There are many forms of child abuse, all of which are treacherous, in my opinion. But, what do you call drugging children to make them be more relaxed, quiet and sleepy? There was an article this week about his very subject, which stated that it’s an “unrecognized form of child abuse”. I’d say that I have to agree.

Giving babies cough syrup, or even more popular, Benedryl, to calm them and make them stop crying, is not only dangerous, but just plain wrong. The article talked about a woman who gave her infant cough syrup to put the child to sleep.

The baby wound up in the intensive care unit and almost died. The article went on to say “in this case, it was not an intentional overdose, it was a lack of information”. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that you probably shouldn’t give cough syrup to an infant. It clearly states on the label how old a child should be to administer it. Plus sleep is not its intended used.

Unfortunately, there are some “uneducated” folks out there who are practicing this same type of medicating to “soothe” their children. I read another article a little over a month ago about a couple who continually gave their 14 month old baby methadone (a synthetic drug usually prescribed to heroin users to help in the process of overcoming their addiction) to help the baby sleep. And, the outcome; the baby died.  And by the way, this isn’t the only article that I’ve come across about parents giving their babies methadone.

This isn’t limited to babies though, it can happen with older children as well. Some people are experimenting with the effects of marijuana on children who have been labeled autistic as well as obsessive, compulsive disorder (OCD). Hello? Really?

Let’s NOT drug our children to shut them up. If they’re crying and upset, there’s something wrong. It’s an alert to us as parents that we need to fix something for them, or perhaps just soothe them. And, if it takes a label like “child abuse” to stop parents and get them educated on the harmful effects of drugging children, then I say so be it. Not to mention the path it could lead a child down as they get older and figure out that there are other drugs out there and start abusing them. Then the only hope will be a good drug treatment center.

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