A child is a confluence of such abundance in his or her life!
One can think of a child as 'small' or 'little' !
But he or she is not small or little!
He or she is a confluence of a human life in its evolution!
The way to receive a child is therefore, by offering an ambience for the confluence to become manifest !
It is for this reason, a home ought to be a space for the expansion of a child, who is on a journey to become an adult.
A doctor in training in Paediatrics is under obligation to become watchful of a child's life during its formation. He or she can become a pointer to parents about the richness that they are to notice and esteem in their child! Parents need to create space in their hearts and home for a child who is growing up.
A doctor for children is a steward of a child to facilitate his formation and to offer support to parents to make their living child centred.
Two weeks into my training during my post graduate course in 1978, the consultant asked me, ' Do you listen to the cry of the child to know how a child feels?
The same evening a two year old child was brought to the emergency room crying incessantly! This consultant hearing the cry of the child examined his ears with an Otoscope to find the middle ear drum hyperaemic and bulging on one side. The cry of the child made her to know that the child was suffering from pain due to Otitis media. This consultant during the three years of my training period, helped me to get familiar with different 'crying spells' in children and to associate them with different clinical situations.
I realised that this consultant had an enlarged window in to the life of a child!
The journey of a doctor in paediatrics training is to know a child as a person in his or her journey of formation!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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