This is worrisome

[bramey]

I knew that our pediatrician is a Christian, and before anyone gets defensive, that does not bother me. Until last week, I adored him. At Samuel's checkup, we were discussing his recent behavior and how he is so frequently contrary and defiant

Comments

[gwangi]

Wait, your GP has some religious objection to pregnancy? What, is she a Shaker?

[bramey]

She's too nervous to treat pregnant and nursing women. She wouldn't prescribe codeine cough syrup for me because Dixon is still nursing.

It didn't matter that I know my CYP2D6 genotype is normal, that Dixon only nurses once a day anymore, that I would take the cough syrup at night before bed, after Dixon had nursed.

No. No amount of reason would sway her.

So instead, I treated my night-time coughing spells with shots of whiskey. Fine.

I just can't work with someone like that.

[bramey]

You remind me that it's been a while since our last visit to Shakertown, too :)

[lemon_says]

If you really like the ped's medical care, keep him. You do not go to the ped for parenting advice. He's not a parenting expert; he's there to make sure your child's health is good. Should the subject come up, you're free to say, "Thank you for your suggestions, but let's get back to the medical issues. I'm not comfortable bringing spirituality to the physician."

BTW, many GPs won't treat pregnant women. It's a liability thing.

[bramey]

It becomes annoying when I'm pregnant (or just nursing, for that matter), and my GP says she can't handle anything, go ask my OB/GYN. Then my OB/GYN says he only treats women from the waist down, go ask my GP.

Or they both refer me to my lactation consultant.

I don't have a lactation consultant, and the one I've seen in the past cannot prescribe, as evidenced by the requirement that I ask my OB/GYN to write an Rx for the compounding pharmacy to make my Multi-purpose nipple ointment.

[lemon_says]

Yeah, that's ridiculous. When I was pregnant with Anya the GP did have me clear the Paxil scrip with my OB, but she's not that paranoid. Yours sounds like she's been sued or something.

[bramey]

Exactly what I was thinking. Or maybe her practice group dictates that degree of paranoia.

It's like zero-tolerance policies in schools. Abject obedience to some arbitrary rule is just an excuse to turn off your brain.

A sign of so many things wrong in the world...

[journalismgirl]

I may be in the minority.. but I'd fire the pediatrician. That doesn't fly with me. I can see a pediatrician offering discipline advice if there were a major problem besides having a toddler, and if you asked for recommenations on Christian ways to raise a child, but none of those situations apply here.

And frankly, I don't want to go see a pediatrician who believes that all children are born evil.

[bramey]

I don't want to go see a pediatrician who believes that all children are born evil.

Yeah, that seems rather... scary.

I may need to put him on secret probation, at least.

The proper thing to do is probably to not bring it up, but say something if he brings it up again. Damn it, why can't things be easy?

[greyeyedpixie]

Children are born evil?
I'm a Christian & I don't see where he's coming from with that statement.
He probably shouldn't be offering parenting advice & he certainly shouldn't be asserting his spiritual views when you're just there for your child's check-up.

And a GP who won't treat you because your pregnant? Total craziness.

*hugs*

[bramey]

It seems a pretty severe interpretation of "original sin", doesn't it?

And the GP won't even treat me if all I'm doing is nursing once a day. Craziness, indeed!

[lemon_says]

I think he intends to say that they're amoral and must be taught, which is correct, really, but his church or faith might refer to that amorality as evil. I think this is a semantic issue, rather than a frightening one.

[blakdove]

Nope. Well, maybe in this guy's case; I have no way of knowing. But there are plenty of Christians who believe that children are actually born evil, not amoral, selfish, self-centered, or what have you, but evil.

(The Orthodox believe that babies are pure and blameless and talk to angels. I find that easy to believe when Gnarly stares and giggles into space.)

[ssilverfish]

People are so litigious when it comes to medical stuff these days, and if it is something that might effect a child, I can only imagine it's worse. She's probably worried that you'll come back in five years and sue her because the cough medicine she okayed made your child autistic.

I don't even know what to say about the other thing, except that if a pediatrician told me that children are born "evil," I'd be worried, too. If you're just finding it out after three years and have felt your children have gotten good medical care from him, maybe it's not something that affects his work?

It does seem this could taint anything he says from here on out, whether he brings it up again or not. I admit it would probably bother me enough that I'd probably look for a new doctor. I don't want religion in my schools and I don't want it in my doctor's office either.

[bramey]

I really hate this sort of thing, just because there's no easy answer.

I should add that this isn't the first time we've run into this sort of problem. I've struggled with sending Samuel to an in-home preschool/daycare once a week, because the woman is very sweet and good at what she does, but she infuses everything with religion.

We sent Samuel to her yesterday for the Easter egg hunt, and because I felt he needed to see his friends, but I also knew that she was going to be telling the Easter Story with props. An Easter egg with a donkey inside, one with a crown of thorns (!), one with a cross, and an empty one for the empty tomb.

He hasn't mentioned it, so maybe none of sunk in. Violence, death, and resurrection are not topics I'm ready to cover with my 3 year-old O_o

[ssilverfish]

> An Easter egg with a donkey inside, one with a crown of thorns (!), one with a cross, and an empty one for the empty tomb.

Oh my, that's... creative...?

I grew up close to where you are now and was pretty much the only kid that didn't go to church. (I never attended any sort of church service until I was well into my twenties, and have only been to a handful since.) It's a big part of the culture in that area; I'm sure you've gathered that by now.

I think that, if anything, it helped me grow up to be more open-minded and it will be the same for your kids, I'm sure. You'll get to have the "people have different beliefs" conversation a lot earlier. I never appreciated it when kids tried to convert me or convince me that I was wrong for believing differently (which did happen as I got older), but most of the time, if I was respectful, they were, too.

Definitely a tough situation though. Hope you'll let us know how it turns out.

[bramey]

I will. It's good to see you back in this neck of the 'tubes, by the way :)