Mommy Tested. Doctor Approved.
When M was around one year old, I decided it was time to offer her peanut butter. Around that time, the LEAP study had just come out, recommending the introduction of peanuts before one year of age. It made sense to me that early exposure to peanuts would lessen the likelihood of allergies to peanuts, so I felt confident that M would do just fine with it. And it was my pediatric duty! What could possibly go wrong?
Continue reading “PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY, HOLD THE PEANUT BUTTER”
A few months ago, I had an incident that happened where, really, all my medical knowledge went out the window, and I ruminated in my concerns as a worried parent. Maybe this happened because our newest addition to the family “B” is likely our last baby, and I am worried more about anything that might happen to him.
A few weeks after he turned one year old, I was changing his diaper and noticed a bulge in his left inguinal area. It seemed tender to touch, and I immediately called my husband to come look – I told him it looked like an inguinal hernia. It was soft, and B wasn’t overly fussy, so I put a new diaper on him and decided I would monitor it as the day went on. It was of course on a weekend, but I decided first thing Monday I would schedule an appointment with a urologist.
Continue reading “BUMP IN THE NIGHT”
Over the years as a pediatrician, I have come to dread the 4 year old check up as much as many parents do. It’s the age when we give vaccine boosters, and at 4 years old, children know exactly what may happen at the doctor’s office. As a pediatrician, I had noticed that the children whose parents had talked to them beforehand about vaccines seemed to do better than children who found out at the appointment that they would be getting shots. I tucked away this mental note as I thought about my own daughter one day turning four.
The thought of returning to work was always looming in my head during my maternity leave. After the initial shock of the first month of having had my first baby, M, I then thought about how I needed to prepare over time a new routine for my return to work. I certainly felt sad about returning to work after being home with the baby, but a part of me was excited to return to work — to see my coworkers and patients again, and if truth be told, I thought it might be good to get a little break from being with the baby all the time.
