During his first five school years, my 10-year-old son had problems stemming from severe hyperactivity. At the end of his kindergarten year, my husband and I made the agonizing decision to put him on Ritalin.

A little less than a year later, we took him off it for four reasons. He wasn’t eating and was a bag of bones; he was in a zombie-like state for an hour after each dose of Ritalin; he exploded at home in the afternoons once the drug wore off; and we were never convinced this was the correct way to handle the problem.

For the next three years, we were in constant prayer seeking answers to what was triggering our son’s behavior. He had a very stable home environment, with two parents who loved him and held him consistently responsible for his behavior, but it was a never-ending battle to make him behave. At the same time, we struggled knowing that so many other school children were given this medicine during the course of the school day. As a school teacher myself, I had a hard time believing that Ritalin was the answer to every single one of these children’s problems.

Last year we received an answer to our prayers. Although my husband and I, years earlier, had discussed food allergies as a possible cause of his problem, none of our dietary changes seemed to help.

Then a good friend who knew my son told me that food allergies can trigger attention-deficit or hyperactive disorder behaviors in children.She suggested we try eliminating wheat and dairy products from his diet, since they were present in all his favorite foods.

We began this a year ago, in March. Within 10 days, my son was a different person. His teacher even called me about three weeks into the diet and said that if she hadn’t seen the results for herself, she never would have believed it.

The diet has been costly and very time consuming. Our son has also had to endure insensitive remarks from classmates about the foods he eats. Why do we choose to do this, rather than give him Ritalin, which appears to be a cheap, quick fix to the problem?

The answer is very simple. I don’t believe that Ritalin is the right choice for us, and I am convinced that it is not the magic solution to the problem.

The medical system is not perfect. It constantly changes and evolves. Many times we have learned that certain drugs used years earlier caused harmful long-term side effects. For example, back in the late 1 950s, Thalidomide was thought to be a safe, mild sedative for pregnant women but it caused birth defects. The DPT vaccine has now been linked to hyperactivity in children as well as juvenile diabetes. Phen-Fen, a diet drug, is a more recent example of a drug causing devastating effects for unsuspecting users.

Who’s to say but that years down the road a study may find harmful longterm side-effects from Ritalin?

I don’t judge parents whose children are on Ritalin. But it’s important that people know there may be another solution.

As a former teacher, I convinced a mother several years ago to place her son on Ritalin sincerely thinking I had the child’s best interest at heart.

To this mother, I deeply apologize. Ultimately, as parents we alone are responsible for the well-being of our children.