Last year at Sam's three year appointment he was what Beth described as a block - 40 lbs and 40 inches. This year he's more of a rectangular box or perhaps a rectangular parallelipiped because he's now 42 lbs and 43 inches. He's at the 95 percentile for his age in both categories, a big old boy. Growing well, healthy, all that good stuff.
Not that I thought he wasn't but it's always nice to get some verification.
But, and there is always a but, I'm beginning to wonder about our pediatrician. They asked me to fill out a form to ask us if we had any concerns about Sam's development, then asked a couple of other fairly general questions about lead paint and then "Do you have any firearms in your house?"
Ben's a hunter. Draw your own conclusions.
I understand that there are risks associated with owning firearms and I don't have an issue with pediatricians asking about general risks to kids but the last time I looked, it wasn't anywhere near the top of the list of risks to kids. I went to check it out on the CDC website and the leading cause of death for 1-4 year old children is "Unintentional Injury." In 2003 (I can't get the 2004, the most recent, to pull up), the "Unintentional Injuries" for this age group followed by the number of deaths is as follows:
1. Unintentional Motor Vehicle Traffic - 502
2. Unintentional Drowning - 456
3. Unintentional Fire/Burn - 229
4. Unintentional Suffocation - 159
5. Homicide Unspecified - 153
6. Unintentional Pedestrian, Other - 116
7. Homicide, Other Specl, Classifiable - 84
8. Unintentional Fall - 54
9. Unintentional Poisoning - 49
10. Firearm homicide - 40
Why weren't there questions on the form about proper car seat and booster usage? Access to a swimming pool? All the other items on the list above? None of those items were listed. They didn't even ask if we beat him on a regular basis which is a much more likely cause of death for kids. Why are firearms given special treatment?
I suspect the pediatrician would tell me that they're also concerned about injuries, not just deaths. So I looked for information about injuries and found the CDC factsheet about injuries in children and adolescents. Guess what doesn't even appear on that list?
So what's next? Vermont specific data? The most recent CDC information I found shows that Vermont's leading cause of death for kids 1-4 is also "Unintentional Injuries". In this report I discovered that VT has a higher rate of suicide and a lower rate of homicide than the US as a whole but the firearms deaths are lower than the national level. I went to the Vermont Dept. of Health website to see what I could find there but it's no more recent than the CDC information and didn't see any firearms deaths for kids 1-4 at all.
Doctor, your bias is showing.
Don't get me wrong. I don't like guns and I'm not thrilled to have them in the house. But as gun owners, we've talked to Sam about gun safety and we're also proactively keeping them out of his hands through proper use of gun safes, trigger locks, etc. He is probably more aware of the risks associated with guns than most adults.
So how did I answer the question? I left it blank.
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2 comments:
It would be interesting to bring these figures to the attention of your pediatrician. I wonder what he/she would say?
Your pediatrician is a dupe of the anti-gun folks. First they compile a databank about where all the guns are, then they outlaw them and confiscate them. Glad you didn't cooperate!
My Dad had a lot of guns when we were kids, and they were always locked up (except when he took us shooting). He was a great teacher about gun safety. I'm sure Ben will be no different.
Looking forward to the day when Sam shoots his own ducks (and puts the feathers down the disposal)!
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