Hi All, it’s Charlotte here (albeit briefly) just introducing you to one of our new monthly contributors Hannah. Hannah is mother to Oscar (who will turn two in October) and also a Doctor. We steer clear of offering any kind of medical advice on Rock My Family because the fact is, none of the team are qualified to do so. Yet I know only too well, how important the health of your children is and how confusing it can be when it comes to recognising potentially fatal symptoms or thinking you are completely overreacting – and everything in-between.
That’s where Hannah comes in. Please give her a very warm community welcome in the comments box below.
Hello! My name is Hannah, and I am a wife, mother and doctor.
Ben and I met at medical school ten years ago, in the library, whilst we were supposed to be studying for our exams. One evening, as we both packed away our books, Ben asked if he could walk me home, and, as they say, the rest is history.
We married in July 2014, and in October 2015 our beautiful son, Oscar, was born. Motherhood has presented me with challenges that, even as a doctor, I had never anticipated. In our journey so far with Oscar, I can now proudly say that I have first hand experience with going two weeks overdue and narrowly avoiding an induction, shoulder dystocia during birth, terrible sleep problems – our boy fed every 1-2 hours at night until he was 6 months old – sleep training, an aversion to solid food in favour of milk (even now!), and a planned operation at 12 months old. Becoming a mother has made me a far more resilient person; it has made me both doubt my abilities and affirmed just how much I am capable of, and it has also made me appreciate the true meaning of sleep deprivation! Despite all of these things, Oscar is simply the sweetest, funniest, most intelligent little boy we ever clapped eyes on and he is, without a doubt, the best thing that ever happened to Ben and I.
After five years of medical school, I qualified in 2010 as a doctor and spent my first two junior doctor years working in hospitals in Yorkshire. At this point, many doctors start to specialise in a particular area, however Ben and I chose to spend a year working in New Zealand to gain some more experience (and it didn’t hurt that it is such a beautiful country!). During my junior doctor years I spent time working in many different departments, including A&E, paediatrics, and obstetrics and gynaecology. On our return to the UK, I began specialising in General Practice. I am now in the final 6 months of my training, however as I returned to work part time following maternity leave, I am due to become a fully qualified GP in February 2018. At present, I work in a GP practice, and have the same duties as the other GPs, although I always have a senior doctor on hand, should I need to ask for advice.
My average working day goes something like this:
Oscar in in the habit of waking very early, so somewhere between 4.30am and 6am he’ll decide that it’s daytime. Ben and I take it in turns to get up, depending on who is more in need of a lie in! I leave the house at 7.30am, and drop Oscar off at his nursery at 8am, which is handily right next to my work. I start seeing patients at 8.30am; I have ten minute appointments, although often it’ll take longer than this to manage a difficult case, and I’ll have to work very hard to keep to time. Over the middle of the day, I’ll visit patients in their home. My practice covers a rural area so sometimes it can take a while to get to a patient in their farm in the middle of the Yorkshire countryside! I’ll usually eat lunch at my desk whilst tackling paperwork. My afternoon clinic finishes at around 6pm, and I have to collect Oscar from nursery by 6.30pm, which usually results in a bit of a mad rush to get there on time! Once we get home, I’ll bath Oscar and put him straight to bed for as soon after 7 pm as we can manage, as he’s usually a little wild with tiredness. Ben gets home around this time; we’ll make some tea and collapse on the sofa for an hour before we creep up to bed by about 9.30pm. I must admit, I often feel quite wired at this time and can’t sleep, so I’ll spend another hour reading the whole of the internet before calling it a night.
I love being a doctor, but juggling my career with motherhood has been a challenge, to say the least, and I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever feel like I’ve got the work/life balance sussed. Some days, I’ll go through a work day having been up most of the night with a teething baby, and have to take calls from the nursery in between patients to let me know that Oscar has spiked a high temperature. Having been through all of this myself, I have a profound respect for all mothers, whether you parent round the clock or have returned to work (both equally hard in my opinion); it can really push you to the limits at times — and I’m grateful that now, when I see a mum as a patient, I can truly relate to how they must be feeling.
