Ill-behaved Nurse?

She is a very strange one. I would tell the doctor about her fetishes. She is not friendly or understanding about babies and small children.

At our clinic the baby always has a diaper on. I really think that you and your hubby are being hard on this nurse.

It's not going to hurt your baby to be uncomfortable for the extra few seconds that it takes to re-diaper. It's harder on you that it is on your baby.

Absolutely let it go. If a every baby peed on the nurse, then we would have to wait that much longer in the waiting room for them to change scrubs after every visit.

Sorry, I just have to disagree with you and your husband on this one.

It doesn't sound all that strange to me. I wouldn't want to be surprised either! We've dealt with several pediatricians and some keep the baby naked, some don't. Our current (and hopefully final) pediatrician's office asks us to diaper the baby after weighing and before measuring. The scale is outside the exam room and the measure thing is in the exam room. I just assume it's because they don't want to clean any accidents up off the floor. Oh, we're always the ones to place the baby on the scale and on the exam table. The nurses never do it.

I want to first start by saying, congrats on your little guy and making decisions as parents to get him his vaccines, but in an educated way. Whoop Whoop! I think many parents get a little knowledge and go the extreem instead of the route you are.
As far as your visit.... You may not like what I am going to say, but the MA (Medical Assistant) I am sure you are staffed with MAs and not nurses; did an appropiate job. Yes, you get a more adequate weight without a diaper, but to have you rediaper him after weighing is very normal and appropiate actions to honor Universal Precautions when not wearing a gown. It only takes a second and why would you have to wipe him down prior to rediapering him??? Just place the diaper on. As a mom, I would rather for my children be rediapered than exsposed without a diaper. When children are under 11 months of age, being naked actually gives them a free-fall feeling. The reason newborn babies cry when you undress them. As a Medical Professional, I feel the MA did the right thing. If they were to handle all babies without clothes, they are taking chances in cross contamination. What if your child was the one who followed another child who maybe had some type of staph infection. Yes, that can be the case. Then your naked baby is more exsposed without a diaper and the staff person has a bigger chance of passing that infection on to the next patient.
Now please do not flame me, but to me your complaint is comparable to a mom complaining that this doctor touched their child after washing her hands and the baby cried because her hands were cold from the washing. I find it interesting that the other MAs who quickly took your son naked and measured him, actually was probably not doing it to be simplictic for you, but probably to save time and move the client load along. Every few seconds saved, helps room the patients faster and helps get the doctor in and out. Why do you think they have you undress in the doctors office and sit there half naked with a drape before the doctor enters? All about saving time and saving a dime. TRUST ME!!! So the "new" MA "nurse" was going through proper protocol and the others were just saving time. Also note that at 4 months your baby is getting to the age he does not want to lay on his back anyway. So at 4 months the development is so different the appointment will not be the same as past anyway. This is the reason that the standard use to be to introduce cereal at 4months; just due to this change in developmental posture. A 2 or 3 month old is sooooo much of a difference developmentally that they move to another developmental bracket at 4 months of age. So it would have been a visit that was different from the past regardless.
So I feel you should let it go and know that at least that MA is clean and that no child prior to yours has contaminated her and spread something to your baby. In the office, the scrubs that they come in are the ones they stay in regardless of "suprises". At least in the hospitals there are new ones to change into. So, I do not feel she choose the wrong job, I feel you are being a parent who does not want to see your baby uncomfortable. Just know it is the age and that there will be many many more times you will have to watch your children be uncomfortable through medical procedures. You just wait until they start making connections with immunizations later in life.

Frankly, from a public health standpoint she was absolutely correct. How would you feel if you knew that another child had defecated on her before she handled your child? Sure she washes her hands, but E. Coli, which lives in the rectum but is potentially deadly in the upper digestive tract or blood stream doubles in numbers every 20 minutes. That's not a chance I want a nurse taking when she is handling a new born.

I understand that you want people to be gentle and feel good touching your baby, but we all have a responsibility to protect each other from our own germs and she was doing her part. I know that other nurses do not act like her, but the truth is it would be better if they did.

My pediatrician nurse does the same thing. I have to undress my child for the scale and examination. We are asked to keep the diapers on though. One instance he had soiled it and we had to change him first. I think there might be some liability involved. They prefer the parent to handle their child instead of them as they think their job is just to administer the vitals, etc. If a child should roll and fall off the exam table or the scale, they don't want to risk that while they handle the baby. I wouldn't take offense. They are nurses not babysitters.

