I want to talk a little bit about this idea that physicians (specifically pediatricians) don't focus enough on nutrition, exercise, and non-drug interventions, or that we somehow benefit from pushing pharmaceuticals upon healthy kids and families.
90% of my job in clinic is reassuring families that everything is OK. Almost every infant visit is a discussion of normal behaviors and good nutrition. The vast majority of my sick visits involve recommending AGAINST the use of OTC cold and flu medications.
Fruits and veggies, healthy fats, and protein sources are the mainstay of my nutritional counseling. I spend many visits discussing ways to engage individual families in healthy movement that combines exercise and quality time. We talk about drinking lots of water, not juice.
I look at a LOT of eardrums, you guys. Like a lot. I see a lot of reddish eardrums, a lot with clear fluid behind them, some mildly retracted or dull. It takes a lot for me to call something an ear infection or to prescribe antibiotics. That eardrum had better look nasty.
Some parents desperately want the antibiotics, even if the reddish eardrum isn't the most likely cause of their kid's discomfort or fussiness. It sucks to see your kid crying and uncomfortable, and to stay up with them screaming in your ear while you try to console them.
So we watch and wait. And most trials of infancy and childhood past with time and good hydration. But some kids need medicine, and no amount of organic food, supplements, probiotics, or essential oils is going to change that.
A child with asthma needs her inhaler. A kid with severe food allergies needs an Epi-pen. And day in and day out, I'm on the phone with case management or social work or the Rite-Aid in the middle of nowhere, trying to get kids the meds they need, quickly and affordably.
I have no financial disclosures. I'm salaried. I don't get a bonus for prescribing your kid medicine. But I see kids every day who missed a dose of their seizure medications or whose inhalers ran out, who come to the hospital sick and scared. And many time's it's preventable.
Hospital stays are expensive. Serious illness--apart from its toll on the body--is traumatic for kids and families. So we prescribe medicine sometimes. We recommend immunizations. We get the flu shot, to protect your babies and ours.
So of course, nutritious food, an active lifestyle, and restful sleep can solve (and prevent!) a lot of problems. I will happily badger you about Vitamin D for your infant if you forget. But I'm also going to discuss the flu shot. Every visit. Every year.
Fin.
Fin.
