Should Kids On Airplanes Be Sedated?
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Babyblue
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jillio
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Right. A good parent plans for their child's needs. They don't drug the kid.
posts from hell
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Better off driving? Hmm, is there a bridge that I'm not aware of?
The 46 mile icy bridge between Alaska and Russia.
deafbajagal
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Using medication for other reasons than what it is intended for is really risky with potential harmful side effects...
And giving toddlers adult medications could mean disaster.
overthepond
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Each to their own. Having been brought up travelling extensively, my parents always used the red eye flight, reduce the carbonhydrates (produces energy), sweets/fizzy drinks etc few days before hand so that I and my brother can sleep through 12 hour flights (SA/UK routes). This was pre dvd's/portable players/tv's behind the seats.
However, I find Dvd's/Tv's too stimulating. When I was 17 I flew to Canada, I couldn't sleep a wink as the tv was right in front of me, once seen it's hard to take my eyes off!
Flew to UK from South Africa as an adult. I put my jacket over the back of the seat after taking off and slept straight away. The air hostess had to wake me up saying that they already off loading the passengers! I had slept solid for 12 hours!
So Meds is not necessary unless the child has other issues such as ADHD as I know how difficult it is to keep them entrained. It's best to be advised by a doctor. A careful and well preparation prior to flying will work. Plenty of Books/word searches/colouring/puzzles.
However, I find Dvd's/Tv's too stimulating. When I was 17 I flew to Canada, I couldn't sleep a wink as the tv was right in front of me, once seen it's hard to take my eyes off!
Flew to UK from South Africa as an adult. I put my jacket over the back of the seat after taking off and slept straight away. The air hostess had to wake me up saying that they already off loading the passengers! I had slept solid for 12 hours!
So Meds is not necessary unless the child has other issues such as ADHD as I know how difficult it is to keep them entrained. It's best to be advised by a doctor. A careful and well preparation prior to flying will work. Plenty of Books/word searches/colouring/puzzles.
How do you feel about taking a cruise to Australia??? You don't get seasick?
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I could probably handle that. I've been on a bunch of boats, both fresh water and ocean and only slight wobbling for the first few hours, then I am fine.
Hmmmm that is an idea. Too bad I could never afford it.
Lily7
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I say that airlines would benefit from having planes with a kid area to basically pen the active kids up in and keep them from bothering the other passengers. There would be a sound proof but see through wall as well. A few toys and a tv with a kid's movies playing. That way no one has to be sedated but hyper kids aren't such a nuisance.
VamPyroX
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That's true.
Every kid is different.
I've seen parents bring portable DVD players with them to restaurants. When the kids watch it, they're so into it that they don't make a peep through the whole dinner and the parents can enjoy themselves at peace. That's certainly better than bringing kids and then let them scream or run around causing problems with other customers.
I have my own portable DVD player that I use when I have kids in my car. I'll put it on the armrest in the middle and let the kids watch whatever they want to watch. Half of the time, they fall asleep. Either way, it keeps them quiet for almost the whole trip (until the end when they're excited with "Yay! We're here!").
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I read an article in today paper here that made me think of this thread. It's not really regarding drugging a kid on a plane, but still, regarding drugging kids in general just to clam them down.
Foster children in Florida prescribed psychotropic drugs at far higher rates in 2008
The first day Ke'onte set foot in Carol and Scott Cook's home, two months before he was adopted by the Dallas couple in 2009, the boy had a stash of four or five types of pills to control his behavior.
"He was wiped out 15 minutes after we gave it to him," Carol Cook, a former Palm Beach County resident, recalled Thursday. "He was given medicine, some for bipolar, some for seizures. It pilled him up so he couldn't act out."
Ke'onte, a foster child since he was 6, had traveled from foster home to foster home and was prescribed all kinds of psychotropic drugs to keep him under control.
But the Cooks wanted Ke'onte to live a normal life, one without so many drugs in his system. Once they chose family therapy over drugs, Ke'onte was eventually weaned off every medication. He is now an athlete and honor student at his school.
On Thursday, Ke'onte, 12, testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on federal services and financial management. Lawmakers were reviewing a Government Accountability Office study that indicates children in foster care in Florida and four other states in 2008 were prescribed psychotropic drugs at far higher rates than children not in state care.
"I'm not bipolar, I'm just naughty," Ke'onte said Thursday in discussing his early morning testimony.
The GAO study, which reviewed nearly 100,000 foster children in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Texas over a two-year period, also found that thousands of children on psychiatric medication often took higher doses than are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The report said that each state's programs to monitor the prescription of psychotropic drugs to foster kids "fell short of providing comprehensive oversight."
