This is a very touchy subject. No parents should not be forced to make their kids to take medication, however if their child is not safe to be around there needs to be an option. What is the parent willing to do. Is the parent willing to homeschool the child Is the parent willing to be responsible for the childs diet and take the child off of processed sugars and dyes I find that a majority of the parents are not being educated about the dietes that can help these children. We need to stress diets as an alternative to drugs and drugs as a last resort for severe cases. Parents are also in need of remembering that these children need at least 8 hours of sleep a day. Education is the key. Medication does have its place so please don't put down medication because some kids really do need it. We had a child in my daughters class last year who used to choke her and other kids until he was medicated. All I ask as a mother who is involved with kids and at my childrens school daily, please be responsible. Thank you.

Kelly Preston made completely uneducated and uninformed statements on this issue, specificially in US magazine, Aug 25, 2003. It angers me to suggest that those of us parents who do medicate our children as a last resort are not caring, educated parents. As an R.N., I do not depend upon others to educate me on alternative treatements for the very real diagnosis of ADHD. After a very thorough assessment lasting several months with a child psychologist, my child was diagnosed with adhd.
The Conner's rating scale, one of the assessment tools available, was utilized as part of the total assessment. This is a critical part of the diagnosis decision because there is no medical test for ADHD. There are some brain changes visible on an MRI, but they are not diagnostic in themselves and most insurance companies will not cover this test for this diagnosis. In fact, many insurance companies do not cover psychologist visits for ADHD, which may be why they are under utilized in the treatment of ADHD. In our experience, we tried dietary changes, behavior modification, and natural supplements, to no avail. Today, my child functions very well and succeeds in school and social situations that she could not before because she could not control her behavior. I am only sorry that I waited so long to start her on medication.
Apparently Kelly Preston has "perfect" children and does not have the daily struggles involved in parenting children with ADHD. I suggest she read up more on that. My personal experience involved multiple visits to the school to meet with teachers and the principal and counsellors to try to deal with the child's behavioral issues for many months before medications were tried, and that was at my own request, not the physician or school's. During that time, the constant negative attention my child received as a result of her behavior may have resulted in the lowered self esteem that is so common in unmedicated individuals (adults included) who live their lives dejectedly knowing that they cannot meet societies expectations of them because their minds are awhirl with thoughts, images, sounds, and are unable to filter these out to deal with typical life events.
Preston stated that parents put their children on medications "without always being told of the medications potentially lethal side effects". I consider educating myself on the medications I take and my children take my responsibility. You should as well.
Preston stated that 7 out of the last 12 school shooters were on medication. That means that those children were diagnosed with a psychiatric illness requiring medication and that resulted in the action they took. Ritalin and Paxil, which Preston uses as examples, have not been shown to cause irrational, aggressive behavior, but to curb them! About half of the "shooters" were on medications. About half were not.
Preston stated that medications may mask the symptoms- the medications make the symptoms manageable so that the child can function as society expects. She suggested that a sugary breakfast may be the cause of ADHD. Research has repeatedly shown the opposite. Sugar causes tiredness and decreased energy.
I agree that the school system should not be pushing parents to use medications, that is a decision to be made by the parent/physician team. However, the school system spends more time with the child than most parents working a 8-5 job do, and feedback on behavior is imperitive for success. I also work in the school system and can testify to the fact that just one or two children with behavioral problems hold back the entire classroom because they demand most of the attention.
In closing, my child has told me that he "can't concentrate" because of all the little noises in the class and people moving around and things he sees and things he thinks about when he tries it without his medication. He cannot control his impulsive behavior on his own at this point, and it is not just being a child, because I would like to beleive that my child is perfect too, but he just does not behave like other children. I have 2 children on stimulant medications doing very well.
Additonally, educate yourself, Kelly Preston on the "potentially lethal" effects of the very dark suntan your young daughter shows in the article. Havn't you heard of the dangers of the sun

This is pretty interesting. I agree with the author.

There is no reason that a school should tell you either medicate your child or they will have them taken off of you, and some of the things writen in response to this artical are scary, any parent who would agree with a school doing that needs to be a more responsible parent. While i am sure many kids truley have adhd, many dont and are being medicated. I have three children, two who have tested highly gifted, both are high need children, were my other child is very laid back, i spend a lot of energy and time with them, however i have had people who think its their business tell me they think they might have adhd, which to me they are not the ones raising them, i am and considering were they are in life they are doing pretty good, while they dont stop for very long and are always doing something and i am sure on some level they are hyper, i would never consider changing them, i would never want them to be any different. I know children who take medication for adhd, and only take it while they are in school so they can do their work, and probably needs it for that reason, but the problem comes when its over DX for every kid who is a little hyper, and in that situation it does not benifit them, nor does it benifit the children who truley are hyper or have adhd, because it becomes a every day DX for any kid the school system can handle or does not feel like handling.
Nicole

I am in complete agreement with Kirstie Alley and Kelly Preston. My son is eight years old now and the school has forced me into keeping him on medications since he was in Kindergarten. I was told to keep him on the medications or face being turned in for child medical neglect. I love to see my son's personality when he is not drugged up. He is a child who can be handled without drugs, but he just takes a little more time to deal with sometimes. Schools need to stay out of the medication issues and let parents raise their children without the drugs so kids don't grow up feeling like they have to depend on drugs to get thru life situations. Children should be able to be educated in the public school setting without medication and made felt like they are bad because they have a little more energy then another child their age.

I am now also being faced with this issue. I also agree drugging our kids is self-destruction in the making. I am being faced with this issue concerning my son, who has been diagnosed ADHD. The school is trying very hard to coerced me into making a decision of putting my son back on medicine after mine and my son's decision of stopping it. My son had several physical reactions to two different types of ADHD medication which were concerta and strattera. My concern also is now, The school has more or less given me a choice to put him back on medication or he gets put in an alternative classroom where his rights are violated each and every day, by not being treated with a fair education equal to that of a typically developing child. I also want to say further that Jeremy has very good social skills despite his over impulsiveness and hyperactivity. He is well liked by his peers. He just cannot sit still for hour upon hour while the teachers just hand out worksheets with practically no instruction actually given. When are schools going to wake up and realize that their classroom environments might just be one of the major problems.