APs: Were you told your child had a special need and was placed on medication, only to discover...?

HappyMomAnna

I think it's totally possible for a little one to end up tagged with something during a high drama-trauma time of thier lives and find out later the child improves or was not correctly diagnosed.

The child may have displayed signs at some point or someone along the line may have wanted to juice him up/down to milk the system some way--that happens a lot more then we dare to think.

ADD is diagnosed so much I can't believe it. When I see what is considered an ADD or ADHD kid today--they kind look like most of the kids I grew up with... wonder why meth is such a problem these days... ?

ODD can sometimes be the perception of someone. For such a young kid how the care giver at the time he was given all these meds--discribed the child's behavior to the doctor could make a huge difference. If the caregiver was saying a lot of things with an extreme angle then--wa'la! One person's ODD can be anothers Stuborn chil depends on how a person looks at it and for some people ODD is seen by the caregiver as Personality...but, how they tell the doctor can make the difference.

As long as you are working with a doctor and things go well then GREAT! What I have learned is that when a child Actually needs medication there will be No Doubts about It. If things are going well and there are no problems then keep moving along if it becomes clear that medication is needed then work with the doctor.

Tagging and Lables are Big Business so, it's really easy for a child to get tagged. That's just another reason why these children Need people who actually love them enough to care and make decisions when they need to be made.

Congratulations, it's so great He is doing well! :)

sunny

Sounds more like PTSD to me.

Thanks for caring enough to get him off the damned drugs.

MamaKate

Dear Kazi,

It is pretty common knowledge among those who follow children's welfare issues that kids are over-diagnosed and over-medicated in general but kids in foster care even more so. There is, unfortunately, a large number of lazy and incompetent people who are in the social work and psych fields. (They are everywhere but these people have the ability to do serious and unrepairable damage and should be more carefully overseen than say the lazy incompetent guy who makes your sandwich at lunch.)

Many people who deal with children who have suffered abuse or neglect would rather slap the kid on some meds than do the actual WORK it takes to help them. They claim it makes them more "manageable" but in reality they are merely masking the problem, treating the symptoms and avoiding/ignoring the cause. (This can be said of MANY so-called mental health professionals who deal with adults too. Put 'em on meds. Ignore the real issue. Any first parent who has received a prescription or 10 when she or he asked for help in dealing with their loss instead of being given grief counseling.)

This problem is so bad it has caused legislators to consider more laws concerning the treatment of children both in and out of foster care. It is IMPERATIVE that people check out the mental health professionals they use and if they are NOT being properly treated LEAVE and MAKE A REPORT.

http://www.hope4kidz.org/news/texas/TX_06222004.html
http://www.ahrp.org/ahrpspeaks/OvermedUSkids0605.php
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA121506_05B_foster_2f188e0_html10371.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/24/BAGE5OAGJA1.DTL&type=printable

mom to be

I am a special education teacher that works with infants and toddlers with special needs. Although signs of ADD and ODD can be seen at a young age, it is very rare for a child under the age of 2 to be medicated for these issues. Most MDs are under the belief that these conditions should not be diagnosed under the age of 5, when a child needs to sit and attend during school. Im glad you stood up for your child and took him for a second opinion.

Independ"ant"

"Why do you suppose this happens?"

Money and time.... like everything else.
Its happening to a lot of kids not just adopted and/or abused kids.

Send Looney Tunes an email and she'll fill you in on how many foster kids are placed on drugs for ill reasons.

Doctors make money off of pushing drugs.
Parents listen to these doctors because they don't have time to address the kids issues or are lazy.
Its becoming an epidemic for kids...its socially acceptable.

Just a Mom

I have two sons that have ADHD and they NEED their meds. Although I am sure that many foster children are misdiagnosed and don't need it, that is not always the case. ETA: That is really young to be on meds, though. N was on meds at 3 and T was 4, and I thought that was young then.

Randy B

I didn't but friends of ours adopted a 12 year old recently who was medicated and had a string of initials in her diagnosis file. OCD, ADD, ODD, ADHD.......

Within 3 months after adopting her she was off all meds and is doing wonderfully. Yes, she has issues that will require medication but not till things can be properly assessed. Her new parents suspect that her long term foster parents either couldn't handle her or, perhaps they were pushing for meds in order to have her monthly payments increased. I'm not inclined to think the second alternative but one really never knows.

nighteam

I have seen both over diagnosis and under diagnosis. Unfortunately it comes down to the state and what they are willing to pay to have their children treated and cared for. In my daughters case the state swears all she had for the first two years of life were well child visits. Which is true according to her chart but since coming into our home and being placed on private insurance she has been to multiple specialists because of misdiagnosis and needs that were not met by the state.

sizesmith

Some doctors and social wokers realize that kids in foster care often times aren't adopted when they're over age 2, because they aren't the "newborn" anymore. People are so afraid to put the time, effort, and care into helping these kids, so they give them a diagnosis, medicate them, that way, they get a stipend from the state, and are more readily adoptable to many families because of the income. Also, since they have a diagnosis, they qualify for medicaid many times, even if the new parent's income doesn't, but it's another perk to help them get adopted.

Jennifer L

Not personally, but it doesn't surprise me that it happens.

I don't think that many children in foster care are evaluated by a qualified professional. By that, I mean, a board certified child/adolescent psychiatrist.

Not a pediatrician. Not a family doctor. Not a resident. Not a nurse practitioner. I'm sure it comes down to money. The state doesn't have to pay as much if the psych resident sees the foster child, as opposed to the board-certified psychiatrist.

I think that leads to a lot of overdiagnosing and overmedicating of children.

Also many children that have been in abuse or neglect situations learn survival skills to cope. These skills are often very normal and understandable responses to being in an abnormal and incomprehensible situation. But they can be misunderstood and diagnosed as something else.

Example: Children that live in a constant or near-constant state of danger or unpredictibility can experience a constant "fight or flight" state. All of the hormones that are the body's normal response to being in danger are released constantly, so the child appears to have a lot of energy, have difficulty focusing and concentrating... so the well meaning pediatrician slaps an ADHD diagnosis and perscribes Adderall.

Once a child is out of that bad situation, those coping mechanisms may no longer be needed.

The way I see it, most people wouldn't expect their family doctor to perform open heart surgery. You'd go to a specialist for that. Why should mental health (especially mental health in children!) be any different?

kateiskate

This question is really directed at adoptive parents, but I wanted to share my experience because a similar thing happened to me.

When I was a "tween" I was diagnosed with ADD and ODD and prescribed a medication used to treat schizophrenia. After a couple years on that medication and a couple others and dozens of appointments where the doctors were baffled as to why the modifications of the dosages were not affecting my behavior my parents took me off of the medications. My behavior became a lot less hostile once I was off of the medicines and able to think fo myself. I think the "lazy psychiatry" is far too prevalent in children's diagonses. I think since the views of adoption held by many (even still by healthcare proffesionals) are that if you love your child enough adoption will not affect them, people are less likely to see some of these attachment or developement problems as things that probably stemmed from relinquishment and therefore a lot of kids are misdiagnosed and unnecessarily medicated.

Something interesting: When my parents talked to the psychiatrist about it, he mentioned that for some reason a lot of the other Korean adoptees that he treated had similar issues and also showed that their behaviors were resistant to the medications. For some reason they never made the connection.

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