Ke'onte's story will be featured tonight on ABC's 20/20.
"Ultimately, it was horrible for (Ke'onte) to be on all those medications and not sure how he wants to react to everything," Carol Cook said. By testifying, "he's helping other kids to give them hope, too."
In Florida, where 22 percent of foster children 17 and younger take at least one psychotropic drug, according to the GAO study, Department of Children and Families officials say protocols for monitoring kids on psychiatric medications have improved in the past three years.
"Our tracking system is now on the Internet and internally, with the names of the children and reports that go out on a regular basis, every month, to the community-based care agencies," DCF spokeswoman Erin Gillespie said.
Many of those improvements came after the 2009 death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, a Broward County foster child who hanged himself in his foster parents' Margate home. Gabriel was under the influence of several psychiatric drugs.
After his death, all DCF child welfare employees received training on drugs that are administered to foster children and their possible side effects, Gillespie said. But there is no regular, ongoing training for child welfare employees hired after Gabriel's incident, she said. Training now varies from county to county.
As a result of the report, she said, DCF is working to implement a standardized statewide training program.
Former DCF Secretary George Sheldon, now acting assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, led a work group that investigated Gabriel's death. Since his move to Washington in May, he has asked HHS to make regulation of psychotropic drugs among foster children a priority nationwide.
"The death of that little boy made such an impression on me," Sheldon said Thursday.
Sheldon and other officials at HHS joined the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies in a three-month project to come up with ways in which states can improve their oversight of psychotropic drug prescriptions for foster children. HHS is planning webcasts, training sessions and a national summit to address the importance of managing psychiatric drugs among the foster care community. The GAO findings emphasize the urgent need for change, Sheldon said.
Ann Crawford, professor of psychology at Lynn University in Boca Raton, said the report hit on important issues but that more attention needs to be paid to the dangers of psychotropic medications meant for adults being overprescribed to children. It is crucial that child welfare agencies closely monitor the side effects these drugs have on foster children, she said.
"Sometimes these homes may have four, five, six children under foster care, and you can see what's happening. It looks like they are being contained, being controlled with drugs," she said.
Alternative methods, such as talk therapy and play therapy, should be considered when dealing with children, particularly those too young to verbalize whether a medication is having a negative effect, she said.
Crawford said that child welfare systems in Florida and elsewhere are overwhelmed with too many cases and too few caseworkers, and sometimes the most vulnerable children suffer.
"There should be some kind of monitoring system in place to make sure these children are not just given the prescribed dose for a child, but that it's followed up," Crawford said.
Foster children in Florida prescribed psychotropic drugs at far higher rates in 2008
Foster children in Florida prescribed psychotropic drugs at far higher rates in 2008
The first day Ke'onte set foot in Carol and Scott Cook's home, two months before he was adopted by the Dallas couple in 2009, the boy had a stash of four or five types of pills to control his behavior.
"He was wiped out 15 minutes after we gave it to him," Carol Cook, a former Palm Beach County resident, recalled Thursday. "He was given medicine, some for bipolar, some for seizures. It pilled him up so he couldn't act out."
Ke'onte, a foster child since he was 6, had traveled from foster home to foster home and was prescribed all kinds of psychotropic drugs to keep him under control.
But the Cooks wanted Ke'onte to live a normal life, one without so many drugs in his system. Once they chose family therapy over drugs, Ke'onte was eventually weaned off every medication. He is now an athlete and honor student at his school.
On Thursday, Ke'onte, 12, testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on federal services and financial management. Lawmakers were reviewing a Government Accountability Office study that indicates children in foster care in Florida and four other states in 2008 were prescribed psychotropic drugs at far higher rates than children not in state care.
"I'm not bipolar, I'm just naughty," Ke'onte said Thursday in discussing his early morning testimony.
The GAO study, which reviewed nearly 100,000 foster children in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Texas over a two-year period, also found that thousands of children on psychiatric medication often took higher doses than are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The report said that each state's programs to monitor the prescription of psychotropic drugs to foster kids "fell short of providing comprehensive oversight."
Ke'onte's story will be featured tonight on ABC's 20/20.
"Ultimately, it was horrible for (Ke'onte) to be on all those medications and not sure how he wants to react to everything," Carol Cook said. By testifying, "he's helping other kids to give them hope, too."
In Florida, where 22 percent of foster children 17 and younger take at least one psychotropic drug, according to the GAO study, Department of Children and Families officials say protocols for monitoring kids on psychiatric medications have improved in the past three years.
