Saturday, February 13, 2010

Can't NBC find ANYONE better?

Every Olympics, ever since Bob Costas became host, I have written to NBC. This year is no exception.

GET RID OF BOB COSTAS; HE IS AWFUL. He is utterly negative, always looks miserable, wants nothing more than to create DRAMA, and clearly could not care less about sports.

I hate the way he covers the Olympics.
My husband hates him.
My folks hate him, my husband's folks hate him, my friends hate him, my co-workers hate him.

He is just so awful. Thank goodness we have TIVO so we can fast forward through him. Please NBC, replace him with any of the field event correspondents; replace him with anyone who shows even a drop of enthusiasm for the Olympics. Surely there is SOMEONE somewhere in the US you can find to do a better job. Perhaps even for a lower cost. Win-win for everyone, eh?

On a more positive note, these Vancouver winter olympics seem to have had fewer of the drama-ridden athletic 'close-ups', so I'd like to cheer NBC for that. And to reiterate what I alluded to earlier, the correspondents covering the individual events are pretty darned good. I just wish that Jim McCay was still with us, to serve as host. I can only hope that someone someday will be able to fill his shoes. And it ain't ever going to be Costas.

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.