Physicians Are People Too

[Stormieweather]

My children's pediatrician is quite a character. He is an old-timer who no longer accepts patients, has had many medical articles published, and who is on the faculty of a nearby university. When my D11 was about 4-5, I took her in for a visit for an severe earache. He gave her a prescription for an antibiotic, some numbing drops and then handed me one last scrip. He solomnly told me that one was for me....so I could sleep when it knocked HER out . He's the bestest!!

Stormie

[monster]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I'm the parent who picks the toy right up off the restaurant floor and gives it back to him to chew on, figuring that it's building him a good immune system.

Works for my lot.

[rigcranop]

Clodfobble, may I make a suggestion about the little one's teething? When my three were teething, I would put some Anbesol on their gums and massage their gums with my thumb applying some upward pressure. I think it helped to cut the gums a little faster than slow growing teeth and they got longer relief from the pain. Their mother thought it was cruel, I thought it was wrong to let them hurt.

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I'm the parent who picks the toy right up off the restaurant floor and gives it back to him to chew on, figuring that it's building him a good immune system.

That has worked for us - our kids never get sick anymore.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by rigcranop

Clodfobble, may I make a suggestion about the little one's teething? When my three were teething, I would put some Anbesol on their gums and massage their gums with my thumb applying some upward pressure. I think it helped to cut the gums a little faster than slow growing teeth and they got longer relief from the pain. Their mother thought it was cruel, I thought it was wrong to let them hurt.

Anbesol, I hadn't tried that. We have Orajel, and it seems to give him relief for all of about 5 minutes--which don't get me wrong, 5 minutes can be really helpful sometimes. I rub it in as much as I can when I apply it, but he already has two bottom teeth and he bites hard the instant my finger (or anything else) gets in there. I honestly think the bottom teeth are cutting his upper gums from the outside at least as much as the incoming ones are.

And welcome to the cellar!

[footfootfoot]

Off topic, wrong thread, sue me.

A doctor dies and goes to central processing where there is an incrediably long line of souls waiting to be sorted onto elevators going UP or going DOWN.

Not acustomed to waiting in lines, he collars and angel walking by and complains: "I'm a doctor! I can't be kept waiting on line forever. I need to get to the front of this line, now."

The angel patiently listens to the man and says "I'm sure you are used to preferential treatment, but here we are all equal and there is no favoritism. Everyone has to wait in line."

At that moment a man in a white labcoat carrying a clipborad and stethoscope breezes past them to the front of the line. The doctor pitches a fit "You just told me we're all equal and no one gets special treatment and I just saw that doctor walk to the front of the line."

The angel says "That wasn't a doctor, that was God; he only thinks he's a doctor."

Our ped is from Germany or Austria, he is very cool and old fashioned, though not old at all.
Was very happy that we would not be having a circumcision, stated that he will not do them.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

Our ped is from Germany or Austria, he is very cool and old fashioned, though not old at all.
Was very happy that we would not be having a circumcision, stated that he will not do them.

Yeah, all our docs were visibly relieved when we said no to circumcision. I forget who said it but it was something along the lines of "We don't get all that much to begin with, and then they wanna take some of it away?"

[wolf]

Our family secret for teething was a bit of whiskey rubbed on the gums, and a wee bit added to the bottle. Scots-Irish on my mother's side, but I suppose you could tell from the story.

The doctor told you about the benadryl thing because it works.

[footfootfoot]

My dad said the same thing to us when the inch was teething. When my wife made this "you can't be serious" face, he said well what about some paragoric?

[monster]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Her response? "Oh honey, when he gets like that, just give him a ton of Benadryl, knock the little bugger out."



Not that it's necessarily bad advice, I do have a good sense of where the middle ground is between "sleep-deprivation psychosis" and "let the drugs do the parenting." I'm just used to hearing that kind of advice from friends and real-world parents, not people who have to pay for malpractice insurance.

So I thought about this a little more, and wondered if her attitude was perhaps more professional than we realize from the surface? I think we're all generally in agreement that the underlying advice is good. If the doctor had been all formal and said "Well, mom, really these symptoms are to be expected and you could perhaps try some Benedryl to help him sleep if you feel that you need to", many parents in that situation might've been felt that they were either being given the brush off, or that the doctor was implying they could but shouldn't do this and so not heeded the advice. Perhaps the informal approach is professional because it makes you sit up and take good note of the advice and makes you more likely to follow it?