I'm sure that you and your husband have been the targets of projectile peeing and squirty poops by now. I can't blame her. Let's face it, if she get's tagged and if her uniform gets wet or soiled, what is she going to do? Go home and change it? If a particular pediatrician has 10 or more well check visits a day, then the potential for her getting tagged is 10 or more times that day. Should she keep 10 standby uniforms in her locker for just in case? Honestly, it only makes sense to me that she would probably want to make sure that your baby's diaper is on as much as possible while she is working with him. And I also think there are health and sanitation issues and OSHA rules that have to be followed. If she gets pee and poop on her uniform, most likely it is probably unlawful for her to wear that same uniform when she is caring for another child. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want her to.

It's been 7 years since my son was a baby but I think I recall all of our nurses actually being much the same way. We did put our child on the scale and the nurse weighed him. Never for a moment thought anything of it because I assumed that me being the parent, should be the one to do that. It just seemed like standard operating practice and, honestly, it really wasn't any big deal for me to put my kid on the scale or diaper him when he was no longer required to be diaperless.

That's just how I see it . . .

When my kids were measured on the infant scale, we were always the one to handle him. Never the nurse. Also, they always have one of the blue pads down on the scale and had us wrap that around our son, in case of a surprise, before they did the measuring.

Okay, I hate to stereo type...but was she young? Was she an RN or an LPN? Ultimately, these questions don't really matter, but I find in any job or profession that those who are younger and with less training SOMETIMES (like I said, I generally try and avoid stereotyping) make these kinds of remarks/errors/behaviors.

In my experience the babies are naked when measured and our nurse usually goes ahead and puts a fresh diaper on our baby if he needs it, and even sometimes if he doesn't! So, I do think it's a bit odd for sure! If it were me, I'd probably let it go this time and chalk it up to her "newness" but if it happens again, I would talk to the Dr. when he/she comes in for the exam. Just mention that you've seen her a couple times now and aren't comfortable with her bedside manner and see how it is handled.

Since it seems your overall experience with that office is positive, I would venture to say that the problem will probably take care of itself. If this particular nurse is a bit harsh, inexperienced or just plain bad at her job, they are bound to notice sooner rather than later and take actions themselves. Hopefully your next visit will go better!

Sorry...but it is very normal for them to do this. When my son (now 2 1/2) was younger, we would undress him-take his diaper off, put him on the scale and take him off, diaper him and then they would measure him.

IMPO, I think you are being WAY too harsh to say that she has the wrong job. This is one aspect of her job that she doesn't like to do, and she has found a way that works for her to be able to do her job while not touching someone else's naked baby. That doesn't mean that she is a bad nurse or is in the wrong profession. I think that makes her a better nurse for finding a way around something that is obviously uncomfortable for her so that she can still be able to do the MANY other things that nurses do for their patients.

The nurse being wary of 'accidents' when she was weighing and measuring your son could be due to the fact that she already had been surprised that day and had gone thru a 2nd or 3rd uniform. I don't know if your pediatrician's ofc requires this, but our's did, that you take all your dirty diapers home with you. There's only so much bio-hazard waste that they can handle. Our babies were always diapered by during their vitals by the nurse. The doctor had them 'stripped down' to their birthday suits to make a thorough exam. It's a matter of preference on the part of the nurses and how many uniforms they bring to work that day. You want the nurse to be clean when she holds your child and maybe, just maybe she wasn't when she came to the exam room. Ask your pediatrician if there was a problem, be inquisitive not critical. Maybe the nurse came from a practice where the normal procedure was what your observed. But asking questions is a means of providing feedback. Keep it light and friendly. I realize this is your first baby, but these folks see hundreds of babies a week, and what is a huge issue for you isn't for them and the reverseis true, what seems like a no brainer for you has major consequences for the office and their employees.

Hope your husband had a great first Father's Day!

It does sound like odd behavior for a nurese. But I do think you are over reacting. Just because she's a careful germaphobe doesn't mean she isn't giving your son the care he needs. I'm sure he wasn't THAT uncomfortable. How long could the whole process take anyway? We are rarely in those offices more than a few minutes.

