New mom struggles with family petri dish Amount of annual research impressive

Dear Amy: I had a baby daughter four months ago. My in-laws called three days before Christmas to tell us that they all had colds, but insisted that we come over anyway.

My pediatrician said that the baby is fine to go out in public at her age, and we have been in many public places and attended large family gatherings. But our doctor also said that until she is 6 months old, she could get much sicker than an adult would from the viruses that cause the common cold.

When I expressed my concerns, I was belittled, told I was being overprotective.

Amy, I do not delude myself into thinking I’m creating a germ-free bubble. But if my baby were to get sick after this visit, I would feel terrible. I deeply value family time, especially since this was her first Christmas. Should I have risked getting my baby sick in order to spend it with family, or should we have stayed away? — Very Cold Christmas

Dear Cold Christmas: I don’t have the expertise to weigh in on the health risks that visiting your family’s holiday petri dish would pose to your baby. Your baby’s pediatrician does have that expertise, and you followed this recommendation.

Most importantly, you are your baby’s mother and for the next couple of decades it is your job to make decisions regarding her welfare.

Your family of in-laws has chosen to belittle you for exercising your parental judgment. I hope that their behavior was basically a non-serious, kneejerk expression of their temporary disappointment.

Buck up, dear mother. As the months go by, you will become even more competent and confident. You have opportunities to learn from more experienced parents, so try to stay open to their points of view. And then continue to exercise your best judgment.

Dear Dr. Roach: Is medical research shared?

It seems that after all these years of battling various types of diseases and maladies, more progress should’ve been made than has been done.

I suspect that if medical research were fully shared and people pooled their knowledge, more progress could be made.

Is it just that various entities don’t want to share because each one wants to be the one to get the Nobel Prize for Medicine? — G.A.

You would be shocked at the amount of research knowledge that is published every year on all aspects of clinical medicine and basic science.

Back when I was in in medical school, it was estimated that if a clinician or scientist read eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, just on his or her own field of expertise, at the end of a year he or she would be eight years behind. I am sure it is much greater now.

The problem isn’t the lack of studies or lack of sharing. It is in sorting through the sheer amount published.

The quest for personal glory certainly is a part of what drives many scientists. However, I know a great many researchers, and most do so for the love of the science and out of a desire to further the field and to be part of the process that leads to better understanding.

Discoveries are (mostly) not made in isolation by a brilliant scientist — they are the result of patient, thorough, gradual work by many scientists across the globe.

Of course I wish progress came faster, but looking back on the medical knowledge when I started in the 1980s until now, the amount of progress has been staggering, and this has been reflected in progressively longer human lifespans, among other important measures.