Keep Up With the Latest – Subscribe to this Blog

If you don’t want to miss the latest from the Parent’s Connection, you may now subscribe to this blog. Blog subscriptions will replace emails sent by the Children’s Department. It’s easy and once your subscription is verified with a simple email, you’ll get an email any time a new post appears on the blog.

 
Look to the right of this post under the heading Children’s Programming. Find the link that is titled subscribe to email updates from this blog. Click on the link. Fill out the 2 boxes in the form provided. The first box requests your email address. If you want your updates via email leave the box Email SMTP checked. To stop spam, copy the code given into the second box and click on Subscribe me! You will then receive an email from feedblitz asking you to confirm your subscription. All you do is click on the link in your feedblitz email and you are done. Each time there is a new post on this blog, you will receive an email. If you have any questions please post a reply, visit the Children’s Department or give us a call at 628-0947 X3.

 
For more information on events and programming, don’t forget to visit and subscribe to the Southington Kids’ Place blog. You’ll find the link for the Southington Kids’ Place in under Children’s Programming. Click on the link, go to the blog and follow the simple directions to subscribe there.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a happy healthy holiday!

Mother and Father Really Do Know Best

Parents today need to advocate for their children’s physical and mental health.  I have always believed in a hands-on, mother/father knows best philosophy and a recent article in The Hartford Courant agrees.  This article* cites a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which found that “…overall, doctors gave children the appropriate outpatient medical care only 47% of the time.”

 

I have no wish to disparage pediatricians.  My girls’ doctor was wonderful (Hi Dr. B., if you’re reading).  I’m sure most pediatricians do an excellent job, but this study makes me think.  I hope it makes all parents think.

 

My older daughter had pneumonia ten times before the age of 10.  One snowy night, we headed off to the emergency room because at 2:00AM she suddenly spiked a 105 degree fever.  Due to the storm, my pediatrician could not make it in to the hospital.  Lucky for us, we live a few blocks from the hospital and were able to drive at a snail’s pace and arrive safely.

 

I knew my daughter had pneumonia, but she was unusual.  She never coughed.  Since she had pneumonia this way nine times before, without coughing, I told the doctor on duty her history and that she needed an antibiotic.  He would not believe me.  He suspected a kidney infection, catheterized her and then found nothing.  Thank goodness her fever was so high that she doesn’t remember anything from that night.  He ran five or six other tests before he begrudgingly had her taken for a lung X-ray.  He was really just placating me as I refused to stop insisting that she had pneumonia.  He sent the nurse back to tell me she had pneumonia.  I never saw him again.

 

The lesson I took from that night is that the people who know a child best are his/her parents.  Take an active role in your child’s health care.  Ask questions.  Actively listen to the answers.  If you don’t understand what your health care provider is saying, tell them.  You are your child’s best advocate.  As my no-nonsense grandmother used to say, “You got a mouth.  Use it.”

  *Study: Health System Fails Children, October 11, 2007, A:3.  Due to copyright restrictions I could not post the article here.  It is no longer available online.  If you would like to see a copy of this article, please ask at the Children’s Services Desk.

Do you need help with registration?

Directions on how to register for Storytime or Tales & Tunes For Tots are posted at our Southington Kid’s Place blog.  Click the link entitled “Our other blog – Southington Kid’s Place” to the right of this post, under the heading ”Children’s Programming.”