With few exceptions, it is fair to say that most children, no matter how healthy they may be, are going to have to visit the doctor. In fact they are likely to visit the doctor many times before they even enter their teen years. These visits can be horrific events featuring rampant screaming, foot dragging, flailing and just overall bad behavior. Or, they can be rather like any other task that children are asked to do during the course of the day. The difference may lie simply in the way parents introduce their children to the world of medicine. Your awaremess of the best parenting advice ever about kids and doctors can help your kids to feel a real comfort level with the doctors whom they visit as children and throughout their lives.
1. The Right Pediatrician. The best parenting advice ever about kids and doctors is for parents to begin by being very selective when searching for a pediatrician. There are lots of factors that you may consider when you set out to find a pediatrician including where he or she is located, what size the practice is or how quickly you can get your child an appointment. But the best parenting advice ever about kids and doctors probably begins with choosing a doctor who has both excellent medical skills and above average children skills.
Top priority naturally goes to choosing a doctor with top notch training and experience. But in addition to that medical acumen you’ll also really want to find a pediatrician who will be able to talk calmly to your children and show a patient sensitivity to their concerns. Without this type of kid-side manner the best medical skills start to become less relevant. Your pediatrician needs to be able to inspire confidence and trust in your child. Findign this kind of pediatrician may take a little hunting but they are out there. Once you get that special doctor you are off to a good start. If you aren’t seeing the kind of doctor to patient relationship that you would like, you may want to restart your search. Finding the right pediatrician is the best parenting advice ever about kids and doctors and it is what parents need to do from the very beginning.
2. Maintain a regular schedule of check ups . Another bit of the best parenting advice ever about kids and doctors is to initiate and maintain a regular schedule of doctor visits. It sometimes seems simple enough to take your children to the doctor when they are in infancy. Everything is new and you as a parent may feel the need to check in quiet frequently with the pediatrician. What is crucial is that regularity of visits continues throughout childhood even after routine immunizations have been completed. Just because your child is feeling fine doesn’t mean that he or she shoudn’t have at least an annual check up.
By seeing the doctor on a regular basis children learn that visits need not be frightening. They are just a seasonal necessity, like spring cleaning or getting a tune up for the family car. The more normal going to the doctor feels, the less likelihood there is that children will demonstrate any resistance. So choose a time of year , perhaps near your child’s birthday , near a holiday or at the beginning of a season and with your child designate that the time to stop by for a visit with the excellent pediatrician you have picked out. You will be surprised at how those regular well patient visits make the other visits for strep throat, ear infections and stomach aches that much more bearable for everyone.
3. Set a positive example. Some of the best parenting advice about kids and doctors is for parents to encourage good attitudes by modeling good attitudes. Children are likely to accept doctors visits as a good thing when they see their parents going for regular check ups and expressing positive reactions to these visits. Parents who consistently avoid medical exams, complain about doctors and make negative comments about the care they provide may end up by destroying the confidence they want their children to have in their own pediatrician.
Parents can help to bolster their child’s attitude by adding their own adult appointments to the family calendar right next to those they make for their children. This can make kids feel more grown up and confident that they are doing a good thing. It can also help to keep you healthy and reduce your own medical phobias.
4. Share Medical Information . The best parenting advice ever about kids and doctors includes the idea that parents should make an honest effort to share medical information with their children in an age appropriate way. When taking children to the doctor’s office parents need to use words and concepts their children can understand to explain what is going to happen during the appointment . While the appointment is going on the parent can help to interpret some of what the doctor or nurses might say, in a way that can alleviate fears or remove misunderstanding. When the appointment is over parents can spend quiet time with their children explaining why the doctor did the things he or she did and the good results that will come from this particular treatment.
Helping children to relax with doctors at a very early age is really doing you and them a tremendous favor. The sooner children are at ease with the pediatrician the sooner they will not dissolve into tears or spike a rage at the mention of a doctor’s visit. Their new found comfort will also mean they can understand going to the doctor’s office as a positive step that is meant to help them and improve their overall health. This lesson if well learned can last a lifetime.
5. Accompany you child to the doctor’s office. It may seem so obvious that we don’t think of it as part of the best advice ever about kids and doctors, but perhaps the most important thing a parent can do for a child to create a positive feeling toward the doctor is to be there. Certainly it’s important to pick out a child friendly physician and to insist on regular check ups . It’s very important also to set a good positive example for your children about doctors’ visits. In the end the best advice ever about kids and doctors is for parents to be with their children while they wait to see a doctor and when they are in the doctor’s examining room.
Parents are the great safety net that children rely on in their moments of greatest stress. It might work out better for you if a neighbor could take your child to the doctor, just this once. Or it might help to have grandma take the child or maybe even get that nice babysitter to do the doctor duty. But this is most definitely a time when you, as the parent , need to put the feelings and concerns of the child ahead of your own personal convenience. When your child is going to the doctor the best parenting advice ever about kids and doctors is for at least one parent to be present to support and love the child. Your simple physical presence will help your child to relax and begin to develop what will hopefully grow into confident relationships with physicians in the future.
There really isn’t much of a choice. You and your kids will have to see a doctor. Thinking about some of this best parenting advice about kids and doctors can help to make those visits peaceful and productive. These successful visits in turn may well begin a lifelong habit of positive patient doctor relations for your children. That’s a gift worth giving.
