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interventions. And the nature of emergencies is that they are unplanned – the doctor may have to abandon patients in consulting rooms to resuscitate a child or attend an emergency C-section. In each case, you’d want the doc to do the same for you if it was your child in danger. So be on time, and try to accept the annoyance when the doctor is running late. If you do come late for your own appointment, you are only adding to the time pressure in an imperfect system.

If your child is booked for an operation, similarly do not make waves by demanding to know why your little one has to arrive three hours early, and so on. Your doctor realises it is inconvenient for you and hard for your hungry baby. But do yourself a favour and let hospitals’ admittedly sometimes arcane systems work in their tried and tested way, or you compromise your child’s safety. You really don’t want to muddle systems and risk your child accidentally receiving the incorrect procedure because you interfered. It has happened…

COME PREPARED

One day in an imagined future, all health records will be electronic and “in the cloud” and your doc will easily be able to access all relevant information. But while we hurtle towards this Utopia, the onus is on you to take responsibility for your child’s medical records, especially if your child has a complex history. “Keep a file of information and results and take this with you to your appointment,” says Dr Moore. “Know the name of the medical condition your child has, and the correct name and dose of any medication they are taking,” adds urologist Dr Sean Doherty. If you are consulting the doctor for, say, a recurring earache, be able to recount more or less how many previous infections your child has had – information like this will influence the treatment plan, such as whether your child is a candidate for grommets.

FOLLOW THEIR ADVICE TO THE TEE

What’s the point of asking for advice and then not heeding it? “Reluctance to take antibiotics or vaccines is my biggest quibble with parents,” says GP Dr Sherwin Kathawaroo. “While overuse is a huge concern, there are indications for antibiotics. When indicated, parents should follow their doctor’s advice and give the antibiotic to their child. Parents should voice their concerns or ask questions [at the appointment] rather than take the prescription and not fill it. Vaccines prevent illness and reduce the need for antibiotics.”

Continuity of care with a trusted doctor is important for the health of your child. Nobody is saying you shouldn’t go for a second opinion but you shouldn’t doctor-hop a lot (or for trivial reasons) as this will mean nobody will have a proper record of your child or know them well, and they may miss vital health clues that way. to take in in a short time at doctors’ visits. Because you are anxious, and possibly have a sick, squirming baby on your lap, you are not focusing as well as you usually can. “Take notes,” advises Dr Moore, or even record the session on your phone (audio or video) so that you can take it all in more slowly at home. Most doctors won’t mind this, but do check first.

WHAT YOU KNOW – AND WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW

There’s a reason doctors study for seven years, and usually more, before they are unleashed on the public. They store a lot of information in their brains. It’s great to go to the doctor with a general idea of what might be amiss with your child, because you Googled the symptoms. But know that Dr Google cannot give you nuance and you might emerge from your Internet tunnel convinced that your child has Condition A, which – unbeknown to you – your doctor can disprove instantly by checking Fact B. When you do go online to research (we’re only human, we’ve all done it), choose your sources of information carefully. Go to sites that do not accept advertising, have a specific agenda or advocate a specific treatment. The US Centers for Disease Control ( cdc.gov), Mayo Clinic ( mayoclinic.org), or government-owned health sites (Australia and the UK’S NHS) are good sources of accessible health information to use as a reference. YB

Nothing beats watching your baby reach his milestones – especially those hard-tomiss ones that you can show off to the grandparents and anyone that cares to watch. One of these is crawling. This is because your baby is one step closer to standing and eventually walking. But, crawling is a hot topic among parents because there is such a wide range of what is normal in the timing and methods. Not al babies crawl at the same age, others don’t crawl at all, while others shuffle on their bums. But should you worry if your baby hasn’t started crawling?

Exactly around the time that a baby develops a strong attachment to his mother, when he can hardly bear to be separated from her, he is already beginning to leave her. The conflict between security and dependence, exploration and independence is being played out.

In order to investigate interesting objects, he cuts the ties with mom and goes off to explore new worlds. In the majority of babies this is an innate, self-starting, selfperpetuating process.

But what if your one-yearold is still happy to view the world from the safety of your lap or from a sitting position in the centre of the room? Is this a problem or an individual preference?

Perhaps your late crawler is going to be more of a talker than a mover and has developed other skills to show his intentions, you may think, like pointing and vocalising to have his needs met.

You oblige, responding to his requests by moving towards him when he calls, or fetching the object he desires. But how important is this physical milestone for his development?