Summer Campers on Drugs

In case you missed it, The New York Times ran a most peculiar story on Saturday, July 16th: “Checklist for Camp: Bug Spray. Sunscreen. Pills.” Since the article can only be accessed now on a for-pay basis, I will quote liberally from it here.

Checklist for Camp’s tone is light and breezy:

"BURLINGHAM, N.Y., July 15 — The breakfast buffet at Camp Echo starts at a picnic table covered in gingham-patterned oil cloth. Here, children jostle for their morning medications: Zoloft for depression, Abilify for bipolar disorder, Guanfacine for twitchy eyes and a host of medications for attention deficit disorder.

"A quick gulp of water, a greeting from the nurse, and the youngsters move on to the next table for orange juice, Special K and chocolate chip pancakes. The dispensing of pills and pancakes is over in minutes, all part of a typical day at a typical sleep-away camp in the Catskills."

Apparently this phenomenon, medication time at camp, is widespread. One child says, “All my best friends take something.” And  quoting Peg L. Smith, chief executive officer of the American Camp Association, a trade group with 2,600 member camps and three million campers, the article says that “about a quarter of the children at its camps are medicated for attention deficit disorder, psychiatric problems or mood disorders.”

The dispensing of medications to camp kids is also big business, with a for-profit company, Camp Meds, providing “a summer’s worth of prepackaged pills to 6000 children at 100 camps.” 

I found this New York Times article extremely unsettling. I have always been bothered by the fact that many doctors routinely give heavy duty drugs to kids (or adults for that matter), without even asking them what foods they might be eating which might possibly be causing, or exacerbating, their symptoms.

Notice, for instance, that breakfast at this upscale camp includes carbohydrate-laden staples, such as “orange juice, Special K and chocolate chip pancakes,” with a heavy emphasis on some simple sugars, some of the least nutritious foods.

At Camp Echo’s website, I discovered that “Throughout the day, campers enjoy delicious treats. Every afternoon we have a break during activities for 'Snack and Go' –- our ice cream and ices snack time. In the evening campers enjoy a bedtime snack of either milk and cookies, S’mores on the beach, or a trip to the Canteen.”

Haven't these folks ever heard of the food/mood connection? Are the doctors and dieticians who are supposed to be advocates for these kids so far behind the times?

I guess none of these folks have read any of the books that discuss the sugar-mood connection. Watch my links section on the lefthand side of this site for books relating to the mood-food connection.

Comments

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