Hospital Pediatrician: Quack or Expert?

3/3/12

We'll see how much I can remember considering this day occurred just over 5 months ago.  

We were visited by a different pediatrician from the one we had the previous two days.  For this I was thankful because the other doctor barely said two words to me.  The first time she came I didn't even realize she was the pediatrician.  This doctor noticed right away that G had torticollis.  J didn't know what it was, but I had heard of it before.  I knew a five year old that needed surgery to correct his torticollis because it hadn't been worked out sooner.  The doctor even asked to take a picture of G's neck to show his students because apparently it was a "classic case".  Basically torticollis is a tightening of the neck muscles, which makes the head tilt to one side.  The pediatrician said it was up to G's regular doctor to recommend physical therapy for her neck. (She has been in therapy for over a month now, and she is making great progress!) 

The pediatrician also commented on G's head shape, or plagiocephaly.  Since she formed against my ribs, her head was flatter on one side and more pronounced on the other.  The doctor mentioned that a lot of people are putting their kids in helmets.  He suggested we not do this.  He said, "You don't see kids in India walking around with helmets on do you?"  Um, okay.    (We currently have her wearing a helmet to correct her head shape.) 



We brought up that we thought G looked "tongue tied".  He said she is, but it would stretch out in time.  He recommended that we not get it snipped.  (We got it snipped when she was around 3 weeks old because she couldn't stick her tongue past her gums, and it was interfering with breast feeding.)  He was very opinionated and a little strange.  He also had some old school/outdated recommendations about breast feeding (feed 15 minutes on one side and then switch to the other rather than letting the baby eat as long as she wants on one side before offering the other side). 

The pediatrician asked us who G's regular ped would be, and it turns out he knows the guy!  He said some nice things about him.  Even though the hospital pediatrician may in fact be a quack, it still felt good hearing support for G's pediatrician.