Although there are lots of decisions that parents have to make during their stint as a caretaker and nurturer of their children, one of the hardest came for me during the illness of a child. I can remember with my son, whom I think wins the world’s record for ear infections, struggling with the question of whether or not he needed medical attention.

Not that I didn’t want to care for him adequately, I just sometimes questioned whether I was being over protective and taking him to the doctor when it really wasn’t warranted.

Even with insurance, medical care and prescriptions can take a toll on a budget

My husband and I soon began to develop our own criteria for calling the doctor. The list went something like: a fever over 100 degrees, sleeplessness, loss of hearing and nonstop crying.

I often relied on my child care provider for answers to some of my disease dilemmas. I can remember taking my son by to let her look at him to see what she thought when he had several breakouts of chicken pox. He happened to have a very light case and I wasn’t sure whether it was chicken pox. We also took him by the pharmacist when he had head lice. And read countless references on asthma, allergies and acne as we searched for the right care.

Needless to say we made it through those early years with many trips to the doctor, and our son has grown to be a healthy young man. When our second child came along, we were blessed with her strong will and healthy nature. She could get a 24-hour virus and only have it last for about four hours. But that quickly changed when she became a teenager.

She has battled with recurrent sinus infections, tonsillitis and just this past week, a kidney infection. I again felt those pangs of “what do I do?” “How serious is serious?” This is the question that parents face.

In this information age that we live in, parents still don’t have the all information they need when they need it. I have talked with other parents along the way that have dealt with much more serious medical issues than our family. They struggled with getting by as their children sometimes suffer because the resources either were not readily available or they are financially out of their reach.

I have had parents who have had suicidal children and are still struggling with finding the right therapist. I even had a parent come up to me after a workshop one night that wanted to find help for her teenage daughter who had been sexually molested three years earlier. She just found the courage to ask for help. Because she was a limited income patient it took me three days and several phone calls before I could even find her some one that would take Medicaid.

There are children who are depressed or have behavioral problems with no where to turn for help. Some issues could be solved quickly and with out a lot of cost if information was known early. Parents need to know where to go and how to get there.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a 1-800 number to call and have a live person that would answer and ask parents what their concerns were and be able to refer them to adequate resources. Or even a radio talk show that parents could call in for advice or help or let’s take it even further a TV show devoted to parents and families that talked about new research and information for families. If you stop and think about it we have more resources in the media about golf, football, hunting, gardening, and decorating our houses than we do taking care of our families.

Supporting all parents with accurate information and affordable health care should be a top priority. Knowledge is power and families have the right to know where to go for help. Growing healthy children is essential to all who parent and care for children.