In a recent post, I blogged about my surprise that my daughter’s IQ continues to increase despite the fact that she has FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.) A reader wrote an interesting comment about her child who is diagnosed with inattentive ADD. She said that their family psychiatrist told them to expect their child’s IQ to increase after she had been on medication for a while. While I had never heard this before it really could help to explain my daughter’s... more

A few weeks ago, I took my eight-year-old child to the doctor for croup. The doctor noticed that he was also wheezing. Our son had infantile asthma when we adopted him and occasionally has still has episodes of wheezing. We have a nebulizer at home for treatments and I used to take it with us if he was having a day of difficult breathing. I asked the doctor if my adopted child was old enough for an asthma inhaler. I explained my concern about not having an emergency treatment with us during hockey or soccer games. The doctor assured me that he was old enough and agreed... more

I am guilty. I admit to running out of children’s Motrin in the past and just giving my child half of an adult tablet. My thinking, like so many parents, was that children need the same medicine as adults, just in smaller doses, because they are smaller. However, that is not always the case. Some medications affect children much differently than they affect adults. When it comes to giving our children medications, we need to remember that they are not just miniature adults.

If you are fostering children, or if a child is placed with you, but not yet adopted, you need... more

Are you adopting a child that requires daily shots? The thought of giving your new child a shot everyday can be a little intimidating if you don’t have any experience giving injections. It is important for you to become confident in giving the shots for the health of the child you are adopting.

You may want to familiarize yourself with the feel of giving shots by practicing. You can fill your syringe with water and practice injecting the water into an orange or a grapefruit. Try to press the needle quickly through the skin and practice injecting the... more

Most parents of children on psychiatric medications are aware that in 2004 the FDA put a “black box” warning on all antidepressants. They declared that the use of antidepressants in children and adolescents was associated with a higher risk of suicide. The warning is carefully worded not to say that antidepressants should not be given to children or adolescents, but that they patients should be carefully monitored.

This... more

I don’t know about you, but trips to the psychiatrist always boost my spirits. Ever the optimist, I am always hopeful that this time we will find the right combination of medications to make life easier. Today was Lyn’s appointment and I think I may have seemed a little desperate when I spoke with her psychiatrist. Her words and actions lately haven’t had too much to do with reality.

She has been seeing the same psychiatrist for medications for the past three years. He was also the psychiatrist who saw my now adult daughter for six years, so we have a long history.... more

I’ll admit it. The medication that first struck fear into my heart when the psychiatrist advised it was a blood pressure medication called Clonidine. It was early in our journey of working with our psychiatrist. And I was terrified and feeling very guilty that I had acquiesced to medicating my 6-year-old. Messing with her blood pressure sounded very dangerous to me.

I have since learned that the use of these hypertensive medications to control impulsivity is rather commonplace and definitely not the most risky move that a doctor can make when treating our complicated... more

For children with attentional problems (ADD/ADHD) for whom stimulants don’t work, doctors will often prescribe Strattera. It is the “different” medication for ADHD. The stimulant meds (Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall, etc.) all work by suppression the brain chemical dopamine. Strattera works on norepinephrine.

For many who are not helped by traditional ADHD meds, or for whom the stimulants produced too many side effects, Strattera is a wonderful thing. In children with co-morbid conditions (this means more than one disorder existing together), Strattera may be the... more

Another medication that can spark a debate quickly is Risperdal, an atypical anti-psychotic that has been recently approved by the FDA for use with autistic children and adolescents. Risperdal the first medication to be approved for the treatment of behavioral symptoms associated with autism – for things like aggression, deliberate self-injury, and temper tantrums.

While it’s encouraging to know that Risperdal has been determined safe for use in autistic children, truth is psychiatrists have been prescribing it for children for quite some time. Previously it has been approved for treating schizophrenia... more

Nothing is more controversial in parenting circles than giving your child psychotropic meds. Parents are often confused by the advice they receive. Opinions are polarized. And no medication is more controversial than the well-known ADHD medication: Ritalin. Ritalin, the brand name for Methylphenidate is the medication most often prescribed to children. It is estimated that 75% of the prescriptions of Ritalin are written for children.

Other medications in the same “family” of stimulant treatments for ADHD include... more