Believe me, I know how to put a kid in a headlock. When my oldest was 3, a positive rapid strep test sent me to the pharmacy to pick up amoxicillin. This was going to be easy, I thought. It tastes decent, the volume is small enough, and it’s only twice…
The kinder choice: Antibiotics editon
Believe me, I know how to put a kid in a headlock. When my oldest was 3, a positive rapid strep test sent me to the pharmacy to pick up amoxicillin. This was going to be easy, I thought. It tastes decent, the volume is small enough, and it’s only twice a day. My daughter was a precocious sort, easily engaged and reasoned with. But twice a day, for ten days, we would have a conversation that went something like this:
Me: It’s time for your medicine. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is you take your medicine and then get a spoonful of ice cream. The hard way is we put you in a headlock and force it down.
Her: Hard way.
Me: Are you sure? You didn’t really like the hard way last time.
Her: I’m sure. Hard way.
So, twice a day for ten days, my husband and/or I would put my daughter in a headlock and force the syringe of pink bubble gum-flavored antibiotic into her mouth. We would hold and she would squirm and cry and scream, and somewhere after 2 cc’s or so she would yell – Stop! I’m ready for the easy way! And then she would calmly drink the rest and have a spoonful of ice cream. We did this 20 times.
Fast-forward 6 years. My son is 3 and now he has strep. But he’s … different. He doesn’t understand the easy/hard conversation the way his sister did. His tantrums are louder, and longer. He does not recover from them as easily, and they can ruin his entire day. My son is not officially on “the spectrum”; there’s no label to why is he how he is. We are still in the process of figuring out how his (different) (amazing) (beautiful) brain works. The journey is both frustrating and heartwarming, and there is so much unknown. But one thing is clear: the headlock isn’t working.
I text my pediatrician and ask if she will administer intramuscular bicillin. She agrees, but doesn’t have it in the office. I call around and find a compounding pharmacy 45 minutes away that has it in stock. She calls in the prescription, my husband drives out with all the kids to pick it up (I am in the hospital on service of course), and then drives back to the pediatrician, who gives my son the shot. He cries a little, and we’re done.
As a pediatric hospitalist, I spend a lot of time teaching residents about prescribing antibiotics. We talk about cultures and sensitivities, about side effect profiles. We talk about mg/kg, a lot. The residents all know that liquid clindamycin tastes gross and that augmentin ES causes less diarrhea than the original. But one thing many of them still don’t understand is why any parent in their right mind would subject their poor innocent child to an injection (a shot!) when the same medication can be given orally. What I try to teach them, to illustrate to them, is that sometimes it’s actually the kinder choice.
It’s not the right call for every kid every time. For my son, I am confident that we made the right choice, the kinder choice. But every child is different. I encourage my residents to think creatively about their patients, to use the biopsychosocial model to help guide their management decisions, to be flexible in their thought processes and to always, always show compassion.
The great thing about kids, though, is that they grow. My daughter who had strep when she was 3? Well, she’s 9 now, and she just had strep again along with her little brother. And she squirted her own amoxicillin into her mouth every time, no ice cream required.
Everything You Need To Know about CBD
Arguably the must-have wellness ingredient of 2019, the talk around CBD is only going to gain momentum. If trends in Canada and America are anything to go by, it will soon be in your beauty products, your coffee and even in your lube. I interview Georgia Branch, co-founder of CBD and hemp brand Hemple, to…
Everything You Wanted to Know About the Keto Diet
Do you want a diet that promises energy, clarity, mental focus? Welcome to the Ketogenic diet (Keto, if you’re Gen Y). The Keto approach has been gaining great momentum over the last 6 months, with people reporting reduced cravings, less snacking, and weight loss. What started out as a diet to help control seizures in…
‘The worst they have ever seen’: Family shares shocking photo of father’s hospital bedsore
When you have a spouse, parent or grandparent in hospital, one of the greatest concerns is for their comfort. Are they in pain? Are they comfortable? Are the medical staff doing their best? We’re sure these are some of the questions that Linda Moss and her two sisters Sharon and Patty had when their 77-year-old…
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We Need More Mean Moms
Do you think mom’s today are too nice? While we don’t need malicious parenting, are some parents forgetting the importance of teaching tough love? Many new age parents are taking on opposite parenting traits that they were raised with. It’s likely that if you grew up with strict parents who were unreasonable, made you complete…
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Rise and Run – How to Wake Up Early to Run
Rise and run is how my body naturally functions. I’m one of those super annoying people that can jump out of bed and be ready for a run no matter how early it is and what season. I think it’s in my genetic make up. Growing up, my dad would say the day was half […]
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Podcast 181 | Mindful
By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Joshua & Ryan talk about the most precious kind of freedom—awareness—as well as intentional living, mindfulness, meditation, and purpose with neuroscientist, author, and podcaster Sam Harris, and they answer the following questions…
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Vegan Golden Milk Cake with Coconut Frosting
Sooner or later I should post a dessert recipe that isn’t cake, right? I guess I just can’t help myself. Placed in a room full of every vegan dessert imaginable, cake would be my first choice every time. But give me time: once the internship eases up I’ll be baking more treats, and they can’t…
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Vegan Golden Milk Cake with Coconut Frosting
Sooner or later I should post a dessert recipe that isn’t cake, right? I guess I just can’t help myself. Placed in a room full of every vegan dessert imaginable, cake would be my first choice every time. But give me time: once the internship eases up I’ll be baking more treats, and they can’t…
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Last Week’s Workouts
Last week’s workouts saw the most climbing I’ve done this whole training block. And with that climbing, I got a boost of confidence that my fitness is going in the right direction – UP. The elevation runs were hard work but I felt strong. Three weeks till Mount Washington Road Race! Monday 40 minutes Stepmill […]
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Weekend Reading, 5.19.19
Happy Sunday, friends. It’s been…a week. Nothing insurmountable, just a pile-up of a lot of things at once. They all had one thing in common, which is that they were largely outside of my control. It started last weekend. A relationship that I’d actually been hopeful about (the first in a long time), came apart. Its…
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A Minimalist Approach to Technology
By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Our tools are only as good (or bad) as the person using them…
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What Juuling Does to Your Body (It’s Not Pretty)
In 2003, the first commercially successful electronic cigarette debuted in China. Today, millions of consumers regularly use “electronic nicotine delivery systems” (ENDS), especially electronic cigarettes (also called e-cigarettes). Juul e-cigarettes, apparently created to help adult smokers quit smoking more easily, are now the most popular “vaping device” among teens and young adults. While the vast majority of adults can’t…
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After Eating Raw Rodent’s Kidney for ‘Good Health,’ Couple Die of Bubonic Plague, Spark Quarantine
An unsuspecting Mongolian couple contracted the plague after eating raw rodent meat. The region the couple was visiting in the Bayan- Ölgii province (which borders China and Russia) went under quarantine for almost a week, trapping tourists there during the interim. The 118 people who had come into contact with the couple were isolated and…
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Judge Rules 3-Year-Old Must Receive Chemotherapy Against Parents’ Wishes
A Florida judge ruled on May 8th that a toddler must receive chemotherapy treatment for his leukemia diagnosis against the wishes of his parents, who wish to pursue alternative treatment, including cannabis, instead. Noah McAdams had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in April of this year and had already begun chemotherapy treatment at John…
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Longer Lasting Meal Prep with Foodsaver
This isn’t a recipe post, but it touches on something that has been near and dear to my heart this year, as a dietetic intern: leftover storage. During my clinical rotations, half of every Saturday and Sunday were dedicated to meal prep and batch cooking. Yes, it was a lot of time, and yes, I…
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