Leveraging your Pediatrician to Help You Parent – Therapy Thursday

At our annual check-up, our pediatrician, Dr. M reminded us that she has been seeing my daughter since she was 22 days old. This really hit me.

Adoptions and pediatricians are a tricky thing. Way before I got the call that my  two and half year wait to become a mother was over,  I went through the process of searching for a pediatrician. It’s funny that I ended up with Dr. M. since someone had recommended another doctor at her practice whom I met, liked and chose as my pediatrician whenever that fateful day would happen.

As we know, carefully planned decisions never turn out the way you think. So on the crazy frantic day when the adoption agency sent over my daughter’s medical records, I rushed over the pediatrician’s office to have them look over the records. My carefully chosen pediatrician was out sick so I ended up having to see Dr. M. I instantly liked her and so there you go.

I love our check ups with Dr. M. because she is always great about going through the checklist of to dos -wear sunscreen, wear a helmet when you ride a bike, don’t forget to eat vegetables. One of my favorite conspire to use the pediatrician moments was asking her,

“How many cupcakes do you think is okay in a week?” The look on her face was priceless but she did not miss a beat.

“I think one a week is perfect, you can’t have too much sugar, it’s not healthy.” She said quite sternly.

You see I had been slacking on the cupcake department and had been acquiescing to buying my daughter 2-3 cupcakes a week at our local supermarket. Yes, that’s insane but sometimes parenting is just plain giving up so you sacrifice a few teeth in the pursuit of a tantrumless shopping trip. So be it.

This past checkup, she went through the usual check list but added in ” Are you reading everyday ?” and wait for it,

“Are you making your breakfast in the morning? You should be able to make simple things like toast or cereal.” she noted that the hospital upgraded the medical record system and for each child’s age, there was a series of tasks they were suppose to be doing.

So there we sat at the end of the check up, discussing breakfast options and I am thinking wow one less thing for me to do in the morning routine.

Next year, I think I will slip her note to ask “In third grade, you should be cleaning the bathroom.”