to think people that just believe unquestionably what doctors say are naïve

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So my sisters ds age 2 has very bad eczema, i used to have the same but changed my diet and it cleared up in months despite taking prescription stuff for decades that only made it a bit better.

So ds go said to my sister eczema is nothing to do with diet. She just beleives him and is ignoring me.

Medical advice is changing all the time, it wasn't that long ago doctors were advertising cigarettes.

Aibu to think she is very naive?

I don't think people should accept unquestioningly what doctors tell them, but I would rqther they did that than accept unquestioningly what some unqualified person off the internet tells them.................

I used to have a friends who swore by Chinese medicine- she boiled up bags of herbs and drank them without any knowledge of what was in them or of what dose of she was getting, there was no allergy testing, list of ingredients, no contra indications..........

23/45 minutes is still 23/45 minutes longer than the average person gets. And you're rather assuming that the Dr in question has no further interest, and has done no independent research into diet; yet somehow someone armed with Google is more qualified to make statements about diet

I think I'd still rather listen to a Dr, unless it's a trained dietician/nutritionist with no vested interest in pushing something. They are, after all, considerably more knowledgeable about the human body for starters.

Google always reminds me of the quack in Contagion, the one that insists there's a massive cover up, and all we need to take is forsythia. A little knowledge is dangerous.

Did you know anyone can call themselves a nutritionist?? I could put up a brass plate today, and start charging people.........Shocking, isn't it?

eye roll

So many "my gp doesn't know xyz about this specialist subject"

Yes because they're a GP. Not a specialist.

I don't unquestioningly accept what any Doctor tells me, I go away and read the info about my pills and decide with the info the doc has given me if thats what I want to do, not if its the right thing to do.

Anecdotal evidence = suck.

BeeRayKay I read that as "egg roll" and thought that's what you were suggesting the OP's DN eats. I read it several times as I thought it was so odd

Did you know anyone can call themselves a nutritionist?

Yes, and "Dr" Gillian McKeith springs to mind there. Didn't someone actually post "You are what you eat" upthread?

Listening to a trained professional who will have seen thousands of cases of eczema over a an untrained person with experience of one person's eczema doesn't sound naïve to me.

This x1000

In the past people would often just blindly accept what doctors said, because they were doctors, and this wasn't ideal, as obviously doctors are only human, often under enormous stress/sleep deprivation, and did make mistakes.

Nowadays, you get lots of people who are so self absorbed, with their heads SO far up their own arse, that they spend a few hours reading (totally biased, medically unsound) websites about how you should only eat acorns because [insert false historical dietary fact] and [insert fictional biological fact] and [pull together random figure showing increasing global ill health with lowering levels of acorn eating], blah blah blah. Afterwards, they convince themselves that doctors are morons - MORONS - They don't even recommend ACORNS for fucks sake - and insist on blathering on about how much more they know than people who are actually medically qualified.

The happy medium would be - I imagine - for people to see their doctors, to ask questions so they understand the diagnosis, and to get a second opinion if they aren't happy.

I've always thought a person thinking that they know more than medically trained professionals is an almost perfect balance of a conspiracy theorist and a raging narcissist.

With regards to your title, in my case yes, I went to the Dr with symptoms and was given blood tests told these I was told were normal, went to the Drs numerous times over years with the same symptoms- same answer always.
After speaking to a chiropractor about my history, and non diagnosis, she advised to change Drs, I had by this point just accepted that there was nothing wrong- I trusted the Drs advise.
Changed Drs gave history, sent for blood tests, bloods came back indicating what problem may be, sent for further tests. Was then diagnosed with what I thought was wrong when I went to the Drs first aprox 2001-2002 (was diagnosed aprox 2013).
Also when having an appt with a specialist after diagnosis, she said so you were diagnosed in 2002, I said no, just recently, she started looking through my history, and I was explaining what had happened. She said all my blood tests since 2002 did actually indicate I had a problem so she was surprised I was not sent for further tests for diagnosis much sooner.
Whilst my problem is not life threatening, there is no a massive impact on my life through not being diagnosed at an earlier date.