Over the next few months I’ll be writing some health-related posts that will aim to enlighten you on some really important topics, bust some myths and hopefully, either empower you with the knowledge to manage a situation with confidence, or to know exactly who to contact and when. The internet can be a minefield; there is some brilliant advice mixed in with some incorrect, and frankly, dangerous advice, and it’s often difficult to tell the two apart. One minute we’re being told to contact our GP at the first sign of illness, and the next we’re being told to stay away and manage it ourselves. I’m only too aware of how confusing all of these mixed messages can be. I’d like to be able to provide some clarity on some of the most important situations you’ll be faced with as a parent-to-be, or parent, once and for all! I must add, what I won’t be doing is giving any individual advice, although I’ll do my best to answer any questions that relate to the post in the comments section.
If there are any topics that you think it would be useful to learn more about, let me know in the comments! And, any questions about me, being a doctor or any of the ramble above, just shoot!
Hannah x
Welcome Hannah. Looking forward to your insights. I’ve been very lucky touch wood that aside from horrendous reflux at the start, Fern’s never been poorly. The flip side of this is I’m quite unversed in what to do in the event of any illness or medical emergency so it will be good to have some practical suggestions on hand.
One thing I’m sure from the responses to posts on RMF would be a godsend is information and facts regarding children’s nutritional wellbeing. While you might not be a specialist, it sounds as though you’ve had your fair share of challenges in this respect so insights into how to deal with nutrition and eating problems from a practical, medical perspective that is grounded with a mother’s genuine experience would be very welcome!
Looking forward to your contrubution to the site!
Hi Philippa! Thank you so much. A post on nutrition would be a great idea, is there any specific topic/aspect that you had in mind? I think it would be useful for me, as a mother, to write about this too – when Oscar is point-blank refusing to eat often my doctor hat goes out the window, and I start to irrationally worry that he’s going to starve! It’s really important to rationalise when it comes to eating habits, but that’s easier said than done when we have a clear idea as parents of what we’d like our children to be eating!
Morning Hannah! And big nerdy wave Hello! Lovely to have you on board and a great first post.
I’ve friends (doctor couple, do you guys always stick together ?) who are just finishing their junior doctor years much like you, and I’m always intrigued as to what they worry about/brush off as a phase. I think the birth was particularly hard for my doctor-friend-couple to deal with, even though to my laymen ears it sounded alright!
So I guess my question is horrible and generic! But what has surprised you most on the motherhood vrs textbook journey through baby doctoring?
Hi Jo! *waves back* Thank you so much! That is a hard question… I think when I was pregnant with Oscar, because of experience from my job I believed I’d know what to do in any given situation right from the start. The reality was that it all flew right out the window the moment he was born. I found myself questioning every aspect of Oscar’s habits, and googling the most ridiculous questions at 3am in an emotional panic. So I suppose that I really was surprised to find that I was in exactly the same boat as any other first time mother, as silly as that sounds. It’s interesting that you mention the ‘textbook journey’, as from what I have read, and expected, Oscar was the least ‘textbook’ baby possible, especially when it came to sleep and settling. I’m going to be thinking about this question all day!
Big hello Hannah! Lovely to have you on these pages with us. Can’t wait to hear all your thoughts and advice xx
Hello Lottie! Thank you ever so much, it’s great to be on board! xx
Hi Hannah -Really looking forward to reading your posts!
A topic I would like to know more about is the Meningitis B vaccine -as a doctor, would you recommend we get it done privately, if our children were over the age threshold?
Being a recent(ish) addition to the immunisation programme I’m sure there are many others like me who have children that aren’t vaccinated and are wondering if they should -It would be great to hear what a Doctor (and Mum!) thought about this.
Yes! This is a concern for me too. Feel very uncomfortable that new baby will have it and S not.
Fab question Jane. Have wondered this on more than one occasion myself.
Hi Jane! That’s a great question, and I think this is a topic I’ll be writing a post on. As Oscar had the vaccination as part of his programme, I never had to consider that decision, but it’s certainly something I’ll be looking into. Thanks!
