Pediatrician Says Try Discipline before Ritalin
- on 06.13.08
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Pediatrician Says Try Discipline before Ritalin is
“Could it be that America would rather give unruly kids a pill than a swat?”
That’s what Dr. Lawrence Diller asks in a recent article. The behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., said he thinks Ritalin is prescribed too often.
“There’s good solid evidence that when you give parents permission to give one or two smacks on the child’s bottom if the child defies the rules of the timeout procedure, the family is more often successful with the approach,” he told U.S. News & World Report. “Nobody wants to be pro-spanking. I’m not pro-spanking. I just think a well-thought-out spank ain’t so bad and shouldn’t be banned.”
I happen to believe Ritalin is over prescribed, especially for those children in our public government run school system. Read some of my previous posts on this topic at the following links:
Nancy Shute, over at U.S. News wrote about this article as well in One View: A Spanking Might Beat Ritalin.
Related Item:
Fox News also recently ran a story about American Kids Take Anti-Psychotic Medicines at Six Times the Rate of U.K. Children.
And who draws the line between a “well thought out spank” and abuse? You really have to be kidding, right? You don’t actually support corporal punishment with young children, do you?
What about at school? Public or private? Should teachers be allowed to beat, I mean spank, a child?