Child of Thai / English Parents - Always in Hospital

[ThaiLife]

This may sound a strange question , but its one I would like to get some constructive views on ,  I have a friend who has a son born in Thailand and the son lives here with his English father and Thai mother. 

 

After the child was born it went through a period of being sick with what may be considered normal new born issues , but nothing too serious or alarming . From around two years old the child started to regularly ( every other month or so ) to be admitted to hospital with symptoms of some form of food / bacterial related problem. The child usually stayed in hospital for a few nights where drugs and drip feeds were administered and then the child was allowed to go home and soon after felt better . These hospital admissions were a regular occurrence and all seemed to be related to the intake of food. 

 

These hospital admissions have been going on for several years and are still continuing with the last one a few days ago . My friend has two theories as to why his young son is constantly being admitted to hospital with only what the doctors describe as food related problems.  The first theory is that his son is being given what can only be described as dubious and poorly cooked Thai fast food from the local market and roaming mobile snack venders . 

 

 My friend has discussed this whole hospital visits and food subject with his Thai wife , and her view is that its normal for a growing Thai child to be sick and as they get older their immune system will get use to the intake of poorly prepared and unhygienic food and the hospital admissions will soon decrease . 

 

My friend is not able to be with the child all the time , so the child's food intake is normally controlled for the most part by his Thai mother or other Thai relatives . 

 

 

The second theory is this , as the child is of Thai / English parents , could it be the child's ability to cope with and manage the intake of poorly prepared and unhygienic food, could be in some way hindered / reduced because of some sort of genetic difference , where as if the child was 100% Thai , there would be a less medical food related issues . 

 

This whole on going hospital admission problem is becoming both a stressful and financial burden for my friend . 

 

Any constructive advice / comments welcome 

 

 

 

TL

 

[Eliot Rosewater]

There is nothing genetically special about a "Thai" stomach, thats for sure

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[rgs2001uk]

My honest opinion, the above is BS.

 

The farang doesnt live here, the mother is telling him sick buffalo stories, that the dumb sap is believing everything the mother/family tells him..

There are no hospital visits, there are no symptoms, its just another way of extracting money from him.

 

Next time your friend is in town, take the kid to Bum on Suk soi 3 Bkk for check ups, guarantee, no problem exists.

[ThaiLife]

My honest opinion, the above is BS.

 

The farang doesnt live here, the mother is telling him sick buffalo stories, that the dumb sap is believing everything the mother/family tells him..

There are no hospital visits, there are no symptoms, its just another way of extracting money from him.

 

Next time your friend is in town, take the kid to Bum on Suk soi 3 Bkk for check ups, guarantee, no problem exists.

 

Sorry I should have been a bit more clear , my friend does live permanently here in Thailand with his son and wife . 

[Issangeorge]

My honest opinion, the above is BS.
 
The farang doesnt live here, the mother is telling him sick buffalo stories, that the dumb sap is believing everything the mother/family tells him..
There are no hospital visits, there are no symptoms, its just another way of extracting money from him.
 
Next time your friend is in town, take the kid to Bum on Suk soi 3 Bkk for check ups, guarantee, no problem exists.

 
Sorry I should have been a bit more clear , my friend does live permanently here in Thailand with his son and wife . 

No you were clear enough, some people just want to stir up manure.

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[ThaiLife]

 

 

My honest opinion, the above is BS.
 
The farang doesnt live here, the mother is telling him sick buffalo stories, that the dumb sap is believing everything the mother/family tells him..
There are no hospital visits, there are no symptoms, its just another way of extracting money from him.
 
Next time your friend is in town, take the kid to Bum on Suk soi 3 Bkk for check ups, guarantee, no problem exists.

 
Sorry I should have been a bit more clear , my friend does live permanently here in Thailand with his son and wife . 

No you were clear enough, some people just want to stir up manure.

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 6 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

 

 

 

Thanks for the comment 

 

 

Its a genuine concern for my friend , if these hospital visits were less frequent then may be the medical problems would not be so much of a worrying issue , but as the hospital visits have been and still are a regular occurrence , trying to conclude what is going on and more importantly rectifying the problem , is important not only for my friend but all so for the child's health and well being . One recent thought ive had is related to the Thai mothers comment - ( its normal for a growing Thai child to be sick and as they get older their immune system will get use to the intake of poorly prepared and unhygienic food and the hospital admissions will soon decrease )-  if thats in fact the case then surly after all the years the child has been in and out of hospital with food related symptoms , why by now is the child's system still not able to cope with poorly prepared and unhygienic food . Could it be that a child born in Thailand of Thai / English parents is more susceptible to being sick due to poorly prepared and unhygienic food and the child's system will taker a lot longer in time scale to be able to adapt and cope with food related illnesses . 

