by Bob Flaws

Every Friday morning, all Blue Poppy staff sit down and talk about how things are going, what's up, what's in the wind, any problems, etc. Yesterday, Shawn and Malia, our two practitioner Customer Service Reps mentioned that the most common yet difficult calls we receive are from practitioners who are attempting to treat their own children with Blue Poppy's pediatric formulas. Because it is their own children, they are often freaked out and hyper-concerned. So I'd like to throw two things out there to begin shaping the conversation in our profession about this situation.

...

First, it's a medical ethical principle in the West that, in general, we should not treat our own family and very close friends. This is because, in such cases, we lack the dispassionate objectivity which is essential to diagnose and treat accurately and efficiently. This is exactly why other, more established and mature health care professionals, such as MDs, commonly treat each other and the members of their peers' families for free as a "professional courtesy." In other words, when and if possible and except in the case of medical emergencies, we should always refer our family members to another practitioner. We do this to actually insure that those family members get the best possible care. When we are freaked out due to our concern and attachment to our loved ones, we don't think clearly. We allow our hearts to get in the way of our heads. Literally, we become irrational. It's only natural, but it's the wrong head-space from which to try to practice medicine.

According to the AMA's Code of Ethics:

"In emergency settings or isolated settings where there is no other qualified practitioner available, practitioners should not hesitate to treat themselves or family members until another practitioner becomes available. In addition, while practitioners should not serve as a primary or regular care provider for immediate family members, there are situations in which routine care is acceptable for short-term, minor problems."

In the above statement of principle, it suggests that practitioners "should not serve as a primary or regular care provider for immediate family members." However, in true emergencies or for short-term, minor problems they can. In emergencies, we provide first-aid as best we can with whatever we have at hand both in terms of training and materials. This is allowable even though we are freaked out and may not be thinking clearly. It's ok because there simply is no other option. It's also ok to treat our family members short-term for minor problems because, being minor, those problems are not likely to freak us out. In other words, we have not lost our dispassionate objectivity and the care is routine in any case.

Secondly, Shawn and Malia mentioned that many of the practitioner-parents who call have simply not been trained in Chinese medical pediatrics. Therefore, they are attempting to treat their children yet without adequate knowledge and experience. Thus they are twice "behind the eight-ball." In China, pediatrics is a clinical specialty in its own right. In fact, along with gynecology, it's one of Chinese medicine's oldest clinical specialties. As a clinical specialty, Chinese medical pediatrics has its own theories and techniques. It's not the same as treating scaled down, miniature adults. There are special diagnostic methods and special treatment procedures. While these are not hard to learn and, in general, pediatrics is a relatively easy specialty within Chinese medicine, nevertheless, there are some things one should know before attempting to treat any child with Chinese medicine. Having studied pediatrics as a clinical specialty, both theoretically and in supervised clinical rotation, one not only has learned the special "tricks of the trade" but has also become confident and relaxed about treating kids. Just even this confidence and relaxation are hugely important parts of being a safe and effective medical practitioner. In other words, caring for children with Chinese medicine becomes routine.

So, as a parent and a practitioner, what to do in terms of your own child's health? My best recommendation is, before they become sick, to check out all the other local practitioners and find out who actually has been trained and is at least somewhat experienced in Chinese medical pediatrics. If you can find such a person, you should enroll your child as their patient so that, when your child gets sick, as they inevitably will, you're all set up and ready to go with appropriate care. Further, you should also try to work out some sort of mutual relationship where you take care of the other practitioner's family members when you can in turn "as a professional courtesy." That way, concern over money does not play a part in your choices about health care for your children. It's often axiomatic that, if you have small children, you have a small income with little financial cushion.

If there simply is no other Chinese medical practitioner in your area trained and experienced in treating children, I think you should seriously consider taking your child to a practitioner of some other medical system, such as Western medicine, homeopathy, or naturopathy, if they have been trained in pediatrics within their system. While you may be committed to Chinese medicine, it may not be fair to commit your child to Chinese medicine in the absence of a qualified and dispassionate practitioner. In such cases, good homeopathy, good naturopathy, or good modern Western medicine may be better, even much better, than poor, uninformed Chinese medicine by a freaked parent-practitioner. This may be a frustrating choice, but we have to work with the situation as it exists, not as we wish it were. It may not be "fair," but life is not fair. "Fair" has nothing to do with it.

If you run up against this experience, then perhaps you will want to study Chinese medical pediatrics. In that case, one can try to find at least some seminars on this subject stateside. For instance, Blue Poppy has a Distance Learning program in Chinese medical pediatrics. In addition, one can go to China to study, if even only for a month. Taking classes in the morning and doing clinic in the afternoon in China can accomplish a whole lot even in only a month. As I said above, pediatrics is a relatively easy specialty within Chinese medicine. Within a month, you should be able to achieve both the specialized knowledge and relaxed confidence necessary to treat the routine conditions of pediatrics. In that case, if you can maintain your dispassion, you might then choose to treat, and appropriately so, your own children.

Copyright Blue Poppy Press, 2010. All rights reserved.