Hi Hannah, I’m a GP trainee too and have just given birth 1 month ago to our first child. I don’t know about you, but even my paediatric jobs didn’t prepare me for the rollercoaster that is looking after a newborn and establishing breastfeeding! I’m hoping to go back to work for a few days a week at 6 months. It’s good to hear that you are managing to juggle work/training and motherhood as I find days in the GP surgery can be intense (although also interesting/rewarding) and I’m already nervous about how I’ll balance it all. Looking forward to reading your posts 🙂
Hi Sarah! Congratulations on your new arrival! I absolutely agree, I was so naive to have thought that being a doctor might prepare me – those first few weeks were incredibly challenging. I started back at work 3 days a week when Oscar was 9 months old, and I must admit that whilst I’m just about coping with juggling work and motherhood, I’m finding it hard, and I don’t think I’ve quite got the balance right yet. It doesn’t help that I’ve got my final exam in a couple of months. I hope sleep and feeding become easier for you, and thank you for following along!
Hi! Great post :). Bit of a contentious issue but I would like to hear your thoughts on the whooping cough vaccination that you are recommended to have in pregnancy. I’m 17 weeks pregnant with my first and decided (maybe wrongly!!) to read into it following a chat with a school friend who is more into alternative health. I won’t go into it here as don’t want to put anyone else in same situation, but now I’m terrified to have it but also terrified not to have it! Is there any possibility of the injection hurting the baby? I will most likely do what I’ve been medically advised to do, but I think it’s going to make me very on edge so any reassurance on this topic would be amazing.
Hello El, thank you so much!
Thank you for this question, I’m always a bit nervous to get into the topic of vaccinations as some people have strong opinions on them, but it’s something I feel pretty strongly about myself too. I had the pertussis vaccination during pregnancy myself; after seeing a six week old baby die from whooping cough whilst I was working in paediatrics a few years ago it was a no brainer that I wanted to protect Oscar from an illness that can be fatal in young babies. The risks of having the vaccination are the same as for most other vaccinations: soreness and redness around the injection site, and rarely an allergic reaction to the vaccine – those of course are risks to the mother. The vaccination does not pose any known risks to your unborn baby; a study of over 40,000 pregnant women found that the rate of stillbirth was the same for those mothers who had had the vaccine, vs those that hadn’t. Here is the link to the study: http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g4219
It’s completely understandable to question the safety of vaccinations, but vaccines recommended on the NHS are done so because evidence proves that the risk of having the disease is greater than the risk of having the vaccination. I also want to mention that I (and all other NHS doctors) are NEVER sponsored/paid/affliated to any pharmaceutical companies – I’m sure you didn’t think I was !! but I just wanted to reassure you that’s never a factor in recommending a vaccine to patient.
I hope that’s helped a bit!
Hi Hannah,
Thanks so much this REALLY does help a lot, especially in putting my mind at ease.
I’m looking forward to reading more of your blog posts.
Thanks again 🙂
As a fellow (almost!) 17 weeks pregnant person this is super interesting, I had vaguely googled the vaccine after my midwife mentioned it but hadn’t realised people think there are risks associated, so always helpful to have more info. Thanks El and Hannah! xx
Hello Hannah, so good to hear your story and really looking forward to your posts. Some things I would find helpful are:
1) Temperatures. When do you go in, how do you get down? I was always told not to sponge and strip and GP has reiterated but when S was ill over Christmas that’s the first thing they did in hospital- is it ok there as it’s a controlled environment?
2) Common weird rashes.
3) The great antibiotic debate. I won’t get or ask for them for me or S unless we are very unwell and I don’t think it’s viral, but know lots of people who want them at the drop of a hat and I can understand why. Could you clarify the position on this? Sure it will get discussion going!
4) How to get the best out of 10 mins with the GP- what do you need from us as patients?
5) Related, but how to communicate with medical staff and be listened to. When I was in for my ectopic they only started treating me like a rational thinking person when they saw the Dr as title on my notes- in spite of my best efforts. Looking back that’s so infuriating! How do you deal with a member of staff who patronises you or you don’t feel has taken you seriously?
6) the 6 week post baby check up. More an excuse for my GP to cuddle my baby and tell me that sex would hurt for “more like 6-8 months dear” rather than check my stitches in spite of being asked… what do you do as a GP and what did you expect as a Mum?
Thanks so much and look forward to reading your posts on any and all topics.
