HealtH
& Safety
Sick Kids and a Healthy Wallet:
By Charlotte Cowan, M.D.
STRETCHING
Your Health Care Dollars
child over when one of you is sick, and inquire before you send
your child visiting whether there is an illness in her friend’s
household.
Our second goal in pediatrics is to take excellent care of children
when they are sick.
What can you do?
• Parents can often give appropriate care at home. This is reassuring
for the sick child—and comforting for the parent as long as she feels
confident in the care she is giving.
Families across • Call your pediatrician’s office and talk to the nurse or doctor about
America are worried. your child’s symptoms. They will give you good advice about what to
Parents worry about do, based on their knowledge of you and your child. They may invite the
paying their rent, heating child into the office to be seen. Or they may explain what to look for and
their houses, and providing when you should call back. This phone call may save you an
warm clothes for their children. They also worry about paying their unnecessary office visit.
health care bills. • Make sure you have three staples at home: acetaminophen
As a pediatrician, I listen to families when they come in with sick (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin), a thermometer and, if you have
children. Sometimes a child will require expensive medicine. a child under 3, a bottle of Pedialyte. With these items, most of the time
Sometimes a child’s illness will require that he stay home for a few days, you will be able to keep your child comfortable until he is better or until
out of day care or school. he can be seen in the doctor’s office. This trick will help keep you from
This has obvious economic consequences for a family in which both heading into the Emergency Room at midnight!
parents work or in which a single Mom is raising her kids alone. Over • Don’t run to the grocery store or pharmacy. When their children are
the years, I have heard a constant refrain from stressed, exhausted sick, parents are tempted to buy over the counter medicines to help—
parents: “But, Dr. Cowan, I need to get back to work…..Can’t you just --before they call the doctor. I know that many families bring their sick
give the baby some medicine, please?” children to the pediatrician only after having spent $30-$40 dollars on
Sometimes we are all lucky, and there is medicine to help a child medicine that will not work. Cold and cough medicines for children
recover. But often, there is no medicine, and we just need to wait it out, younger than 6 have recently been banned by the FDA because they
having the child get better with “the tincture of time.” This is inherently are ineffective and/or have harmful side effects. Money spent on these
frustrating, but there is something you can do. What follows are medicines is better off in your wallet!
excellent tricks for parents both to help keep their children well and to • Look for resources that offer accurate, excellent care: there are
curtail the costs of care when and if the kids get sick. many websites that give helpful guidelines about illnesses and how to
Our first goal in pediatrics is to keep well children well. keep children comfortable at home. There are also good books for
parents and even some for children. Our third goal is to see problems
What can you do? when they are small; pediatricians believe that: ‘a stitch in time
• Come to your child’s well visits! Pediatricians try hard at these visits saves nine.’
to offer tips about what to expect in the coming months and how to
keep your child healthy and safe as she begins to crawl or walk or ride What can you do?
a bike. Well visits also offer a wonderful opportunity to ask questions Sometimes parents-- in an effort to save money or time-- wait until
and to learn more about any upcoming health issue your child might their child’s small problem becomes “big enough to bother the doctor.”
develop. Well visits are the times when shots are given to babies and But, in the meantime, the “little” cough has gotten worse, and now an
older children: although shots get bad press in America, in fact our emergency room visit or hospitalization is required! Asthma offers a
immunizations keep life- threatening infections at very low levels and classic example of this: parents wait it out rather than seeking help early
serve to protect us all. on. An earlier visit will allow the doctor to turn things around more
• You can model and teach your child(ren) good habits as important easily, more quickly—-and more cheaply. When in doubt, please call in
to their health as wearing seatbelts! Teach them to wash their hands order to catch a problem while it is small. You owe it to yourself, to your
often, especially after using the toilet and before eating. I also child-—and to your bottom line!
recommend washing their hands and faces when they come in from
the outside world—-school, daycare or a friend’s house. Teach them
how to use Kleenex (instead of their sleeves) and show them how to
Dr. Charlotte Cowan is a board certified pediatrician, and a Fellow of the
American Academy of Pediatrics. She is the author of five medical children'sstories
cough into their elbows. This really helps reduce their risk for getting (or
that entertain, educate, and reassure both parent and child. Covering fever, colds,
spreading) an infection like a cold, flu, strep or vomiting bug.
earaches, and sore throats, each book includes a Parent Guide. For information
• Make sure your children have healthy playdates. Try not to invite a
about her latest, The Moose with Loose Poops, visit
www.drhippo.com.
82 March 2009 |
www.siparent.com
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