pediatricians, everywhere.

Well, the claritin was a bust. Turns out that the first night, the drug just wiped him out and made him very tired but did not help the problem. The next morning, some of his symptoms had returned. By yesterday, the symptoms were just as bad as they were without the claritin. In lieu of having an appt for the new pediatrician before the middle of June, I bit the bullet and called the original doctor's office and explained the situation. They called the doctor and called me back.

She wanted him to CONTINUE taking the claritin (which you may remember has no effect on him, whatsoever) and add singulair to the mix. It took me exactly 1.5 minutes to find out that singulair is not approved for use in children under 2. This info was found on their own website, and remains true, despite the fact that they have dosage information for children over 6 months old.

Obviously, I did not fill the prescription. Rather, I got him an appt this morning, with his previous doctor from the office in Center City. I explained the entire situation. She was very understanding, and prescribed him Zyrtec.

Believe me, the letter to the rotten pediatrician is being composed, as we speak. I plan to send 3 copies of my letter. One to the Chief of Pediatrics at said, affiliated hospital, one to the doctor herself, and one to his pediatrician who is planning for maternity leave, just in case she wants to know why we are not returning.

My child is neither, some pawn with which she can get herself some drug-company perks (read: golf outings and special all-expenses-paid vacations) for prescribing more of their medications, nor some lab rat on which to test unapproved medications. Unlike myself, he will not spend his childhood taking 10's of thousands of dollars worth of medication that is ultimately unnecessary and has a very real potential for damage to his future, long-term health.

When I was a child, there was no internet for my mother to use to research these things. Now that I am the mother, there is an internet, and I will use it as long as I have eyes to read it and fingers to type. Doctors everywhere just felt an unexplained shudder as I vow to be their worst enemy... An educated consumer who writes a damned-good letter.