Had another deeply unpleasant doctor's visit yesterday with my 5-month-old. I was admonished for only recently starting to give him Vitamin D .... which I was not aware I should have been giving him since birth.
The situation is this: We go for monthly, sometimes bi-monthly, check ups. Every time i go, I tell the doctor how much I feed him, how often. i fill the doctor in on our entire routine, and all the baby's new behaviors. And every time I ask if there is anything else I should be doing. I asked once before if I should be giving him vitamins, and was told that if I'm taking vitamins for feeding he should be getting plenty of everything from that.
Fast forward to this week, when I took him in for a check-up that involved various specialty doctors examining his development (they said it's a standard check-up for a baby this age, just to make sure he's hitting all the milestones).
They checked his joints around the hips (to determine if he's on track to begin crawling soon) and said there's not enough calcification of the bones. I explained that this might be because I had only recently begun giving him Vitamin D after another doctor advised me to last week. They were shocked, scolded me and asked, "How could you not be giving him Vitamin D? You have harmed his development!"
I told them that I had asked previously with a doctor and been told the vitamins I take are enough. They only admonished me further and said I should have known he needs Vitamin D as well.
My question is -- should i have known that? Is that something that all mothers are just expected to know?
I receive various newsletters on my baby's development that include recommendations and details on what behaviors he should be doing now, what additional care I should be giving him, etc. And nowhere have I ever read that Vitamin D is mandatory in the routine. The only mention I've seen of vitamins is along the lines of, "Ask your doctor if you should give your baby vitamins."
And I did. And was told he didn't need anything additional. And yet now I'm being scolded for being a bad mother because I didn't know he needed Vitamin D ...
Oddly, when the neurologist checked out his activity level and response to stimuli, the baby was acting very lethargic and just didn't seem that interested in what the doctor was doing. Which was unlike my baby. And I told the doctor that he's never like that at home with me, he's always laughing and babbling and grabbing for things. But the doctor didn't seem to believe me and insists he's not developing properly. He kept saying, "Oh, it's obvious you're a first-time mother. You're not doing enough for him."
And this is after I told him I read to him daily, give him baby massages, take him for walks, train him to grab and hold things, play various games with him, bathe him -- all the things I'm supposed to be doing.
Am I a terrible mother?
The situation is this: We go for monthly, sometimes bi-monthly, check ups. Every time i go, I tell the doctor how much I feed him, how often. i fill the doctor in on our entire routine, and all the baby's new behaviors. And every time I ask if there is anything else I should be doing. I asked once before if I should be giving him vitamins, and was told that if I'm taking vitamins for feeding he should be getting plenty of everything from that.
Fast forward to this week, when I took him in for a check-up that involved various specialty doctors examining his development (they said it's a standard check-up for a baby this age, just to make sure he's hitting all the milestones).
They checked his joints around the hips (to determine if he's on track to begin crawling soon) and said there's not enough calcification of the bones. I explained that this might be because I had only recently begun giving him Vitamin D after another doctor advised me to last week. They were shocked, scolded me and asked, "How could you not be giving him Vitamin D? You have harmed his development!"
I told them that I had asked previously with a doctor and been told the vitamins I take are enough. They only admonished me further and said I should have known he needs Vitamin D as well.
My question is -- should i have known that? Is that something that all mothers are just expected to know?
I receive various newsletters on my baby's development that include recommendations and details on what behaviors he should be doing now, what additional care I should be giving him, etc. And nowhere have I ever read that Vitamin D is mandatory in the routine. The only mention I've seen of vitamins is along the lines of, "Ask your doctor if you should give your baby vitamins."
And I did. And was told he didn't need anything additional. And yet now I'm being scolded for being a bad mother because I didn't know he needed Vitamin D ...
Oddly, when the neurologist checked out his activity level and response to stimuli, the baby was acting very lethargic and just didn't seem that interested in what the doctor was doing. Which was unlike my baby. And I told the doctor that he's never like that at home with me, he's always laughing and babbling and grabbing for things. But the doctor didn't seem to believe me and insists he's not developing properly. He kept saying, "Oh, it's obvious you're a first-time mother. You're not doing enough for him."
And this is after I told him I read to him daily, give him baby massages, take him for walks, train him to grab and hold things, play various games with him, bathe him -- all the things I'm supposed to be doing.
Am I a terrible mother?