Shit happens, people get things wrong, but that was multiple Drs over multiple years that did not pick this up.

But I think in my case I should have trusted my self more and pushed a bit more.

my bias comes from my dads experiences. Twice drs have fucked up and misdiagnosed him. First time they took 2 years to diagnose crohns and it took an american specialist they bought 5 minutes to spot it.. it nearly killed him.

Second time they misdiagnosed the cause of fluid retention as heart trouble, when it wasn't, it was his kidneys. A mistake that DID kill him.

Always question if you're not happy.

I don't eat paleo, and I'm never ill. Just lucky I guess.
As far as my children are concerned, I would follow what the GP said first and foremost. I was a nurse, and many nurses do tend to distrust doctors, but I think you have to at least try try what they prescribe first. Otherwise, why even waste their time consulting them. If it doesn't work then try something else, or go back and ask them for something different.

One DC eczema was cause by food - it started when she was weaned - a food diary showed it was a common weaning food. Avoiding it no more eczema.

Second DC - no food trigger - there right from the start - bf fed bit changed my diet by no change. Have kept food diary but it's not food. Washing powder is an issue as is non cotton clothes and things we haven't found yet- took ages to find a cream that worked - many prescribed made it worse - and reading round subject that wasn't unknown.

So it's perfectly possible to have different triggers in the same family.

I go to a GP for a medical opinion - if a problem persists I might see another GP - I would also read round the subject but be very careful about the source. So I'm not going to blindly believe random person x and their theory - but if a respected support site for a condition suggest something - or has recent research papers that suggest something I might consider trying or depending on GP talk to about trying.

Incidentally - it was reading round the subject of eczema that meant I found again and again a certain cream helped - so when we changed GP due to house move I asked if we could try it - and wow it made a massive difference. Reading round eczema meant I found eczema clothing sites - and that has at time been invaluable - stopping the itch scratch cycle.

YABU to insist it's diet related - may well not be.
YANBU - to think a bit or reading round the subject of eczema might help - though you don't know that your sister isn't doing that.

I firmly believe "to think people that just believe unquestionably what doctors say are naïve" after being told that white coat hypertension does not exist by my now ex-GP in an appalling fashion.

There are just some crap GPs.

I also think that in many cases, patients will end up knowing more than their GP about their condition if they are complicated and end up seeing specialists as the GP will only have limited knowledge due to the nature of simply not being able to absorb every detail for themselves. GPs are only aware of general things because they are human.

I have had problems which my GP actively told me to go away and find out what support I thought I needed and she would support me all the way as she realised that I was more aware of the services available to me than she was. This was a good thing, rather than a bad thing.

So to an extent I do believe that 'normal' people should take care of their own health as well as using the GP as a resource for their health and not the only source of information about it.

The key thing is to work with your doctor not against them. If you find them incompetent find another and if you find one who is willing to acknowledge weaknesses in their knowledge this isn't necessarily a bad thing if they are willing to help you. GPs are not all knowing, they are human.

So are YABU? Hmmm well yes I think you are, as you are expecting your sister to ignore the GP and take your word over hers. Perhaps she has discussed your suggestion with her GP and come to the conclusion its inappropriate. The thing is its actually none of your business... and the best doctors should judge others for taking/not taking advice given to them because its every patient's basic right to decide the best course of action for themselves rather than to 'follow blindly' as you put it. This should apply equally to 'Google Doctors' as well as real ones.

Doctors are only human and work on probabilities - when someone suddenly has breathing issues with no history, its unlikely to be something serious, its probably panic attacks. However with me, it was blood clots on my lungs that could have led to me dropping dead at any second and if i hadnt demanded a letter to take to a&e, i would have just gone home.... But MOST people with my symptoms, probably the correct diagnosis.
Doctors have a lot of training and expertise BUT things change all the time and they may not have kept up with the latest information, you really have to self advocate most of the time in case you are the 1 in a million.

