Conversations with my daughter.

[rivka]

Alex: Why do you have to go to the doctor?

Me: Remember when I had to go to the hospital a while ago? After you've been in the hospital, your doctor usually needs to check to make sure everything is okay.

Alex: Does your tummy still hurt, Mama?

Me: No. I feel okay. But the doctor needs to check my insides to make sure everything is okay there.

Alex: But HOW are you going to take your OUTSIDES off?

Comments

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I told her that I wasn't going to take my outsides off - that the doctor had special tools that let her see what was happening with my insides.

I gave the example that the doctor would want to look at my blood. She said that my blood is inside, and I agreed but explained that the doctor could use a needle to bring a little blood outside to look at. That seemed to be enough within her experience that it satsified her.

There was no way that I was going to explain what a speculum is.

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

*nod* makes sense. I haven't been around small children much if any, so I wasn't sure how one would explain in terms that wouldn't go sailing over their heads. Thank you for the additional explanation.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if a stethoscope example might help.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Now I feel silly for not thinking of that - my mind was running over what I was expecting the midwife to use as sources of information (pelvic exam, pathology report, blood test results, fingerstick to test anemia).

I'm pretty sure she understands that a stethoscope is for listening to a person's heart and lungs, although she may just understand that it's for "listening to your chest" or "listening to your breathing." It's another step to understand that you might figure out that something is wrong with a person's heart by listening to how it sounds.

An X-ray would have been an even better example, because we've looked at X-rays at the science museum and she understands that they're a picture of someone's bones. My blood example may have inadvertently created the notion that doctors examine all our inside parts by taking bits of them out to have a look.

...Which is pretty disturbing.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Also, what was she playing over to get used to the eye doctor last year?