Mommy Life

October 5, 2007 2:39 PM

Pediatricians prying into family privacy

Those of you with younger kids may not know of this insidious practice of pediatricians asking teens intrusive questions, a la American Pediatric Association guidelines. This is from yesterday's Boston Herald:

Doc, what’s up with snooping? Pediatrician paranoia runs deep

They’re watching you right now.

They counted every beer you drank during last night’s Red Sox [team stats] game.

They see you sneaking out to the garage for a smoke.

They know if you’ve got a gun, and where you keep it.

They’re your kids, and they’re the National Security Agency of the Nanny State.

I found this out after my 13-year-old daughter’s annual checkup. Her pediatrician grilled her about alcohol and drug abuse.

Not my daughter’s boozing. Mine.

“The doctor wanted to know how much you and mom drink, and if I think it’s too much,” my daughter told us afterward, rolling her eyes in that exasperated 13-year-old way. “She asked if you two did drugs, or if there are drugs in the house.”

“What!” I yelped. “Who told her about my stasher, I mean, ‘It’s an outrage!’ ”

I turned to my wife. “You took her to the doctor. Why didn’t you say something?”

She couldn’t, she told me, because she knew nothing about it. All these questions were asked in private, without my wife’s knowledge or consent.

“The doctor wanted to know how we get along,” my daughter continued. Then she paused. “And if, well, Daddy, if you made me feel uncomfortable.”

Great. I send my daughter to the pediatrician to find out if she’s fit to play lacrosse, and the doctor spends her time trying to find out if her mom and I are drunk, drug-addicted sex criminals.

We’re not alone, either. Thanks to guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics and supported by the commonwealth, doctors across Massachusetts are interrogating our kids about mom and dad’s “bad” behavior.

We used to be proud parents. Now, thanks to the AAP, we’re “persons of interest.”

The paranoia over parents is so strong that the AAP encourages doctors to ignore “legal barriers and deference to parental involvement” and shake the children down for all the inside information they can get.

And that information doesn’t stay with the doctor, either.

Debbie is a mom from Uxbridge who was in the examination room when the pediatrician asked her 5-year-old, “Does Daddy own a gun?”

When the little girl said yes, the doctor began grilling her and her mom about the number and type of guns, how they are stored, etc.

If the incident had ended there, it would have merely been annoying.

But when a friend in law enforcement let Debbie know that her doctor had filed a report with the police about her family’s (entirely legal) gun ownership, she got mad.

She also got a new doctor.

In fact, the problem of anti-gun advocacy in the examining room has become so widespread that some states are considering legislation to stop it.

Last year, my 7-year-old was asked about my guns during his physical examination. He promptly announced to the doctor that his father is the proud owner of a laser sighted plasma rifle perfect for destroying Throggs.

At least as of this writing, no police report has been filed.

“I still like my previous pediatrician,” Debbie told me. “She seemed embarrassed to ask the gun questions and apologized afterward. But she didn’t seem to have a choice.”

Of course doctors have a choice.

They could choose, for example, to ask me about my drunken revels, and not my children.

They could choose not to put my children in this terrible position.

They could choose, even here in Massachusetts, to leave their politics out of the office.

But the doctors aren’t asking us parents.

They’re asking our kids.

Worst of all, they’re asking all kids about sexual abuse without any provocation or probable cause.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has declared all parents guilty until proven innocent.

And then they wonder why we drink.

Love,

Posted in Current Affairs, Health, Teens and Tweens | Permalink

Comments

Wow. I'm not surprised though, at least with the gun questions. It seems that society is becoming more and more anti-guns. Of course, it isn't fair or right that these DOCTORS are asking such personal questions. What does that accomplish?

The Nanny State. Gotta hate it.

Aisha (proud wife of a gun owner)

Posted by: Aisha | October 5, 2007 4:05 PM

I heard about this on Rush Limbaugh's show. He followed the story with an excerpt from 1984, which highlighted how a small child got her parents in trouble with the government by reporting on him. Scary stuff.

Incidentally, they asked us about guns at our last pediatrician appointment, too. "Are there guns in the home?" the nurse asked. "Yes," I said, "but they are in a gun safe." And that was that.

Posted by: Kristina | October 5, 2007 4:35 PM

I remember when this started a few years ago in California...the land of social experiments. Yikes! What a slippery slope. Over time, every ped we went to would ask an instrusive personal question and that would be the last time we saw them. The inference is that parents are incompetent at least and criminal at worst.

I know there must be good pediatricians trying to treat their patients with common sense and without government intrusion, I just haven't experienced any since the AAP started this nonsense.
We take our kids to general practitioners now. No more peds.

Posted by: Julia | October 5, 2007 5:29 PM

Yeah, we see a general practitioner as well......For many reasons.....I think it can be a good choice if you are familiar with their credentials. We LOVE our GP....This is just one more reason to keep seeing him instead of a ped.

Posted by: Lisa | October 5, 2007 6:49 PM

All I could think of while I read this was 1984.

Posted by: Lauren | October 5, 2007 8:00 PM

Craziness. I had pulled up Mommy Life and was ordering a pizza when my husband started telling me about this article. Then when I looked back at Mommy Life there it is!

I have not experienced this here in Texas. I wonder how much trouble I will get in the first time this happens and I snap that it's none of their business.

Posted by: Michelle | October 5, 2007 9:30 PM

Do not get me stared on this! We have yet to find a doctor we feel completely comfortable with and my son is 5. We currently see a doctor at the health department of all places. He is wonderful, caring and even funny. But get this, they are raising their prices for "non qualifying" patients (ie non immigrants and non welfare recipients). Their fees will be more than a "regular" doctor. That wouldn't be so bad, but we don't have after hours care, on call, etc. I like this dr and we may stay with him simply because he doesn't judge, pry or have an agenda. He does his job and does it well. He's a gp by the way. Oh, and we're in a gun friendly state (NV), thankfully.

Posted by: MamaLady | October 6, 2007 1:00 AM

Why am I not surprised at this? Especially since here in Northern California our doctors, especially at Kaiser Permanente, "get rid of parents" for every sports physical or regular check up from the examination room. That is their protocol. Get rid of mom and/or dad so they can tell our children about sex, which birth control the doctor will GIVE our children (without us knowing ever unless our kids tell us). They do pregnancy testing, STI testing, hand out condoms, morning after pill, etc WITHOUT THE PARENTS KNOWING ALL FOR FREE. Thank you so much doctor for telling our pre-teen and teenagers how they can "just do it". What happened to our world? Don't get me started.

Posted by: Robin | October 7, 2007 9:35 AM

A few years ago, a woman I knew was telling the stroy of how her daughter's pediatrician wanted to 'speak with her alone' during an exam. Her daughter was just 13. My friend said, "Sure, I'd be glad to leave. If [my daughter] wants me to." Her daughter didn't and so she stayed, probably heading off one of 'those' discussions.

I have kept that response in my hip pocket and always thought that others might like to have it handy, too.

Posted by: stephanie | October 7, 2007 5:28 PM

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