Strollerderby : drugs

Federal Agent* Seizes Oat-Based Contraband

Madeline Holler — Thu, 14 May 2009 23:02:00 GMT

By now you know that the Food and Drug Administration has deemed Cheerios, that favorite O-shaped toddler snackfood, a drug. Big time!

General Mills' claim that the pincher-grasp fortifying num-nums also lower cholesterol "4 percent" puts it in the drug category. The company must, therefore, submit to testing and apply for approval before it can be sold.

So what of that box sitting on top of the fridge? As this family learned, look out for federal agents.

Cheerios. Total gateway to the hard stuff -- Cocoa Pebbles, Cookie Crisp, trail mix with chocolate chips.

* Or not.

Should You Take Your Bump on a Date?

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A Really Graphic Homebirth

Suspected Child Killer May Have Kidnapped Before

Kate Tuttle — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:31:00 GMT

The story of Melissa Huckaby, the 28-year-old Sunday school teacher charged with raping and murdering 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, just gets more and more upsetting. CNN reported this week that Huckaby was connected to another possible abduction of a child in the trailer park where she and Cantu live. In the earlier case, which took place in January, a 7-year-old girl was missing for four hours; she was found with Huckaby, who claimed she had permission to care for the child, an assertion the girl's family denies.

When the girl was returnd to her family, they say they saw evidence that she had been drugged. According to the girl's older sister, "Her speech was slurred. She could barely walk. She could barely stand." Because the police could not prove Huckaby had drugged the girl (though the girl remembered that Huckaby had given her water that "tasted funny"), no charges were filed. A local newspaper reports that Lora Polk, the girl's mother, was briefly accused of drugging her daughter after a hospital visit revealed muscle relaxants in her system; the child spent the night in the care of Child Protective Services. After she returned home, the family cut ties with Huckaby but no further alarms were raised, and nobody followed up. When Cantu went missing in late March, Polk said she immediately suspected what had happened.

News reports say that Huckaby claims Cantu's death was "an accident." It seems clear that although the death may have been accidental, the initial crime wasn't. Abducting and drugging little girls so that she could molest them sexually seems to have been Huckaby's sick and evil hobby. Perhaps if the family whose child escaped death in January had been able to make themselves heard -- if the mother had not been hampered by her own sketchy history (she had lost a child to CPS earlier), or if the stigma of trailer part rough living hadn't hung over the families involved -- she could have been stopped earlier.

Photo: Paul Sakuma / AP

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‘Therapeutic’ Boarding School Relies on Humiliating Role Playing Exercises

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Due to a lawsuit that has made its way to the Supreme Court, an Oregon boarding school has come under public scrutiny for practices that, in my opinion, quite clearly constitute child abuse. And yet, parents continue to send their “problem” teens to Mount Bachelor, supporting a multimillion-dollar therapeutic boarding school industry. Some parents have spoken out about the school’s controversial treatments, but many claim to be satisfied with the Mount Bachelor education.

According to former students and teachers interviewed by TIME, the foundation of the therapeutic method employed at Mount Bachelor is humiliation. “For instance, in required seminars that the school calls Lifesteps, students say staff members of the residential program have instructed girls, some of whom say they have been victims of rape or sexual abuse, to dress in provocative clothing — fishnet stockings, high heels and miniskirts — and perform lap dances for male students as therapy.”

Other students described how they were forced to repeatedly relive painful childhood experiences. “In a Lifesteps seminar called Forever Young, students were placed on a mattress and taunted with painful information about their childhood that they had previously revealed, an apparent attempt to trigger regression to infancy.” One girl, who was taunted with memories of her younger sister’s death, vomited on the mattress.

After hearing dozens of tales of abuse and humiliation from students, a part-time driver for the school turned to the authorities last month, prompting the state to investigate the school. But the school has been investigated for similar grievances in the past, with no results.

The school’s director has refuted claims that her students are “sexualized” in any way. However, she does freely admit to relying on controversial role playing exercises, saying, "We also use a psychodrama-treatment approach designed to do one or both of two things: get a student to embrace qualities of their character (such as beauty or courage) about which they have doubt or assist them in recognizing qualities that are unproductive (such as selfishness or conceit) about which they have little insight."

