Ritalin In Your Child's Backpack?

[Mark Probert]

Ritalin In Your Child's Backpack?

http://wcco.com/health/health_story_251110740.html

Sep 8, 2003 10:05 am US/Central
NEW YORK (CBS) For many parents, back-to-school preparations don't mean just
stocking up on pencil boxes; it also means buying prescription drugs for a
hyperactive child.

Dr. Melvin Oatis, a pediatrician and a child and adolescent psychiatrist at
the NYU Child Study Center, visits The Early Show on Monday to offer a
refresher course on detection and treatment of ADHD.

He says parents and teachers should look for disruptive or daydreaming
behavior "in at least two settings, settings being: at home, with their peer
group and in school."

Once it is established that your child is suffering from impairment, he
suggests talking to a pediatrician to find out specifically where the
impairment is, before asking for a prescription for Ritallin.

"Once you have the diagnosis, you can decide on a medication," he says.

There are lots of opinions about whether kids are over medicated or under
medicated, he notes.

"There are more kids not on Ritalin or some other ADHD drug that need it,
than there are kids on it who don't need it," he says.

Ritalin, he explains, is the most researched medication for treating ADHD.
It has been studied since the 1950s. And it comes in doses that last up to
12 hours, "so kids don't have to take it two and three times a day, just
once," he says.

The downside to taking Ritalin are: "decreased appetite, headaches, stomach
aches, difficulty with sleep. There are ways to minimize the effects,
sometimes these are transient and go away with treatment," Dr. Oatis says.

[Paula]

Funny subject line. My child cannot even
have a single tablet of OTC *ibuprofen*
in his backpack, as would be most sensible
so that he could treat one of his migraines
BEFORE it gets too bad to treat, without
the threat of suspension or expulsion from
school. (Not clear which, from the rules
I've read.)

I'd never put an ADHD medication in the backpack,
since this could be too much of a temptation
for a kid to sell it to other kids who want
to abuse it, but I really do wish he could
carry a single ibuprofen tablet. As it is, we
had to get not only a form filled out by his
doctor requesting the nurse to administer
ibuprofen, we also had to get the pharmacy
to sell us OTC ibuprofen with a prescription
label with my child's name on it attached.
Bizarre rules. Good thing he didn't get a
migraine the days we were scrambling to
get all this to the school.

Oddly, he got fewer migraines the first
couple of weeks of school, while taking
ADHD meds, than he did in the several weeks
before school started. I'd have expected
ADHD meds to increase, not decrease, the
number of headaches he gets. Probably no
connection at all.

Paula

[Emma Anne]

Paula > wrote:

> Funny subject line. My child cannot even
> have a single tablet of OTC *ibuprofen*
> in his backpack, as would be most sensible
> so that he could treat one of his migraines
> BEFORE it gets too bad to treat, without
> the threat of suspension or expulsion from
> school. (Not clear which, from the rules
> I've read.)

My daughter also gets migraines. At her school, you can get a doctor's
slip and give the school the medication to administer if needed, even if
it is over the counter. You might want to check out this option.

[SumBuny]

"Paula" > wrote in message
om...
> Funny subject line. My child cannot even
> have a single tablet of OTC *ibuprofen*
> in his backpack, as would be most sensible
> so that he could treat one of his migraines
> BEFORE it gets too bad to treat, without
> the threat of suspension or expulsion from
> school. (Not clear which, from the rules
> I've read.)


<nodding> The same goes for cough drops at my son's school. I bring in a
box at the beginning of the year, for him to take "as needed".

Buny

[Mark Probert]

"Paula" > wrote in message
om...
> Funny subject line. My child cannot even
> have a single tablet of OTC *ibuprofen*
> in his backpack, as would be most sensible
> so that he could treat one of his migraines
> BEFORE it gets too bad to treat, without
> the threat of suspension or expulsion from
> school. (Not clear which, from the rules
> I've read.)
>
> I'd never put an ADHD medication in the backpack,
> since this could be too much of a temptation
> for a kid to sell it to other kids who want
> to abuse it, but I really do wish he could
> carry a single ibuprofen tablet. As it is, we
> had to get not only a form filled out by his
> doctor requesting the nurse to administer
> ibuprofen, we also had to get the pharmacy
> to sell us OTC ibuprofen with a prescription
> label with my child's name on it attached.
> Bizarre rules. Good thing he didn't get a
> migraine the days we were scrambling to
> get all this to the school.
>
> Oddly, he got fewer migraines the first
> couple of weeks of school, while taking
> ADHD meds, than he did in the several weeks
> before school started. I'd have expected
> ADHD meds to increase, not decrease, the
> number of headaches he gets. Probably no
> connection at all.

Au contraire! There IS a link!

He is probably enjoying school, has less stress, and is not worrying about
what his teacher will be saying to him when he does not get his work done.

[Paula]

(Emma Anne) wrote...
> My daughter also gets migraines. At her school, you can get a doctor's
> slip and give the school the medication to administer if needed, even if
> it is over the counter. You might want to check out this option.

First we got the doctor to give us a form
for the school stating that my son must be
given ibuprofen immediately when he gets a
migraine. We picked it up at the doctor's
office and I took it to the school, no
small matter given my own fatigue. I also
bought a small bottle of ibuprofen. When
we got there, the nurse apologetically told
us that the bottle of ibuprofen would not
be accepted because it had to have a
pharmacist's prescription label, even for
an OTC medication. The pharmacist did not
understand this when I called them, so I had
to have to doctor's office call in a
prescription for my son for generic ibuprofen.
My son was not, of course, allowed to drop
this bottle off at the school; a parent had
to take it there. This time my husband was
able to do it, thank goodness. Now we're set,
if a migraine ever hits during school hours.

The biggest problem is gewtting the kid to notice
that he has a minor headache, the only predictor
of a massive migraine, for him. If he takes
the ibuprofen before the headache gets bad,
it works; if he waits, it does not work. It's
similar to the issue of his telling me when his
ADHD meds aren't working. He had no *idea*,
until I pointed it out, that those feelings
of intense boredom in math class (a favorite
subject for him) never happen to him unless
his ADHD meds are not working! He is starting
to realize that it must be ADHD when an invisible
spot on his finger, or something else just as
silly, becomes more interesting to him than
anything else.

Paula

[Mark Probert]

"Paula" > wrote in message
om...
> (Emma Anne) wrote...
> > My daughter also gets migraines. At her school, you can get a doctor's
> > slip and give the school the medication to administer if needed, even if
> > it is over the counter. You might want to check out this option.
>
> First we got the doctor to give us a form
> for the school stating that my son must be
> given ibuprofen immediately when he gets a
> migraine. We picked it up at the doctor's
> office and I took it to the school, no
> small matter given my own fatigue. I also
> bought a small bottle of ibuprofen. When
> we got there, the nurse apologetically told
> us that the bottle of ibuprofen would not
> be accepted because it had to have a
> pharmacist's prescription label, even for
> an OTC medication. The pharmacist did not
> understand this when I called them, so I had
> to have to doctor's office call in a
> prescription for my son for generic ibuprofen.
> My son was not, of course, allowed to drop
> this bottle off at the school; a parent had
> to take it there. This time my husband was
> able to do it, thank goodness. Now we're set,
> if a migraine ever hits during school hours.

Thank you for describing what the average parent has to go through to get
the school to administer medication. We have often seen these anti-science
know-nothings spouting how schools give out medications like candy because
parents asked them too.

snip