Our Poor Pediatrician

When the girls came home from the hospital, like most new moms, I was full of questions. I called upon my friends and family for counsel…until I realized I could just call our pediatrician’s office. There I had access to medically-trained professionals; I could ask any question behind the “anonymity” of the telephone; and my friends could stop screening my calls. I soon became a regular.

While the frequency of my calls has decreased as the girls have gotten older, I still probably average one call a week. I just imagine the nurses scrambling, saying, “No, it’s your turn…I talked to her last time!” They’re always very nice and accommodating, but I do think I have developed a bit of a reputation as an “involved” mother. :)

We took the girls for their one-year check-up this week. I was armed with three written pages of questions. In fairness, the pages are small, and I had bullet points and spacing between my questions for notes. (I had been “saving” my questions for several weeks, which helped average out my phone call totals for the year.) Our pediatrician was very patient. While I did elicit the occasional chuckle, he answered all my questions without noticeably rolling his eyes.

Following our question-and-answer session (which probably put him behind schedule for the rest of the day), our pediatrician talked to us about transitioning the girls to table food. He listed for us the few items they cannot eat. Among these items, he noted “nuts, and any nut products.” Thinking quickly, I said, “Oh, like sunflower oil?” Our pediatrician looked perplexed for an instant, and then he broke into a hearty laugh. “Like peanut butter,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone ask about sunflower oil.”

Hey, I was just checking.

Our poor pediatrician. Bless his heart.