At least 9 percent of U.S. children are medicated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, compared to less than .5 percent of French children, writes Marilyn Wedge in Why French Kids Don’t Have ADHD in Psychology Today. Wedge is the author of Pills are Not for Preschoolers: A Drug-Free Approach for Troubled Kids.
While U.S. psychiatrists see ADHD as a biological disorder treatable with drugs, French doctors “look for the underlying issue that is causing the child distress—not in the child’s brain but in the child’s social context.” They try to treat the underlying problem with psychotherapy or family counseling.
In addition, French parents are more likely than Americans to teach their children to control their behavior.
Pamela Druckerman highlights the divergent parenting styles in her recent book, Bringing up Bébé.
. . . From the time their children are born, French parents provide them with a firm cadre—the word means “frame” or “structure.” Children are not allowed, for example, to snack whenever they want. Mealtimes are at four specific times of the day. French children learn to wait patiently for meals, rather than eating snack foods whenever they feel like it. French babies, too, are expected to conform to limits set by parents and not by their crying selves. French parents let their babies “cry it out” if they are not sleeping through the night at the age of four months.
. . . Consistently enforced limits, in the French view, make children feel safe and secure.
Raised in families where the adults are in charge, French children learn to control their behavior without the need for medications, concludes Wedge.
What’s the most loving thing you can say to your child? According to my husband, the father of three successful adult children, the answer is: “No.”