Do all pediatrician act the same ?

[Sylvieng]

Hi,

I have noticed something really strange about my baby's pediatrician : he NEVER touch her directly ! There is alway a tool in between...

I guess it is to avoid cross-contamination, but it does seem very cold, and he could wear gloves (which he also does) and washes hands...

What more, he never check her development... He will only notice it if she does it in front of him ("Oh, she sits alone... good, good...very strong babyl..." )

In France, the doctor has to check for some basic development milestones and write it down on the health booklet (ex : can she focus ? can she sit ? can she catch toys with her hands ? etc...). I quite like it because then if you don't keep a baby book, you will still have a "souvenir" of it !

Now, maybe all pediatricans are the same in Hong Kong, and it is just normal practice...

Thanks for your feedbacks,

 

[spsmok]

Hi Sylvieng,

That is somewhat strange of your pediatrician. If you're comfortable with him, maybe you should consider finding another one.

My daughter has had several pediatricians, and none of them seem to be trying to avoid touching my daughter - at least I don't find them being cold and unfriendly.

For my daughter's development, it is true that her pediatrician did not examine her progress. But we didn't have any problem because i took her to the government mother & child health clinic where she had her vaccinations and was examined from birth to 18 months on her progress. I guess you should ask the pediatrician directly if you are in doubt.

 

[Sylvieng]

Hi spsmok,

Thanks for your answer. Sorry I've been on holidays.

Well I won't say that he is cold or unfriendly, I just notice that he doesn't touch her last time, and then thinking about it, I just realized that he never did. And i thought it was strange.

On the other hand, she has never cried with him, even for her vaccinations, so I guess I have no reason yet to change pediatricians...

As for baby's development, so it seems that Pediatricians don't check it ? Seems strange when all the follow-up is done with him... well, never mind.
Thanks to books and Internet, I know that Maylie is quite average so it's ok.

Thank you !

 

[loupou]

I think it depends on the paed. When my kids were babies, their Dr. (who is also a GP) every now and then measured their height and head circumfrence and so forth. Every few months we would weigh them.

But, since he saw them pretty frequently (lots of colds and infections) I guess he would have noticed if anything was weird or their development did not seem to be normal.

He never said anything like "she's in the 60th percnetile of height and weight". Although that seems to be common in the USA (I hear from my sisters).

Does he touch them? Well, when they were babies I would hold them while he checked their lungs and so forth. I think his first exam of my son, when he was a new born, he did do a hip check (baby lying down and he took the legs in each hand and did a kind of "bicycle" movement with the legs.

He has never shaken hands with them, or kissed them, or so forth. They don't sit on his knee when he looks them over.

When I did have questions about their development ("he seems to spit up a lot"... or, later "he has weighed 28 pounds for a year! Is that normal?") he would assure me that such things were common, give examples from his own kids or from his practice, so I felt reassured. And, he was always right.

I think that some paeds see so many kids that if your child is growing and developing normally and you don't ask any questions, they just assume that you know everything is fine and normal.

 

[Mujer]

it's just about the same as my paediatrician...it seems like a common practice even in the gov't clinic although in the gov't clinic they have the schedule assesment where they check more than the regular (ht,wt,head circumference). still i won't trust their assesment as my experience with my daughter almost got us into an operation - she was 18 mos. and they noticed that her left ear wasn't responding to the sound and immediately they scheduled her for an ear operation which I succesfully avoided ( they called me 3 times and keeps on rescheduling).