What is the real purpose of well baby exams? - Page 2

[Drummer's Wife]

No Well-Baby Check-ups for us If my baby is WELL then there is no reason to go into the doctors office. Just as I wouldn't take them into the hospital unless something was wrong. That being said I would NOT hesitate to go in if I had any concerns. My youngest is almost a year old and we did take him in for the 4 day and 2 week check-ups but because we are not vax'ing and he is healthy and growing and thriving we don't go in. I will take him in the next few months just for another check up since it will have been a year, just to have something on his records as far as weight gain, etc. Everyone I know in the health field (that I've asked) agreed that the WBV for the first 2 yrs are set up around the vax schedule and unnecessary if you are not following that schedule.

[MindfulBirth]

Well..my 3-yr-old thinks that WBV are so that she can get a trinket out of the toy box at the end of it!

I do WBV to have a paper trail that I am not medically neglecting my children. My family doc is pretty holistic, so I like confering with her on some things. She is also great about taking my questions over email without getting a co-payment for it, so I think it is only fair to go hand over my $20 every now and then.

I do our WBV on my schedule, though...not the vax schedule. My DH is still heavily endeared to allopathic meds, so the occassional WBV keeps him happy and he doesn't pressure me about the non-vax issue.

[jenn5388]

I say the purpose is for vaccines.. and since we don't do those.. I don't take my daughter to the appts.

We was in for one of them at 2 months old.. where the doctor screams so loud at me that nurses and paitents could hear him in other rooms and out in the waiting room.
turned him into the medical board. lol

got a different doctor.. of course. at 6 months.. i took her in for another one.. just to do the whole "meet the doctor" thing.. that doctor was really good about the whole not vaxing thing.. then our insurance switched...

Now I have a new one.. that my daughter has been in for a rash on her face that kept coming and going... she told me "don't forget her vax record at the 12 month appt"

And she's now 17 months old and hasn't been back since the rash appt. which was when she was about 8 or 9 months old i believe. She also got a cold.

I don't do the appts unless she's needed to be seen for something.. I think i was scared away from them after miranda's 2 month appt. lol
not to mention, i don't like my child sitting in the waiting room with a bunch of sick kids.

[CarrieMF]

I am in Canada. In my provinces vaccinations are NOT done by the dr's. They are done at Public Health.

We go to the Dr(not a ped, I refuse to see peds) for WB visits annually(and when they were babies).

Not everything is visible to the eye or shows symptoms but needs to be monitored. IF we did not go to WB visits we would not know about my almost 5yo's heart defect that she will need surgery for when it progresses. She did not show any symptoms of it other than she sleeps more and is not as active as my other dd's, but nothing out of the ordinary. Her main symptom(a very loud heart mumur) was still there at 10months instead of going away like most do. In fact when she was sent to the cardiologist they were all surprised it wasn't something more serious that she would need immediate surgery for because it was so loud.

IMO WB visits are the same as a woman going for an annual exam.

We are never exposed to more germs going to the dr's than we are walking into a store, in fact we're probably exposed to less at the dr's. Rarely do I ever have to wait more than 10minutes after when the appt was to start, most of the time I'm out of there before my appt was supposed to start.

Now that my kids are 3, 4, & 7 we pretty much ONLY go to the dr for annual check ups.lol

[Gitti]

ing for a newbie.

[Flor]

I went to them the first year, but not really after that. I wasn't really concerned about milestones, as I had books, but I don't own a scale, so we went for weight and measuring (could do those myself). Test for anemia. To establish a relationship, and so that my ds knows the doc already and isn;t freaked out when he is sick and meeting him for the first time. After 1 year of regular well baby visits, we just went 1 time a year. I don't thinks docs know much about nutrition, sleeping, potty training, etc. so that advice wasn't too useful.

Why do they ask about guns? Do I look like I have a gun in thehouse? Kinda freaked me out.

[gret the great]

We go to them on an adjusted schedule. Mostly because I love our pediatrician I also want my kids to know him if something comes up. I brought Pearl in at a year and he said there is no need for a 15 month visit, it's all about vaccination, but he'd love to see her at 18 months if we feel like coming in. The nurses sometimes look at me like I have 5 heads but not our Dr. Bert.

[SuperMoM2GTO]

Originally Posted by EFmom

Yacht payments.

