Last modified: Monday, October 20, 2008 2:36 AM EDT SHEA-TAYLOR: Why are so many kids on meds? Many cases of children's illness seem like nothing more than symptoms of a self-indugent adult society gone haywire. That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it. It's time to fix grownups before labeling and drugging children. How many are on antidepressants for stress and depression related to family lifestyle, blood pressure and cholesterol controls in the absence of exercise and diabetes treatment in place of healthy diet? Why are children in such trouble? Who is responsible? Could it, in part, be you and me? The journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health reports that 6.7 percent of kids here are on psychotropic drugs, compared with 2.9 percent in the Netherlands, 2 percent in Germany. "U.S. direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising and professional journal advertising may contribute to increased awareness and utilization of medication to treat emotional and behavioral conditions in children," the researchers said. Yet at least half of U.S. children taking antidepressants aren't in therapy, reports Gannett News, and that delays recovery while increasing the numbers who are suicidal. Many parents are embarrassed to take kids for therapy, said Jana Martin, child psychologist. "If kids take a pill, the parents don't feel it's as bad a reflection on them," said Martin, quoted in that article. "The pill helps, but if kids get bullied on the playground, it doesn't teach them how to respond and not get depressed, while therapy does. You can't go take another pill every time someone bullies you." Therapy does, but so do parents who really listen to children and counsel them. There's more. The federal government has just outlined exercise recommendations for all ages and abilities. For children and teens, it's one hour or more of moderate or vigorous aerobic physical activity a day (bike riding, jumping rope, organized sports). Note: Surfing the Net does not count. This may mean parents actually have to change their habits to supervise younger children in a park or at the ball field, to transport younger teens to sports and to plan family activities outdoors on the weekend instead of slouching in front of the TV. This means waking up to responsibilities. The alternative, as we've seen, are children on medications to control afflictions that in some cases could have been prevented. Stress, anxiety, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, bone thinning. It's estimated by the National Center for Health Statistics that the number of overweight children has risen sharply in 10 years, from 7 percent between ages 2 and 19 to 17 percent, with a correlation in the rise of Type 2 diabetes, once considered an adult illness. Children who needlessly get saddled with serious illness and a regimen of heavy-duty medications because adults in their life were too busy or lazy to keep them healthy are getting a really raw deal. BETSY SHEA-TAYLOR is a freelance writer.