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January 21st, 2005
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Baby-Doping On The Rise |
Pressure To Succeed Drives Infants To Performance-Enhancing Drugs
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U.S. - The use of performance-enhancing drugs by infants – a practice commonly known as baby-doping – is on the rise in the United States and shows no signs of abating, experts say.
"Today's infants are taking more and more extreme measures to improve their physical and mental performance," says Dr. Joyce Ellen Richter, founder of the Chicago Infant Rehabilitation Clinic. "They're using harder drugs like steroids and androstenedione. They're no longer satisfied with an extra spoonful of formula or an extra drag on their mother's teat."
Experts believe that the epidemic has largely been caused by increased stress in babies' lives. "Contrary to popular belief, a baby's life is not blissful and worry-free," Richter says. "Infants face serious emotional challenges. They've found themselves thrust into a world they don't understand and can't control. For a baby, once you emerge from the womb, your life is basically downhill from there."
Babies are under constant pressure to rapidly master major life skills like walking and talking. If they see other babies getting ahead of them, many will do whatever it takes to catch up. Once the basic skills are mastered, even bigger challenges loom. Increasingly, infants are no longer waiting until kindergarten before getting involved with sports or competing for attention from the opposite sex, Richter says.
The baby-doping epidemic has had serious consequences. Last year, 18-month-old Emilio Hernandez, a steroid user, suffered a torn pectoral muscle while bench-pressing. His injury kept him out of the 2004 Baby Olympics, where he was a strong contender in wrestling in the 141-pound weight class. In September, six-month-old Bridget Moore was killed in a bizarre alphabet-block accident. Moore died when a 20-foot alphabet-block tower, built by another baby who was allegedly doping, toppled and crushed her to death.
Some say overly competitive parents are partly to blame. Parental pressure to grow up faster and out-perform other kids is increasing. In one case in Amarillo, Texas, an ambitious mother allegedly provided her two-year-old daughter with methamphetamine in order to help her make the varsity finger-painting team.
With their babies' lives getting so complicated and dangerous, many parents are wondering how to protect their kids from the dangers of doping. Dr. Richter offers the following suggestions for parents who worry about their children getting pharmaceutical help:
- Monitor your baby for emotional problems, such as a bad temper. What you think is a case of the "terrible twos" might actually be 'roid rage.
- Take notice if your infant shows signs of premature physical ability, such as beating you at tennis.
- Teach your baby not to accept prescription medications from strangers.
- Testicular shrinkage is a possible sign of steroid use. If your baby boy has extremely small testicles, he is probably doping.
- Keep anabolic steroids out of reach of children.
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