When finding a new Pediatrician for Darah, it was important to find a practice that had a nurse available for questions 24/7. It’s just the law of nature that your child will get very sick around 6pm on a Friday, when offices have just closed for the weekend. And Darah seems to vomit much more often at 3am than at 3pm! So when I am feeling concerned for my child and need some advice ASAP, I’m glad to have that service in place.
But there are so many questions that I’d love to ask a doctor that aren’t emergencies. It seems like an abuse of those nurses on call to call in with those questions. What if I’m keeping them from talking to the parent of a sick child?! I also find that I can ask Darah’s pediatrician such non-emergency questions, but really only during her visits. So I have to remember all those questions, but also make sure I don’t have too many, as getting even 10 full minutes with the doctor is sort of rare.
This is why I’m really excited about a blog that is run by Dr. Tanya, a well-known Pediatrician and author of several wonderful books, including The Wonder Years (about the first 5 years of life) and Mommy Calls, a book where Dr. Tanya answers the top 101 questions about babies and toddlers.
Dr. Tanya’s blog is especially noteworthy, though, because she uses that space to answer questions from parents! There’s an Ask Dr. Tanya section of her site that you can click on to submit your question. You can ask medical or parenting questions! I was so inspired to see this that I submitted a question about helping toddlers give up their pacifiers (Darah still doesn’t want to hear a thing about The Paci Pixie!). I can’t wait to see what she says!
While I was checking out the Dr. Tanya blog, I saw SEVERAL topics that I wanted to read more about, especially if it meant that I was going to hear the perspective of a Pediatrician! Here are the topics listed so far:
- Activities and Playtime
- Feeding, Nutrition, Exercise
- Illnesses
- Infants (4 to 12 months)
- Injuries, First Aid and Safety
- Medical Information
- Newborns (birth to 3 months)
- Preschooler (3-5 years)
- School Aged (5 years and up)
- Sleep
- Toddler (1-3 years)
- Travel
I’ve been reading about chores for 1-3 year olds and what I might need to be doing to help Darah feel more of a sense of responsibility in her home. She already feeds Hattie, and even though there is cat food on the floor all the time, it is really going well, and Darah beams with pride when she sees Hattie eating her food. After reading the article, I feel encouraged to try to let Darah help with more things!
Now I’ve subscribed to Dr. Tanya’s blog so that I read all the great Q&A topics that will be coming in the future. What an awesome resource! She also has a Facebook page you can like if you’d like to connect with her (and with other parents!). And of course, you can also follow her on Twitter (Tweet a Pediatrician? Oh heck yes!).
Disclosure: I was compensated for my time sharing this information with you. All opinions are 100% mine.