Tragically, Mount Bachelor is no pariah when it comes to “therapeutic” methods in boarding schools. According to the executive director of the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth, "The process of breaking kids down is very much integrated into the therapeutic milieu."

Therapeutic boarding schools are not tracked or monitored by any official body—which means it’s entirely up to parents to decide whether their kids should be sent away or not. When faced with a teenage who has repeatedly used drugs, been suspended from school, or threatened suicide, some parents may simply trust that the “experts” know best.

But, while some psychologists who are either misguided or misinformed do recommend schools like Mount Bachelor for troubled kids, numerous health care professionals have spoken out against the methods of treatment used at Mount Bachelor, claiming that the “therapy” used at Mount Bachelor causes more harm than good. “Such programs, they say, are overly restrictive and unproven, and virtually all their students — who typically have depression, substance use, behavioral problems or ADHD — can be safely treated within the community.” Mental health experts also point out that separating children from their parents is not healthy except in cases of domestic abuse.

The lawsuit that has put Mount Bachelor in the limelight centers on whether or not states should pay for disabled children’s private education. The only thing worse than parents paying to send their kids to Mount Bachelor would be for taxpayers to foot the hefty bill. As Naomi Gittins, deputy general counsel for the National School Boards Association, put it, “A lot of private schools for which parents want reimbursement don't have to meet state standards. How does that really serve the interest of children?"

Photo: TIME

They Say: Bipolar Children Are an “American Phenomenon”

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:56:00 GMT

In a fiery interview with Northwestern professor Christopher Lane, journalist Phillip Dawdy explains his belief that parents need to stop trusting that the doctor knows best when it comes to mental health diagnoses of young children. I offer his arguments here for discussion’s sake, with the caveat that neither I nor Dawdy are pediatric psychiatrists—but he at least has spent many years researching the field.

In 2005, at least 2.2 million American children were being treated for mental health disorders, a number that has skyrocketed in the last decade and a half. And in 2007, 23 babies less than one-year-old were prescribed antipsychotics. “The drugs are known to cause huge problems in adults, so why the heck would a doctor give them to little kids, especially infants?” Dawdy asks. Remember the tragedy of four-year-old Rebecca Riley, who died of an overdose of antipsychotic drugs after she was diagnosed bipolar at the age of two?

Dawdy argues that there is no solid research to support early intervention for kids at risk of psychosis: “[T]he PRIME study at Yale—which sought to identify kids at risk of psychosis and then gave them Zyprexa to prevent psychosis from ever arising—was an epic failure and certainly raised questions about the ethics of giving kids dangerous drugs for disorders that they, at least in some of the cases, didn't even have.”

Zyprexa is a drug used to treat bipolar disorder. Dawdy blames pharmaceutical companies pushing the drug for the marked increase in diagnoses of what’s known as bipolar II disorder. Unlike true manic depression, which involves episodes of extreme mania, anyone who experiences depression with “bursts of energy” can now be diagnosed with bipolar II (and prescribed Zyprexa). That sounds to Dawdy (and to me, someone who has struggled with depression) a lot more like simple depression than manic depression, a serious diagnosis that can lead to social ostracizing and inability to find a job.

Much of Dawdy’s distrust of the increased medication of children and teens is rooted in cross-cultural comparison. “In France and Italy, ADHD is rarely diagnosed and it's difficult to see where French and Italian culture have suffered as a result. As for bipolar disorder in kids (meaning pre-teens and younger), it's simply not an issue in the rest of the world. The bipolar child is a purely American phenomenon.”

Do you have any experience with children who have benefited or suffered from early mental health treatment?

Image: patriciaebauer.com

4 Year Old Brings Pot To School, School Bans Backpacks

Brett Singer — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:30:00 GMT

When I was young and went to summer camp, people were always amazed when I said I was from the Bronx. I remember one kid actually took two steps back when I told him. Because people from the Bronx, you know, they were scary.

Clearly those guys didn't know what they were talking about. The really dangerous kids are from Florida. The 4 year olds.

Check this out:

A 4-year-old at a Tamarac preschool caused a furor when police say he pulled a plastic bag of pot from his book bag and casually told a classmate, "That's my brother's weed."

Can you imagine? What do you say to that? How does a 4 year old even know what "weed" is? His older brother, who is 21, must have told him when he hid his baggies in junior's bookbag.

The pot, by the way, is "scheduled to be destroyed." Wouldn't want to rush into anything, guys.

Here's the funny part. The school, in a reaction that I like to call "I have a headache THEREFORE I have a brain tumor", has banned bookbags. All of them. Because clearly, the backpacks are the problem. (Dora the Explorer had no comment.)

Source: Sun Sentinel and TRB.com via DetentionSlip and ParentDish

Image: Amazon

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Grieving a Lost Pregnancy? Sorry, We'd Like a Drug Test

Miriam Axel-Lute — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:00:00 GMT

The fight over when women lose all rights when they become pregnant continues. A bill under consideration in Tennessee would mandate drug and alcohol testing for pregnant women under several conditions:

(1) No prenatal care;
(2) Late prenatal care after twenty-four (24) weeks gestation;
(3) Incomplete prenatal care;
(4) Abruptio placentae;
(5) Intrauterine fetal death;
(6) Preterm labor of no obvious cause;
(7) Intrauterine growth retardation of no obvious cause;
(8) Previously known alcohol or drug abuse; or
(9) Unexplained congenital anomalies.

Refusal of "treatment" results in referral to child protective services. Now, there are all the usual (good) arguments to made in response against mandating drug testing and rehab for pregnant women, such as: it deters them from seeking health care in the first place; it interferes with a doctor's judgment; treatment is impossible in a state where there are aren't enough beds available and nearly all the facilities don't take pregnant women or allow women to bring their children along (see Salon for details).

But as Rachel from Women's Health News points out eloquently, the list of triggers for the testing here adds a whole extra layer of ick: Preterm labor? Intrauterine death? We don't know what causes these things most of the time—are we now going to by default blame them all on the mother's behavior? Should a woman grieving a lost pregnancy not be able to drink for while for comfort without fear of being sent to rehab or losing her other kids?

And how about "incomplete prenatal care"? So now it is not up to us to choose whether we want ultrasounds or invasive tests that tell us nothing or carry a risk of miscarriage themselves?

If you care about the effects of drug and alcohol abuse on kids, for god's sake spend your energy making the treatment system actually work.

Photo by michab37.

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Mom Accused of Feeding Meth-Tainted Breastmilk to Daughter

Cole Gamble — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:00:00 GMT

According to her family and friends, Michelle Megan Hastings deserves credit because she hasn’t used meth for several months. Except, of course, that one day when she breast fed her child.

Hastings was arrested and charged with criminal mistreatment after police say her daughter tested positive for methamphetamine. She faces 17 months in jail if convicted.

“She has been doing wonderful," said neighbor Lisa Lyche. "For months and months she has been going to treatment programs daily, like several times and different treatment programs every day."

Unfortunately, that effort wasn’t enough to protect Hastings’s daughter.

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5 Second-Grade Boys Found with Heroin

Cole Gamble — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Ah, kids. They grow so fast.

Wait, how the heck did a bunch of second graders score heroin?

For now, the Philadelphia Police don’t know and the kids have one hell of an excuse: they said they thought it was candy. A school district spokesman said none of the kids ingested the heroin and a school nurse confirmed the boys were in good health.

So remember, moms and dads, look up your heroin! Stash it wherever you keep your guns, fireworks, Nazi memorabilia and smuggled panda bears.

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They Say: Kids Need To Be Taught to Handle School Stress

JeanneSager — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:04:00 GMT

Could teens who turn to drugs and alcohol just be plain old stressed?

A new study out of Britain states thirty-six percent of kids who were stressed about exams, peer relationships and the volume of homework turned to drinking to drown their sorrows. Another sixteen percent smoked cigarettes, while six percent used drugs to make the stress go up in a puff of smoke.

The study, presented at the British Psychological Society's Division of Educational and Child Psychology annual conference, focuses on stress; but I wonder how much time they spent examining these kids' home lives. Because school is stressful; and not just because of the pressure of impending college applications but because it's the time when hormones are starting to drive every child a little bit loony!

But handling school stress and turning to drugs are two different things. Where are these kids' parents? I know that's often the response when anyone talks about kids on drugs or using alcohol . . . but that makes it no less of an obvious. I run the risk of sounding like an old fogey here, but in my day, when we started drinking, we did it as much because we could get away with it as we did for any sound psychological reasons. Who answered, "Hey, want a Zima and some Skittles?" with "yeah, my teachers are really riding me?"

