s/o Well-child visits (father taking sons to doctor)

[GoVanGogh]

On the lengthy well-child post a few people commented about having father take son in for his appointment. I would love to have DH take over the yearly trek to the pediatrician, but...

 

1.) Our pediatrician requires a parent to be in the room for an exam, as that is the time they fill out the insanely long family history forms. (They update it yearly.)

2.) After they ask 1001 questions about every disease known to mankind that may have stricken any immediate family members, they ask 101 questions about the child. How many servings of dairy daily? How many servings of fruits and vegetables? How many hours of sleep? When was the last time child needed allergy or asthma med? Any health issues in the past year that were at other offices, thus not in their files?

 

If your DH takes your child in to the doctor's office, does he really know answers to half of the questions? My husband would never remember that our son is severely allergic to penicillin because DS had one allergic reaction seven years ago. :tongue_smilie: Nor would he know the medical history of my parents. (He doesn't even remember that his own brother has diabetes.)

I'm good at remembering stuff like that, but still missed telling our pediatrician that our son had major eye surgery until a few years post-surgery.

Anyway. I'm just curious how it works if your DH goes to the doctor's office. Or am I the only one with a forgetful husband. :lol:

[Denisemomof4]

I think it's RIDICULOUS to have to answer questions about family history every single year. I'd simply state no change since last year. If there were changes, write them down for your dh to tell the dr. Also, our drs NEVER question diet that way (number of servings)

 

I'd jot things down on paper, definitely include the penicillin allergy, any illnesses in the past year, etc.

[VA6336]

That's a lot of questions. Our peds don't ask nearly that many! They do have a list of check boxes for well visits but they're stuff like "does she eat well?" "does she sleep 8-10 hours at a time?" "is she doing developmentally appropriate things?" "is there anything you think we should know?" They definitely don't ask so many and they're not nearly as specific!

 

My husband does actually remember the big stuff like no penicillin (in our case it's NSAIDs-ibuprofen/Motrin, Aleve/naproxen sodium, etc) due to the one time let's blow up like a balloon incident, though. I usually write down what's been going on if they've been sick and I'm the one who has been watching fevers and doling out meds and he takes that with him.

 

I think doctor's visits are one of the areas where my dh is pretty reliable...just don't ask him what the kids ate for breakfast or who likes mayo and who doesn't. :D

[GoVanGogh]

I think it's RIDICULOUS to have to answer questions about family history every single year. I'd simply state no change since last year. If there were changes, write them down for your dh to tell the dr.

Oh, I have. They still insist on going through the whole list. :glare:

 

No diet questions? That seems to be the main questions here. We are actually on our second doctor's office, as our first pediatrician retired a few years back. Both ask/asked tons of diet questions. DS only recently made it on the growth chart, so maybe that prompted all the diet questions?

 

I do like this doctor, or else I probably wouldn't put up with the questioning. I may have to see about having DH take DS in next time, though, and see how it goes.

[ChristusG]

Our ped doesn't ask that many questions, but no, there's no way that my husband would remember most of it. I have to remind him the names of all the little cousins in *his* family. :tongue_smilie: That's how forgetful he is about things like that.

[MamaT]

We don't have to repeat family history every year. Taking kids to the doctor has always been my job and my boys would think it was strange for dad to take off work to take them. It has never been a big deal to them - I just step out of the room for a minute when they have to drop their drawers.

[MBM]

My husband sometimes gets called away for work at the last minute, but otherwise, he'd just read the notes I'd give him for the visit! :D

 

[joannqn]

It pretty much always falls on me to do doctor's visits since I'm home full time and he works full time. He did take DS to the allergist for testing. All he came back with was he's allergic to trees and soy and has oral allergy syndrome; here's some RXs. I ended up having to call to ask a bunch of questions that, I think, should have been obvious things to ask.

[Alice]

We don't ask anything like that many questions.

 

It's somewhat of a stereotype, but in my experience a fairly true one, that the fathers who bring the kids in for well child exams are much less likely to know answers to any medical questions and much much less likely to ask questions, especially at well-checks. It's very very common for a dad to bring a list of questions that the mom wants asked but I've never had a mom bring a list that the dad wanted asked. (That may say more about the over-controlling nature of women than the cluelessness of men but that's another thread. And I'd put myself in the over-controlling category so no offense meant.)

 

It's so much of a contrast that if I'm running late and I see that I have a physical where the dad brought the kid in, I am thankful because I know I'll be in and out much faster. :)

 

My own husband didn't know his own blood type. He thought he was one thing and then when I had our first son, it was apparent he couldn't be that blood type. I asked his sister what he was (she's a doctor too and sort of the living family medical records) and she knew right away what he was. I realized I should have just asked her in the first place.

[pamela&claire]

DH would know the answers to most of the questions and he has only missed one doctors appointment for our daughter since she was born and it was an unexpected emergency visit and he was there as soon as he could be. We usually go together because we both want to be there, not because one doesn't trust the other. Our doctor likes it he says he rarely sees fathers so it's nice that we come in as a family. Plus we use our family doctor instead of a pediatrician so we usually talk about issues either one of us are having too.

[texasmama]

I am the one who takes the kids to the doctor. Once, a couple of years ago, I was unavailable for some reason and I had to talk dh through taking our youngest dd to the doc for a UTI. I explained how to collect a sample in a clean, glass jar and take it in, told him what to say when he called for an appointment and reminded him that she is allergic to penicillin. I think the whole thing made him terribly nervous!

 

Telling on myself...once I told the doc that the wrong kid was allergic to penicillin so he was given another antibiotic. (I had two kids out of four who were allergic to it.) The next time I went in, I had to tell on myself to the nurse and have her correct the chart, which they had clearly marked with a penicillin allergy.:tongue_smilie:

[littlebug42]

Our pediatrician never asks that many questions. Usually there are some general questions about diet etc but it is more conversational. Our ped remembers my girls from each visit and while she keeps a close eye on things, she doesn't ask an insane amount of questions. My dh would definitely not be able to answer all of the questions that your ped asks.

[Splinter]

I've been a single dad for about 4 years, so I'm a regular at this. :P

 

That said, I've never had to answer that many questions about family history. It's all on their files.

[JennyD]

I've never been to a ped that asked so many questions, either. My DH would be able to answer them all, I think, but he would not ask nearly enough questions himself. And even if he asked (i.e., I wrote them down for him) he would not PUSH for answers. Drives me batty.

[Impish]

Family history is easy for both Wolf and I.

 

"Dunno" for all of his, and my paternal side.

 

He's taken the kids for immunizations, but general Dr stuff is me, simply cause I'm the one home, and he'd have to take time off work. Otherwise, I'd have no problem sending him.

[beaners]

It's very very common for a dad to bring a list of questions that the mom wants asked but I've never had a mom bring a list that the dad wanted asked.

 

If my husband doesn't come in with me (because he is watching the other children) he will usually remind me of a few things that we've talked about or that he wants answers for. He would give inaccurate answers for quite a few routine questions though. I've had to correct some in the past. I do still like that he comes in with me when he can because I don't have to recount every detail of the visit if he is in the room.