[Sheryl]

It has nothing to do with being of mixed ancestry.

repeated exposure to unhygienic food is a likely cause. Lactose intolerance also a possibiliy.

also either instead of or in addition to the above, these may be unnecessary hospital admissions. That won't happen with a govt hospital but can with a pvt one. Since you indicate the father is spending money on this, must be the latter since as a thai citizen the child csn get free or nominal cost care in govt facilities.

which leads me to also question whether, since you indicate the father is not always present, some of these hospitalizations might be fictious?

Hospitalization is usually indicated for gastroenteritis only if the child id unsble to fluids and meds by mouth.

my advice:

Stop going to private facilities. Utilive govt hospital. This will eliminate the cost as well as risk of unnecessary admits.

if despite thst the child continurs to have GI problems severe enough to require hospital admission, try eliminating dairy products and see if thst helps.

[ThaiLife]

It has nothing to do with being of mixed ancestry.

repeated exposure to unhygienic food is a likely cause. Lactose intolerance also a possibiliy.

also either instead of or in addition to the above, these may be unnecessary hospital admissions. That won't happen with a govt hospital but can with a pvt one. Since you indicate the father is spending money on this, must be the latter since as a thai citizen the child csn get free or nominal cost care in govt facilities.

which leads me to also question whether, since you indicate the father is not always present, some of these hospitalizations might be fictious?

Hospitalization is usually indicated for gastroenteritis only if the child id unsble to fluids and meds by mouth.

my advice:

Stop going to private facilities. Utilive govt hospital. This will eliminate the cost as well as risk of unnecessary admits.

if despite thst the child continurs to have GI problems severe enough to require hospital admission, try eliminating dairy products and see if thst helps.

 

 

Thanks for the comments 

 

Until recently the family lived in a city environment and most of the constant hospital visits were at non government hospitals , just recently the family moved to a more rural location and the last recent hospital visit for the child was to a Thai government hospital , as the mother wanted to be with the child overnight the only option was a private room ( 1,800 Baht a night ) which provided a second bed for the mother. 

 

The father is at home with the family and currently the child attends a day nursery facility , the father seems to be now coming to the conclusion that the child's on going medical problems are being induced by poorly prepared and unhygienic food being given to the child by the mother and Thai relatives.

 

According to the father , the child is regularly taken by the mother to visit Thai relatives where the child is being fed poorly prepared and unhygienic food purchased from a market stall or mobile food venders .  

 

This above same family visits situation all so constantly occurred before the family moved to a new rural location . 

 

The father finds it difficult to keep constant tracks as to where the child is being taken by the mother , and the mother as pointed out before seems to think theres no problem with the child being given poorly prepared and unhygienic food as its only a matter of time before the child's body system becomes more use to that type of food and eventually the child will become less sick and less hospital visits will be required , its just the Thai way . 

[enuff said]

.

 

 

Hi... google munchausen by proxy

 

Despite your continuous robotic incantation of "poorly prepared unhygienic food", if this were the case we would all be sick.

 

I talked to a French family who have been here since March.  We were sitting in a market  stall area and their 3 year old son and 9 year old daughter were chomping down khao mann guy off a piece of paper.  Monsieur (engineer for Airbus) & Madame (psychiatric nurse), hoy tawd.  They often go to Thai restaurants in France where pad Thai is their favorite.  "But the pad Thai here in Thailand, oo la la."

 

Would you say the French are picky about food?

 

I dare you to go into one of your friends relatives houses and tell the lady she is poorly preparing unhygienic food.  If you do, wear a helmet.

 

 

'nuff said

 

~ 

[cmsally]

Nothing to do with ancestry. Cleanliness can be an issue but on such a regular basis, seems a bit strange.

Some sort of allergy maybe. Get your wife to keep a"food diary" to see if they can spot a pattern to this. Then they might get an idea what causes it.

[kriswillems]

We eat street food all the time and so does our son.
We sometimes do get sick from it, but not that often. I doubt that you can systematically get a food poisoning once a month by eating street food.

Looks like there's another problem. I would get the child tested for food allergies.

Also you need to make sure it's not an imaginary problem. I know several hiso families whose child is in the hospital very often, for very small problems. It's often a way for the parents to keep busy, to give them the feeling they are caring parents, or it can be a way to spend their money and so confirm their status as very caring parents.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

I'm with 'nuff said, mom is the problem.
Try taking the kid on holiday without mom for a few weeks.

Why is she doing it?
Attention seeking or money extraction, take your pick.

PS
1,800bht for 1 night in a private room of a rural government hospital ..... NO WAY!
Did dad pay the hospital bill himself? or was it cash in moms outstretched hand? Edited August 1, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican