Medicating Young Minds

This week I wanted to write my reflection blog on ‘Medicating Young Minds.”  Although, I do not have children, I do believe that when it comes to medication, it is just as important no matter what the age. With working in the medical field, it is very important to see if there are changes with any of my elderly patients from one day to the other.

Everyone knows that one medication may be work great for one person, and may give another person different side effects, or may contradict a different medication that ones taking. In the article it seems the Author doesn’t agree with the system of prescribing medications to children, and to a point, I also agree with the author.  I personally believe that doctors often time prescribe medication to a person far too often without doing the proper research or getting in depth of whats really going on, especially when it comes to children. Now days (not sure how it was before) doctors seem to jump the gun about prescribing the medication, and then quickly moving on to the next patient. Yes, I do believe that if NEEDED the child should be prescribed medication, but if there is a different alternative that can be taken, such as therapy, it should be done first.

Another thing that caught my eye, was that are we sure that what we are putting in our bodies are good for us?  In the article, it states that the FDA only requires 6-8 weeks of testing a drug, to see whether it is a good drug to take or not.  6-8 weeks?!? That’s not very long! How do they know that the data would be correct for an extended period of time? 

So in the end, I dont think that any parent should leave a prescription option solely up to the doctor. What the doctor thinks he knows, or what he might prescribe to one child, may not always be right for your own child. Each parent and/or person should really do research before taking a medication or giving a medication. 

Week 3

This past week, I have had my nephew staying with me at the house. With him living in Eastern Washington I hardly get to see him, in which he hardly knows me. Which is sad to me. He is 4 years old, and is the SHYEST child i think i have ever met! My roommate has a 4 year old daughter, and is very outgoing. She will go up to a random stranger and start a conversation with them (if we let her). My nephew on the other hand, took an hour or so to even say one word to me, and even then he wasn't talking to me, he was singing, thinking no one was paying attention. I was just in shock, and have been, with how shy he is around people, let alone his own family. I took him to play at the Jump Zone one day, and there was NO way he would interact with any other kids there. He would go play, come back to me and ask "Did you see that? Wasn't it awesome?!" It has definitely been different having a young boy in the house, and seeing how he does things, when I have been so used to having a young girl in the house. Is that why they are so different? Because they are both of different genders? Maybe is has to do something with the mothers (who are the main caregivers)? The little girls mother is outgoing, the boy's mother is shy and keeps to herself. Maybe it has to do with the girl being in daycare, while the boy is staying home with his mother on a daily basis? 

Week 2

These past two chapters where the ones I could NOT wait to read. Although, I do not have any children, yet, I LOVE kids! It fascinates me how they grow, the different stages they go through, seeing how each child is different in many ways, pretty much everything!  

One thing that really catches my eye, is how different genes can be passed from the parents to the child. My sister just had a baby in February, and it is amazing to me to see how much her son looks so much like her, yet so much like the father as well, but how he looks even more like his older brother.  One thing I hear a lot is that I look, talk, act etc. like my mother. If people could, i'm sure most would say I even breath like her. If I were to answer a phone, everyone would assume I was in fact my mother. When I was younger I thought it was the most annoying thing, because I wanted to be my own person. Now, I look at it and I would kill to be half the person my mom is.

                One of the sections that I didn’t necessarily like to read, but it was interesting was the section about SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). When I was in 8^th grade my cousin lost a son to SIDS. At the time I was old enough to know what had happened, but young enough to not know anything about SIDS. It was heartbreaking. Very hard to see someone you are so close with in so much pain. Now days, I have seen a baby monitors that you can clip to your baby’s diaper and it detects every movement that a baby takes. It also alarms after a certain amount of time if your baby stops moving (breathing).  It is reassuring to know that a baby dying from SIDS is not necessarily because a parent has done something wrong. What I thought was odd, was that it says that African American infants are MORE likely to die from SIDS than any other culture, because they just don’t know to not have infants sleep on their stomachs? I mean, I am glad that they are trying to get the message out to the African American communities. I guess I was just shocked that they were able to limit it to mainly African American infants when it can happen to any culture. 

Monkey See, Monkey Do

There was a lot of information in Chapter 1 that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and learning about. What interested me and caught my eye, was the theoretical perspectives on human development. Whether it was a psychodynamic theory or a cognitive theory, there are pieces of every theory that made me question whether I believe the theory I true or false.

My 3 year old nephew has a slight learning disability. He is not yet able to talk, so when he trying to communicate what he wants/needs, he often times gets frustrated when no one is able to understand what he wants. Which, most times ends in a tantrum. If he is in a room full of adults, he is doing anything and everything to get the attention on him, usually things he knows he is not supposed to be doing. Although, when he is around other kids, such as a preschool or daycare, and sees what they are doing he follows their lead, and you would never know he was in the room. To me it’s funny how the environment around you (nature) can affect how one may act.

While reading through the different theories, one that popped out what the social learning theory. It referrers to people that watch those around them and imitate them. Some of us know this as “Monkey see, Monkey do”. I do believe that plays a huge roll in my nephew’s learning. Once he sees other kids doing something, he tends to follow and does the same. Even something as simple as laying down and taking a nap, if he sees other children taking a nap, he will lay down and also take a nap. For once, when he is around other children he is not thriving for attention.

Although, with reading through the different theories, Erik Erikson’s Theory stating that the life cycle is composed of 8 different stages, I’m not sure if I necessarily agree with. To me, I feel like some of the stages, is what people may EXPECT of you at that age. But, with people’s maturity levels being different from one another, this theory is not necessarily correct for everyone. It’s hard telling about the early years because obviously, I can’t remember how I was at age 1. According to his theory, I right now should be committing myself in a loving relationship. Sure, maybe I have a slow maturity level at age 24 (I don’t think I do) but my goal right now is school, a relationship right now, is a possibility of holding me back. His theory could be true for some people, but I don’t think it is true for everyone. Everyone is different.