In a message dated 10/9/1999 5:10:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time, writes: > What you really want to say is, "Your doc gave you lousy care", right? Yes!! And I will imply it, although I won't come right out and say it. I'll usually say something like "It's not really possible to tell strep from a virus without testing. I wonder if there was something else he/she was treating?" to give the other doc the benefit of the doubt. Parents don't always understand or remember everything a doctor tells them--that's why we write things down and give out printed materials. I always wonder what my former patients tell their next pediatrician about me. . . > In Los Angeles I'm seeing more and more parents coming in NOT wanting > antibiotics. They're relieved when I tell them it's not necessary and > disappointed when I say it is necessary. There's still a lot of education > to do, but I'm definitely noticing a trend! > As I said in a previous post, I'm seeing the same trend. The two senior partners when I joined the practice had used antibiotics for many colds, and the doc who joined about 10 years before me tried to get them to change their ways. When I came, they were cutting down quite a bit. They've both retired, and all 4 docs in the group today think about the same way. We've got our patients pretty well trained. They no longer call at night with a cold asking for an antibiotic to be called in--they know it won't happen, not because we're mean, or greedy, but because that is what is best for their child. And they also don't call asking for cough syrups with codeine--that was almost as difficult to stop as the antibiotics. Moshe Adler, MD