No vax, check ups

[cocoanib]

Do you still take your babies in for check ups if your not vaxing?

I'm a ftm and DD hasn't been back since 4wks. She's now 2 1/2 months. The next visit was supposed to be at 2 months old, but that was just a weight check and vax visit. Since she's not getting any vax and she's gaining just fine, we skipped making an appt. I don't really see bringing her in anytime soon unless something is wrong. Is there other reasons to keep up with the check ups other than vax?

[RachelJoy]

I wouldn't think so. I didn't vax my older two and we made it to most of the well child checks but our insurance pays for them and my two have a couple other health issues. I would think that if your baby is healthy and gaining well and you don't really "care" about the poundage it would be fine to skip them. Plus is saves you the hassle of explaining AGAIN why you're not vaxing. lol

[catchthewind]

I did one visit with DD1 after the last midwife check. It was supposed to be just a meet the doctor type thing, but it ended up going pretty poorly. I didn't go back to that doctor but found a new doctor and went to her a couple of times to get things with DD checked that the first doctor had tried to scare me about, and all turned out fine. If it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't have bothered. That doctor was 100% fine with no vax and after the first visit it never came up again.

This time around we have another new doctor, because the one I liked from last time has closed her practice to be a yoga instructor instead lol. But he's very cool too and is fine with no vax. Again, after the first time with DD1 he didn't mention it. I need to get a mole on DD1's leg checked out, so will be going in anyway and will make an appointment for DD2 too as a sort of meet the doctor. After that, I likely won't do any more unless I have concerns. I don't think 10 minutes at the doctors every few months is going to catch anything sooner than a parent who knows their child and is proactive when they do have concerns.

[cocoanib]

Thanx Mama's!

Originally Posted by catchthewind

I did one visit with DD1 after the last midwife check. It was supposed to be just a meet the doctor type thing, but it ended up going pretty poorly. I didn't go back to that doctor but found a new doctor and went to her a couple of times to get things with DD checked that the first doctor had tried to scare me about, and all turned out fine. If it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't have bothered. That doctor was 100% fine with no vax and after the first visit it never came up again.

This time around we have another new doctor, because the one I liked from last time has closed her practice to be a yoga instructor instead lol. But he's very cool too and is fine with no vax. Again, after the first time with DD1 he didn't mention it. I need to get a mole on DD1's leg checked out, so will be going in anyway and will make an appointment for DD2 too as a sort of meet the doctor. After that, I likely won't do any more unless I have concerns. I don't think 10 minutes at the doctors every few months is going to catch anything sooner than a parent who knows their child and is proactive when they do have concerns.

This is how I feel, so guess I'll skip all the 2 month, 4 month, 6 month appts. unless something comes up.
We haven't found "The" ped yet anyways. We just went to a local one that was under our ins. Once she learned we were doing no vax, we both knew that we probably wouldn't be coming back. She was not very supportive. I guess I'll take this time to find a ped that fits with us and we will go from there.

[judybean]

We went twice to a local dr. here for the PKU .. but that's all. I was supposed to bring Hazel back for a 2-month appointment even though she (the dr) knows we don't vax. Honestly, I'm mostly just curious what she weighs, as silly as that is Plus, we haven't really found a local doctor we like since our last one moved... four years ago. We really DON'T go to the doctor's office ever, but we did have a medical emergency with dd3 (freakish blood disorder that nearly killed her.. but just one freak occurence, *knockonwood*) and I'd just kind of like to establish a bit of a relationship with a doctor here in case anything happens again.

That said, Hazel will be three months old next week and I haven't been back

With dd1 I think we did all the visits... with dd2 we did them until she was 9 months (stopped vaxing).. and with dd3 we went twice and stopped because we don't vax. I like to think of myself as quite 'in tune' with my kids and I know them far better than anybody, like a pp said, and so I trust that I'd know when something is wrong and should take her in.

[1babysmom]

Nope, we don't. I take mine about once a year, not for health reasons, but just for the paper trail (since I'm always a wee bit worried about those people out there who think we're "crazy" for the parenting choices we've made). Even the dr. we take them to (a natural/herbal MD) says she doesn't need to see them more than a few times a year at most.

[cocoanib]

Thanx for sharing your experiences ladies!

Originally Posted by judybean

We went twice to a local dr. here for the PKU .. but that's all. I was supposed to bring Hazel back for a 2-month appointment even though she (the dr) knows we don't vax. Honestly, I'm mostly just curious what she weighs, as silly as that is Plus, we haven't really found a local doctor we like since our last one moved... four years ago. We really DON'T go to the doctor's office ever, but we did have a medical emergency with dd3 (freakish blood disorder that nearly killed her.. but just one freak occurence, *knockonwood*) and I'd just kind of like to establish a bit of a relationship with a doctor here in case anything happens again.

