What Do You Look For in a Family Practice Doctor?

When it comes to the health of your family, you want to find a doctor that you and your children can relate, find comfort in and who you trust. Many times we use a physician that is recommended by friends or family. The health care field benefits a great deal from word of mouth advertising. After all, you are more likely to go see a doctor that your friends or family would use for their children.

Using Outside Sources:

You may want to use a search engine like Google or Bing to locate the closest physician to your home. The maps feature will give you the closest office to your location and give you some additional information on the doctor. From there you can move on to their website or read some online reviews. While this method is easy to use and helpful when finding the locations of doctors in your area, you will still have to visit the office and meet with the doctor before you should make a decision.

When you are reading online reviews take each review with a grain of salt. Online reviews are not always the most reliable sources of information. Competitors have the ability to write bad reviews so take that into consideration.

Comparing Local Doctors:

Compare your current family practice doctor with a physician that your friends or family see. Ask them questions and get their honest opinion. They will likely be your most reliable source of information. Consider what you believe to be important in your family doctor. Do you want a doctor who is humorous or more serious? Older vs. younger? Is the staff friendly? Waiting room tidy? If necessary make a list of pros and cons when you are making the comparison.

In closing, when you find a doctor that you and your family like let everyone know about it. The best thing you can do to repay the doctor that is providing your family with the health and happiness they desire is to send more patients his way.

Children Running Fever

I found this great article on Kidshealth.org and wanted to share it with the readers of this blog! I could have paraphrased it but it was said so well in the article I figured I would give you the source so if you liked this post you could go check out all of their other articles. Enjoy!


You've probably experienced waking in the middle of the night to find your child flushed, hot, and sweaty. Your little one's forehead feels warm. You immediately suspect a fever, but are unsure of what to do next. Should you get out the thermometer? Call the doctor?

In healthy kids, fevers usually don't indicate anything serious. Although it can be frightening when your child's temperature rises, fever itself causes no harm and can actually be a good thing — it's often the body's way of fighting infections. And not all fevers need to be treated. High fever, however, can make a child uncomfortable and worsen problems such as dehydration.

Here's more about fevers, how to measure and treat them, and when to call your doctor.
Fever Facts

Fever occurs when the body's internal "thermostat" raises the body temperature above its normal level. This thermostat is found in the part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus knows what temperature your body should be (usually around 98.6° Fahrenheit or 37° Celsius) and will send messages to your body to keep it that way.

Most people's body temperatures even change a little bit during the course of the day: It's usually a little lower in the morning and a little higher in the evening and can fluctuate as kids run around, play, and exercise.

Sometimes, though, the hypothalamus will "reset" the body to a higher temperature in response to an infection, illness, or some other cause. So, why does the hypothalamus tell the body to change to a new temperature? Researchers believe turning up the heat is the body's way of fighting the germs that cause infections and making the body a less comfortable place for them.