Understanding Pediatricians

Over the last couple of weeks I have come to a greater understanding of why pediatricians act the way they do, doling out medications, quickly recommending treatments, and running as many tests as possible to find out exactly what is wrong with a child.  Let me set the record straight before I go any further, our son has not had any tests done, medication prescribed, or treatments recommended.  Rather, he was checked out after his first fever spike and we were told two things; a) he is teething and b) he has a cold.  The only recommendation our pediatrician had was to buy some elderberry extract (which helps boost the immune system) and add it to his daily diet.  That was it.  Part of me wanted to know what else we could do as parents.  I think that every parent has those lingering questions, "Did I do enough", "What else could I do", "Why isn't he acting normally"?  As a parent watching your child go through a simple cold with a fever that doesn't even get above 102, it is still tough to see the different lethargic behavior.  Over the past two weeks, essentially 2 Fridays in a row, our son has spiked a fever to just under 102 degrees, the magic number over which indicates a virus of some sort taking hold in the body.  Naturally, watching our son become lethargic and wanting nothing more than to lay on our chests and sleep was disconcerting to put it mildly.  There is a guttural instinct to "do something" to make everything better.  Yet, with teething and a cold, there is not much you can do.  The best remedy is in fact to let the little body of a child fight it off, build up their immunity naturally, and come out better for the experience.  That last part is the hardest to see while a child is going through it, "better for the experience".  Yet, without medication, without any outside form of intervention (besides adding some elderberry extract, which I might add tastes pretty good), the body actually heals quicker.  Our son's cold was gone within a couple days, and as for his parents, my wife and I, our colds lasted quite a bit longer.  He still is dealing with three more teeth coming in, two molars and something else.  I know I wouldn't want to be going through that and I am pretty sure that the reason we don't remember the first few years of our life (despite the logical explanation that its due to a lack of speech and connection with words and images) is because of that pain we go through.  Yet, despite what our son has gone through over the past couple weeks, he is essentially back to his normal, super active self. 

So the "ah-ha" moment in regards to pediatricians didn't come till our son spiked his second fever in two weeks, low grade and short lived, but still, a fever spike.  I had to pick him up from day care early due to him spiking the fever during the day and becoming really lethargic around the other children.  The ladies watching him were pretty concerned even though I assured them that it was just teething, which it turned out to be.  When my wife got home from work and saw our son sleeping askew on my body, she wondered if we should call our pediatrician.  We both thought really hard about making the call, I think knowing instinctively what she would say, yet in the end decided that since it was Friday, it would be our only real chance to get a hold of her without calling her emergency contact number.  Sure enough, when she called back she told us exactly what we thought she would, he is fine, the fever isn't high enough to be worried about, and essentially just give him lots of extra hugs and kisses.  That is where I think most parents, including us at the time, want pediatricians to just jump on the wagon and start prescribing medication, recommending possible tests that could be done and what not.  There is a deep seated need within any parent I believe to want a child to get better immediately, to not have to suffer through pain or a fever, and to make a quick return to normal.  Therein lies the issue though.  In order for the quickest return to normal, sometimes doing nothing is best.  Fevers are present for a reason, to fight off something that the body perceives as a threat.  In the case of our son, the pain or presence of teeth breaking through the skin was enough to spike his fever just in case something was wrong.  Nothing was, it was just a sign of his body functioning perfectly normal.  A lot of pediatricians I believe would have recommended Tylenol for the pain, a decongestant for his nose that is running like a faucet, and something for the cough that is a result of snot dripping down the back of his throat.  I get why pediatricians prescribe as much medications as they do and run to tests as a first method of finding out what is wrong, its to placate the parents (in addition to receiving "stimulus" money from the drug manufacturers).  If a pediatrician can placate the parents and create a sense that the medications they prescribe are actually working, then they are creating a steady stream of revenue for themselves in the future.  In addition, they are wholly satisfying their clients by going to any means necessary to "cure" or "heal" their child. 

Desiring a more natural method of raising our son before he was even born, we knew our experience would be different than most.  It wasn't until these past few weeks that I realized just how different it would be.  There was a big part of me that wanted our pediatrician to go the extra mile and give us all the options of what we could do.  Yet, there wasn't much we could do.  Its a tough place to be in, yet as our son gets back to normal, I would have it no other way.  There is nothing I would do differently over the past few weeks.  We gave our son extra hugs and kisses (and of course elderberry extract) and he is back to normal despite his runny nose and cough from the teething.  To see the body work its magic, fighting off colds and symptoms of possible viruses is not easy, yet in the end to see our son be perfectly fine is an amazing feeling.  What makes it even better is knowing that he got through it all with no medication and no chemical or alien substances injected or forced down his through to make him "feel" better.  Every one of us has dealt with some sort of sickness and come through the other side no worse than before.  There are obviously times when a serious illness requires some sort of intervention, but for the most part, everything our body encounters can be dealt with by the body.  Our bodies are amazing pieces of machinery if you will.  They know how to act when dealing with pain or illness and our best bet is let our body heal itself.  I know that next time our son deals with something, we won't be as quick to rush and call the doctor.  I am sure we will call at some point, if for nothing else than to be reassured that we are doing everything we need to be doing, however I don't think we will freak out as much.  To sum it up, I am glad we found the pediatrician we did, a doctor who is non-intrusive, chooses natural over chemical, and is there to say, "just give him extra hugs and kisses because that is all he needs right now; that and rest of course."