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Symptoms to Call Your Doctor About

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When you become a parent, you earn a medical merit badge of sorts. Whether you’re sopping up a goopy nose or extracting a dangling-by-a-thread baby tooth, eventually few things faze you. But sometimes it’s tough to tell what warrants a call to your doctor’s office: Which temperature actually classifies as a “high fever”? What kind of tummy ache means your child has more than your average stomach bug? And when something truly frightening happens — say, your child suddenly breaks out in hives — should you call your pediatrician or head straight to the E.R.?

“Parents should always err on the side of caution and seek immediate medical care when they’re worried about something,” says Anita Chandra-Puri, M.D., a pediatrician at Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group, in Chicago, and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. However, to give you more specific guidelines to follow, we talked to top pediatricians about the 12 symptoms that always require medical attention.

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Mother’s Intuition vs Diagnosis

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January 21, 2012
by Hallie of “The Bump”

When Jodi Schulz, attorney and mommy blogger brought her three-year-old to the ER with a fever and a rash, she was sure the doc was joking when he announced that he was admitting the toddler. “Michael was running around like a lunatic, as if there was nothing wrong with him. They’d already run a bunch of tests and the nurse said they all looked fine.” The doctor did not immediately explain himself. “In retrospect I should have kept asking questions,” says Jodi. “I should have pushed harder.”

Eventually, doctors informed her that her son was potentially at risk for a rare disease called Kawasaki, even though everyone who examined him said he didn’t appear to have it. Though her gut (yep, that mother’s intuition) whispered that her child was fine, she didn’t initially push back. “You don’t want to be the parent who demands your child be released and it turns out there’s something wrong,” she says.

Over the next 24 hours, her son was placed on IV, poked, prodded, and awakened at 6 a.m. so staff could look at his rash. Eventually Jodi reached a breaking point and demanded Michael’s release. “I should have insisted much sooner,” she says. “Some of the nonsense could have been avoided.”

Jodi’s hesitancy to voice her intuition is hardly unique, particularly when it counters the opinion of medical professionals. Even when your gut is screaming that the doc is off, it’s tough to know how to handle the situation. Read on to find out how to keep Jodi’s experience from happening to you.

Get Familiar With the Patient’s Bill of Rights
This handy document comes straight from the top—the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Nationwide, hospitals and medical plans have adopted its tenets, which promote communication and understanding between patients and their health care providers. And how does this bill of rights apply to you? Well, when we’re talking mommy’s intuition, the most important thing to note is that insisting on getting all the info and being involved in decision-making doesn’t mean you’re pesky or difficult—it means you’re standing up for your child.

To continue reading: Mother’s Intuition

Flu and Colds

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We are in the midst of the flu season for 2012. Mike and I have fought both colds and flu this season already, so I’ve been doing some checking about what you can and should do to protect your family from the flu. Here’s what I could find out.

Flu shots
Although no one likes to get a shot, this is the only proven way to be protected against the most virulent and common flu virus for the year. Some people can use a flu nasal spray, but only your doctor can tell you if you qualify for the spray instead of the shot.

Flu vaccine is up-dated every year. So although you are immune to the virus in last year’s shot, that immunity won’t cover this year’s virus.

The flu shot does not cause you to get the flu since the virus is not live. If you were exposed around the time you took the shot though, you could still get it. There are a huge number of different flu viruses, so it is possible to get flu that wasn’t covered by the shot. You will have immunity to any flu in your flu shot or for any flu that you get.

It is not too late to get the shot. Until the last flu for the year has made its rounds in about May, you may still need the protection. [Read more…]