Blocked Tear Ducts: The tear duct is a little canal leading from the inner corner of each eye into the nose. These canals may not be open at birth; if not, you may notice excessive tearing or mattering in either or both eyes. This condition usually responds to gentle cleansing of the eyes with water-soaked cotton balls. If it should persist, however, let us know. Fever: Under the age of 6 weeks, any rectal temperature of 101° F or higher should be brought to our attention promptly by making an appointment. Should you not know how to use or how to read a thermometer, we will gladly instruct you. Immunizations: Most vaccines are given as injections which will protect your baby from serious diseases that are not otherwise easily treated. These may be administered under our supervision at our office beginning at two months of age. Making sure that your baby receives all the necessary immunizations is one of the most important things you can ever do for your baby. Check up: We would like to examine your baby and discuss his/her progress at the following age intervals: 5 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 2 years, and yearly thereafter. We recommend that well checkups be scheduled for early morning or early afternoon in order to minimize the contact with sick children. Saturday, Sunday, and evening office hours are primarily set aside for the care of sick children. If your child becomes ill, please call us as early in the day as possible for an appointment. Before or after office hours your call will be forwarded to our answering service and paged to the physician-on-call. The physician-on-call will call you within 30 minutes. If you do not receive a call within 30 minutes call the answering service again. There is always one of us available to help you. Please call us before choosing to visit an emergency room. Emergency room care is very costly and often you wait hours before being seen. Help us to help you by always calling us if you cannot come in for an appointment you have previously scheduled. The appointment you will not use will be appreciated by someone else. We charge a fee for unkept appointments. We look forward to seeing you again at your next checkup. Please call if any problems arise before then. |