Knowing When NOT To Trust The Doctor

Two weeks ago we flew to California to visit my sister's new baby boy. Baby Mo was just getting over a cold and the plane ride made him worse. I ended up taking him to an urgent care facility near my mother's house. 

This turned out to be both good and bad. It was good because at least we got a diagnosis: double ear infection, sore throat, small fever. It was bad because the prescription we recieved was wrong and the advice about pain medication was also misguided. 

The doctor on call prescribed an antibiotic called Augmentin. He also gave Baby Mo a dosage of baby Motrin and recommended that I give him over-the-counter cough medicine such as Mucinex. My red flag went up. 

I knew from my research that Motrin is harder on children's stomachs than Tylenol. I also knew that cough medicne is not recommended for children under the age of three or four, depending on who you ask. I asked the doctor about these concerns and he sort of shrugged them off. 

I filled the prescription but decided against the Mucinex. I did give Baby Mo a few days of Motrin but stopped after he had an obvious upset stomach. When I took him to his pediatrician back in New Jersey a few days later, he was not as improved as I thought he should have been after a few days of antibiotics. The doctor took a look and sure enough, both ear infections were still raging strong.  

I told the pediatrician about the urgent care visit and he said that Augmentin is not something pediatricians have made a practice of prescribing for nearly five years. He gave us Cefprozil in a different dosage instead. I also asked him about Motrin and Mucinex and he told me I was right: Motrin is too hard on their stomach and Tylenol does the same thing so better to stick to Tylenol and Mucinex is too dangerous for little ones and, in his words, "doesn't really do any good anyway." 

I filled the new prescription and Baby Mo perked up within a day or two. All better now!

I was discouraged that the urgent care doctor had given us such bad information but was also encouraged that I was up on my own research and knew enough to trust myself. Lesson being: don't fly until the baby is all better and when your red flag goes up, listen to it! Sometimes Mother Does Know Best!! I know doctors are not Gods and this was just a small misdirection that wasn't life threatening but still, it shouldn't happen.

The Baby Patient

Baby Mo had his first real bout of illness last week and my heart is still broken from seeing his cuddly little face, not able to understand why he was feeling so yuck.

After his first stint in daycare, (which I didn't want to do but Clayton insisted), he contracted an upper respiratory infection. It wasn't serious but his fever peaked at 102.8 and I swear it took all of my sensibilities not to freak the heck out when I read those numbers come out of his little butt cheeks. (Rectal thermometer, ya know.) 

I didn't panic. I read Baby 411 from cover to cover so I was ready. I knew that baby viruses are common after the first exposure to daycare. I knew that baby's temperatures ran higher than adult's temperatures. And I knew that temperatures naturally spike at night so the numbers would be more scary before bedtime.

What I wasn't prepared for was that my poor baby wouldn't understand this sudden change in his body. I wasn't prepared for the way he would look at Clayton and me to make it better. I wasn't prepared to have to hold his head down to shoot saline into his nose while he cried. I wasn't prepared to treck to Walmart at 1 a.m. to buy a humidifier. I wasn't prepared to sleep on the floor of his room just to be sure his cough didn't turn into a choking session. I know this is new mom paranoia but I couldn't help it.

Parents of chronically ill children, I salute and pray for you. I am grateful that my little guy is getting better. To watch your child suffer is the most painful thing I've ever known. How can I make sure I never have to do it again!?

By the way, the unsung heroes of the medical profession: pharmacists! Our pediatrician and her advice nurses are great but I always make it a point to chat with the pharmacists when I go to the drug store. They can suggest more specific products and give extra advice and answer questions you may have forgotten to ask the doctor. I've done this a few times and I can't say how comforting it is to talk to someone knowledgeable when you are staring at a wall of baby Tylenol.

Oh and one more thing I wasn't prepared for: Baby's first flu usually means mommy will get sick too. I kissed his burning hot cheeks so many times that it was probably the equivalent of drinking a steaming mug of snotty infestation. I am still fighting this flu miserably but there was no avoiding it. I'd do it again.

When you say something is pathetic, you mean is that it evokes pathos. Pathos is the Greek expression that implies an appeal to one's emotion. Having a sick baby is really the most pathetic thing you will ever experience and it will humble you. Veteran parents have told me that you get used to it but do you really?

Mommy Feels Yucky

This is the first time I've been sick since Baby Mo was born. That's what I get for bragging to Clayton that I wouldn't catch his cold because I have so many antibodies from nursing.

Being sick when you are a mom is a lot harder. When I was a little girl, I loved sick days because it meant that I could stay home from school, eat ice cream, watch movies, and get backrubs from my mom. When I was in my 20s and took a sick day, I would hide out on my couch, drink hot tea with rum, order hot and sour soup, and watch a Harry Potter movie marathon. 

For some reason, Baby Mo does not want to enable either of these plans. The photo below was taken while I was trying to rest on the couch yesterday.

Come on Mommy, let's play!

I'll be napping when Baby Mo naps today and those antibodies had better do their job quickly! Being sick sucks. I'll have to learn to ignore the housework until I feel better. Still, it sucks a little less with this smiling face. I'd take him over Harry Potter any old time!

Sick? I don't know what that means! Let's play, Mommy!

More Body Shots

I knew that immunizations were controversial but wow, I hit a nerve with my last post. That is a new thing for me. I usually try to keep my controversial opinions to myself but I am quickly learning that that does not work with parenting. Everything is controversial when it comes to parenting and it seems you have to assert yourself and stick to your guns. I do think we could be a little nicer to each other when it comes to controversial topics but that is the subject of a different post. 

I want to provide an update to my post yesterday about vaccinating my son. Today I got a flu/H1N1 shot myself because I don't want to risk catching something I could spread to Baby Mo. The flu shot is recommended for pregnant and breastfeeding mommies but since I have decided on a delayed vaccine schedule for my child, he won't be fully immunized as quickly as other children. For this reason, I wanted to make sure that we are keeping our household as virus free as possible. 

The comments on yesterday's post were both encouraging and discouraging. Just to reiterate my position on vaccinations once again: I do believe in vaccinations. My son WILL be fully vaccinated. I just don't want to expose him to all of those foreign chemicals at once in the off chance that the dosage is harmful or toxic. Also, if he were to have had a reaction to his vaccines yesterday, I would have known what he was reacting to. If he had the full cocktail, how would I know what was causing the contraindication?

I do not begrudge any parent who chooses otherwise but I happen to believe it is a social responsibility to vaccinate. Diseases like polio are eradicated for a reason. It is because we have vaccinated. But I maintain that pumping my child full of so many dead viruses at once is not worth the risk, no matter how minuscule. I don't even plan to allow him to drink soda. Why wouldn't I think twice about something else so foreign in his new little body? 

For my flu shot, I paid just under $30 at Duane Reade. It did not hurt at all, although I am told that your tolerance for pain goes up after child birth. I am trying to think of ways to incent Mo's Daddy to get a flu shot too. He is being a scaredy cat. Men!