Question about Pediatricians and "Alternative" Medicine

[bisous]

Hello folks!

I was just wondering if anyone has ever encountered a pediatrician open to any forms of "alternative" medicine. Particularly, I am interested if any of your pediatricians promote limited use of antibiotics, suggest probiotics, herbal remedies, etc. I am primarily interested in alternative sources for wellness rather than treating specific illnesses.

My DS is Diabetic and I'm not trying to cure his Diabetes with herbs or anything but I am concerned about the fact that he has been on antibiotics 3x within the last 2.5 months. Obviously, I'd like to see what I can do to prevent infections and the use of too many antibiotics.

I'm curious to see if anyone out there has a pediatrician that is trained both traditionally and is open to other kinds of remedies that might be considered alternative. I'd love to hear your experiences!

TIA,

Jen

[mudder17]

My pediatrician is not trained in herbal medicine. However, he and his nurse practitioner are open to alternative treatments and regularly prescribe the use of probiotics in all of their preemie patients (he's head of pediatrics in the hospital) to help develop the gut. They also prescribe probiotics along with reflux medication for their reflux patients. For my daughter's cradle cap, she suggested some homeopathics (which did help). So yes, there are pediatricians out there that support the use of alternative treatments. Oh and this office also promotes the limited use of antibiotics and supports selective and/or delayed vaccination.


Eileen

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[DebbieJ]

DS's former ped is on the faculty at USC and is VERY open to alternative medicine.

~ deb
DS born at home 12/03
Breastfeeding After Reduction is possible! www.bfar.org

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[shilo]

yup. my DS's pedi is chinese by heritage and very open to 'alternative' and 'complementry' measures to help support his traditional western medicine (MD) training. i think you just need to look around and interview some pedi's to kinda get a sense of what their philosophy is. part of my interview questions before having DS revolved around looking for someone who approached their patients/families with a more holistic approach and who wasn't afraid of the kinds of things you're talking about.

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[cdlamis]

Here is a great link to find an Integrative Physician- one who integrates conventional and alertnative medicine. All physicians graduate from Dr Weil's integrative medicine 2 yr program.

www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/PAG00110 (this link is to primarily explain Dr Weil's philosohphy)
integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/af/ (link to find a practioner near you)

Disclaimer- I am not in the medical field but I like Dr Weil and his philosophies.

HTH~
Daniella
Mom to Julia 6/02
and Bella 12/04
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[JustMe]

To a certain degree, yes, my pediatrician knows some things about alternative medicine and is open to it in some ways.

Unfortunately for me, she is not full time and this is not true of her associates. Dd had her first ear infection at age 4 back in Dec. Her associate told me to put her on antibiotics, which I grugdingly did. We saw another associate for her 2nd ear infection about a month ago; antibiotics again. When she got her 3rd infection (or possibly continued to have the same infection), I decided to wait the extra day and see my ped. She said not to do antibiotics yet, but to treat with acidopholis and steam showers. However, when I asked about garlic oil she said she didnt believe in that as it does not make sens that this would work for a middle or inner ear infection. She didnt tell me not to do it though.

When I interviewed this ped, the first words out of her mouth were "I am not a partiarchial doctor. I will tell you what I think and when I feel strongly about something, but I know it will be your decision". She was "hired" on the spot, as the first ped I had worked out got pissed off at me when I didnt do everything she told me to do.

Robyn

[brittone2]

When I lived in PA, they were harder to find. In the area of NC I live in (very liberal, 2 large universities nearby) now, there are quite a few physicians that practice complementary medicine. The majority don't take insurance, but some of them do. As you said, these are docs that are trained "traditionally" but also integrate the use of homeopathy, probiotics, etc. into their practice. Our doc doesn't necessarily have a lot of experience with prescribing alternatives, but IIRC one of the physicians that was in the same practice w/ him for a while (I believe they are close friends) did, and he's very open-minded about it.

This area also has a lot of alternative medicine practices (naturopaths, acupuncturists, etc.)

[miki]

The practice I take my DD to used to have one ped who did have training in alternative therapies but she left to start her own practice so that she could focus more on offering holistic health care. She has the sort of practice that Beth mentioned doesn't that insurance. Her initial consultation costs about $150 and lasts for an hour. I heard her speak at a meeting of a local moms group. For general wellness, she recommended that everyone, not just kids, take a daily dose of probiotic, multivitamin, and fish oil (flax seed oil for those with seafood allergies).

