Thursday, June 19, 2008

Fever - Wellness vs Sickness Approach

My son was having fever and serious stomach discomfort last weekend and I decided to bring him for a doctor visit.

The first doctor that we visited was a young doctor, working a weekend job at one of the popular 24-hours clinic. After examined my son's condition, the young doctor concluded that it was viral infection, and prescribed some medicines for stomach discomfort and fever. As my son's fever is not serious (~38 C), he told us to take the fever medicine only when necessary. He also told us that he will not be prescribing antibiotic, as it's not good to the kid. It's better for the kid to develop his own immune system.

The next day my son were having rashes all over his body. I brought him for another doctor checkup just to ensure that it's not dengue fever, as there were rampant cases of dengue fever in my housing area. The doctor is a middle aged doctor who owned the clinic. After examining my son's condition, the first thing that this doctor said is he'll put my son on antibiotic. He'll also prescribed additional stronger fever medicine.

Being exposes to the wellness approach of curing disease, me and my wife decided to go against the second doctor advice on the sickness approach in treating my son's fever and rashes. We ensure my son have enough rest, fluids, vitamin C, and make sure that his temperature is well below 39C. 3 days later, his fever and rashes had subsided, without the antibiotic and fever medicine.

Standing in my shoe, what will be your approach? Wellness? Sickness?

2 comments:

螞蟻 said...

I believe that a human must develope his/her own immune system to adapt to the environment he/she lives in.
Wish your kid to grow a strong body.

螞蟻 said...

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