Connected Paediatrics Weekly: Sometimes one is enough

Hi Reader

Dad Joke: Where do bad rainbows go? To prism. It's a light sentence, but it gives them time to reflect!

Song of the Week:

This week was weird.

I am just back from South Africa and I’m sliding back into the groove. One thing I have been looking forward to, was a parent chat I had scheduled on this Friday at a local health centre. However, I only gave my topics in really late as I was travelling and so the advertising wasn’t what it should have been (note to self…don’t procrastinate! 80% done is always better than 100% of nothing).

Anyway…

I popped up to the usual classroom and it was a full house with a great baby massage lady giving a demo. I said hi and watched as she finished up and all the mums filed out of the door…except for one. “That’s odd” I thought, my classes here are normally full up…but I hadn’t considered the fact that no one knew what I was going to be speaking about and so who was would anyone stick around?

I ducked downstairs quickly to check the register…and there it was, I had only one mum booked in. My heart sank. I had taken time out of the office to do this, and I had only one person booked in for my talk, what a waste of…but then a little voice in my head came to the rescue and said “This lady put her name down, she’s come all this way. Take all that energy you have for 30 mums…and focus it all onto this mum and baby”

I turned round, back up the stairs, kicked my shoes off and set down cross legged in front of one mum and her niggly baby. Little one had severe reflux and torticollis, mum had a million questions, had done tons of online research and was getting frustrated.

The next 40 minutes was fantastic. We picked apart each clue she had gathered up along the way, gave context to why certain things were happening with her baby and got right down into why babies cry, what is a pre-cry, how to burp, how to get farts out…you name it…we covered it. No treatment…just connection and information.

That mum left feeling empowered and I left feeling like I had really achieved something. A mum had arrived at her wits end and was leaving with a plan of action and someone to call if that didn’t work. Friday was about putting my ego in my pocket and sitting down to make an impact in one person’s life.

I still maintain that a parent with a plan is the most impactful variable in any cry/fuss infant issue. And I had the opportunity to be part of that for someone.

Next time I will remember to get my topic in on time…but if I don’t and it’s me and one or two mums…I’ll take the challenge.

Chat soon

Mike

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