In college, maybe. But in high school, we didn't sit around moaning about the SATs when we were drinking. So are kids actually more stressed? Or are they suffering a lack of parental intervention in their lives . . . which could translate into stress and give them the free time to indulge in vices that more-involved parents are able to weed out?

Image: NPR

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Dennis Quaid and Family Receive Settlement from Hospital

SunnyChanel — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:29:00 GMT

Dennis Quaid and his wife had quite a scare a little over a year ago. After their twins were born they were given a dangerous overdose of Heparin, the blood thinner that was administered to the newborns. Lucky, the twins recovered undamaged. Needless to say, the Quaids sued. They went after the maker of the Heparin blaming bottles that were poorly labeled. Although they sued the pharmaceutical company, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the hospital where the babies were born took responsibility. Yesterday, the Quaids reached a settlement with the hospital at the tune of $750,000. The hospital isn’t actually admitting wrongdoing and the Quaids can still “pursue claims for the children”.

Sadly, there are a scary amount of hospital errors in dealing with newborns and infants. One issue is the difference in quantities to give and adult vs. babies, others are just plain old mistakes, human error striking again. Most families don’t have the resources to follow up with a lawsuit in cases like this. The Quaids were lucky enough to demand some consequences, something that needed to be addressed since there were several patients there who were also given an overdose.

Do you think that the hospital settled the case due to its’ high profile nature?

Via AP - photo via Celebrity Baby Blog

Kids and Music: Where's Your Line?

Kelly Mills — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:20:00 GMT

I must have mentioned my very "Footloose" upbringing before: We weren't allowed to listen to the radio because our parents were worried about our exposure to sinnin' lyrics. The result was that my sister and I were glued to the radio whenever we went to a friend's house. And because of this, I probably err in the opposite direction, letting my kid listen to just about anything with an abandon I don't have when it comes to movies and television.

But even I paused when my seven-year-old child (incorrectly) sang some Fergalicious the other day. "I am easy, I am sleazy..." "It's 'ain't' easy!" I lamely cried.

One of my favorite activities with my kid is to put on music and have a dance party in our living room. But now that I'm enamored with this song (don't ask me why) I start to think, "Maybe I don't want her co-listening to this one." And I've been hesitant to introduce other artists I love because, well, I don't really want her to learn the n-word right now.

Look, I could care less about straight profanity in songs, and I seriously doubt she gets most of the sexy stuff or the drug references. At least I didn't when I was her age, and I'd rather have her discuss it with me than absorb this stuff at a friend's house. But you know, even though I'm clearly free and easy (but I ain't sleazy) I do have some limits.

Where do you draw the line? How do you---or do you---censor popular songs, and at what age do you loosen up?

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Renting Drug Dogs to Search Your Kid's Room: Over the Top or Not?

JeanneSager — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:44:00 GMT

Think your kid's smokin' the reefer? Excuse the trip back in time, but the company renting out drug dogs so parents can take them tromping through their teens' bedrooms seems, well, like Joe McCarthy's back and teaching parenting classes.

Sniff Dogs has offices in Ohio and New Jersey and five Labrador retrievers who they say can catch a whiff of a doobie from as far as 15 feet away. The dogs are in and out of the room in five minutes, and the process only happens when a parent is at home. They're even trained to stop and sit at the spot where the scent is strongest, so parents can have the ultimate decision as to whether they want to search the spot or just bring the kids in, have the chat and see if the kids will own up themselves.

None of us want to see our kids on drugs, but isn't this a little . . . I don't know . . . Gestapo-esque? Whatever happened to confronting your kids on your own authority instead of the know-how of a dog's nose? Or making them systematically take their room apart while you watch and direct?

If you're afraid of alienating your kid with an old-fashioned parent-to-kid confrontation, calling in the canines will certainly leave them howling.

Image: Sky News

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Woman leaves toddler in car while she goes to a bar

Brett Singer — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Although that sentence sounds like it's from some demonic Dr. Seuss rhyme, the story isn't particularly amusing.

Authorities say a Largo woman left a 2-year-old boy locked inside a car while she went into a bar.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office reports that customers at the St. Petersburg bar saw the child sleeping in the back seat of a white sedan with the windows rolled up and doors locked early Sunday morning. Security workers at the bar called the sheriff's office.

