From: kja@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (krista.j.anderson)
Subject: Re: Attention Deficit Disorder Resources
Followup-To: sci.med
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 21:46:50 GMT

In article <1992Oct5.125428.5866@newstand.syr.edu>, mdkline@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Mark D. Kline) writes:
> Fact is, a few weeks of a medication trial with a reasonable schedule
> of observation (on the part of parents, teachers, and physician) can
> establish whether a particular child suspected of ADD can benefit from
> medication, and the risks of such a trial are very small, (assuming the
> absence of contraindications). "Drug dependency" is really a non
> sequitor here - we don't consider epileptics "drug dependent" in a
> judgemental way because they have seizures if they stop their
> medication.   What if the medication would be extremely helpful to the
> child?  Wouldn't it then be tragic if the child was denied a treatment
> of value because the parents didn't believe in it?

This is very well put.

Steve Dyer and Mark Kline have given good responses on this thread,
but I also want to post because I think it's sad that some children
are being mistreated.  While I don't particularly care about adults
who prefer quacks to established medicine, it makes me feel very
bad to think about the innocent children who are the victims of
their parents' pride.

To the family who is not only denying their son a chance to try a
medicine that could help, but also denying their son 49 foods just
because of some groundless hokus-pocus, I wish I could convince you
that allergies to such a large number of foods is virtually
impossible.  Very few people who have food allergies have more than
10.  (I think that's the number and will look it up in a few days.)

And, the symptoms of food allergies or intolerances include hives,
asthma, diarrhea, gas, malabsorption, possibly enuresis.  Unless
some of these symptoms are present, there are probably no allergies
or intolerances at work.  Allergies do *not* directly cause 
psychological or behavioral symptoms.

Some children who have more than one problem may have the symptoms
from one disorder exacerbated by symptoms of the other, but, I
repeat, allergies do *not* cause psychological symptoms in the
absence of physical symptoms.  Any interactions between allergies
and other disorders is due to the *physical symptoms* of the
allergies.  So, if there aren't any physical symptoms, then the
allergies do not exist and can't be responsible for any
psychological problems.

> If a child was permanently crippled because some congential orthopedic
> problem was not braced or surgically corrected by his parents - who
> believed in prayer or naturopathy - wouldn't we just think those
> parents were wretches?  How angry would a teenager be who discovers
> that there was something his parents could have done to overcome some
> problem but didn't on ideological grounds...

This whole ADD thread reminds me of 2 cases I knew of.  In one, a
child had strabismus and the parents refused to allow her to have
eye surgery even though the grandparents offered to pay for it.  As
a result, the child did poorly in school, especially math where
context can't compensate for poor vision.  While I needn't mention
her appearence, it's sad enough that she will never have
stereoscopic vision.

In the second case a child was staying with his grandmother who was
a Christian Scientist.  The child developed a toothache and was in
agony while the grandmother just kept insisting that the child was
sinful and must pray.  Finally the mother traveled 500 miles to
take the child to the dentist.

How can people be so cruel to children?
-- 
Krista Anderson, att!ihlpf!krista
Newsgroups: misc.kids