Best Medical Care For Infants

[vegas]

My 10 month old daughter caught a cold recently which developed into a bit of a rasping cough. Since she did not have a fever I thought she was ok, but decided to take her to Bumrungrad anyway just to be sure.

We were ushered though very quickly and saw a lady paediatrician who examined my daughter and then proceeded to prescribe 4 different types of medication including antibiotics. We questioned the antibiotics when the doctor said she had a common cold knowing that a cold is a virus and antibiotics are for infections only. "This is in case she develops an infection" she said. I thought, why not give her medication for distemper, just in case she develops that??

We paid for the visit and meds and returned home. I decided to research the medication (most the original label was obscured by the Bumrungrad sticker) on the internet as I did not want to give my daughter anything that I was not 100% sure was safe and discovered that most medical sites on the net advise against giving the meds we were prescried to children of my daughters age.

Live and learn. Whenever I have been sick and visited a hospital in Thailand including the 2 above, I have been prescribed much the same thing for similar, non bacterial ailments.

So my question is, can anybody recommend a good paediatrician, or are they non-existant in Thailand?

P.S. The doctor also prescribed cream for an ant bite on my daughter's forehead even though we had not enquired about it. We used the cream but it did nothing.

[Austhaied]

Kasemrad Prachachuen have been great for us with our 2 daughters (who were both born there). A lot more "down to earth" than Bumrungrad. http://www.kasemrad.com/ContactUs.php

[sylvafern]

I think it is less to do with the hospital and more to do with the individual doctor. I can highly recommend Dr Suban (sp?) at Samitivej who has been fantastic in the past with my son and with friends' children who have also been there. On the other hand I had an absolutely awful doctor at Samitivej once when I did not feel like waiting for Dr Suban as he had a queue of 10 people. I was not happy with the general check-up and then she went to stab my son with a chicken pox vaccine without even asking me if I wanted my son to have it or not (which I didn't). Luckily I asked her what she was doing first and stopped her just in time.

[torrenova]

Most doctors and hotpitals here are just in it for the cash. More money in prescribing more medicines. Simple as that. They are not used to being questioned as the thais will kow tow to them because they are "superior".

[samran]

We've done both walk-in and have our regular appointments with our daughters Pediatrician (Dr Kusama) at Samtivej with our baby sick as a dog with cough/cold and fever. Always good experience never with any unnecessary medication prescribed. Just our experience though.

[vegas]

Cheers for the responses. Always good to hear a recommendation for a particular paediatrician.

[samran]

Cheers for the responses. Always good to hear a recommendation for a particular paediatrician.

another good tip with Bamrungrad, if you can't beat them, join them. Buy their shares :-) As everyone alludes to, it is a great business......

[jumnien]

I stopped going to Bumrungrad and did buy the shares. The wife and I are very happy with Bangkok Nursing Home. I can't remember the name of the doctor who takes care of our boy, she is middle age and has medium length black hair if that helps.

[jubby]

If the Kids had Colds & Flu's etc.. in the UK, we tended to give them some Calpol and not think too much about it. Also any tummy upsets or complaints weren't taken very seriously. Here its different , I think it something to do with the Climate, We've had our youngest in Hospital twice this year, one time on a drip for a week because we ignored the sign's. infections etc.. seem to develop quickly here. We take ours to the Hospital or clinic at the first sign's here as most Thais we know seem to do. maybe the Doctors do oversubscribe, but maybe there's also a reason for it.

[bkk_mike]

I like the doctor the kids have at Samitivej Srinakarin, but I can't remember her name for the life of me.

One of ours had to get an MRI - and what the doctor said the checks were for was exactly the right thing, when I double-checked everything myself with my own research on the web, after we knew what the problem was.

And they were exceptionally patient with a 7 y.o. who would not lie still in the MRI.