This next part would be funny if it didn't involve a little kid. When asked by the authorities how long she had been inside the Club 54 bar in St. Petersburg, "She told them she had only been there for about 20 minutes, but other customers claimed the woman had been there for at least an hour." I have to wonder if she somehow thinks that it would be OK to leave the kid locked in the car while she had a drink if it was only for 20 minutes. Does it make her a better or worse person that she didn't come up with a good lie, like, "I just had to use the ladies' room" or something? I guess it doesn't matter. By the way, this happened at 1:00am, in case you were wondering. Also, none of the news reports I read say that this was her son.

The woman, 29-year-old Caroline Kreitz, has been released from jail and the boy was taken by Child Protective Services.

Source: mysuncoast.com

image: metromix

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Whit Honea — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

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Teenagers allegedly gave pot and beer to a six year old

Brett Singer — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:30:00 GMT

From the "WTF" files (actually, 1010 WINS news radio) comes this story:

Three teenagers are accused of giving marijuana and beer to a 6-year-old and videotaping the intoxicated youngster for their amusement in Vernon. The two 17-year-olds and a 16-year-old are charged with child endangerment. They will also likely face drug offenses, police said.

The teenagers were sitting around drinking and toking up and figured it would be funny to give the pipe to someone's little brother. Then they fed the little guy beer through a funnel. I'm saying "allegedly" because that's what you do in these stories, but according to 1010 WINS, one of the parents discovered four videos on one of the teens' cell phone that shows the whole incident.

While the "6-year-old is being screened for psychological and substance abuse problems," I think the three teenagers should be screened for the former as well. This certainly sounds like evidence of psychological problems to me.

Source: 1010 WINS
Image (not from this story, just seemed appropriate): drinkingstuff.com

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Bipolar Disorder: A Family Secret

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:55:00 GMT

What would you do if your 10-year-old daughter said to you, “I can’t take it anymore. I don’t want to be me. I don’t want to feel anymore. Why aren’t you doing anything about this?” Or if your normally loving son threatened to slit you open with a knife? Naturally, you would want to do anything in your power to make your children better, but what if that meant giving your six-year-old lithium? Or sending your 10-year-old away to a therapeutic residential school?

In deference to the many parents who face these challenges day after day, I highly recommend Jennifer Egan’s piece on bipolar disorder in children. She traces several families’ struggles to cope with children who rage against the world from the time that they can talk, and offers a comprehensive portrait of the uncertainties surrounding bipolar diagnoses in kids.

Until relatively recently, it was believed that bipolar disorder only affected adults. Now nearly all leading child psychiatry experts agree that children can suffer from the disease—but they mostly all disagree about how to diagnose childhood bipolar disorder. Most experts believe that it is over-diagnosed, in part because managed care usually only pays for one brief psychiatric evaluation a year and because of the highly questionable yet widely popular book The Bipolar Child.

Diagnosing mental health problems in children is further complicated by the fact that many of the symptoms of bipolar disorder overlap with the symptoms of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). And mania is not as clear-cut in children as in it adults--it's often normal for children to act grandiose or have terrible temper tantrums.

James, one of the kids Egan writes about, was diagnosed with ADHD, OHD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder), and bipolar disorder by the time he was eight. With so much uncertainty about the disease, even parents whose children have seemingly clear-cut episodes of mania—stealing strangers’ cell phones or wearing outlandish clothing—followed by clear episodes of depression remain uncertain about their children’s treatment.

Once a child is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he and she is prescribed strong medication with harsh side effects. Making the decision to give such drugs to kids is a huge weight of responsibility on a parent’s shoulder—and this decision requires trusting a doctor whose personal biases will inevitably influence her diagnosis and prescribed treatment.

At the very least, I hope that Egan's article will bring greater awareness to this issue. As one of the mothers interviewed said of her son's horrible temper tantrums, "It's like a dirty little secret. It's like having a husband who beats you, only it's a kid. It's your own."

Image: New York Times

Girl being kept alive by Viagra

Brett Singer — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:00:00 GMT

I can see the ads now. "Viagra – it's not just for boners anymore."

Case in point: Natalie Archibald, a 7 year old girl from Scotland, "collapsed after opening her presents on Christmas Day two years ago." At first doctors thought she was just "over-excited," but it turns out she suffers from a condition called primary pulmonary hypertension.

