Toddlers On Adderall

The New York Times reports a troubling trend: 

More than 10,000 American toddlers 2 or 3 years old are being medicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outside established pediatric guidelines, according to data presented on Friday by an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Seems the trend to medicate normal child behavior away has reached very small children. As with teenagers and adults, I’m sure some younger kids might have a severe form of ADHD that medication can help with, but in many other cases normal but unruly and inconvenient behavior gets chemicaly subdued. It’s really terrifying, especially because both diagnosis and use of this powerful medication isn’t tested or accepted for kids younger than 3. I can only agree with Anita Zervigon-Hakes, a children’s mental health consultant: “We obviously don’t have our act together for little children.”