I’d love some advice on antibiotics too Lucy! We tend to avoid them if poss, as I always have terrible reactions whenever I have to take them, but sometimes I feel a bit silly/mean when a nasty cough goes on for months on end x
Hi Lucy! Thank you so much. These are great ideas for posts!
1) Will be covered in my first post next month.
3) Eek – I’m nervous about wading into this topic! But I think it’s something I will definitely write about if there is interest. I’d love to be able to clarify when and why antibiotics are needed/not needed, but at work I find that people have fairly strong preconceived idea on this already.
4) Thank you of asking this one! I wish all of my patients considered this. I like you already Lucy.
5) This sounds so frustrating! I’ve experienced exactly the same when Oscar was in for his surgery, I agree, It’s infuriating. I felt very patronised at times. Honestly, the only advice I have is to jump in at tell the doctor right from the start what your level of knowledge is, so that they can direct it at a more appropriate level. Are you a medical doctor?
6) This made me laugh! I could certainly do a post on what the 6-8 week check is supposed to involve, but I can’t guarantee that this is exactly what your own GP will do!
Thank you for your suggestions Lucy x
Hello thanks so much for your responses- I’m so pleased they were helpful ideas.
I’m not a medical doctor (archaeology…) which makes it all the more stupid!! But I do have a reasonable level of knowledge and, like absolutely everyone, my own agency in the situation.
Hello, this is a great idea, really looking forward to your future posts. Your comment about juggling work and nursery calls has really struck a cord this morning. It breaks a little piece of me every time the nursery call and I’m at work and not with my daughter. That said, when she’s fit and well, she loves loves loves nursery but they are a bug farm! I’d like to hear more about current medical views on conjunctivitis. We’ve had to deal with 2 bouts – one was treated with prescription drops and one was not – seen by doctors on both occasions. Nursery policy requires medical treatment but is this an old view that should be reviewed based on current medical evidence?
Hi Steph, I find that so hard too – it makes be feel unbelievably guilty!
That’s a great question. It’s a tricky one, as nursery policy is incorrect – treatment with antibiotics doesn’t stop conjunctivitis from being infectious – but that definitely will affect the way that it’s treated in children. I’ve found that it’s a grey area, so you’re absolutely right to be confused as to whether to treat or not. I’d be happy to write more about this in a post.
Hi Hannah! So glad to have you here on these pages. Can’t wait to read your posts xxx
Hi Laura! Thank you so much lovely, I’m delighted to be here! xxx
Big hello from me Hannah! I’m a big fan of your Instagram so it’s especially nice to meet the person behind all the beautiful images and find out what they do. Welcome on board xxx
Hello Lauren! Likewise, I adore your beautiful Instagram feed. I’m thrilled to be on board! xxx
Hello and welcome to RMS! Oscar sounds oh so similar to my little Hamish who is ten months old. He doesn’t ‘do’ sleep and also has an aversion to food over milk. Unless it’s a rice cake or some baby puree for 4 month old plus babies. So frustrating. Would love to know how you combated the sleep and the food porblems as I feel he knows exactly what he is up to at bedtime now and has a tantrum when he is put in his cot after his bottle at night even though he’s shattered. Grrrrr. Thanks xx
Hi Rachel,
I’ve got no basis for this whatsoever, but I like to think that these high needs, spirited babies of ours are that way because they’re highly intelligent. True or not, it give me a little bit of solace when he’s screaming his head off!! 🙂
I’d be more that happy to write about how we dealt with our sleep issues, but it wouldn’t really be a doctor-related post – it’d be very much my sleep training experiences with my ‘mother hat’ on. I’m pleased to say that sleep is much better now, but there are regular phases when it all goes to pot again. Everything is temporary! Eating-wise, we’re still working on it and while he doesn’t eat as well as his baby friends do, I’ve relaxed a bit over time.
Thank you so much!
Welcome!!!!! Nice to have you here and I’m looking forward to your posts!!! I am a big believer in spirited babies turning into bright sparks! I am a mother of 3, my eldest was a tricky/spirited/awake baby and is now an incredibly bright 6yr old. My middle child was more of an easygoing baby even though we parented them the same, he is now more of a laugh a minute, bulldozer! I’d love to see your medical views on controlled crying and dummies and reasoning on cows milk drinking only from 12months.
