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Dosing Kids with Drugs to Shut Them Up is Child Abuse, Study Says
Filed under: In The News, Home Remedies, Feeding & Sleeping, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids
Does your kid really need that dose of cough medicine? Credit: Corbis
Hmm, really?
Quit bouncing off the walls for a minute, son. Daddy wants to give you something ...
Stop! Don't do it! A lot of parents joke about drugging their rambunctious kids into submission -- preferably with one of those tranquilizer darts from "Wild Kingdom."
Using Benadryl as a baby-sitter, however, is a form of child abuse, according to a study in the latest issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.
Dr. Shan Yin, a toxicology fellow at the University of Colorado, led the study and concludes that there are at least 160 reported cases a year where parents severely and maliciously control their children with drugs.
The key word there is "reported." Countless more cases fly under the radar.
The drugs range from illegal street narcotics to prescription and over-the-counter pain killers, stimulants, sedatives, antipsyhotics and cough/cold medications.
Yin and his team gathered information from the National Poison Data System.
Amitava Dasgupta, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, tells ABC News parents should never give cough medicine or pain killers to children under 2 without asking a physician.
And meds should never be given to kids just to shut them up, he adds. Dasgupta tells ABC News he agrees with Yin and the other researchers: It's a form of child abuse -- and should be a criminal offense.
Researchers found 14 percent of the reported cases between 2000 and 2008 resulted in moderate to major consequences. They also found 18 children died -- 17 from sedatives.
Carolyn Riley, 35, of Massachusetts was sentenced to life in prison in February after she sent her 4-year-old daughter to bed after giving her toxic levels of pyschotropic drugs. The little girl never woke up.
That may have been an extreme case, but Dasgupta tells ABC News many parents -- especially young ones -- don't think over-the-counter meds are any big deal. They're wrong, he says.
"Because a child or infant's body is not an adult body, pharmaceuticals can be dangerous," Dasgupta tells the network.
Doping kids "is likely to have cascading effects on the developing biology of children and even potentially long-term effects," Alan Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University, tells ABC News.
Yin's study couldn't determine parents' exact motivations. Pediatric experts tell ABC News parents might use meds to punish children or just get a few minutes of peace.
"If a child is very irritable and colicky, a parent may try to use cough and cold syrup to keep the child quiet, especially if the parent is overwhelmed and immature and thinks the child is doing this on purpose," Dr. Lea DeFrancisci Lis, an associate clinical professor at New York University School of Medicine, tells ABC News.
Researchers are not mind readers, James Hmurovich, president and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America, tells the New York Daily News. They can't really know parents' motivations. Therefore, he adds, it's difficult to generalize the practice of medicating kids as child abuse.
Jill Smokler, a mother and blogger at ScaryMommy.com, writes on her blog that she has sympathy for the parents.
"I suppose it's better than screaming at or beating a kid when all your buttons are being pushed," she writes.
Smokler admits on her blog she once gave her 18-month-old daughter Benadryl, hoping the child would sleep through a two-hour flight.
"The plan backfired," Smokler writes on the blog. "She was wired. The flight was a disaster, and that was the end of that. Since then, I have never given my children medication as a way to benefit me. Lesson learned."
Nonetheless, she adds, she's not going to judge other parents. "I'm hardly a perfect parent," she writes. "Obviously, drugging your child is not a good idea. Big, fat f***ng duh. Neither is beating them or losing it on an airplane full of 200 people."
Related: More Kids Buzzing On Abuse Of ADHD Drugs
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ReaderComments (Page 3 of 3)
7-23-2010 @ 6:19PM
Aria said...Really? Someone has to be told that drugging children is a form of abuse? Please! If you don't know that already you shouldn't have kids, simple.
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7-23-2010 @ 6:25PM
Al said...The worst form of child abuse is a helicopter parent.
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7-23-2010 @ 6:27PM
cslinz62 said...It's usually parents that are lazy and or on xanax or valium that do that to their kids. Or on anti-depressants. And kids will mimic their parents. If they have something wrong with them, then the kids have it wrong with them too so what better way to deal with it than to give them benadryl to make them sleep longer so they can sleep longer.
Another form of child abuse that they don't talk about is parents that drive vehicles with no air! No heat for the winter or A/C for the summer. Is that really being fair to the child that they choose to be white trash and not work to have the money to fix it? Someone please bring this to people's attention along with parents that smoke in the car with their children too. How lowlife!!!!
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7-23-2010 @ 6:58PM
David S. said...Some of the folks commenting need to focus: the subject of the article is about primarily about giving medication to children under the age of 2. I worked in Children's Services for many years, and believe me, there were kids over the age of four or five who were on multiple behavioral medications. Most of them needed it. Many were victims of abuse, neglect, and subject to multiple moves from one foster home to another. Some had serious attachment disorders, needless to say. And we wonder why most adoptive parents only want to adopt infants? Who can blame them?
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7-24-2010 @ 11:17AM
Michelle said...Psychological abuse is an often unreported case since it can't be proved.
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7-23-2010 @ 7:18PM
Ann said...People do not need to worru too much aboout patents medicating their children its the doctors who prescribe medication for any child that is a little bit active. The diagonosis for every child is adhd and the solution is medication. Prople should be much more worried about that.
