feedback for "Bad Parent: The Sickest Baby on the Block"

1. Aren't antibiotics, nebulizers and pediatricians modern medicine? I basically liked this article,  but she doesn't seem to understand that there are true alternative medicines out there.
   

   posted by : Ridvan on 3/12/2009 at 3:03 PM Flag For Abuse

2. I understand the wait-and-see approach. My daughter has had a lot of the same issues as the author's --- acid reflux, wheezing -- but on the contrary, I have to say the wait-and-see approach is working for us.
   
   Medicine was definitely the right way to go with her acid reflux. The difference was night-and-day -- the constant fussiness went away almost immediately -- whereas the nonmedical remedies hadn't helped at all. And we were able to wean her off of it by the time she was on solids and sitting up well.
   
   But her wheezing so far is best being treated by time and a more concerted effort on our part to keep the house dust-free and her room pet-free so as not to further aggravate her lungs when she comes down with a cold. I suffered from asthma as a child and my husband has it as an adult, so our big fear is that our daughter will be diagnosed with asthma and be reliant on daily medicines (that mess with her body's natural ability to heal and fight off infection). It's one of the biggest reasons why I was so motivated to breastfeed (and to continue to breastfeed, even though she turned 1 last month). Our pediatrician prescribed a homeopathic remedy, which did seem to help her fight off a cold that developed into bronchitis. But I refused to use the inhaler prescribed to us. She was a happy wheezer and it seemed like it would do more harm (keep her from sleeping well) than good. I hate it when she gets sick, but I like to think her immune system is getting stronger everytime she does get ill. She's a happy and active girl, even when she's fighting a cold.
   
   I certainly do believe there are instances when a child does need to be a on daily medication to be well. But it certainly isn't ideal, in my opinion, and I think sometimes we are too quick to "solve" our children's illnesses instead of giving their bodies and immune systems a chance to figure it out themselves.
   

   posted by : wami on 3/12/2009 at 4:49 PM Flag For Abuse

3. No offense Wami but you are truly playing with fire. I had a coworker who had a daughter with mild asthma and was not taking her medication on a regular basis. One day she had a terrible asthma attack, her mother rushed her to the emergency room where she was stabilized and eventually discharged only to have another asthma attack that night in bed, and unfortunately it was fatal.  My poor coworker never did recover from it, she will always blame herself for not making her child take her inhaler properly every day.
   
   Our doctor has said that some science doesn't come easily to some people, and this article is a great example of this concept. At least the author finally came around.
   

   posted by : Spartic on 3/12/2009 at 5:19 PM Flag For Abuse

4. I don't get this either. Was giving her kid tons of antibiotics, ibuprofen, asthma drugs and taking him to a doctor not embracing medicine? I personally am pretty fed up with doctors. Every time I take my daughter in they tell me she has the same illness yet again, which is usually croup, tell me there is nothing I can do about it other then give her a steroid shot. Fed up, I did actually turn to alternative medicine; chiropractic care, homeopathic  medicine and herbs. It's been working ok but I did take my daughter to the doctor recently because she got the stomach flu right after someone gave her recalled peanut butter ice cream. Once again the doctor told us we were crazy and I was right back on the phone with my friend who went to school for homeopathics.
   

   posted by : Brooke Johnson on 3/12/2009 at 11:21 PM Flag For Abuse

5. Spartic, I don't take offense because I don't think we are taking any risks at all. Just to clarify, our doctors only prescribed the inhaler to use while my daughter is wheezing -- and she only wheezes when she has a cold -- not as a daily regimen. Her oxygen saturation while wheezing, mind you, was measured at 98 percent. She has never struggled for air, though hearing her wheeze does sound a bit scary. That's why I felt the inhaler was completely unnecessary.
   Children under the age of 5 are rarely diagnosed with asthma -- and my daughter has not been diagnosed with it. The wheezing diagnosis, coupled with her family history, simply makes her more likely to develop it.
   In the meantime, I'm trying to make sure she doesn't develop it -- as much as I can -- by continuing to breastfeed and eliminating known allergens in her everyday environment. Helping her build a strong immune system also will help prevent asthma, which is why, if I could return to the original point of my first post, I want to avoid any use of antibiotics and medicine unless it's absolutely necessary. 
   

   posted by : wami on 3/12/2009 at 11:34 PM Flag For Abuse

6. I'm glad that the medical profession did help Roscoe.  I can't help but think that much of the treatment for very small children is a guessing game for most doctors.  There are treatments that help large groups of kids who might share a similar condition--for ear infections?  antibiotics, for wheezing? steroids--but then when it comes to individual kids with individual and recurring bronchial problems or repeated illnesses, doctors don't seem to really know what will help. So little is done to help prevent conditions. 
    
