Yes, I feel like I am at the pediatrician's office every week. As a parent, you can't take a chance that your kid will infect another kid or get infected. We are missing school because of a minor cough or nasal congestion - nothing that can be treated!

No. I don't want to expose my children to the germs there. In fact, during flu season I avoid visits as much as possible. It's not like they can treat the flu unless you catch it within 48 hours (and really, I'm not about to call the dr at the onset of every sniffle and cough), bringing them more often without reason is only going to increase their chances of getting sick.

If they run a fever for more than a few days or show signs of something like strep throat, I call and possibly go in. But that's been the same for 11 years now, not new with this flu season.

I went the second day after a cold started for both me and my daughter a week ago. It was flu like symptoms and we had just gone to a large public place. There have been a large number of people with h1n1 in our area, so much so that pregnant women in this city and the surrounding cities have been warned off from the ER's unless its a true emergency. (snake bite, bleeding to death, broken bone, etc) and will often just be admitted to the hospital rather then put anywhere near the ER. So, my doctor had me come in right away when I started with flu like symptoms. That was a fun visit.. I had to sit in the waiting room for 1 1/2 hrs wearing a mask while lots of Elderly people gave me the stink eye. We got a room then, and waited another 1 1/2 to be fit in.. ugh. Waiting any time with a sick kid sucks, but its magnified when you feel like crap yourself. We just have a run of the mill upper resp that my daughter got over days ago, but I'm still suffering from it. I actually had a bout over the weekend where I couldn't stop vomiting, most likely from the mucous. Ugh, hopefully I will be better soon.

Now you have me thinking about it. I was just sick for a week and my son is developing a cough at the moment so I am worried about him. He has no temperature and I don't want him to get sick by going to the doctor, but I also want to make sure he isn't sick from me. Oh man. I'm just not sure if we should go to the doctor or not.

I truly think the hype is contributing to the widespread flu this year by making everyone so paranoid that they're running to the dr at the drop of a hat, whereas in years past we'd keep an eye on things at home and let it run its course. Everyone in dr's offices means we're infecting more people, sharing the germs, and making things worse.

i agree anon. if you want to keep your kids healthy, keep them out of the dr's office. unless it's serious, obviously.

I go back and forth. The sickest my son has ever been was after I'd taken him in for an ear infection. There'd been a child in that exam room earlier who had been vomiting for ten days. My son, of course, caught the bug and threw up for three days. It was awful. We go to a different doctor now (not because of that), and her office has an advice nurse. I usually call that line first and get a nurse's perspective before going with my own knee-jerk and rushing him in for everything.

I don't agree with keeping children home for every minor cough and congestion. During flu season (and allergy season for kids with allergies who have the same symptoms), a huge portion of kids would never go to school of they were kept home for that. There's no reason not to send a child with minor congestion and a small cough, even with the swine flu craze. Fever, green discharge, etc, those are reasons for staying home.

I agree with the above anon poster. If I kept my daughter home every time she had a sniffle, she'd never leave the house.

No, I don't want her to infect other children, but we live in the real world where every time someone goes outside she is exposed to all kinds of germs.

That said, she had croup last weekend and we stayed home from a birthday party, and we also missed a trip to see her grandmother because she (my daughter) was running a fever.

I've been to the doctor more lately, but that's because my son was less than 2 years old and I'm 7.5 months pregnant. Turns out, he got the swine flu twice and was sick for almost a month--in the end, all he did was sleep and throw up, and only took in liquids. He took Tamiflu twice, and my husband and I were both on Tamiflu so we don't get it. I am glad I went when I did so we could all get on the medication. He's thankfully recovered and we didn't get it, but that was an intense 3+weeks. We went both to the pediatrician and urgent care center. I avoided the Emergency Room.

I agree with anon and diamond above. My 3 year old daughter had a cough with ocngestion, but never developed a fever. She did not lose her appetite and drank plenty of clear fluids. I removed all dairy from her diet, kept her home, and took naps together. In two weeks, her cough and congestion subsided and eventually cleared up.

The point is, if a child eats healthy, drinks plenty of clear liquids, and rests, their immune system should be able kick the virus on their own.

As many of you pointed out, the risk of contracting the flu increases with each doctor vist we make. Stay home, unless you necessarily believe a doctor visit is merited.