Zealous Mom at a Doctor's Office

Today my 3 had a "well child" checkup at the Doctor's office. It was Iyov's first in his life with the exception of his circumcision and Novan and Beya had last been 2 years ago. To be honest I was pretty nervous. Why you ask? Family fractice doctors and pediatricians have NEVER impressed me. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with other types of Doctors except OB/GYNs (another day, another post) but I have always LOATHED taking my kids to the doctor. For one thing I feel like taking your kid to the pediatrician should be called "checking to make sure you aren't an idiot parent" appointment because they don't seem to do anything spectacular, not that they really should. I mean, I'm not expecting them to do an MRI or something but I can weigh, measure, take temp, and look at their nads just fine on my own. If you don't take your kid to regular check-ups people look at you funny when they find out. Nervousness I suppose is the anticipation of hearing a lecture from the doctor about this or that vaccine and their concerns that cows milk isn't one of our main food groups. I do see the place for pediatricians. There certainly are plenty of ignorant parents who have no problem "leaving it to the experts" and avoid educating themselves about their own child's health. I certainly have no problem asking them questions about things I am unsure of, but to me, it is simply their opinion and NOT fact until I have investigated for myself. I suppose though if everyone were as educated as I try to be the quality of the average visit to a pediatrician's office would go up.

The biggest deal is of course vaccines. I remember trying to refuse the Hep A vaccine for Beya once and getting a lecture about all its facets and getting a story about an entire elementary school class getting it from eating strawberries....blah blah blah. If I had been more educated at the time I would have asked if there were any deaths or lasting affects from their sickness. Alas, I have only recently become more educated.

Look, I am NOT anti-vaccine. I am NOT one of those people that assumes vaccines have single-handedly caused the epidemic of autism. I DO, however, think that there are numerous chemicals in vaccines whose effects on the body have not been thoroughly investigated and tested. I'm sorry but a "negligible" amount of mercury is still mercury. Formaldehyde in "trace" amounts is still formaldehyde. We also do not thoroughly understand the effects of an artificially stimulated immune system on long term development of an immune system or the specific risks associated with administering 5-10 different viruses/toxins at a time. I can't believe that we would consider the biological effects inconsequential simply because we don't know what they are and we don't know what they are because in a laboratory we can't isolate them to correlate a trend. I certainly wouldn't consider vaccines the "sole" contributor to things like asthma, autism, developmental disorders, conduct disorders, etc. but I would certainly be open to their contribution to them. So, for this reason I have decided on a bare minimum of vaccines and a much later schedule. I simply can't justify pumping chemicals into a little baby whose neurological functions are completely immature not to mention an immature immune system. Beya's mere 2 1/2 years almost seems too young to me. I am very much aware of what exactly the vaccine preventable diseases are and the reasons the vaccines were introduced. I am very pro vaccine in developing countries where clean water and sanitary living conditions are only for the rich. I can understand wanting to have public school kids vaccinated. They're all crammed in a room together for hours sharing each other's germs, breathing on each other, etc. It's a pretty unsanitary situation. But why not wait until they are going to be in a situation with that many kids on a regular basis to vaccinate them. At least you have allowed a good amount of time for neurological and immune system development before you expose them to a direct injection of chemicals.

Anyway, back to my doctor visit. I did actually pray about my visit. I wanted to have a pleasant experience and it actually was great. The nurse actually asked me if I was following the regular vaccine schedule or if I would be modifying it. I didn't get too much grief about not feeding my kids cow's milk either. I was quite pleased. Aside from suggesting Hep A again I didn't have to explain myself or defend myself at all. I decided to get just one shot each on this visit and Novan was the first to get his. Beya was out of the room when it happened but when we brought her in for hers Novan was very concerned that she would be experiencing the same pain as he just had. He started crying and said, "No! No! Beya's going to cry!" A few peices of candy remedied their tears though when it was all over.

I think I will be staying with this particular doctor's office for the forseeable future. It's nice to know that some doctors are "coming around" to being able to handle the parent who wants in on what's going on. That's all I really want from a doctor, to be treated like I at least know something and their expectation that I will do all I can to be educated. I want them to be ok with my questioning nature and not try to use arm-twisting techniques to get me to do what they want. I'm their parent aren't I? Knowing what's going on with your kids in every facet of their lives should be part of the parenting rule book.

Comments

  1. I'm so glad it went well. I totally agree with you about how we shouldn't be treated like idiots. I guess there are enough idiot parents out there that they don't know who's who. We know what's best for our children! I still remember the time I went to the doctor with London when she was about 9 months old because she was sick and the dr. lectured me about not breastfeeding anymore and that if I was still breastfeeding, she wouldn't be sick. I was SO mad. I had just stopped pumping after 9 months and here she was telling me I didn't do enough. I'm glad you got a better doctor than that.

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  2. Glad it went well! I have an awesome doc here. we use a family care doctor, she sees us all. If we are still here after baby is born I am sure she wont push me on the vac front. They were forced on me in CA. I was threatened that I would lose my medi-cal if they didnt get vaced. I definantly agree with waiting until they are at least 2, and going slower, not this 5 at a time crap. trace amounts x 3 shots at once does not equal trace amounts!

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  3. Wow is all I have to say!!!

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