"well baby" visits - Page 2

[MrsBone]

where do you live!?

Originally Posted by sosurreal09 

Well from my understanding, where I live, it's like "icing on the cake". So say this was the scenario:

Family member calls CPS on you for whatever reasons:

You don't vaccinate...

They look at your 1 y/o's medical history and see you have been there once when he was 2 m/o and once when he was 7 m/o

They could (theoretically) build a case out of that and say they you were not vaxing due to medical neglect and the proof is that you have only been to the Dr 2x in a whole year for an infant,  and there are x amount of "physicals" or WBV in the first year, that you never scheduled or did not attend...

Say

You also have a family bed and your 3 y/o DD and your 1 y/o DS sleep with you (in my state this is not OK and you have to provide them with there own ROOMS)

Now they could have a serious case against you for those things (and YES that really is very possible) and they remove your children until you can 'fix" things to their liking and prove you were not neglectful and provide whatever they ask of you, pretty much.

[sosurreal09]

LOL it's the truth though. I've seen it happen, especially the latter. A boy and girl are not allowed to share a bed (period) or a room (I think until a certain age) I know a woman who had a 6 y/o DD and a 2 y/o DS and CPS made her move in order to provide 2 bedrooms for the kids...They had a family bed but didn't even disclose that to CPS...

I'm not saying it is inevitable that if you don't vax and don't do WBV you will have a problem, I am just saying *I* am covering my bases, especially in a vax crazy world. I don't need anyone being able to use anything to constitute "medical neglect".

We have a holistic ped anyways who does not even support vax at all so there is no pressure and we call WBV physicals so IDK is it kinda a pain? Sure, but I am doing the "right" thing in the eyes of people who just don't get it...(I've had issues with my own family accusing neglect for not vaxing, not wanted to do WBV in the past etc. at least I can say "we don't vax b/c of x,y,z reasons but we do all the WBV" and that makes people think we are not "neglectful" (Yes I think it's absurd to do them when they aren't necessary but w/e)

I don't feel comfortable disclosing my state on here but it's in the North.

Edited by sosurreal09 - 7/16/11 at 7:03am

[One_Girl]

Babies tend to get sick a lot during the first year and it is really nice to have an established relationship with the pediatrician for those times.  You can also call the pediatrician's office and talk to the nurse if you are established as someone who goes even just once a year and that has given me a lot of peace of mind over the last 8 years. 

Even if you don't do the well baby visits I really think you should consider finding some sort of insurance for your child.  Your baby can qualify for medicaid even if you and your husband don't.  They have a much higher income limit for children than they do for adults.  In my state a family of 2 can make up to $2000 a month and use Medicaid for the children but they have to make less than $200 a month for the adults to get Medicaid.  It may be something to look into.  My dd got three very high fevers that wouldn't go down even with ibuprofen during her first year and wound up in the ER.  She was sick less than the average baby (5 times instead of 10) but a lot of the illness was very serious.  She has also had rotovirus, hives, several ear infections that didn't go away on their own, a broken arm that required surgery, and just recently took a very nasty fall on her bike.  I can't imagine what I would do if she hadn't had insurance to cover those things.

Having the pediatrician we had a relationship with was also nice because when we had a small lapse in insurance my dd got strep and pneumonia at the same time.  The pediatrician had the office charge us the medicaid rate instead of the regular rate and gave us a lot of phone support without charging because of this.  It really is a long term investment that goes beyond the well baby visits.

[osker]

I think that finding someone to care for your child who you trust and value is the most essential thing. If you sign on for a pediatrician that feels attacking or critical, then, yes, I would imagine that you wouldn't want to do the WBV.  If you say that you've found someone already that you click with, the I would say go to one, see how it is, see how much it costs, and then ask them when they think the next WBV should be.  We expected to hate going to the pedi for exactly the vax pressure, but then DD was small and we worried about her weight gain. The first visits up until 4mo were mainly weight checks, consults with the lactation consultant, and reassurance from the pedi (who we love) that she was fine, just small. As DW is only 5 feet tall it was nice to hear that not all babies need to be in the 80th percentile! :)   After the 4mo visit we didn't go back until 7mo and then the pedi agreed with us that she is so amazing we don't need to go back until "somewhere around a year".  She's never been for a sick visit (knock on wood), and at the 12mo we'll do the anemia and lead testing, weigh her, and probably agree that she doesn't need to go back unitl her 2y visit.

Try to think about it as a potential happy, positive, loving, caring relationship for your child.. someone with whom your child can bond and enjoy visiting throughout childhood.  If it doesn't seem like that, pick someone else (hopefully that's possible in your area).  Already DD smiles and coos when we're at the pedi office and we know from friends kids that this pedi teaches them the "exploding fist bump" pretty early on, which makes them all laugh and smile.  We don't dread appointments like we thought we would, and just knowing there is someone we could call if we needed to takes a weight off.