Of the docs left in the practice, one offers suggestions for non-traditional remedies to the extent she can. I've found from talking with other moms in the area that this practice seems to be the one in the area that is open to delayed vaccination. In my one experience with an ear infection, the doc acknowledged that antibiotics are not always necessary and that she does not always recommend them but then gave me an explanation why in this case she would recommend I give them to DD. But she still left it up to me whether I wanted to wait and see or give DD the meds. When I opted for the meds, she suggested probiotics or lots of yogurt to offset intestinal upset.

HTH

[bisous]

Deb,

That is very cool! I happen to live near USC, would you mind giving the name of the ped?

If you want you can email me through the boards,

Thanks!

[bisous]

Really interesting replies! I'm heartened to hear that there are ways that traditional medicine and other traditions can reconcile. It looks like in the future we might see more of that. I like the emphasis that other traditions have on wellness instead of illness. I still believe that traditional medicine makes incredible strides in curing many illnesses but they don't seem to take a very active stance in STAYING healthy, you know? Also, it seems everyone I ask lately is highly, highly skeptical of the claims of anything not regulated by the FDA.

FWIW, by reading posts here in the lounge and in the healing forum of the MDC I've started doing just the things that Wen mentioned in her post. I'm giving DS probiotics, a daily multi-vitamin, and flax seed oil every day.

I'm intrigued by two more questions, based on your responses.

First, are areas with research hospitals and medical schools more open to alternative methods? Might that be a way to find more innovative practioners as a general course of action? I'm specifically thinking of Beth's mention of the NC area and Deb's reference to USC.

Second, I wonder why many of these practioners do not accept insurance? Anyone have any thoughts about this?

Thanks again!

Jen

[chlobo]

"First, are areas with research hospitals and medical schools more open to alternative methods?"

I live in the Boston area & I'd have to say no. In the teaching hospital where I gave birth 3 years ago no longer allows doulas in the delivery room. One of the local birthing centers closed & I cannot find a hospital with midwives near me (within a 3o min. drive). Also, I haven't heard much about alternative practices around here which are few, far between & very expensive. If anything they seem more entrenched in traditional medicine. Maybe other's from my area have had a different experience though?

[brittone2]

My opinion is that the negotiated rates that they receive from insurance providers means they have to see a large number of patients per day to make a profit (some HMOs etc. pay abysmally). That doesn't allow them to spend the in-depth time that they need to in order to have a more holistic approach. IMO it is easier and less time consuming to write a RX for Ambien than to talk w/ a patient about stress, caffeine, lifestyle factors that may be playing a part in insomnia. Easier than taking time to talk about yoga, meditation, hypnosis, journaling,relaxation techniques, kwim? Holistic treatment is going to require a lot of talking about lifestyle, diet, stress, prevention, exercise...more than the 10 minute visit that most physicians budget per patient.

Also, at least in our area, people are willing to pay out of pocket. There is a Waldorf school in the area and a lot of the people there see one of two local docs that are into integrative medicine.

There was a just a great segment on my local public radio station (might have been an NPR story...can't recall) about a doc that only takes patients that pay out of pocket, but they get an extensive visit (45 mins to an hour) and the prices aren't bad as he has minimal overhead because they have less need to employ or contract a huge staff to get approvals, set up referrals, handle billing, etc. Everyone told him he was nuts, but his practice is no longer accepting new patients (eta: because they are so busy!), he's bringing in some other docs into his practice using the same model, and now he's giving seminars to other docs all over the country on how to set up similar practices. It was very intriguing.
ETA: they also made the point that many people will routinely pay a mechanic 100-200 a year for tuneups, fluid changes, etc. but balk at 80-100 for a quality physical for themselves.

[DebbieJ]

I emailed you through the boards!

~ deb
DS born at home 12/03
Breastfeeding After Reduction is possible! www.bfar.org

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[miki]

I don't think having a research hospital nearby has anything to do with it. If you are looking for recommendations for docs open to non-traditional approaches, I think you'd have better luck just by talking with people.

I think the insurance aspect has to do with the amount of time it takes to evaluate a patient holistically. The holistic ped near me spends an hour with you to start. If she is spending that much time with her patients, she just can't see as many. For practices that accept insurance and submit your claim for you, their contract rate usually reimburses them for much less than what they would bill you. This is not to say that going to a holistic doc that does not accept insurance means you will have to pay 100% out of pocket. Depending on what kind of insurance you have, you can still file the claim yourself. You'd just have to look into your deductibles to figure out if it's worth it to you. The ped near me helps you file your claim by giving you the right codes to provide to your insurance carrier.

[brittone2]

I would agree w/ the PPs that I'm not sure having a research university nearby makes a difference per se. I think in our case being near two major universities does make a difference because this area is quite liberal and generally open-minded, and I think the universities kind impact that. This area happens to have a pretty big pocket of semi-crunchy kinds of people. The docs know they will have a base of patients interested in their services.