This article is a pediatrician talking about how she gets late at night calls from worried parents about their child running fevers; to the pediatrician that is good news to hear, in the sense that the child's immune system is working good, and that most over the counter medications should be able to help the child's fever symptoms go away. The article goes on to talk about different concerns of parents and why the doctors believe it is nothing to be to worried about.
The reason I chose this article is because I am interested in becoming a pediatrician, and I like to hear about different health facts when it comes to children along with knowing the difference between small symptoms and actually needing to see a doctor.
Is it bad for parents to be overly worried and cautious when it comes to the health of their children, or contact a doctor if their child may have just a simple cold?
Below is the link to the article that I found on the NY times website.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/health/11klass.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=children%20health&st=cse
Amanda PratherOSU Freshmen
MicroBiology & Chem
prathera@onid.orst.edu
In terms of a child's health, I think that parents should be very cautious because their immune system is not as developed and can not fight off diseases as well as ours. At the same time, calling your pediatrician in the middle of the night for a fever might be too much. There are plenty of over the counter medications that can help the child until the next day when you can take him or her in. There are some cases when fevers can be very dangerous. When an infant or child develops a fever, they can also start having seizures and this can turn into a dangerous instance if you do not know how to deal with it. Children are a parents most precious thing in their life so being to overly protected rather than not caring in probably the better way to go!
ReplyDeleteI thought that your article was really interesting. I agree with your first commenter, and think that parents should always be cautious about their child's health. I also know that a lot of doctors have different opinions, and just because one doctor believes that a fever is nothing to worry about, doesn't mean that another doctor doesn't think it's serious. It is ultimately up to that parent to decide whether or not they think its serious enough for their child to need help right now or not. However, if they just had fever, I would wait until the clinic opens in the morning.
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