After two years of treatment that yielded no results, doctors gave her Viagra.

"[Her mother] Mrs Archibald…gave up her job as a legal secretary to look after Natalie after she began collapsing or turning blue on a regular basis following the first incident in 2006… She said: 'It was so frustrating because I knew there was something wrong with my wee girl but no-one could find out what it was… It got to the stage where we had almost given up trying to find out, until a doctor new to us went back into her records and carried out some more tests and diagnosed her….Within two weeks we were down to Great Ormond Street and the drugs had started, but it was a long fight to get there."

Natalie's disease could still prove fatal, but for now, "the Viagra works by opening the arteries and improving the blood flow." That's the same thing that the "little blue pill" does for impotent men, but this usage seems much more noble.

image/source: telegraph.co.uk

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Is it fair to take pictures of Britney's kids?

Brett Singer — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:53:00 GMT

You may have heard about the photographs of Britney Spears smoking while 2-year-old Sean Preston was playing with her cigarette lighter. Well, the actual photo doesn't quite show that. Here it is:

Now, far be it from me to disagree with the celebrity media machine, but this doesn't look as bad as it sounds. In this pic she looks to be taking the cigarettes away from her child. That would be the right thing to do. The better thing to do would be to not smoke at all, and especially not in front of your kids. Second-hand smoke is very dangerous, especially to little lungs. It also makes me wonder if she was smoking while pregnant, which would be much worse. My guess – and I have nothing to back this up – is that she probably was. As a former smoker, I know how hard it is to quit, and it looks to me like the Britster is quite the nicotine addict.

Here's the part that gets me: the photos were taken at her house. Why? Presumably a photog with a mega-ultra-zoom lens – a "Pavarotti", as El Federline famously referred to them on his ill-fated rap album – was suspended from a helicopter or something and took the shot through her window or on her balcony.

She's a celebrity, and over 18 (although emotionally she might be, like, 12, but let's not go there). But her kids aren't. Not to sound like a celebrity defending dipstick ("LEAVE...BRITNEY...ALONE!"), but maybe there should be a law that prevents the kids from being photographed, at least when they're at home. As someone points out over at MomLogic, they didn't ask to be in this bizarre situation.

There are celebrities whose children you almost never see candid pictures of – Madonna, Howard Stern, Christie Brinkley, and I'm sure there are dozens more that I can't think of at the moment. Of course, those people aren't the unbelievable mess that Brit appears to be. At best, this photo shows poor judgment on her part, not only the smoking but also hanging out with her kid in front of an open window where a sleazoid photographer can get a clear shot. Um, curtains? A really high hedge? Move someplace else?

Of course, if nobody wanted to see the pictures, they wouldn't be worth anything, and photographers wouldn't take them. But that's a different topic.

Here are the rest of the photos. Hey, at least she looks pretty good in her bikini.

images: popsugar.com

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The Family Who Pops Pills Together, Stays Together

Adrienne Martini — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics released new recommendations that set off a storm of virtual outrage all over the blogosphere. Did the AAP hit on a hot topic like breastfeeding an 8-year old or co-sleeping with a newborn? No. The topic at hand involved a pharmaceutical that many take every day.

The AAP recommended giving cholesterol-lowering drugs to kids over the age of 8 who fall into certain risk profiles.

The big question on many folks' minds involves the close relationship between doctors and drug companies. While that it is a pungent rind on which to chew, the greater issue seems to be the lack of proof that these drugs function in the same way in kids that they do in adults and whether or not their ingestion will have the desired effect. Does a kid with lower cholesterol have a decreased risk of developing heart disease? We simply don't know.

For a round-up of all of arguments, look here. And for one pediatrician's take, look here.

Illo: Kim Scafuro

They Say: Worrying About Worry Is Bad

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:00:00 GMT

I'm not much of a worrier, mostly because I can't hold on to any piece of information long enough to worry about it. But one writer has tried to find hard evidence that proves that worry is harmful to your health. Did she find it?

Nope. But what she did find is commenters who have all sorts of suggestions about how she can worry less. Some are real doozies.

So what works for you, 'derbiers? Do you worry? How do you stop the worry train once it leaves the station? Yoga? Drugs? Naps?

For me, the cure was a second kid, since I now have no time to stew about much of anything. Your mileage, however, may vary.

