[img_assist|nid=970|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=99|height=100]The number of kids who are prescribed Ritalin has grown 5 times in the USA in the last 10 years. Isn’t the price some parents pay for their child’s quietness and obeying is to loose their child? If you think about it, Ritalin is what they call a “mind altering drug”. MIND ALTERING… Get it? You just may end up with a child who has a different mind, brain, consciousness. In other words you will end up with a different child that you gave birth to and tried to up bring. Below are Ritalin’s side effects, taken from a page on Wikipedia, dedicated to Ritalin, also known as Methylphenidate:

Clinically significant reported side effects include difficulty sleeping, stomach aches, headaches, lack of hunger (leading to weight loss) and dry mouth. Less common side effects include palpitations, high blood pressure and pulse changes. Other side effects include clinical depression and some patients report a loss in awareness of self. Ritalin at one time was used to treat depression, but is no longer used for that purpose because those going off the drug (a stimulant) sometimes experience even more depression during the time of withdrawal. For these reasons, it is recommended to even those taking the drug to take drug "holidays" for the body to recover and cope with the chronic presence of a stimulant in the system.

Parents of children taking methylphenidate have claimed that the children become 'zombies' while on the drug, 'zoning out' and becoming somewhat apathetic to external stimuli; whether these claims are true or simply another 'urban myth' is open to speculation.

There have been at least 19 cases of Cardiac arrest in children taking methylphenidate, leading to calls by the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee to the FDA to require the most serious type of health warning on the label, but this advice was rejected (New Scientist 18 Feb. 2006).

On February 10, 2006, the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted by a margin of eight to seven to recommend a "black-box" warning describing the cardiovascular risks of stimulant drugs used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). On March 22, 2006 the FDA Pediatric Advisory Committee decided that the medications do not need "black box" warnings about their risks.[20] The FDA declined to include these black box warnings upon review.