Dr's are not God. The human body is an immensely complex structure.
If you read any blog about a GP's day, it is horrendous.
Patients come with vague symptoms and even vaguer history and expect miracles.
The constant critism and lack of any respect for the profession that is shown in the media is wearing.

Doctors are having nervous breakdowns and meltdowns daily. In London they have a support group for Doctors who want to leave the profession. GP positions cannot be filled, the job is so impossible.

I have Children who are Doctors. I have a son in an inner City practise. He has had people tell him to F off because he was unwilling to prescribe anti biotics for a Virus. People come almost daily to his surgery who are the worried well, or are bored. People whose life style is making them ill and start shouting if he suggests changes etc, etc. He has had enough and he is relatively young.
I think it is a horrendous job and I wish that they had chosen something else.
To see my beloved children so stressed is painful.

Please stop treating Doctors as Gods and be more realistic. Diagnosing an illness can be simple but a lot of the time it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Especially if the symptoms are vague and the illness obscure.
You don't hear all the stories about the times they get it right only when they get it wrong.
Give them a break.

We were back and forth to the Drs with DD's skin for years - told it was dry skin, or eczema, or possibly fungal. Then last year (she's 9 now) my mother took her informally to see the dermatologist DH of a friend of hers and it took him 2 minutes to diagnose her (ichthyosis vulgaris). Suddenly ALL her symptoms and history fell into place. I suppose the moral of the story is that we should have been referred to a specialist rather than fobbed off - I knew it wasn't "just" dry skin and I never thought it was eczema. In her case, no big deal, it doesn't really affect her life and she doesn't suffer with it as we had years ago found a product that controlled it quite well.

I guess some GPs are better than others (the one who flatly denied there was such a thing as nipple thrush when I was painfully bf DS deserves a dishonourable mention here ); I think they are of course a valuable resource but not omniscient, particularly with chronic conditions that are not cut-and-dried, like eczema, which has many forms and triggers and causes.

A good GP will allow the patient to ask questions. You also don't know exactly what the GP has said to her. Personally I would not consider an exclusion diet for a child without seeing a consultant and a dietitan. If you exclude major food groups then you risk your child having worse problems with ezcema.

Ezcema is the pits, but most children do eventually grow out of it. One issue I have is that GPs simply do not have the time to advise parents on how best to apply creams. For example I made the mistake of not allowing enough time between applying the emoliant and the steriod cream. The emoliant cream diluted the steriod and made it ineffective.

I believe that it would save the NHS money if every GP surgery had an ezcema nurse with the ablity to prescribe. In a lot of case, ezcema can be managed with emoliants. When ezcema is more severe then advice on how to apply steriods and emoliants correctly would make treatment more effective. A GP simply does not have time to give in depth advice.

Yes you should question your doctor - my mother thinks you shouldn't, just do as they say ...but IME you sometimes have to.
That doesn't mean that your sister has to listen to your personal experience and act on it - say it once and then leave it...no doubt the GP has seen lots of cases of childhood eczema...and will refer on /change advice as when and if necessary...
Nutritionist are full of bunk ...are not qualified - Dr Google can give you lots of advice - sadly a lot that usually involves selling something - even if it is just a lifestyle...

GPs and A&E Drs aren't specialists. But they know a lot more about the human body and medicine than the average person in the street. Then again they can't possibly know everything about every condition. And they actually know that.
They also are not magicians - they often don't have a magical cure. Sometimes even specialists just don't know.

Therefore no I don't believe everything doctors tell me ...I will question them - but I also respect their opinion. And I would seek a second or third opinion -if they had no answers because that increases the chance of coming across someone who has experienced your problem before.

