom are disturbed at an increasingly young age. I have seen them prescribed what I can only term as some very “adult” psych meds even as they are enrolling in kindergarten.

I understand that many of these children are difficult to manage, and many of them do have some profound mental health issues for their age. But using medication that is untested in their age group makes me very uncomfortable in terms of both the short term and the long term safety of the children involved.