"Our tracking system is now on the Internet and internally, with the names of the children and reports that go out on a regular basis, every month, to the community-based care agencies," DCF spokeswoman Erin Gillespie said.
Many of those improvements came after the 2009 death of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, a Broward County foster child who hanged himself in his foster parents' Margate home. Gabriel was under the influence of several psychiatric drugs.
After his death, all DCF child welfare employees received training on drugs that are administered to foster children and their possible side effects, Gillespie said. But there is no regular, ongoing training for child welfare employees hired after Gabriel's incident, she said. Training now varies from county to county.
As a result of the report, she said, DCF is working to implement a standardized statewide training program.
Former DCF Secretary George Sheldon, now acting assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, led a work group that investigated Gabriel's death. Since his move to Washington in May, he has asked HHS to make regulation of psychotropic drugs among foster children a priority nationwide.
"The death of that little boy made such an impression on me," Sheldon said Thursday.
Sheldon and other officials at HHS joined the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies in a three-month project to come up with ways in which states can improve their oversight of psychotropic drug prescriptions for foster children. HHS is planning webcasts, training sessions and a national summit to address the importance of managing psychiatric drugs among the foster care community. The GAO findings emphasize the urgent need for change, Sheldon said.
Ann Crawford, professor of psychology at Lynn University in Boca Raton, said the report hit on important issues but that more attention needs to be paid to the dangers of psychotropic medications meant for adults being overprescribed to children. It is crucial that child welfare agencies closely monitor the side effects these drugs have on foster children, she said.
"Sometimes these homes may have four, five, six children under foster care, and you can see what's happening. It looks like they are being contained, being controlled with drugs," she said.
Alternative methods, such as talk therapy and play therapy, should be considered when dealing with children, particularly those too young to verbalize whether a medication is having a negative effect, she said.
Crawford said that child welfare systems in Florida and elsewhere are overwhelmed with too many cases and too few caseworkers, and sometimes the most vulnerable children suffer.
"There should be some kind of monitoring system in place to make sure these children are not just given the prescribed dose for a child, but that it's followed up," Crawford said.
Foster children in Florida prescribed psychotropic drugs at far higher rates in 2008
cmdrwhitewolf
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When I was younger and way more naive, I was sent traveling on a business flight once where nearly all of the people around me on the plane were business suited "executive types", and when a couple came aboard with three very hyperactive children, one of suits in front of me turned, motioning toward the kids with his drink and loudly complained to the other suit next to him, "They oughta gag them, strap them up and wheel'em on the plane like Hannibal Lector."
One very educational moment.
One very educational moment.
Lily7
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When I was younger and way more naive, I was sent traveling on a business flight once where nearly all of the people around me on the plane were business suited "executive types", and when a couple came aboard with three very hyperactive children, one of suits in front of me turned, motioning toward the kids with his drink and loudly complained to the other suit next to him, "They oughta gag them, strap them up and wheel'em on the plane like Hannibal Lector."
One very educational moment.
He just said what most everyone thinks but doesn't dare admit to doing so. :P
VamPyroX
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I agree.
Kids are unpredictable. Adults think kids are predictable, but they can still surprise us.
First, they say that kids lie and adults don't. Now, they say kids don't lie and adults do.
Well, both adults and kids lie... but nowadays, schools are quick to judge based on what a child says over what an adult says.
Kids are unpredictable. Adults think kids are predictable, but they can still surprise us.
First, they say that kids lie and adults don't. Now, they say kids don't lie and adults do.
Well, both adults and kids lie... but nowadays, schools are quick to judge based on what a child says over what an adult says.
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I read an article a while ago that this mom flying with a small child asked the flight attendant to warm her baby's bottle. She took the bottle from her and while heating she put a 1/2 a Valium in the bottle. The mom figured it out because the child went right to sleep and she noticed some junk at the bottom of the bottle. They were sued but I don't know what airline. Oh, that person lost there job!!!
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What worked with our kids was I bought each a backpack for the plane ride but they couldn't see it till the plane went up in the air. Crayons,coloring books, books and small candy to keep their ears cleared etc. they never had a problem. For me yes I will sedate if it's a long flight.
I can't sit in that tiny squished seat that long. So we always try to get a 3 across seat and hope no one takes the empty. Then I can lay on my side and the pain won't be as bad.
I can't sit in that tiny squished seat that long. So we always try to get a 3 across seat and hope no one takes the empty. Then I can lay on my side and the pain won't be as bad.