Too Quick to Medicate?

"Cross-posted from www.raisingbakersfield.com"

I called my childrens' pediatrician's office at 8 a.m. this morning to make an appointment and they said they could fit all three of them in at 9 a.m. Seeing as we hadn't quite gotten ourselves ready for the day I had to really rush around to have us to the doctor's office in time.

My oldest son Andrew has very sensitive skin, excema, allergies, asthma - you name it. He went swimming on Sunday afternoon and his excema got much worse than it normally is. I've been applying Aquaphor, giving him Benadryl periodically and using Hydrocortisone all over his body. We recently switched his soap to Dove (recommended by doctors) and switched the type of sunscreen we were using. The rash is very itchy, so naturally he's scratching, which in turn is causing it to spread... and appear even worse. I also wanted his hearing re-tested. He had tubes put in both ears almost a year ago and recently has been asking us to repeat just about everything we say to him. I can't tell if he's just being a five year old and not paying much attention or if he is having problems with his ears again.

Kaitlynn has had a runny nose for a few days - nothing to rush her in for though - until this morning. She woke up with a croup-like cough, which unfortunately is one sickness that in my opinion she contracts way too often. Also, she walks and runs on her tiptoes all day every day so I've been worried how this might effect her feet, posture, back.. etc. In addition, it's causing the bottoms of her toes to have little tears and cuts in the creases. If and/or when they get bad enough, they start to bleed and she becomes one unhappy camper.

This was Mitchell's 4th visit to the doctor for the same reason. He's been developing dry spots on his body for at least the past two months. They pop up on various parts of his body, stay for a a week or so then disappear - until another makes an appearance. They are always in a circular shape so I was concerned that it could possibly be ringworm. Really, this appointment today was for a second opinion from a different doctor since I had been told previously that it was nothing to get worked up about and to just leave it alone.

We spent a little under 90 minutes at the doctor's office today. After all was said and done, what was recommended to to treat all of these ailments?? Absolutely nothing. I was told Andrew's rash wasn't that bad, his hearing test was normal, Kaitlynn just has a cold and her tiptoe walking is normal... and again, Mitchell's skin is just dry.

I finished the appointment irritated and frustrated because I didn't feel like I left with any real answers or helpful information. In addition to all of this, I came home to a message from my doctor's office. When I called back, they informed that in fact, my toe is not broken as my doctor originally thought it was and there is nothing that can be done at this point. I guess what I'm really wanting is a piece of paper, with the name of a magic medicine to fix everything! Which got me pondering on the way home: Is our society too quick to medicate? You're depressed, here's a pill. Your kid has a short attention span, it's ADD, here's a different pill. Got a cough? Have a suppressant. It was really hard for me to accept "wait and see" approach today. Why can't we just 'endure' instead of constantly rushing to 'fix' ? Obviously there are many situations where medication and treatments are warranted, but today, apparently ours wasn't one of them.