Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Works for Me Wednesday -- Trusting your instinct with medical issues


Today's Works for Me Wednesday Theme is Parenting Advice. I was not planning on posting as I have only been at this motherhood thing for barely 22 months, but as I was reading some of the other posts of great advice I thought of something, so here goes!

One thing that I have found helpful is to always trust my instinct, that motherly instinct is often right. This has been especially important for us when dealing with doctors.

Jacob's peditrician is fabulous and listens to all of my concerns with great care; however, when he wanted to wait and see how Jake's torticollis worked itself out or to wait and see how his head shaped, I felt that waiting was not the best answer.

So, being the cowardly self I am, I left the appointments waiting, thought to myself about what the doctor said, researched on the internet about specific things and then called when I had a concern that waiting was not the best answer. The doctor was always responsive to my concerns and referred us to the next step along the path of treatment.

I may or may not have been right. We could have waited to start physical therapy or waited and avoided unnecessary other appointments, but it comforted me to know that something was happening and at least we had other opinions and solutions.

This also proved true when Jake needed glasses. I recognized that he would not make eye contact when he was up close and low and behold he needed glasses.

So, don't be afraid to speak up. Trust your instincts. You are your childrens' number one advocate, they rely on you.

For more Parenting Advice visit Rocks in My Dryer.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

We had a similar experience with our (former) doctor and my son's torticollis. I had asked about his constant leaning to one side, and the doctor just dismissed it as babies have weak neck muscles and as he holds his head up better it would go away (he was 7 or 8 months at the time).

I did some research of my own and printed out some articles from the internet and brought them to our next appointment and basically handed them to the doctor and said here, this is what he has, I want a referral to PT. We did get one, but I wasn't impressed with him a) not noticing it himself, and b) dismissing my concerns without even looking at my son.

I hope things are going well with your son!