That said, Hazel will be three months old next week and I haven't been back

With dd1 I think we did all the visits... with dd2 we did them until she was 9 months (stopped vaxing).. and with dd3 we went twice and stopped because we don't vax. I like to think of myself as quite 'in tune' with my kids and I know them far better than anybody, like a pp said, and so I trust that I'd know when something is wrong and should take her in.

Just curious,
Was the blood disorder of DD3 found at one of the visits or you discovered something with her and then took her in?

[Plummeting]

We don't vax and we do go for some of the visits, definitely not all. I think with DD1 we did well baby checks at 3, 6 and 15 months - something like that. She was in a couple times before 3 months for actual problems (she had reflux we were trying to figure out). We'll probably take this baby girl in at 2.5 months, 6 months and 12 months. I have read stories of things being picked up by peds at well baby visits and I do think there are things a parent simply couldn't notice until they got really bad. There are certain heart issues, for one thing I know. I do agree that most things would be easily noticed by a parent, though.

[cocoanib]

Originally Posted by Plummeting

We don't vax and we do go for some of the visits, definitely not all. I think with DD1 we did well baby checks at 3, 6 and 15 months - something like that. She was in a couple times before 3 months for actual problems (she had reflux we were trying to figure out). We'll probably take this baby girl in at 2.5 months, 6 months and 12 months. I have read stories of things being picked up by peds at well baby visits and I do think there are things a parent simply couldn't notice until they got really bad. There are certain heart issues, for one thing I know. I do agree that most things would be easily noticed by a parent, though.

Thanx for your reply!
I think that once we find another provider we are comfy with, we will go in for a 6 month checkup. Even if we don't find another, we will still do a 6 month, just for our own satisfaction.

[judybean]

Originally Posted by cocoanib

Just curious,
Was the blood disorder of DD3 found at one of the visits or you discovered something with her and then took her in?

It wasn't anything discovered at a visit. She was the epitome of health (never going to a doctor for anything) until she appeared to have something like the flu (lethargic, sleeping all day), then we thought maybe she had a UTI or something more because there was blood in her urine... so I did take her to the doctor's office. She wouldn't pee there, so they sent us home to keep an eye on her. That night, (this is something I'm thankful for in retrospect) she threw up on her hair and had to take a bath.. and then she needed to pee and I thought ahead enough to make her go on her little potty (basically to catch it all) and it looked like straight blood. We went immediately to the ER (with sample in hand). She was (as the ER doctor stated) sicker than you'd ever want to see a child. And dying because she was losing so much blood so fast. ... She was in the local hospital three night, transferred to a bigger hospital for a stay in the PICU, three nights there, visits with a pediatric hemotologist, two blood transfusions.. and diagnosed with hemolytic anemia. Basically, her white blood cells were attacking and killing off her red blood cells (instead of whatever infection triggered things). A freak occurrance. "One in a million" the pediatric hematologist said. Something he had "read about" but never seen in his 20+ years of practice.

um, how long-winded was that?! And way more than you asked for

But it wasn't caught by the doctor even that afternoon. He kind of 'poo poo'd" it. The ER doctor made sure to call him up and made him come down to the ER in the middle of the night... kind of to say, "hey, look, this two-year-old is DYING" ...

Wild ride. But she's been fine since. No doctor visits either

[Juvysen]

We go in. The doc wants us to, I guess... at least they always schedule the next visit at the last one. And since our insurance covers it all and we don't even have a co-pay, we go and find out how much bigger he is this time I like the doc for the most part, but they usually do at least mention vaxing ("are you going to vax this time? when ARE you planning to do that...?") but we haven't been kicked out, yet, so I'm counting it as close enough, I guess.

[cocoanib]

Thanx judybean for your story. Wowza, that sounds scary, but awesome that it worked out and she's so healthy now!

Juvysen- May as well go, if ins. covers it! We have a copay each time and are now actually in between carriers, so that would just add to our frustration. Obviously, I would take her in a heartbeat if something was up, but no vax, so no biggie I'm thinking.

[Juvysen]

Yeah, we lucked out that our insurance covers 100% of "preventative care" - well baby visits, vaccines (though we don't partake), well woman visits, pap smears, physicals... if it was going to cost us a copay (or cost us the full amount) I'd definitely take more time to consider whether or not to bother with it when all they're gonna do is pretty much weigh the baby.

[mama kk]

I bring my kids in for most of the well child check ups mainly because I am concerned about not looking like a negligent parent if anything were to ever be called into question. To many people, not vaxing without a religious reason is seen as negligent or uneducated, and I want to be able to easily prove I care for my child.

That said, it sucks when you bring your healthy child in for a "well child" check up, and they get sick from being there.

