We've been to everyone of Moire's well-baby visits so far, but her 15 month should be now, and I've yet to make an appointment. We don't vaccinate, and because the only other thing they seem to do is measure her and tell me she's healthy and developmentally on-track, I just don't see the point of going.
I didn't vote because I don't have kids, but I wouldn't vaccinate. I would take my future kids to see a doctor because sometimes there are issues that you may not be able to notice and I'm not a doctor. Of course if the doctor told me something serious was wrong, then I'd get a second opinion. I just think that if something was wrong and could have been treated with medical attention, but I didn't want to take him/her to see a doctor, then I'd feel horrible that I put him/her in situation where they were suffering. Of course this is coming from a person who does not have a child of her own, but I do have a nephew.
We do most of the well baby visits. I think our structure is set up differently here in Canada though. My doctor isn't the one who performs the actualy vacination. There is a whole other system called the "public health system" that does things like vacinations (both childhood and travel related), flu shots and all that kinda stuff. So, when I take Manny for his shots, I go see the Public Health Nurse, at the Public Heath Department Office. About 1-2 weeks after that I take him to see our doctor for his checkup. Also, i don't pay for any of the services, PHealth of regular... not that that would make difference. I enjoy taking Manny to the doctor, as its nice to hear that i'm doing a good job and all that other stuff that goes with it.
I'm under the same kinda system as icedtea is, where the vacs and the doctors are 2 seperate things completely. As for the well baby visits, I used to take Leane to them all the time in her first year...mainly cuz I had no idea what I was doing and I needed that extra reassurance and guidance. Her doctor was really good with listening to me, comforting me, and supporting my decisions. However, he is in the city, and we live out in the boonies and when our car was stollen, I couldn't get in to see him anymore. By then, Leane was about 1 year old, and I was pretty confident in my intuition. So, for the last year, besides a couple trips to the hospital drop in clinic for the odd cold, we haven't been to any doctors for her.
the poll isn't working for me either.... but to answer the question...i have taken porter to well baby visits in the past....we have not vaccinated yet, and i'm still very much on the fence about it....we are supposed to take him at nine months, but he's almost ten months already and i haven't made any appointment yet.... i think, mostly, the well baby visits are a waste of time....
We did the baby visits but mostly because he was sick all the time. We were kind of coerced into doing a five year old visit recently. I told the doctor I couldn't see any reason to pay money to bring my healthy child in so she could tell me he was healthy. She's all, "Well, I have to respectfully disagree. There could be problems with the heart or other things that you wouldn't know how to diagnose." She didn't even listen to his heart. It's just a way to make money. By the way, the poll doesn't seem to be working. Kathi
