Dr. Rob's 10 Reasons to NOT Like Pediatrics reminded me of a time when my older children were very small. It was item #10 if you're wondering.
My middle (then youngest) son was 15 months old at the time. He'd been up at about 2am looking for someone to play with. He didn't whine. He didn't cry. He was very cheerful. HOWEVER, this was a child who made a practice of sleeping through the night while cutting 4 teeth at a time. He NEVER complained about anything.
That and he'd been sleeping through the night since he was 2 days old. Really. Usually 12-14 hours.
So I did what any self-respecting mom would do.
I called the pediatrician and made an appointment to have him examined.
"Dr. Spock's office, how may I help you?"
"My 15 month old was awake last night. I think something is wrong with him."
"Was he crying?"
"No."
"Was he tugging on his ear?"
"No. In fact he was quite cheerful. But this isn't normal for him. Something is wrong."
"You want the doctor to examine your 15 month old because he was up once during the night last night?"
"That's right. Oh, and his brother (of the many ear infections) says his ears hurt, so I'd like to bring them both in."
(audible sigh) "Can you come at 11:30?"
"Sure. We'll be there."
For the record: his brother had bilateral otitis media - and so did he. According to the pediatrician, his ears looked much worse. He was the reason I bought an otoscope (ear-looker thingy) and why the pediatrician educated me in the proper use of it.
Prior to the otoscope, the first ear infection was the only one I caught before the poor kid had pus dripping from his ear canal. He NEVER complained. I got in the habit of checking his ears any time he had a sniffle. A year or so after I bought the "ear-looker thingy" he did ask me to "play check ears" - sure enough, the eardrum was ready to burst again. That was the closest the kid ever came to actually complaining about an ear infection.
That first incident was also the last time the office staff questioned my reasoning for wanting to bring a child in to be seen.
5 comments:
Yep. Trust Moms. They do know what they are saying in general. I had a mom today who "had a feeling" and the child had an ear infection. My post was not to discourage those types of visits - just 3 kids at once when they are not really sick.
I can tell from your blog that you listen to moms. I just thought this story was more appropriate on my blog than yours and you reminded me of it.
My son was prone to ear infections and like yours, rarely complained. One time on the way to preschool - age 3 - he casually mentioned that his ear hurt - that was enough for me and we took a detour to his doctor's office. He wouldn't take liquid medicine, so the doctor wrote a prescription for pink Amoxicillin tablets and I got them filled at the pharmacy, buckled him into his back seat carseat, handed him a pill, and we headed back to school. As we pulled in the parking lot, I asked if he'd swallowed his pill. I can still hear that outraged little voice - "Swallow it? You told me it was for my ear."
Back to the doctor - this time to have the pill removed. He'd pushed it so far inside that I couldn't reach it. The whole office was in hysterics by the time we left. I learned to be more specific when medicating him and it was a long time before we went back to that doctor.
Deb,
Thanks for the laugh. I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time. Kids are SO literal in their thinking. I've certainly learned that the hard way myself.
Fortunately, mine would take liquids and were much older before we were using pills. Otherwise that might have been my story.
ROFL! That makes me feel so much better about #2 finding the bottle of liquid Amoxil and squirting a dropperful in his ear "to make it get better real faster, mama!".
And Judy, exactly what you said. Only, when #2 woke up and chirped and played all night, my family doc refused to even examine him. So, off to the ER, both ears were awful (one close to perforation) and I found a new doctor who would listen to me.
Cindy
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