[cocoanib]

Originally Posted by mama kk

I bring my kids in for most of the well child check ups mainly because I am concerned about not looking like a negligent parent if anything were to ever be called into question. To many people, not vaxing without a religious reason is seen as negligent or uneducated, and I want to be able to easily prove I care for my child.

That said, it sucks when you bring your healthy child in for a "well child" check up, and they get sick from being there.

Oh goodness! That would be frustrating. All the more reason for DD and I to stay away. On another note, she just started daycare today. I'm praying that it doesn't lead to any illness.

[HisBeautifulWife]

We have a vax happy HMO so no, we won't be doing any well baby visits. I have better things to do than to sit around and be questioned and harassed about my choices.

I feel no need to have a relationship with his doc. I'm not even sure what that means or what the benefits are. I'm sure she's too busy to remember who we are and I really don't need to draw attention to the fact that we don't vax. If we need to go in, then we'll go in.

We did go in for the two week visit and I regret that.

[Charmie981]

I haven't read all of this thread, but thought I'd throw in my .02. We don't vax. We do most of the well baby checks up to six months (okay, actually, we do 2w, 2-3 mos and 4-6 mos, so maybe that's not "most of them"? I'm not even really sure what the schedule is supposed to be!), then try to see the ped at least once a year per kid. This way, if for some reason, someone ever wanted to allege medical neglect, we would have a health record for each of my children, including some well child visits (but mostly sick child visits) to prove that they have not been medically neglected. If I have a concern about something that's not pressing, I'll make an appointment just to talk about it. For example, a few months ago DS3, at 18 mos was not speaking at all, so I brought it up at a well child visit I'd scheduled specifically so I'd have the opportunity to ask the doctor's opinion on that. I'm about to do the same with DS1--9yo--because he has a cosmetic issue with his belly button--there's still extra skin where his umbilical hernia was pretty severe as an infant and he's self-conscious about it now and doesn't want to wear a bathing suit w/o a t-shirt. But he doesn't particularly want surgery, either...so I thought I'd make an appointment to talk to the doc and see what he thinks we could do, if we need to do anything, or if we could do something just b/c of Ds's self-consciousness about it.

We have insurance, though, so I am not paying a whole lot out of my pocket for these visits. When we were uninsured, we pretty much only went to the ped if someone was really, really, really sick. Having a relationship with a doctor for my kids was literally a luxury we couldn't afford.

I also time my visits so that we are not at the office for "no reason" (aka a "well visit" ) during cold and flu season. I try to see him in October and not again until March. And I tell him that. He understands, or at least doesn't disagree with me on it. Usually we wind up in the office once or twice in the winter (hey, we have four kids, so it happens), but my hope is to only be there when we NEED to be there, ya know!

ETA: we also have a good relationship with our ped, who is accepting (although not supportive) of our decision not to vax. He does ask at every well visit "so have you decided to do any vaccinations today?" but that's IT. No pushing. If I had to deal with needle pushing, I would probably be much less likely to worry about having a paper trail of health care for my kids.

[judybean]

I've seen it mentioned a few times of going in to avoid "medical neglect" .. and honestly, this has never crossed my mind.

Is this really an issue? Because we're pretty 'off the map' when it comes to things since we don't really go to the doctor's office (and don't vax), we homeschool (so no school records).. and sheesh. I guess I've just never heard of this!

[1babysmom]

Originally Posted by judybean

I've seen it mentioned a few times of going in to avoid "medical neglect" .. and honestly, this has never crossed my mind.

Is this really an issue? Because we're pretty 'off the map' when it comes to things since we don't really go to the doctor's office (and don't vax), we homeschool (so no school records).. and sheesh. I guess I've just never heard of this!

Same here, and then add co-sleeping and unassisted birthing, and we're quite a treat for a CPS investigator. The only thing that concerns me really is that in our rural area, I really don't know of more than maybe one other person who does what we do, and maybe a friend of a friend or basically someone who doesn't really know us and doesn't understand WHY we do what we do might be "concerned" for our kids or something. The way gossip gets around in these areas (and usually inaccurate info) it's entirely possible.

[judybean]

Gotta love fabulously rural areas (um, or not)... Surprisingly *knockonwood* even though I know of nobody who does what we do (no vaxing, birthing with a midwife outside of a hospital, homeschooling, co-sleeping, extended breastfeeding..), nobody really seems too worried about us. Somehow I think we're doing a good job of 'normalizing' those things... because we look pretty darn normal..lol.

But I'll admit, for a while I was almost worried about my MOM turning us in. I know she never would, but the vax thing had her quite worked up... and then homeschooling threw another freak out... haha.

It's all food for thought though. Interesting points. We went in twice (two PKU pokes) to a local doctor (slim pickings in my small town.. there are maybe three? four?) and I seemed to like her.. so maybe we'll make *gasp* a second appearance