Hi Lisa! I’d be inclined to agree with you on that!!
The cow’s milk would be a simple one to answer, but controlled crying and dummies less so, as theres a whole lot of opinion and anecdote thrown in with those! I will give it a shot though!
Hi Hannah! Really looking forward to these posts, I think they are going to be really interesting xxx
Hi Fern! Thank you so much. I hope I can shed some light on both antibiotics and vaccinations in a post soon. xxx
Really looking forward to your posts Hannah, I’ve been following your Insta for a little while as our babies are exactly the same age. X
Hi Lynne, oh how lovely! Thank you so much x
Hannah, it’s amazing to see you up here! Congrats! I’ll look forward to reading your posts. It’s been wonderful to watch your journey since shooting your wedding. Lots of love from me, Samuel and Ava and hoping we get to see you soon xx
Hi Dominique! Thank you so much lovely! And to think I first found you through these very RockMyLTD pages. Really hope to catch up with you in person again soon xxx
A post on eczema and getting in under control would be amazing. We are battling dry itchy skin constantly!
We have a food adverse baby who just wants milk, although Dairy based foods seem ok…
Hi Katherine, I hadn’t thought of this one yet, but it’s a brilliant idea for a post. Eczema is so common and it would be great to shed some light on how best to treat it.
Brilliant idea RMF! Really looking forward to reading your posts Hannah xx
Thank you so much for your support! xx
Hi Hannah, welcome to RMF. Really looking forward to reading more from you beyond your instagram captions which I really enjoy. Well done on surviving your return to work. It’s quite reassuring to know that even as a doctor you go through the same worries most mums do when it comes to Oscar – in a way there was probably more pressure on you which must have been hard.
Hello Kat! Thank you so much, it’s been lovely having you following along on IG. It’s so true, and something I really want to be honest about, I often say to Ben that I feel like I have a ‘mother mode’ (usually fretting, emotional) and a ‘doctor mode’ (bit more logical and level headed) and I’m not very good at combining the two!
Hi!
I’d be interested in a post on chicken pox. Neither of my two (4 and 1) have had it yet. I always wonder whether it is beneficial to get them exposed to it whilst they are little – I definitely got taken to chicken pox parties as a child(!!). I understand that the reaction to it gets worse as you get older, so is there an optimal time to get it?
I have friends abroad who are vaccinated against chicken pox. Is it worthwhile to do with children who haven’t yet caught it? Or, given its prevalence, is that just storing up troubles for later on as you are more likely to get it as an adult unless you remember to get boosters?
Also tips for dealing with chicken pox once it hits would be great.
Thanks
Thank you!
Liz, we are in full on Chicken Pox alert in our house! Luckily Molly had it when she was young but half of the school and pre-school has it at the moment so just keep an eye on Alice. I really want her to get it now (she’s 3 and a half) before she gets older and also so that I know it is out of the way but that’s just me! I was talking to my friends about the vaccination the other day so it’s definitely an interesting subject. xx
Another vote for a chicken pox post here, we’re currently on day 5 of the pox with my 2.5 year old and have tried all the Google recommended solutions to itching with no success. I’m also pregnant so that was scary trying to find out the risk to me and my unborn child, NHS website assures me as I’ve had it I’m ok, so fingers crossed!
I look forward to reading more from Hannah in future ?
Oh Natalie you poor thing. Molly had it two weeks before I had Alice so I had the same panic but found it was all ok. Have you tried the Poxclin foam cream from Boots (http://www.boots.com/poxclin-coolmousse-10076517). It was the best thing and everyone I’ve recommended it to swears by it. Also try a bath with some bicarbonate of soda or a bag of porridge oats in. Odd but it works. Hope it clears up soon xx
Hi Natalie, you can get creams which contain menthol in places like Boots, they’re supposed to be amazing for soothing itching. Just check on the bottle that they’re ok to use in a 2.5 year old and try out on a little bit of skin first!
I hope your little one gets better very soon.
Thanks for the tips, we’ve definitely turned a corner now which is a relief because I don’t think I can bear to watch Beauty and the Beast twice a day for much longer!