Ain't that the TRUTH (The only real truth in all this. Baby get sick and die so docs and pharms can get rich) just disgusting

[Stevie]

What is the real purpose of well baby exams?

to ask me if I am still not vaccinating

[phishers3]

Originally Posted by sunshinestarr

How do you take your sugar (I'm guessing urine?) at home? Can you do protein as well? I have been looking for some kind of testing kit but I don't even know where to start. I HATE going to the OB.
I am wary of a lot of these milestone charts; I remember reading some where that they are based on totally FF babies.. And all babies grow differently, don't they??

yes...

I know this reply is a little OT but I HTH the above poster (and maybe someone else )

here's an ave. BF weight gain page

here's a BF growth chart...

and here's a quote from this page

...pediatricians should be aware that breastfed babies tend to gain 600-650 g less in their first year than formula-fed babies, with the most marked differences seen between ages 3 and 9 months...

and a little aside on my OT reply.. peds need to be made aware of a lot more that just this !




FWIW I take my ds to his WBV (and I have figured out when no one is there! ) and it's just because I feel like the more I go maybe I can teach her (the doc. that is) ?!?!?! a girl can hope, can't she? :

[EENS]

Our family practice doctor admitted to me about a year ago that there was no point in taking all the children to their wbvs (even the baby!) since we weren't vaccinating. Straight from the horse's mouth.

Since my childrens' initial visit "just to get established" (about a year ago), we haven't been back and I most likely won't take them back.

edited for spelling

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Originally Posted by blessed

We just had our 24 month well baby exam.

We were with the doc for almost an hour. She had a long checklist which we ran through. I can't recall all the questions, but basically lots to do with developmental milestones. Specifics on sleep habits, diet. Baby's social contacts, specific questions on social development. Lots also on safety: lead exposure, car seats, stairs, basic baby proofing of our home environment. How was potty training coming along?

Vision and hearing screening. General physical exam.

The dreaded vaxes . No lecture about the fact that we're deferring hep B and influenza.

I like our doc. She's a young Family Practitioner and does a great job with baby. She's always got a wide eyed medical student following her around, and takes about twice as long as normal because she stops to teach every other step of the way. She's a good doctor.

And as an academic general practitioner, she's nowhere near yacht territory. If she's like normal, she's probably paying back a loan debt of about 120k after four years of college, four years of medical school, and three more years of FP residency. And she's doing it on a salary that is about half of what my hubby makes with his plain ol' four year college degree. She'd be happy to hit slightly used Volvo range, I imagine. Some docs make a lot of money, but GPs aren't in that category.

I think if you're bright and an experienced parent, chances are you'd do fine and pick up on any real issues before too long all on your own. But I find a lot of reassurance in working in cooperation with a dedicated children's health care provider when managing my baby's health. There's just so much to keep up with, and it's nice to get feedback that things are coming along okay, or that there might be areas that need to be followed more closely.

Reassurance??

So I take it you go for validation and the social visit then?

I mean, you know all that anyway.

And most intelligent mothers don't need to go to a doctor to find out all that.

And you know when your kids are hearing you, seeing you, and when they are applying both selective deafness and pretending to be blind.

[capricorn]

Originally Posted by majorsky

I'm going to be a new parent, so I have no idea what well baby exams are really for at 2, 4, 6 and 12 months. From the brief reading I've done, it appears these visits are mainly to check brain development and physical milestones... and of course to administer a slew of vaccinations.

Sooooo... if mom and dad can see that baby is developing normally, hitting all the milestones, is healthy and active, etc., and the parents choose not to vax, is it really necessary to go to all those appointments? Are some of those appointments more important to keep than others?

Kristin

One important aspect of well baby exams is that they provide the doctor or nurse with the opportunity to apply pressure to have the baby vaccinated.

I used to provide a vaccination information service in New Zealand. I can say from experience that parents of babies who were given their vaccinations in the course of the check-ups would often need to keep consulting their doctor on a regular basis, to treat their baby for (vaccination-induced) ear infections, allergies, eczema, asthma etc. By contrast, many unvaccinated children had never been to see a doctor, even by the time they were four or five years old!

I therefore think it is fair comment that well baby check-ups create dependency on the medical-pharmaceutical system. Personally, I suspect that this may actually be their main purpose.

