Becoming Crunchy

Image by dmason via Flickr

Squeaking in just under the wire today…

First, I have to vent about our one-year ‘well baby’ checkup at the doctor yesterday. If you are uninterested, feel free to scroll down to the actual Sunday Surf part – I won’t be offended.

Now, I strongly considered not scheduling this checkup in the first place – at this time we are delaying vaccines indefinitely and Bean is certainly a healthy, happy, normal baby (of course, I think she’s exceptional) – but basically as far as development, etc. goes, she’s right about where she ‘should’ be.

Still, she hasn’t been to the doctor for any sort of check-up since she was 5 months old, so I thought to cover all my bases, I may as well go. I’ll also admit - our scale sucks and is likely quite inaccurate, and I was really hoping to find out how much she weighs now!

I did have a small list of questions that I was hoping to get a second opinion on; for the most part I’m comfortable with doing my own research, but I figured, since we are talking to a doctor, I may as well see what she has to say.

The following is the general gist of our conversation…

Me: Now that Bean is coming up on a year, I’d like to transition her from formula to goat’s milk.

Doctor: Gives me a confused look.

Me: It’s because goat’s milk is more easily digestible than cow’s milk. Now, she still drinks more milk than she eats food, though she eats more every day. I wasn’t quite sure whether I should transition her gradually or just switch it all at once or what (hoping for some sort of detailed plan to be suggested).

Doctor: Oh, I would do it gradually.

Me: Okay… Now, I’m also wondering about how best to wean her from the bottle…

Doctor: She doesn’t drink from a cup?

Me: Well, she likes drinking water from a cup, but she doesn’t like drinking milk from a cup. Should I just keep trying it out with her or…?

Doctor: You really need to get her drinking from a cup because she can’t be on a bottle much longer.

Me: Okay… Now, she’s had a bit of a dry cough for most of her first year; she has no other symptoms and every time I’ve checked it’s been fine, but…

Doctor: Looks at me blankly.

(I hope I’m truly communicating the full extent of her total UN-helpfulness here)

Me: So…do you think you could listen to her chest to make sure it’s OK?

Doctor: Oh yes, of course.

At this point, I pretty much gave up on my questions…it had become quite obvious that I wasn’t going to get much help from ‘the professional’ this time around. She did a basic check-up, then told me that she didn’t have a baby scale (just to be clear, this was a family doctor – not a pediatrician – but around here they are supposed to be able to care for any age…).

She had the husband stand on the regular scale with Bean, then stand there by himself, then subtracted the number to get her weight, which was about 19 lbs. She then commented, “Wow, big baby!”

Now, while she didn’t actually get Bean’s height, meaning I don’t know at the moment exactly where on the percentile chart Bean might be (nor do I much care) I can tell you that she is so not what anyone would call a ‘big baby‘. I know, it doesn’t matter - but still, it was annoying lol.

It was at this point in the visit that our doc finally got a lot more talkative – it was time to bring up the vaccines!

She started telling me all about what Bean is due for soon, etc. I told her (as I’ve told her before) that we are currently delaying vaccines. She looked at me like I was stupid (as she did before) and said, “But why?”

I explained to her that we had done our research and right now we mainly felt that Bean was too young to be receiving so many vaccines and we’d like to delay them and ultimately have her receive fewer than what is called for in the regular schedule.

She smiled a lovely condescending smile and started to tell me all about how safe vaccines are and how many people have been fine with them and how measles is going around now, etc., etc., etc.

I repeated to her once again that yes, I understood all these things and we have done a lot of research and will continue to do so; that we will keep an open mind but this is our decision at this time.

She responded that that was nice but also that Bean is due for her MMR vaccine soon and we should really do our research on that one because it’s so important for her to have that vaccine.

I then assured her, once again, that we have been and will continue to do our research.

And we were done.

Sigh.

OK, I know there are many great doctors and I’m sure this doctor too is quite lovely and knowledgeable…but really? There was absolutely nothing I gained from that visit that I couldn’t have figured out on my own.

I also understand that she’s not a pediatrician, but isn’t it usually ‘normal’ at a one-year checkup to ask about things like milestones, developments, etc.? I mean, what if I wasn’t a big research type and what if there was an actual concern that needed to be addressed in some area?

I’m hoping this situation was just unique to this doctor and while I’ll probably take Bean to see someone different next time, I just had to vent about the whole thing…it’s certainly not doing anything to change my already considerably shaky faith in the profession… :p

At any rate, now that you’ve listened to (or skipped over) all that, here are some lovely blog posts for you to read for this week’s Sunday Surf!

• Since we’re on the subject: “”One reason it is a bit silly when people say, “Well, YOU had all your vaccines when you were born, and you are just fine…so why not give them all to your child?!” Vaccination schedules when today’s parents were born were very different, in more ways than one.“ CDC Mandatory Vaccine Schedule 1983 vs 2010 from Natural Family Awareness
• “I can’t call what we do at my house “gender-free” or “gender-neutral” parenting, because there is a lot of girl stuff and a lot of boy stuff – there is gender all over the house. My daughter has a “girl” name, and we use feminine pronouns, but she will eventually pick some sort of gender expression that feels right to her. I just want her to have choices, so I’m calling it open-gendered parenting.” 10 Tips for Raising an Open-Gender Child by Moorea at Natural Parents Network
• “I’m a mom of 2 who is seeking to take the best care of my family that I know how. I am currently swimming in a sea of too much head information and not enough application. Could you please help me understand the basic and simple differences between the eating styles of WAPF, GAPS, Standard Process, and Clean Eating.” Are You a Caveman, GAPster or WAPFer??? from Mommypotamus
• “That women are going hairless is more than another grooming practice. It means something. The question is what and to whom? Powerful vectors are at work in our underpants; unconsciously channeling our libido. The disappearance of pubic hair says something about the way we construct our humanness, how we compose our bodies and souls. The disappearing bush is a burning issue.“ Looking Through the Bushes: The Disappearance of Pubic Hair by Roger Friedland at the Huffington Post
• “If you’re planning to get pregnant in the next 12 to 18 months, you should put off that piercing. It needs to be healed enough to comfortably remove before the hormonal changes that come with pregnancy. And if you’re pregnant, forget it. No reputable piercer will knowingly pierce a pregnant woman.“ Motherhood With Piercings and Tattoos: The FAQ by Amy Keyishian at The Stir
• “I would argue, in fact, that despite my weight, I’m a lot healthier than a lot of other pregnant women clocking in their pre-pregnancy weights at 125.” Plus Sized. Not Disabled. from One Yawn (The Crunchy Convert)

That’s all folks!

Would love to hear about your experiences with ‘well baby’ visits – and as always, you are invited to share some of the great posts you’ve been reading throughout the week too! I’m always on the lookout for recommendations.

Finally – be sure to stop by next week – it’s going to be quite a celebration around here! See you soon…

7 Responses to “Hey Hey It’s a Sunday Surf!”