Hi Liz,
This is another interesting one, particularly with regards to the chicken pox vaccine – Oscar hasn’t had chicken pox yet and I’m considering getting him the vaccine, but need to look into it a bit further. I’ll keep you posted!
Hi! Great idea to have you on board!
I would like to know about:-
-coughs – when to see the GP and when to just ride it out at home. when are they serious and when are they just normal? its so hard to tell!
– weird rashes!
– milk – how much should my toddler be having? she hates cows milk! but I want to stop bf.
– sorry TMI – but poo! – we have problems with constipation. is there anything I can do to help things along! and good baby/toddler nutrition generally.
-high temperatures – I can’t help feel panicky when DD has a high temperature. I would like to understand it a bit more.
– teething. I am convinced it can cause high temperature!
sorry if any of these are not your field of expertise.
look forward to hearing more from you.
Hi Victoria, thanks so much!
Thank you for your suggestions, these are all the bread and butter of general practice and I try try to answer these as best I can in due course!
I’d love to hear a doctors view on how to make effective use of a GP appointment.
My doctor is always running at least half an hour behind and always makes me feel rushed (especially as I’m trying to explain everything whilst usually trying to calm a poorly and grumpy baby).
Really looking forward to your posts!x
Hi Sarah,
Such a great point you make, and at the risk of sounding corny it’s people like you who make me love my job, I feel frustrated when patients come in for a 10 minute appointment with five problems they want to discuss (happens!) so it’s lovely to be reminded that lots of people like you really care about optimising your time with your doctor. I’d like to write a post on this sometime.
Hi Hannah, lovely to see you on these pages! I’d love a post on when to visit your GP when you might be having trouble getting pregnant, or things don’t happen “straight away”. I’m worried my GP will end up not being interested because we haven’t hit the 12-month marker yet, even though there could be other issues/symptoms at play. Also a post on what to look out for in the case of sepsis in kids would be fab – have been seeing lots on this recently! xo
Hi Rebecca! I’d be happy to write a post about trying to conceive – but to answer the point you made, it’s true that unless you have any symptoms to suggest that something may be wrong, you wouldn’t usually get any investigations to look into why you weren’t getting pregnant until you’ve been trying for 12 months; that’s because the majority of women will get pregnant within 12 months and investigations before this can cause unnecessary stress – but I totally sympathise that the wait can be agonising, and by all means if you have worries, do speak to your GP! The second point will be talked about in next months’ post 🙂
Hi Hannah, I love your Instagram and it’s lovely to see you on this blog. I’d like any posts on mums health too. Someone’s mentioned the 6 week check and painful sex- a post on recovering from birth, painful sex, pelvic floor etc. plus common ailments in pregnancy (what’s normal, when should we worry, who can we talk to). I’m pregnant with my second and feel a lot more realistic this time but I hd no use it would take me so long to recover physically from labour. Pregnancy itself throws up all sorts of strange things that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with being pregnant too!
Hi Anna,
Did you see this series of posts we ran before Xmas?
http://rockmyfamily.wpengine.com/fit-bumps-mums-pelvic-floor-muscles/
http://rockmyfamily.wpengine.com/prolapse-after-pregnancy/
http://rockmyfamily.wpengine.com/postal-natal-care-looking/
All covering some of the things you’ve mentioned 🙂
Hi Anna, I see that’s Fern’s pointed out some posts on these, I hope you’ve found them helpful if you hadn’t already read them? If there are any questions you still have unanswered let me know! Great suggestions.
Hello Hannah! I love your Instagram too much, so excited to get to know you better through these pages and what a wonderful resource RMF have put together!
I too would love to know more about coughs. I am asthmatic and, as a result, overly panicked about when Arthur develops even a minor tickle. I know the basics when it comes to me, but as he is so little – 17 months – they do worry me so.
And agree with the messages above, how to make the best use of a doctor’s appointment would be wonderful. We never get to see the same doctor at our surgery which doesn’t help, so any tips would be gratefully received!
Looking forward to hearing more! X
Hi Sian! Oh, thank you so much!
These are both topics that have been mentioned more than once, so I’ll pop them on my ‘to do’ list – thank you!
Welcome Hannah!
I definitely second the coughs – we had a scary trip to A&E the past weekend with our six months old with what turned out to be bronchiolitis. As my husband and I are both asthmatic, we do worry about this quite a bit.
