Don't mess around with stool samples
One issue of increasing importance is unnecessary and often expensive faecal examinations. Very few very useful tests can be carried out with a stool sample. But it can also be used to do a whole lot of - to stay on topic - crap.
Conventional medicine must first of all take a good look at itself for the fact that there are more and more of these unnecessary tests. We conventional doctors have ignored or even ridiculed the whole topic of gut flora and microbiome for too long. Today it is clear - and that is a good thing - that this is an important topic for health. Incidentally, this is also one of the reasons why we paediatricians are so careful not to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics, as these can damage the gut flora.
However, it must also be said that from a conventional medical point of view: Unfortunately, we still know very little about the microbiome, its composition and its function. We don't really know any markers where we can clearly say that this is pathological and we need to do this or that therapy. We don't even know whether one value is okay in one person and not okay in another. We don't know how the individual gut bacteria interact in the microbiome. This means that the state of knowledge is (still) such that meaningful diagnosis and treatment are not possible.
And yet extremely extensive tests are increasingly being offered, usually costing between 150 and 200 euros, from which therapy suggestions are often derived that are scientifically untenable.
That's why our attitude in practice is that we don't know what to do with these tests and advise parents not to go ahead with them.
However, we are, of course, always available for all topics relating to digestive complaints and abdominal pain. And there are also a few useful stool tests, for example for an inflammation marker called calprotectin, which we of course also carry out.
If you would like to read more about this topic, here is a link to a very good article: www.cme-kurs.de/kurse/sinn-und-unsinn-von-stuhlanalysen/
Further interesting tips
Worms
Something from the disgusting box again today. It's about worms. This is actually a very, very common story in small children - and often causes a lot of disgust in the children concerned and their families, even though the whole thing is a fairly harmless story from a medical point of view.
Tics
Today we are talking about tics - a topic that causes great anxiety among parents. So let's start with the good news: for most children, a tic disorder is only temporary. And in most cases, it resolves itself. Sometimes after weeks, sometimes after months - but it goes away again.
Regulation problems
It could all be so wonderful: The baby has finally arrived, everyone is happy and well. Actually. Because the little one cries and screams all the time and hardly sleeps. So the parents don't sleep either, are completely exhausted and at the end of their tether. The problem: so-called regulation difficulties.