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7-23-2010 @ 7:37PM
mike hylton said...from what i see from probably 60% of the kids today especially those between 8-15 is a need to be drugged , that age group is like a pitt bull puppy coming into to its growth, they are mouthy disrespectful, destructive and out of control, seems once they reacy 16-17 they gain some/slight/ maturity and begin to realize the world doesnt rotate around their happiness,and also they have some size to them by then and i think realize that if they get out of hand with the wrong person they are gonna get a grown up ass whipping,,and yes my kids are grown, behaved just like the above and grew out of it with many ass whippings on the way
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7-23-2010 @ 7:45PM
bazel said...The biggest problem with parents administering meds to their child without a prescription is in not understanding proper dosages. The second biggest problem is in doping up their children as a way of coping, instead of understanding their children, working with them to overcome behaviorial or emotional issues which may lie at the heart of their behavior. I briefly knew a mom who didn't want to "deal" with her 10 year old son and so gave him cough meds in a milkshake. The child has major behavioral issues and I suspect that this has been her way of "surviving" her child rather than being a nurturing and responsible mother. She always wanted her child, mind you, but she wanted him as a "comfort" to herself. As the child of alcoholics, she was emotionally unwell and in need of counseling. I'm happy to report that the son has finally been sent to live with the father who wanted him all the while. Hopefully the mother has gotten some help too.
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7-23-2010 @ 8:04PM
Susan said...There are too many good reasons to give Benadryl while flying to call this abuse .Children and adults can be suffering from colds or allergies , I always take Benadryl before flying to reduce the effects on my ears . Benadryl also prevents air/seasickness . It does have a mild sedative effect . I'll bet most of those screaming infants and toddlers on planes feel like their ears are rupturing from the change in pressure . Abuse ? How about abuse not to give it ?
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7-23-2010 @ 8:32PM
Jen said...parents need to understand what they give their kids - that is the problem (well, one of them!). Many sedatives have the opposite effect on children. I believe Benadryl (the non-children's type) is one of those - it works as a stimulant in babies / toddlers.
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7-23-2010 @ 8:26PM
GardeniaMountain said...When my oldest boy was so hyper active in school, the school said he was ADHD and wanted to put him on drug's to calm him.
The next year he got a new teacher, and was no longer hyper.
Reason for him being hyper, was because he was bored.
The boy just needed something harder to do.
Most children are bouncing off the wall now day's, but it's because they spend there time in front of the Xbox, TV or with there MP3 stuck in there ear's...... no imagination.
I have a hard time getting my kid's mobil, but when I do, they are wiped out by the end of the day.
I don't believe anyone should give a child med's to shut them up, but benadryl is used for a number of things, so if your giving a correct dose, and using it for a reason, then it should never be called child abuse.
Everything you do now is starting to be called child abuse, starting to believe that everyone who makes up what child abuse is, must not of ever had children.
Child Abuse is if you purposly neglect or harm your child...( and a smack on the butt is not harming a kid, it's teaching them that there's gonna be punishment for wrong choices)
I live in a country with morons running it.
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7-23-2010 @ 11:13PM
mnrsmom said...My pediatrician told me once to give my 5 month old benadryl when we were riding in the car because she screamed the whole time we rode in the car, needless to say, we know have a different pediatrician.
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7-24-2010 @ 8:50AM
art saltzman said...still trying to figure out how me and all my friends survived growing up in the 50's ...without drugs ...or ADD...or any of the other crap ...what a stupid concept ...we actually respected our teachers ...respected our parents ....and didn't get into trouble ...the worst thing was bruises and scrapes from playing sports ...i don't know how we did it ...even as teenagers ...we hung out on the streetcorner...we played pinball ...we hung out with the neighborhood girls ...but we didn't steal ...or rape and pillage our neighborhoods...how stupid and dull we were ...duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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8-07-2010 @ 9:40PM
betty said...If we could all go back to spanking our children ,a swat on the but never hurt anyone,maybe we would'nt have to put labels on our children. ada adhd is hog wash. parents don't spend enough time with their children now days.Anyone over 30 was spanked and we grew up to be a better person for it . Life comes with punishments and the sooner we learn that we can learn to be a better person. police and government, teachers need to stop telling these kids that your parents can't spank them this is why kids are so out of hand today.
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7-25-2010 @ 12:56AM
WaggyWow said...I would have to agree, it is child abuse!
www.post-anonymously.at.tc
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7-26-2010 @ 10:51PM
Cindy said...I mean, who does that?? I never heard of that...giving your kids antihistamines? Wow. Doping your kids on purpose. What a losy thing to do.
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7-28-2010 @ 4:18AM
thersavta said...Discipline with drugs.. Yes the parent or guardian should be punished Spankings can be your easy way out but not right or affective and we all know time OUT does not work. I always had better results in having my children looking up random words in a dictionary or better yet a Thesaurus. Susch relating to the issues at hand.
Not only do they hate it but they are learning something with out the belt as I use to have to endure . When bonding was needed for a minor infraction drawing became an important part of our lives.
One large piece of paper, pencils colored (depending on age) I would start with a line or squiggly. once the pencil left the paper you done and the next person begins. No more than a few seconds per person depending on your conversation. Its amazing what comes out on paper. You do not have to be a good artist, abstract makes it a one of a kind, very personal and promotes trust and conversation....
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8-13-2010 @ 12:35AM
lasommerstar said...www.genesistoday.com
...it's what's in it that works! Kids love it!
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10-14-2010 @ 11:11PM
laurinlou said...I'd be lieing if I said that I'm not allitle more than ok with the fact that some medications may make my infant drowsy and maybe sleep better as a side affect when I give her something to deal with an issue she's having (like a bad cough, you know, a medical issue..), but the point of the article is that, yes, it's child abuse when a parent gives their child medicine regularly just to keep them quiet and make them sleep or to 'shut them up'..but this isn't anything new, an aunt of my hubby's talked about how she gave her sons 'just a dollop' of rum in their bottles to make them sleep when they were infants..yes, her sons have issues now..
This article isn't saying that it's abuse to give a child medicine, it's saying that it's abuse to use the medicine for reasons that it's not intended..
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