[Amila]

I have to say, Blessed's doc sounds pretty good. I personally don't feel like I need to take DD to a WBV, but if I had a doctor like that I might not mind it so much, being a first time mom and all. The 2 WBV I took DD to were absolutely pointless. The nurse weighed and measured her (measured by laying her on the piece of paper thing that covers the table, and drawing a line on it by her head and feet). The doc checked under her diaper. THAT IS IT. Didn't ask me any questions other than how is breastfeeding going. I almost wanted her to check her ears or something, anything, lol. I guess that is when I figured the whole thing was pretty much useless. I do think, however that it is great the doc mentioned lead testing because around here that is foreign, and if it werent for Ava eating a paint chip I would have never even known anything about lead, so I think it is good the doc mentions that for parents who just don't know.

All that being said, I did schedule a 6-month WBV at a new holistic natural healing center I am switching to to address some issues with yeast and lead, etc. They are anti-vax, so I think it will be beneficial to take her there at least once. Either way I do think WBV are kind of silly. It is easy to know if there is somehting wrong with your babe.

[Nique]

Admittedly, I vaxed the girls up to their 6 mo WBV and have now decided not to vax. But I did, and will continue to take them to their WBV's. Our pedi before we moved was great, I felt like we got a LOT out of the visit long before the shots at the very end of the appointment. And he was the one who told me I needed to research and decide if I wanted to vax or not, which seems a rather good attitude given what some mom's have said on here!!!

I have the girls "9" mo WBV next week, they are not due for any shots, for which I am GRATEFUL. We've moved, and I want them seen by the new doctor, so they are "on the record." And I will continue going to the WBV's to keep the paper trail (like a PP mentioned) so no one can say I am denying the girls proper medical care.

[wallacesmum]

My midwife did our prenatals and followed up for 6 weeks, so we only went once with a concern and then once more, apparently just so we could use the fancy scale! I couldn't stand seeing tiny babies screaming from their shots - I almost cried. My doc said she had to look for developmental issues, but I couldn't imagine how she could see anything that I didn't tell her about. After that, my midwife pointed out that women usually find their own lumps, not the doctor, and I extrapolated from that. So we don't go. My MIL said "you need a ped for when he gets sick, because he WILL get sick." Now I realize that, if he ever does get sick, the last place I'll take him is the drs!

[suschi]

When the vaccines stopped, so did the regularly scheduled "well baby" visits.

Visits are far and few between now. My 4 yr old has only been 3 or 4 times.

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by wallacesmum

My MIL said "you need a ped for when he gets sick, because he WILL get sick." Now I realize that, if he ever does get sick, the last place I'll take him is the drs!

My kids get sick, but we certainly don't run to the doctor's office, not even a phone call.

DS#2 (2.5+ years) has never been brought in for a "sick" visit - even when he had two deep gashes to the head and brow. I'm an excellent butterfly stitcher.

If I called the ped, they would have wanted me to go to the ER in order to get him stiches.

[aira]

I did the WBV for about a year for the paper trail. But I stopped because they were just obnoxious.

DS hated the whole thing. The head ped is actually great, but the whole flow of the appointments made DS crazy. The nurses were used to parents who try to control their kids and force compliance, and I was always butting heads with them about helping DS instead of just forcing him.

Add the rediculous non-medical parenting "advice" that they throw around with "authority" and it's all I can do not to go ballistic during then appts. What total crap.

So, for everyone's sanity I stay far away.


LI, yes, I learned that the hard way when DS was 2 months old and I was still reeling from his birth - nervous, in shock - I fell for taking him in for RSV and got sent to the ER... I've told that story here before. The peds are the last call I'd make when DS is sick.

[knowerofnada]

I just don't agree with most of these responses. I do realize that one of the main reasons for WBV is for vaccinations. That's not rocket science. And I am very medically inclined and have much confidence in my observations of DD's development. I am highly educated and have a strong medical background and am well-versed in home remedies. But I think sometimes us crunchy mommas get a little too cocky for our own good. We still don't have medical degrees. And no, I'm not one of those people that thinks physicians are all-knowing and to never be questioned. I always question and research everything. But I feel that there are things that doctors also look at during their WBV's that need to be looked at, such as hip dysplasia, closed labia, asymptomatic ear infections, torticollis, etc. etc. Please don't flame me for disagreeing with the majority. This can be a really tough crowd.

ETA I am referring strictly to visits within the first year.......not the annuals thereafter