Pediatrician vs. Naturopath?
mom2be0912
member
DH and I are still deciding on what to do for LO's pediatrician. We've interviewed a regular mainstream Pediatrician and really like her but something is holding us back. DH really would like for LO's care provider to be a Naturopath. There is one in our area (we will meet with her next week) who is a member of the "Pediatric Association of Naturopathic Physicians." I was just wondering if anyone has had experience with using a Naturopath specifically for their child's health care. We will vaccinate but probably will be delaying a few which the Pediatrician we already met with said she would be fine with. Otherwise, my only concern is making sure that the care provider we choose is able to identify developmental milestones appropriately and isn't 100% always against medications like antibiotics WHEN absolutely necessary. Any thoughts on this?
Re: Pediatrician vs. Naturopath?
I would consider a naturopath a supplement to a pediatrician (or family doctor, which is what we have), not substitute. I don't believe a naturopath CAN prescribe antibiotics or give vacccinations.
I'm not against alternative care (DS has been to the chiropractor, for example), but I am against denying proper medical care and pretending a naturopath can do it all.
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My aunt and uncle use a chiropractor/naturopath for all of my cousins' primary care. The kids are in excellent health. It's amazing, because they will go in for something like an earache, get an adjustment, leave with some natural remedies and feel better within a few days. I do believe it works.
We chose to go with our family doc. She has known our family for a while and knows our preferences to go natural when at all possible (for example, she knows we do not like to use antibiotics and only prescribes them for my kids when truly necessary). She allows us to vaccinate on a delayed/alternate schedule. She is even fine with me having a homebirth.
I personally would not feel comfortable not going to a family doc at all. We've had some serious problems with our kids - food allergies, hydrocele surgery, etc. and I feel like we needed an MD to help with the diagnoses in these cases - someone who could order ultrasounds and blood tests. We do, however, use naturopaths in some cases. I have Crohn's Disease and use holistic docs for treatment alongside my GI docs, for example.
We use a Naturopath for our son and there are a lot of things I like about it and some things I don't. For example they are not quick to jump on antibiotics. When my son was 3 months old he had an ingrown toenail and it looked like it was infected. She said to try a natural remedy and if it got worse they would call in antibiotics and if it was not improved in 24 hours they would call in antibiotics. It got better and was gone in two days. I think if we would have taken him to a pediatrician they would have just written the prescription. My niece sees the same Naturopath and she had an ear infection. They decided to try garlic drops and hold off on antibiotics and it was gone the next day. I love that they are willing to try natural things before trying medication, yet they are still willing to go the med route if the natural remedy does not improve the condition. They do have stipulations...bad cough means automatic chest xray etc. They don't mess with dangerous stuff.
They also go by a CDC approved delayed vax schedule which I like because we were planning on delaying some vaccines anyway, yet they are supportive if parents want to vax according to the CDC's standard recommendation or if parents don't want to vax at all. We did not get a positive response when discussing delaying vaccines with the other pedi's we interviewed.
With that being said, I also share concerns about identifying milestones. They are a lot more layed back in the Naturopath's office while I tend to be a little on the high-strung side. When LO wasn't reaching for toys at his 4 month appointment I was concerned. They kind of had the "he'll get there when he gets there" attitude and I didn't care for that. I am still not sure if I have confidence that they would catch a delay if there was one. For the record, he did get there like a week later so they sort of were right. I'm just not sure how I feel about it and for that reason we have considered switching for a more traditional pedi. My fear is that we will lose the ability to choose more natural remedies when problems arise.
So overall, I can't help you. lol. If it means anything we have stuck with the naturopath and will be seeing her again next week for Ollie's 6 month checkup.
Edit: Also, be aware if you choose a naturopath you may get flack from the hospital where you deliver (if you're having a hospital birth). They were really rude to us because we skipped the Erythromycin gel and we weren't going to be taking him to a "real" doctor.