Other uses for diapers: Heroin Hiding!

Brett Singer — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:50:00 GMT

Ah, diapers. So useful for so many things. You know, like... well, okay, diapers are really just for keeping the stuff that bounces out of your babies' bodies away from their clothes.

But Frank Keys Jr. is not bound by convention! According to this Associated Press story, Frank was pulled over by state police in New Orleans. After searching the car, drug sniffing dogs discovered something was going on in his pants.

Here's a couple of quotes:

During the pat-down, "officers felt a large hard object in the pants area on Keys," according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office.

Out of context, that could be taken the wrong way. Methinks somebody was chuckling when they wrote that press release.

Then there's this:

Keys told officers he was wearing a diaper and when they asked if there was anything in the diaper, he "shook his head affirmatively."

Tell me you haven't had that exact conversation with your toddler.

Of course, there's a key (no pun intended) difference between what's in your kids' diaper and what was in Frank's. The man had "257 grams of heroin" hidden in there. According to this site, one gram goes for approximately $300, or more if it is broken up into milligrams. That means there was at least $80,000 worth of dope in this dope's diaper. Good thing he wasn't wearing one of these.

image: ebaumsworld (note: this image is not a picture of the man with heroin in his diaper)

Drug Your Kids

Adrienne Martini — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Rare is the parent who hasn't slapped a band-aid on a nonexistent boo-boo so that the crying would stop. But how far will you go to appease a kid with a minor -- or nonexistent -- complaint?

Jennifer Buettner is betting that some parents will go so far as to buy her new product, called Obecalp. It's a chewable, cherry-flavored dextrose tablet that you can safely give to your child when he or she is feeling poorly. Heck, you can give them two dozen of them with no ill effects. Obecalp (read it backwards) is little more than a sugar pill.

Which raises some interesting questions. Is it OK to convince kids that every minor complaint can be fixed with a drug? Or is it a harmless way to soothe a child's psyche? What do you think?

Image credit: iStockphoto

Alas poor Yorick...dude, I am totally baked

Brett Singer — Mon, 19 May 2008 21:00:00 GMT

I know it's hard to find a head shop in some towns, but this is taking things a little too far.

Three teenagers in the Kingwood community of Houston, Texas have been charged with "misdemeanor abuse of a corpse," a phrase that makes me wonder just what more serious abuse of a corpse would be. (Actually, forget I said that, I don't want to know.) What they did was dig up a body and turn the skull into a bong. Yes, gentle reader. To smoke the merry-jee-wanna.

Even better -- one of the sacreligious stoners actually offered this information, unasked, to police while they interviewed him regarding a stolen debit card. Asked why [the teen] would volunteer such a story, [police officer] Sgt. John Chomiak said, "We can only speculate and guess to what goes on in the criminal mind." Somehow I think he said something slightly more unprintable.

The police had to notify the next of kin to tell them that not only was the grave dug up, the skull was used to smoke pot. "So how was your day at work, dear?" "Oh, the usual. A couple of robberies, a drunk. Oh yeah, and a skull bong. Had to call the family. What's for dinner?"

At the end of the news item is this little tidbit: all three doped-up gravediggers are homeschooled. I always knew those homeschoolers were trouble.

Stories like this remind me of my teenage years growing up in New York. Not that we dug up graves. In fact, for all the crazy stuff we did (sorry, mom) we never did anything remotely this insane.

image: Amazon.com

They Say: Never Give Drugs to Your Kids

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:30:00 GMT

I like a good list as much as the next parent. Give me a couple of bullet points and I'm yours forever. However, I'm thinking this recent Parentcenter list might have missed the point.

I know that their motives were pure when collecting the Seven Medicines You Shouldn't Give Your Child. Every sane parent wants to avoid harming their offspring with meds. And, in case you haven't been paying attention, it's good to know that aspirin is still bad, as are adult meds, cough and cold meds, and expired meds. A little obvious, maybe, but still good to reinforce.

Here's the rub, however. Everything that I could think of giving to my child that hasn't been prescribed by a doctor, appears to be on this list. The sole exception might be acetaminophen. So what drugs *should* I give my child if he or she has some minor medical incident? Are my only options either a) wait it out or b) rush to the pediatrician no matter what?

Photo credit: www.pharmaceutical-technology.com