Bittersweet Sweet Tooth
BAD BEHAVIOR, CHILDREN, HOSPITAL, PATIENTS, USA | HEALTHY | DECEMBER 17, 2018
(I’m a student who is doing a clinical rotation at the hospital. We have a mother who brings in her child and is adamant the child must have appendicitis because the child has a horrible bellyache. Everything is normal except the x-ray, which shows a huge amount of stool. We go in to let the mother know the child is just constipated, and she still insists it MUST be appendicitis. The nurse is telling the mother about how to prevent constipation and to increase fluids and fiber, etc. She is quite insistent that her child eats a wonderful diet and this couldn’t possibly be just constipation, and the doctor must be an idiot. It’s not long after Halloween and an idea forms. I ask the child
Me: “How much Halloween candy did you eat in the last two days?”
Child: *looks at me and whispers with a big smile* “All of it.”
(Yeah, a bunch of taffy, caramel, and other assorted junk will plug your child up.)