Aibu to think some parents serious hypochondriacs?

[dolphinsandwhales]

I am keep in loose contact with a birth group online and have a few mum friends in rl. It seems to me that a proportion of them are terrible hypochondriacs and spend a lot of time dosing up their children with calpol, nurofen and hounding doctors for antibiotics.

Comments I've heard/read in the past few days include 'calpol is a godsend, I have given it to ds at least every other week since birth, he can't do without it for his coughs/colds/headaches'(he's two). 'i've just got dd her second round of antibiotics from the doctor, she's got a virus and I've had to get the out of hours doctor out twice' and finally, 'I phoned am ambulance last night as ds had a temperature and was coughing in his sleep, the paramedics looked at him and we're sympathetic but said he would be ok'.

Of course if someone has serious illness or suspects it then doctors, ambulances etc should be called, but all the ridiculous hypochondria over common coughs and colds from the same parents all the time means the NHS has even more pressure on resources. Someone having a heart attack could lack an ambulance if it's dealing with Billy's cough and antibiotics for viruses are not effective and overuse is contributing to superbugs (I understand from what I read).

Am I just a mean parent and grumpy probably

My mum never took me to the doctor when I was a kid. She didn't really believe in being ill. I never had a day off school. As a result, I am very crap at judging when I should seek medical assistance. I used to never take the kids to the GP but then got freaked out when I took one of my babies for a routine check up and was told that if her cough got much worse I should take her to A & E asap. I had no idea she was properly ill. This completely knocked my faith in my ability to judge and I think that quite often I've made the wrong call. E.g. Taken them in for croupy like coughing, but too late when there was no point. I only took DC3 in when she had first allergic reaction because she'd been ill for 7 days beforehand. I thought the massive hives and the all over body rash weren't particularly serious.

My 7 yr old DD is rarely ill, she gets a bunged up nose sometimes, due to the crappy sinuses shes inherited.

I cant remember the last time she went to GP for an illness, the 2 times she went last year, were for injury.

Also, I know when my DD is very ill, shes a bouncy, talkative girl, if she just wants to lay down and be quiet, shes really ill.

Definitely pobble!! Whoever allowed the name 'Calprofen' to be used has a lot to answer for!

The trouble is that once your immune system has taken a battering from a cold, for example, you are more at risk of picking up further infections if you come into contact with them before you are fully recovered.

Is that true?

I didn't think immune systems became less effective just because they've had one infection to deal with recently. In fact, I would have assumed that the opposite was true

I suspect my regular GP viewed me as one of those parents, DS2 was constantly in there with throat and ear infections. One summer it was every 3 weeks, almost to the dot. Until I saw a different, more sympathetic GP who referred him to an ENT who was horrified by how long it had taken to go see him.

DS2 had to have tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and grommets. He was a completely transformed child after that, brighter, settled and NOT ILL, bar the normal bugs that did the rounds. But as a result he had to have speech therapy due to his prolonged period of deafness while ill.

Hate my regular GP now and avoid him like the plague - him and his 'the body will heal itself' crap had DS2 suffering for far too long.

I didn't think immune systems became less effective just because they've had one infection to deal with recently. In fact, I would have assumed that the opposite was true

DS1 had a particular bad bout of tonsillitis and ear infection and the GP recommended I keep him off nursery for a month after he had recovered in order to allow his immunity to recover.

DS1 had a particular bad bout of tonsillitis and ear infection and the GP recommended I keep him off nursery for a month after he had recovered in order to allow his immunity to recover.

Thanks DIY. That's really interesting

DS2 was running about on the children's ward of our local hospital. In between bouts of just lying in his cot. He was in with bronchiolitis twice and was very up and down. The out of hours dr advised us to bring him up why we phoned and then he was admitted due to his oxygen Sats. So running about does not always equal well.

If you are a sight more relaxed about illness than all these 'mollycoddling' parents shouldn't you all count yourselves lucky?

Honestly, believing every virus is meningitis is no fun. The constant state of anxiety and need for reassurance that it's nothing serious will be horrible.

I don't find these parents annoying or whatever. Just feel a bit sorry for them really. With the exception of unnecessarily prescribed anti biotics (and that's surely down to the gp too) it's not as though their actions impact anyone else's family other than their own. If I had a quid every time a thread popped up on here fuming about parents who send their dcs to school/nursery when ill I'd be off to Barbados instead of Norfolk this holiday.

And imo, Calpol and its ilk is a godsend.

My LO is almost 1 and I find it hard to find a balance. He's been to a& e twice for head bumps (as advised by 111) and seen by ooh twice, once for croup. 2nd time was at weekend. He had been tired, clingy, lethargic for 2 days, with a high temp. We struggled to get temp down with calpol. Called 111 who sent him to ooh doc.

Ok, it was only a virus, but he ruled out ear infection, who DS is prone to, and told us it was okay to give nurofen. ( having been previously told not to as DS has inhaler).

Tbh, at this young age, I would rather be safe. Although, I always look up nhs website first, before calling 111