Protecting Children

The Daycare
The Nanny

["Protecting Children" is excerpted from a much longer article by Dr. Auburn.   This accounts for the seemingly abrupt beginning and ending.   CB]

Remember, psychiatrists do not do tests; they listen to the history of the person and usually prescribe drugs.   Their diagnostic methods are not science, but opinion.   If a child is labeled as "hyperactive" or as having any "learning disorder," have him or her tested for allergies, toxins or other medical problems.   Insist on proven tutoring and educational solutions to learning and classroom problems, not psychiatric drugs.

The following list shows a few of the things that can look like symptoms of "ADHD" but which are actually either allergic reactions or the result of a lack of vitamins (nutrition) in the body:

• High levels of lead from the environment can place children at risk of both school failure and delinquent (bad) behavior.
• High mercury (chemical) levels in the body may cause agitation; mercury amalgam dental fillings can affect a small but significant number of people, causing mercury sensitivity leading to headaches, restless behavior and irritability.
• Pesticides (like those used to kill insects such as fly spray or ant-killer) can create nervousness, poor concentration, irritability, memory problems and depression.
• Iron-deficiency anemia can lead to despondency, fatigue and often aggression and irritability.
• Too much sugar can make a person "too active" or "hyper."   Our modern-day fast food, which can lack nutritional value, can also make people feel terrible.
• Temporal lobe seizures, sometimes almost continuous and often too subtle to be detected by the eye, can cause violent outbursts, restless movements and bizarre behavior.
• Hyperthyroidism can manifest the symptoms of "hyperactivity."

Psychiatrist Sydney Walker's book, The Hyperactivity Hoax, records a variety of reasons for hyperactive behavior: "Children with early-stage brain tumors can develop sympoms of hyperactivity or poor attention.   So can lead- or pesticide-poisoned children.   So can children with early-onset diabetes, heart disease, worms, viral or bacterial infections, malnutrition, head injuries, genetic disorders, allergies, mercury or manganese exposure, petit mal seizures, and hundreds, yes hundreds, of other minor, major, or even life-threatening medical problems.   Yet all these children are labeled hyperactive or ADD."

A 1995 Journal of Pediatrics study showed that sucrose may cause a 10-times increase in adrenaline in children resulting in "difficulty concentrating, irritability, and anxiety."

Professor Stephen J. Schoenthaler, Ph.D., a California State University criminologist, conducted a study at 12 juvenile correctional institutions and 803 public schools, in which the researchers increased fruits and vegetables and whole grains and decreased fats and sugars in children's diets.   The juvenile institutions exhibited 47% less "antisocial behavior" in 8,076 confined juvenile delinquents.   In the schools, the academic performance of 1.1 million children rose 16% and learning disabilities fell 40%.

Thousands of children put on psychiatric drugs are simply "smart."   "They're hyper not because their brains don't work right, but because they spend most of the day waiting for slower students to catch up with them.   These students are bored to tears, and people who are bored fidget, wiggle, scratch, stretch, and (especially if they are boys) start looking for ways to get into trouble," says Dr. Walker.   A child should also be tested to see if he or she is not being sufficiently challenged academically in school.   Consider the following comparison between behaviors associated with giftedness and those said to be symptoms of "ADHD."

• Poor attention, boredom, daydreaming in specific situations
• Low tolerance for persistence on tasks that seem irrelevant
• Judgment lags behind development of intellect
• Intensity may lead to power struggles with authorities
• High activity level; may need less sleep
• Questions rules, customs and traditions

• Poorly sustained attention in almost all situations
• Diminished persistence on tasks not having immediate consequences
• Impulsivity, poor delay of gratification
• Impaired adherence to commands to regulate or inhibit behavior in social contexts
• More active, restless than normal children
• Difficulty adhering to rules and regulations

Perhaps there are disciplinary issues with a child that need to be addressed:

"The medicalization of normal boyish behavior stems, in part, from changes in schools' disciplinary procedures," Dr. Walker wrote.   Nowadays, "even verbal discipline is frowned upon if it lowers a child's 'self-esteem.'   Some schools have actually been sued for attempting to discipline students who misbehave.   The new philosophy, therefore, seems to be, 'If you can't beat 'em, treat 'em.'   Teachers often see a disability label as the only effective means of getting help in dealing with students who are out of control but can't be disciplined in any effective manner," he added.

Dr. Fred A. Baughman, Jr., a pediatric neurologist and Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, says that parents, teachers and children have been horribly betrayed when a child's behavior is labeled as a disease: They "believe they have something wrong with their brains that makes it impossible for them to control themselves without using a pill."   This is reinforced by "having the most important adults in their lives, their parents and teachers, believe this as well."

Dr. Walker concurred: "One of the greatest sins of doctors who label normal children hyperactive is that they are telling children, in effect, 'You're not responsible for your behavior.'   In addition, they are telling parents that simple discipline won't work, because their children have brain disorders that prevent them from behaving.   Excusing out-of-control behaviors in a normal, healthy child simply causes more such behaviors, and the range of behaviors that are being attributed to hyperactivity and attention deficits, and which can thus be excused by children as out of their control, borders on the ludicrous."

Ensure that a child understands his or her educational basics including phonics.   If not, tutoring may be needed.

• The First Barrier to Study
  • The first barrier to study is not having the real thing there that you are studying about.   Studying about something without having the actual thing you are studying about can give you trouble; it can make you feel squashed, bent, sort of spinny, sort of lifeless, bored or angry.   You can wind up with your stomach feeling funny.   You may get headaches, feel dizzy from time to time and very often your eyes will hurt.   The way to stop this from happening is to get the real thing that you are studying about.   When this is not possible, a picture or a movie will help.
• The Second Barrier to Study
  • The second barrier to study involves the skipped gradient.   A gradient is a way of learning or doing something step by step.   If you hit a step that seems too hard to do or you feel you can't understand it, you have skipped a gradient.   "Skipped" means left out or missed.   If you have skipped a gradient, you may feel a sort of confusion or reeling.   "Reeling" means moving or swaying like you might fall.   There was too much of a jump because you did not understand what you were doing, and you jumped to the next thing and that step was too steep.   The trouble is not with the new step; it is at the end of the step you thought you understood well.   To correct this, find out what you thought you understood well just before you got all confused.   Get this step understood well, and you will be able to do the next step.
• The Third Barrier to Study
  • The third and most important barrier to study is the misunderstood word.   A misunderstood word is a word which is not understood, or a word which is wrongly understood.   Going past a word that you do not understand can make you feel blank, tired, or like you are not there.   You might also feel worried or upset.   The only reason you would stop studying or get confused or not be able to learn is because you passed a word you did not understand.   It can stop you from doing the things you are studying about.   It can make you want to stop studying.   The way to handle this barrier is to look earlier in what you were reading for a misunderstood word.   The misunderstood word is the most important of the barriers to study because it is the one that can stop you from learning anything at all.