End of 1st Week in Paeds Reflection 🍼

 Biggest takeaway? Interacting with patients’ parents is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. *sigh in relief x1000* Don’t get me wrong though, I defs spent an inordinate amount of time on my first ED shift hyping myself up to enter a cubicle and give the whole “I’m a med student, doctor told me I could come and talk to you about why your kid is in hospital, are you happy to do so?” 

*internal monologue: please don’t bite me I’m sorry I’ll just excuse myself out now* 

Reality check? I have yet to be rejected by a parent, and actually, most are quite happy to discuss what’s going on and raise any concerns that may have arisen in the interim, doubly so if they've just been waiting in the waiting room for hours- apparently seeing even a med student feels like they're getting attention (thank you for overestimating my contribution) 

Takeaway 2: common things are common - a no brainer but don't think that hit as hard last year as it does now. <1yo with resp sx? Most likely bronchiolitis. Abdo pain in young kids? Constipation +++, even more so than gastro even tho you hear about gastro so much. Of course, this is not to say we don't do a thorough hx and exam and still have our running list of ddx but kids tend to be less medically complicated than adults. 

Takeaway 3: social hx is especially important in paeds - an additional part to hx taking in paeds is growth and development, especially in younger children and the home environment, childcare/kinder/school environment (when age appropriate) can have direct effects on their growth and development with potential long-term consequences. Infants are also quite limited in how they can express themselves, so physical sx such as increased crying could suggest an organic cause such as infection, or actually the infant can be perfectly healthy and the crying is a reflection of inconsistent bonding with mum b/c mum is not reacting consistently to them due to cond such as perinatal depression. 

Takeaway 4: nothing is too big to fit in their mouths (or nose or ears) except pills - 50 cent coin? no problem mate. Oral meds? In your dreams. Good tip for trying laxative for constipation is use OsmoLax instead of macrogol - same active ingredient but former has no taste and can be dissolved in anything - juice, yogurt, soup, literally anything.