Relax. It does get easier as time goes on :)

You didn't say how old the nurse appeared to be, but if she was young or inexperienced, it may be just that she is new. It takes a while for people to develope beside manners. Also, each person has a different attitude on how they deal with handling babies and young children. Some have no issues holding a baby and have been doing well-baby check ups all day, so they feel okay handling your child. If they have been handling sick children, the lack of handling may be to protect your baby or to prevent the spread of disease from one child to the next. I don't think it was necessarily an issue of a surprise shower, it could be more along not wanting to be showered on and forced to wash up and change clothes between each client.

As for your shots, I don't think her reaction has anything to do with the delayed vaccines. Which if you are going to vaccinate (especially a boy who is higher risk than girls), going the delayed route is so much better and safer on the child, so good for you!

Well, we had one nurse who forced me to hold our daughter down when they gave her shots, which I hated, I like being the savior who scoops her up after the mean nurses hurt her. :-)

After that, we made sure to insist that they bring another nurse to help if they couldnt do it themselves. In your situation, if I got that nurse again, I would tell her in advance that you didnt appreciate what happened last time and if she didnt want to handle your naked baby, she could get someone else.

When I had my baby, the nurse who was going to give me my IV, I told her that the vein on the back of my hand pops if you try to put a needle in it, she ignored me, used that vein, it popped, I said "you hurt me, I need another nurse to try again." She kind of laughed and I said "no, you hurt me, I need another nurse" and she got me one, who listened, and numbed it before putting the needle in, which the first nurse told me they couldnt do! You have to be your baby's advocate, no one else will.

I think it is common practice for the parent, not nurse, to put naked baby on scale and when finished then diaper and pick up. At least that is how we have always done it with both of our kids ages 2 and 1. I should note that we have been to two different pediatrician's office and this was the practice at both of them.

I have three children from age one to ten. I can't remember any of them ever being naked when they were measured.
Maybe the new nurse really is new and that is what she was taught in school. When people are fresh out of school, no matter what the profession, they seem to follow the book more. Since you are upset about it, I am assuming she wasn't very nice about it. Maybe it was just a bad day for her or maybe she had been peed on before. As much as being peed or pooped on is part of the drill of being a parent, it is considered a body fluid that could contain contaminents. I have my own daycare and we are required to wear gloves at diaper changes and strongly suggested not to wash soiled clothes ourselves but just to put them in a plastic bag to send home. This is what childcare licensing is telling us.

I would speak up and talk to someone who is in charge and let them know how you felt and why. It is important to speak up because if no one ever does the problem will not be resolved. If you don't like the nurse, request a different nurse. It is your right to make sure your child feel as comfortable as possible as well as you.. I had a nurse who was really mean to me at a time I was dealing with some much stuff. She was so rude and mean to me! I told her boss and she was disiplined. For the most part, Nurses are so great!!!

i don't know whether i'd be offended about her behavior but i tell you if there has been a staff member i did not like at pediatrician's office i have always asked for someone else, either by name or by saying: i don;'t want her/him or so and so checking my kids. there have been no questions as to why, but had there been i would have said i don't feel comfortable or i just don't want her/him.

Some people are just removed from their jobs, their families, their lives. It's sad, I know. I think a lot of people in the healthcare profession really need to realize that they are dealing with LIVES and they need to be a lot warmer. If I ever encounter a nurse that rubs me wrong, I have NO problem asking her to replace herself, and fast! I can understand not wanting to be peed on, but not touching your child at all? WOW! This woman clearly has some issues. If I were you, I would refuse to have that woman care for my child at future visits. I'm sorry you had to experience this, but don't take this personally. Just let this one go, and take charge next time. Good luck. : )

K.

Odd that they had him naked for the measuring and stuff. At my office they have me undress them to their diaper. They do the measurements, then have me take him to the scale, if its a dry diaper they said its up to me whether to leave it on. Some nurses say to take it off. But I take it off and then when we get back in the exam room, they say to go ahead and keep him undress except his diaper. Maybe you can just request they do the measurements first next time, that way he's not screaming naked while the nurse is trying to convince you to diaper him. Otherwise it might be wise just to let this one go. Although, I have to say with the cold attitude I don't know if I'd want the nurse around my kiddo either. Good Luck hope you find resolution the next time around.

BTW I've done a modified vac schedule with my kids too, such a difference in reactions vs them all at once. Best decision I've made so far!!

what she was very wrong and your husband is very right in not wanting her involved in his care. and all you have to do is tell the doctor you don't want her on your case PERIOD! you don't have to let ANYONE handle son if you don't want them to. and if you fell like addressing her about it have her sit down with the doctor and your family and let her know how you feel. good luck.