If you've ever left the doctor's office wishing you had said what was really on your mind, you just might be the ideal patient, according to a recent story on CNN. It seems there's a forum where physicians are complaining about "the patient who knows too much," and what a problem these informed people are. Moms, prepare to get your collective backs up.
Because usually, the most informed "patient" is the mom or dad of the tiny person in the room. Any mom who has taken her child to the doctor after being up all night on the Internet, trying to find out what that high fever and rash mean, should be offended. Digging for answers should be praised, not panned, and at least one physician, writing on BlogHer, agrees.
I trust a medical professional because he or she has an education that I do not. But all doctors are human, and many mistakes doctors make are simply due to the fact that they don't know you or your baby as well as you do. They look for the most common, most obvious explanation -- which they should. If something falls out of the realm of normal, you might be the one who figures it out first. Bringing that information to your child's doctor is responsible and helps create a cooperative relationship between the two of you that results in better health for your child.
If a doctor is unwilling to hear what you have to say, you need to find another doctor. Especially when it comes to the health of your child. If I hadn't completely rejected my pediatrician's weird "night terrors" diagnosis when my baby was up for three nights, seemingly in pain, my poor little dude would have had a lot more sleepless nights. Instead, I stopped giving him soy milk -- since I suspected that was the problem, even though my doctor didn't -- and he never displayed those symptoms again. Needless to say, I found another doctor. Simply because I felt like a baby was more apt to have a problem with a new food that was introduced, in his case, soy, rather than night terrors. A pediatrician should have known that, especially after I told her that's what I thought it was.
I'm not saying Dr. Google should be a replacement for any physician's advice, but any real life doctor threatened by an informed patient is not someone I want caring for my baby.
Do you use the Internet to help diagnose your child's illnesses?
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Comments 22
i agree 100% i recently had to take my son to the urgent care on a sunday when he was crying about his ear. he had been at grandma's for a week playing in her pool and the outside of his ear hurt. i googled it bc i have had only one ear infection in my life and he's never had one, he had swimmer's ear. i told the np that and she scoffed at me, saying it was otitis media except his pain was on the outside. whatever, he was treated and i wont go back there just bc i think she was rude.
I am all for informed parents...I myself look up things and educate myself on what the symptoms may mean. The problem lies in the parent that is so hell bent on what Google told her that she doesnt listen/discuss/pay any attention to the doctor and simply declares she is right bc she "googled" it.
Working at a pediatrician's office - I assure you - we want you to be informed, we want you to be educated. We DONT want you to come in demanding XYZ RX for ABC syndrome simply bc Google said so.
Oh and to diagnosis otitis media, the np would have had to seen the ear drum as red, inflamed, etc rather than just the ear canal. Swimmer's ear (otitis externa) would have simply been the canal.
But definetly would never go back if someone was so rude to me!
Actually, as a nutritionist, news flash... your pediatrician probably only took one nutrition class... in his/her undergrad work. That is all the nutrition classes any doctor is required to take. Go to a dietitian or nutritionist, they know more, a lot more, about what to feed your baby than what your ped/Dr does.
Just the other day I took my older DS to the Dr. for an ear ache that wasn't going away. While we were there, and after he had checked my big boys ears, I asked the doctor to check my babies ears too because I thought he might have the same thing. The Dr. looked at me like I was insane and told me that ear infections weren't contagious, I told him that I knew they weren't contagious but that I had a feeling that my baby had one too and would he please look. Sure enough the baby had an ear infection also, my point is Dr's should be HAPPY that we have a mothers intuition. There was no outward appearance of any illness on the baby, he was only a little fussy at night but I knew without a doubt that he had an ear infection too his is actually worse than my older sons. And yes I do google symptoms for my children and myself, there can't be any harm in my suggesting what I think my illness or my childrens illnesses could be.
The worst doctors are the ones who don't want you to educate yourself to understand your body. I'm not saying there aren't a lot of hypochondriacs out there, but better a doctor has to spend an extra five minutes with a patient than a bunch of people go undiagnosed (like how my friend's thyroid cancer went unrecognised for a long time, or another friend's Wilson's disease, or my zinc deficiency). It's an elitist and unhelpful attitude. It reminds me of the religious establishment in the dark ages wanting people to remain illiterate to justify the existence of the clergy.