﻿ Parenting Medical Questions Answers

Parenting Medical Questions Answers (cont.)

christine31_MSN What do you recommend to help a child lower their cholesterol?

Dr_Goldman_Speaker Well, that's a debatable item. It depends upon how high the cholesterol is. Generally speaking, whether you have a child or an adult, most doctors will say diet. Restrict your fats. Restricts your carbohydrates.

The fats and carbohydrates are the two main components responsible for an elevated cholesterol. Even with that, the liver still produces cholesterol. So, you may not be successful with diet to lower your cholesterol.

If diet is not sufficient, and there is a family history of high cholesterol, heart attacks or strokes, you might use medication to calm the statens to lower the cholesterol and they do work very well. However, in a growing child, you have to be very careful about this because they need everything. They need their vitamins, minerals, calcium. And, would you believe it, They need their cholesterol too! It's going to depend on how high the cholesterol is and a family history of high cholesterol.

Event_Moderator My 5-year-old son often has stomach aches; could this be signaling a larger problem?

Dr_Goldman_Speaker Well, it depends upon how often he has stomach aches. Does he have them before or after he eats or both? Is it related to food? He's a 5-year-old. Is he lactose intolerant? If he drinks a lot of milk, that might be a factor. Conceivably he may have other medical problems. He has to be checked out by a physician. Yes, he may have a serious problem. See your physician.

christine31_MSN When do you know certain antibiotics lose their effectiveness?

Dr_Goldman_Speaker That's another very good question. My answer to this, and I could be incorrect on that, is most of the time these expiration dates, I think, are a result of an FDA requirement to indicate to a person to use the medicine before a certain date. It varies from medication to medication. It's hard for me to answer this question regarding antibiotics or any other medication. It's my experience that if they give you a date, I'm not sure on what basis they have made this particular date, so I don't know enough about it to answer that question. But, generally speaking, I think that while the potency may be reduced, I think the effectiveness may not be reduced by using medication that's expired. But, I don't recommend that you use expired medications.

Event_Moderator What are the warning signs of Attention Deficit Disorder?

Dr_Goldman_Speaker Attention Deficit Disorder, in my experience, is where you pick this up is in school. The teacher will tell the parent that Johnny isn't paying attention, that he's disrupting the class. It's usually associated with hyperactivity. It's a debatable subject, but it usually comes from the school. The treatment for this is also a debatable one too.

Event_Moderator My 7-year old daughter often complains of a sore neck. Can I take her to my chiropractor?

Dr_Goldman_Speaker Well, you can. Chiropractors are certainly licensed to practice in the state of California. That's up to you. I know that chiropractors are associated with back problems and so the public generally is geared to that. My feeling would be whether it's a chiropractor or an M.D., that's a choice a parent makes. The problem I see with regard to taking the child to a chiropractor is that it may not be a bone problem. It may be something else. And, if it is a medical problem, then hopefully if you take your child to a chiropractor he will recognize that and tell you it's not a bone problem and send you to your physician.

That's one of the problems about going to a chiropractor because I think there is an emphasis on the back and bones and it may not be that.

We just had an early user who had the pain in the back, but was in the flank and that sounds more of a kidney infection than a back problem.

Event_Moderator What are the risks of immunization? I have heard that sometimes immunizations cause more damage than good?

Dr_Goldman_Speaker You have to understand that before immunization there were a lot of deaths; a large number of deaths and complications. Since immunization, there have been extremely small cases of deaths and few complications. You have to weigh it. Yes, it's a child. Is it worthwhile protecting your child against a disease that may cause complications like diphtheria or whooping cough? There are still cases of diphtheria and whooping cough around and it requires a lot of heroic treatment to clear these things up. So, why take a chance that your child may get one of these disease when the chances are almost 99 to 1 that the immunizations will protect them from getting the disease.

I was reading an article recently where 30 million doses have been given of this particular drugs and they have had 70 deaths. Now, you take 70 deaths from 30 million doses. The chances for a serious problem like death are miniscule...very, very, very small. There is a bigger chance in Southern California of getting hit by a car and killed then there is from getting an immunization.

Event_Moderator My child is afraid of needles. Are there alternatives to needles, like air guns, which I can request my doctor use on my child?

Dr_Goldman_Speaker I don't think there is much use. The only way you get an air gun is when you have a mass immunization, I think. I remember when we had Saban on Sunday. This is when the vaccine for polio came out from Dr. Saban and in order to immunize as many as possible, they used to have doctors and nurses go to different places, schools, etc. and people would line up and we'd immunize them. We had air guns and shots and what have you. But that's usually for mass immunization. For the run of the mill every day most doctors rely on needles. I used to be afraid of needles too so I understand what the child is going through. You just have to comfort them and in most cases they'll live through it.