A body is much much more complicated than a car or a house -both of which have been designed by humans. NO-ONE understands exactly how everything works and more relevantly interacts (especially on a molecular level) -if we did there would be no more research. Suggest you look at some established biochemical pathways to get some idea -that's how we think that works - in that tissue, under those conditions - with a whole host of variables. There is a hell of a lot more we just don't know.
(I have a PHd in Biochemistry - I spent 5 years looking at a chemical that is found in low levels in the cells of a variety of organisms, everything we do know points to it being important. It was first 'discovered' in the early 80s - so after thousands and thousands of hours of research, by several different groups ... we still don't know what it does - even now 8 years after my Phd (and it seems to be related to another chemical that was first discovered in 1963 - yep we still don't know what that does either....)

I may or may not have a rare condition - it is very complicated. Without a doubt I know more about the condition than every GP I have every met. Arguably I know more about it than some specialists I have come across (and with all these things there are opposing opinions).
And I know my medical history better than anyone who has had 10 mins to skim read my notes...
At one time I had to question the dosing given to me by a new consultant ...he told me to reduce, I thought I should be increasing - turns out he hadn't read my notes properly...missed that my target wasn't 'average'...
I have argued with my obstetric consultant about something - he brought in a haematologist to 'put my mind at rest'... except the haemotologist agreed with me...
I have asked an A&E doctor if he was sure he was doing the full range of blood tests before I went back on medication as they could no longer do them after ...yep they rushed in with another 3 bottles just as they were taking the needle out of my arm...
I have a host of these little anecdotes ...but I don't believe I know more about general health than my GP...

To the people who are moaning, like the person above about not being referred on....

It's quite simple, if you have a specific complaint about something, such as your skin, and your Gp has exhausted available options, then ASK for a referral to the relevant specialist.

e.g. I have acne. Hormonal. I'm 25 :-( After trying the doctors treatments and them not helping (or making other things worse) I asked for a referral to the dermatologist. Simple, one appointment all sorted. GP wasn't offended, I'd stopped clogging the system up.

Why can't people just be pro-active in their own health?

That's shocking about nutritionists, I didn't know that.

Yep. Dietician is a protected title- you have to be qualified. Nutritionist? No- any crank can call themselves that.

YANBU
For 40 years my OH suffered with tonsillitis, he had been told he was allergic to penicillin. The other meds made him more ill than the tonsillitis. So he suffered, and for the last 20 years I've suffered from his twice yearly tonsillitis moaning (he doesn't do ill well). Last year he was taken to hospital by ambulance, after 3 days of nothing working and OH by this point had tonsillitis, blood infection and kidneys were struggling, he was very ill, the Doctor asked how he knew he was allergic to penicillin. He told the Doctor his mother had told him and she was a Midwife, so it must be right. The Doctor asked to speak to her now on the phone, a brief conversation about how his sibling had some reaction to penicillin and she and the GP decided not to risk it with OH. Within 5 min OH was on penicillin and was home 48 hours later. I and our children nearly lost him because you mustn't question Medical professionals. 40 years of suffering and a near death, I still mustn't question MIL.
I also took my chicken poxy child to a playground. I met my friend, a GP, and her children, showed her the one spot my DC had and asked if she knew what it was. My child had caught the pox off a babies toy the day before spots had appeared on the baby, so we mentioned chicken pox, but it was dismissed. Dispite knowing how CP had been caught MIL insisted that it was perfectly safe for other children and a pregnant lady so long as they didn't spend more than 15 min in the same room has my poxy child.

OP, unless your sister is putting her fingers in her ears and singing lalalaI'mnotlistening while you're talking, then she will indeed have heard what you said and appears to have decided to ignore it.

You claim that all you wanted is for her to listen to you. She has done that. You appear not to like that she hasn't just done as you told her to. You are being unreasonable.

For the rest, very interesting to read about people's experiences on how to get the best out of the healthcare system. Thanks .