   My  son Ben started getting sick when he was about 6 months old and was in the company of a lot of other children in daycare.  He stayed sick for nearly 8 months straight.  Not a day without a cough, a runny nose, a fever.    It started with croup, then progressed to one cold and then another and another.  The colds turned into recurrent double ear infections and mysterious rashes. Then the croup would come back.  I was in the doctor's office almost every two weeks  and got prescriptions for steroids, nebulizers, antibiotics, and then finally a referral to an ENT who recommended the tubes.  My husband, who's English, was heartily opposed to any kind of surgery.  He and I both find it very disconcerting that no one knows if there are any long term effects on children's hearing or health as a result of this procedure.  No one can even guarantee it will work. 
   
   We ended up scouring the area for homeopathic or holistic doctors and found one.  She was an MD and a holistic practioner. She interviewed us and Ben , did a lot of blood tests, and prescribed supplements and iodine breathing treatments.  Ben started taking the  supplements and almost immediately improved.  We stopped feeding him wheat and cow's milk also. 
   
   He's 21/2 now and we've kept him on the preventative regime for all this time.  When we have had lapses of a day or two he'll end up with a bit of a cough and we know that we need to keep at it....
   
   I'm very happy we didn't have the surgery, but I do understand why for some kids it seems necessary.

   posted by : mother of a 2 year old son on 3/13/2009 at 12:28 PM Flag For Abuse

7. Just an "I wonder" - my second child (exclusively breastfed, no daycare) had similar issues from about 4 weeks with the addition of awful, heartbreaking eczema.  We had air quality testing done on our house and it revealed 5 moulds - one of which has been proven to be very dangerous to newborns and was found in the nursery and living room.  He is now 27 months old and his allergist/asthma doctor believes he will have lifelong problems stemming from that early exposure that basically disrupted his immune system and lungs.  And this is a robust, very feisty little fellow who currently has anaphylaxis (nuts) and wheezes when he has a cold - the eczema is much better and he is growing out of a lot of his other allergies (wheat, dairy) but he still gets lesions bursting out on his face which noone can explain.  Just another "hmmm" for some of you to consider...

   posted by : canadian mom on 3/13/2009 at 3:21 PM Flag For Abuse

8. I think leaning 100% toward either Eastern or Western medicine can be harmful.  Do your research and figure out which combination will work best for you.  A friend who is a practitioner of Eastern medicine in Nepal is quick to point out that Western medicine has its uses and there are times that it is the best choice.
   
   My daughter also has RAD and only gets asthmatic when she gets a cold.  However her saturation levels due decrease and she has to work hard to get air so we use the nebulizer during those times. 
   
   Our doctor does not throw that "asthma" label out easily so we are being patient and conservative and seeing how things play out.  But if it wasn't for the wheezing, her doctor would have never ordered a base line chest x-ray that uncovered a congenital heart defect.  It can be repaired with surgery when she gets a little bigger.   I've never been so grateful for the way it all worked out.

   posted by : Elizabeth Hart on 3/13/2009 at 5:11 PM Flag For Abuse

9. My exclusively breastfed, organic-everything son was pretty much sick constantly (chronic runny nose was a good day; coughing without a breath in between and/or one ear infection after the other was a bad day) until we eliminated all traces of milk from his diet. That means no milk for the breastfeeding mom, reading all labels like a hawk, etc. My son hasn't been sick once since. His speech has really picked up too, now that his ears aren't chronically congested. And his mood has brightened about 100% -- the milk was causing a sort of toddler depression. I don't know if little Roscoe has any of these issues, but it might be worth looking for a naturopath. Milk intolerances cause a whole host of problems, and they're notoriously under-diagnosed b/c they can't be picked up by an allergist's "prick test."
   
   Best wishes,
   
   Mira
   

   posted by : Mira on 3/18/2009 at 10:10 AM Flag For Abuse

10. I feel like I could have written this article!  My son was born with eczema and reflux, and things just went downhill from there.  At 4 months old, he started on the nebulizer treatments which seemed to go on constantly through the summer and the following winter.  Every time we heard the rattling cough, we'd drag him into the pediatrician's office only to be told "just a virus, here's a refill for the nebulizer" while giving him hypo-allergenic formula and slathering him with various creams to see if that would take the itchy eczema away.  All the while I was wondering what I had done wrong since his older brother was a picture of perfect health.  At 9 months, we finally visited an allergist who found no real allergy issues, but gave us prescriptions and advice to control the eczema--and it worked!!  I'm sure there are people who will frown upon giving such a young baby antihistamines, but if it lets that baby sleep through the night and not itch to the point that his body is one big scratch?  Big sigh of relief all around, because at least we were winning ONE battle and our child looked/acted a little happier.
    
    We are still fighting the bronchial battle (my son will be 3 next month), but this winter was 10 times better than the past 2, and we're hardly using the Singulair/Flovent/Nasonex cocktail his doctor prescribed in the fall.  We actually put the nebulizer back in the closet when we're not using it, so hoping this spring will continue to show improvement.  Thank you for sharing your story, it's always good to hear you're not alone and how familes have gotten past it.
    

    posted by : msjess on 3/18/2009 at 11:58 AM Flag For Abuse