I look forward to having your opinion and experience on here ?
Hello Hannah,
I second x 100 (so 200!?) the sentiment that it will be great to have you here and am looking forward to your posts.
Rather timely as my little girl (17 months) has a weird rash at the moment and a couple of questions above are about weird rashes…
maybe more specifically though i’d love to have your opinion on the glass test for meningitis
my little girl had very mild chicken pox when she was about 7 months old. I took her to the Dr and they diagnosed her (i didn’t do it based on some googling or anything) – it was mild, she had a few spots but they blistered, went scabby and left. During it she was sleepy and had a temperature.
When i took Cassie to the Dr yesterday with a blotchy rash head to tow – he was dismissive that her chicken pox was actual chicken pox as it is often mis diagnosed and especially when babies get it so young. When i said i had tried the glass test on Cassie’s current rash (thinking it was the most sensible thing to do) – he scoffed at this and dismissed it as a thing the sun newspaper made up and carries do medical weight. This really confused me as I am sure it has been supported more widely than a tabloid newspaper! But would love your opinion.
Re my girls current rash – not that i expect you to diagnose over the comments section here (!) but so that other parents reading hear my experience – she hasn’t been running a temperature, hasn’t been sleepy/lathargic or any different in ‘herself’ – still v. active and chatty and in to everything (except food, but that is normal for her) – she just had this really odd red blotchy rash that was quite dense on her left cheek but became more sparse over her back and limbs – with some spots on her legs looking more like blisters. The Dr advice to me was rash PLUS happy/normal child = don’t worry. Rash PLUS tired, hot, difference in behaviour = to be concerned…. do you think that is good advice?!! He said virus’ connect with body tissue in so many ways that it is virtually impossible to know what virus it is… Also, the pharmacist told me to give her anti-inflammoatiry (went to them as it showed up on the sunday when drs was closed – again – sound advice for weird rashes?!!)
Wow – super long comment, soz, just hope this might feed the weird rash conversation as it is sooo odd!!!
Hi Nicola! Thanks so much! That really means a lot.
I think this is a great suggestion for a post, and a few others have already mentioned rashes, so I’ll definitely have a think about how I could best summarise how to manage them, but I think it’ll be tricky as each child’s rash looks a little bit different from the next, and it’s hard for me to generalise due to this. I’d definitely agree that if your child has a rash but seems otherwise completely well, that’s a very reassuring sign that you could keep an eye on it at home to see how things pan out, but I must say, when it comes to rashes, if you’re at all worried it’s best to see your GP. When I’m on call at my surgery and am answering urgent phone call requests, if it is regarding a child with a rash I’ll always ask them to pop down so I can have a look, as I simply can’t be confident giving advice over the phone when I haven’t seen them — I hope this puts a little perspective on your queries!
PS Dr Le Witt = the best name ever!!!!!
Haha! Thank you – although I’m forever having to spell it out!
What a great addition to the team! I would also welcome post on temperatures, we’ve seen some pretty high ones in our two years but I never know what’s classed as ‘normal’ so worry about giving paracetamol if actually he doesn’t need it, for example I used to give him it when his temp was anything over 37 (obviously he would also be out of sorts or seem poorly at this point for me to take his temp in the first place) but once I’ve been with the nurse practitioner at my GPs and it was 37.4 and she just said it was mild and didn’t mention bringing it down. Can it do more harm then good? If I have a cold I’d take paracetamol, especially before bed so part of me thinks I should do the same for my son as he cant tell how bad he feels other than ‘poorly’ ‘sick’ or ‘sore’. We have had chicken pox this week, hasn’t been as bad as I expected!!
Welcome Hannah! It’s so lovely for me to get an insight into the British medical field since I am training to be a gyn/ob in Germany. Sometimes things are reaaaaally different here!
Anyway that was a great first post, your style of writing is great and honest and very relatable. I am looking forward to reading more! Now I am off to stalk you on IG…
Can you do something to raise awareness of infantile spasms please?its so important to be aware as many doctors and HCPs miss them and diagnose and constipation, reflux etc when swift diagnosis and treatment is key.
See https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PoWjBspeoQM