when to go to dr.

[Dana Joy]

I am so new to this natural living, esp when it comes to medicine. With my older children they rec'd all their vaxs on schedule (until 2 years ago)and we did every well baby check up - and an unexplained fever, or possible ear pain, that was an immediate trip to the dr's office.
Now with Jess we have refused vax, he has been on antibiotics 3 times and he has seen a pediatrition for a well baby check 3 times. (the last time being in April). He has seen the naturopath with some terrific results for a chronic cough he had from age 4 months until 10 when we began treating it with Dr Melissa's reccomendations.
Unfortunultly we do not have any form of medical insurance right now- but when we did we had the state of ca ins which let us only go to the clinic where they were agast that I refused shots. I hate confronting people about this (irl- online I'll tell everyone and anyone exactly what I think of vax), so I really have avoided dr's and the few times jess has had an ear infection i took him to urgent care wherre they ask no questions.
so yesterday jess had a low grade fever and was lethagic, last night i think his fever got above 101- a guess i could not find the thermometer. i gave him tylonol and we got a little bit of sleep. and now i wonder what i should do.
Here are the options I see:
1. Do nothing but attempt to boast his immune system with herbs and vits.
2. Call naturopath and possibly see her.
3. Go to urgent care doc- who will most likely perscibe antibiotics- but will ease my fear that there may be something seriously wrong.
4. Go to clinic dr that at least has seen jess before- but will have to put up with critism for not vaxing
5. See if one of the highly reccomended dr's on my ap list will see jess even though we haven't seen her as a regular patient yet.

For all of these options money is not an object- but we don't want to waste money either.

Dana- who hopes she's making sense since she only got 2 hours uninteruppted sleep last night

[hbmamma]

I know my kids pretty well, but if something has me stumped, I err on the side of a DR visit. If you can find a DR that is reluctant to prescribe antibiotics at the first drop of a hat, that's cool too (we have one - only prescribes them if he feels they're necessary).
If his fever doesn't break within 24 hours, especially with motrin or tylenol, then it's probably time to see the DR.
I would do the herbs & vits once he feels better to boost the immune system when it's not already dragging.
Hope he feels better soon :hug2

[cobluegirl]

Well I personally don't go unless there is obviously something wrong and I can't deal with it. I wouldn't treat a fever until it reached 104 probably unless my child was in horrible pain or discomfort. Fevers are good things. The lethargy is different in each child. When I am sick..I get pretty lethargic and just want to sleep. I suspect that my children will be the same. Doesn't mean that they will need to see a dr. Trust your instinct and know what you can and can't handle. If you need to call somone..I would call your ND first.

[abbiroads]

I was wondering something similar this weekend. We had one day that was a little nerve wraking, but we did end up giving ds a little ibuprofen along with rest, baths, etc. and he is much better today. Sometimes waiting isn't the worst thing.

[Aerynne]

It sounds like a flu-type bug. I don't think I'd take Emily to the dr for that (and we do well child visits, most vaxes, and I will take her in if I think there is somethin the dr needs to do) but follow your Mama instincts. It doesn't sound like there's much the dr can do- it's probably a virus. But err on the side of going if you're not sure. I'd go call those other drs rather than going to urgent care if you can. You might even be able to talk to someone there and see if they think you guys need to go in.

:hug I hope you get some more sleep tonight. Try to nap today if you can.