Thursday, February 4, 2010

Doctor Mom: Prescribing as best she can


Our 2-year-old son has been teething recently. Traditionally, this has been just a runny nose. But the past two days he has started to really cough. Last night we were up almost all night with him.

UGH.

So this morning, I called our pediatrician to get some thoughts on how to stop the coughing.
The nurse immediately asked if he had a fever. No, he didn't. So, she said, you need to give him a nice shower and prop him up in bed.

Ok. Good advice, but not really what I was looking for.

"Is there anything that we can give him to quiet this cough? He's not sleeping at all. We did try some hot water with honey, but we're wondering what else we can give him."

"Our office recommends that children under 6 not be given over the counter medication of any kind."

Whoa. What? Isn't this the same office that told me not 6 months ago to give him some Infant Tylenol, or even a little bit of Children's Benadryl? We asked if this was a new policy, and if it was based on medical knowledge or malpractice insurance costs, and we got the exact same answer.

"Our office recommends that children under 6 not be given over the counter medication of any kind."

So, we did what most parents would do in this situation. We completely ignored their warning, went to the store, and hunted through the shelves till we found a promising looking one:
Hyland's Cough Syrup with 100% Natural Honey 4 Kids

It's Made in the USA! They say it is OK for kids starting at age 2! Groovy!

We bought it, and we just tried it a few hours ago, and I think it is helping (not sure yet; need to make it through the night). We're on our own, clearly, so we'll just figure it out ourselves.

This is not isolated. All of the doctors are doing this. It's horrible. My mom tells me that when I was little, doctor's used to make recommendations for such things. Honestly, I think that sometimes we are moving backwards rather than forwards. When is this going to end? When will doctors stop giving any advice at all for fear of being sued if they are wrong? Here we are, with no medical training, just looking at a shelf of labels and hoping for the best. It sure would be nice to get a professional opinion, but I guess we'll just need to trust the buyer at the drug store and hope for the best.


2 comments:

Joanna Pineda said...

I am totally with you on this. What are you supposed to do when your child is utterly miserable? I know the answer is NOT to over-medicate our kids, but even kids need relief, not to mention exhausted and stressed out parents.

I don't know what I would do without Children's Tylenol.

Pish Posh, @imakeagoodhat said...

:nods:

Hyland's also has a nighttime formula.

And if you want to go the homeopathic route, try Osillico. (Not sure of the spelling.) They have some great products that were on sale during the winter, so if you can wait to stock up, wait for Rite Aid sales. :)