My 2-year-old son has had more than his share of hospital visits and doctor appointments. I'm incredibly thankful to everyone involved in the medical professio

My 2-year-old son has had more than his share of hospital visits and doctor appointments. I'm incredibly thankful to everyone involved in the medical profession -- doctors, nurses, techs, researchers, pharmaceuticals, everyone who has helped my son be healthy and happy. But one thing I've learned is that they're not always right. Don't allow doctors and nurses to make decisions about your child's healthcare without running them through your sanity filter. Something as routine as a blood draw can be very traumatic for both child and parent -- you'll be in the position of physically restraining your child while he or she screams in horror. Usually the doctors and nurses know what they're doing. But sometimes they're faced with complex choices and they face these choices without knowing anything about your child's personality. They'll often err on the side of caution, and usually they're right, but it's your job to ask the questions to make sure of this. You are your child's only real advocate -- everyone else is just doing his/her job, sometimes well and sometimes not so well, though virtually always well-intentioned. I've been in the situation of arguing (politely) with a physician in an ER because he didn't have a good reason for ordering some tests for my boy. I'm sure he's great at his job, and on adults these tests are basically (emotionally) free, but I don't take inducing terror in my son lightly so they're not free by my reckoning. I ended up getting him to call my son's primary care physician, who agreed with me and recommended the tests not be done. I'm pretty sure we would have walked out without the tests anyway, because he couldn't give a sound reason for the tests. You don't have to go to medical school to apply basic logic and rationality. Get all the CDC-recommended vaccinations. Sometimes you have to pay the price.