5 Ways DPC Pediatricians Ease Family Stress and Build Resilience

As a DPC pediatrician, I had the opportunity to walk alongside families in both good times and in bad.  Not only did I provide a convenient way for parents to access medical care for their children, but I spent my time advising and reassuring parents. Practicing pediatric medicine through the direct primary care model was truly a privilege for me. It not only restored my love for medicine, but it allowed me to help families decrease stress and build resilience. 

Direct care is a unique way to care for your patients and their families in a truly special way. These are five ways that you as a DPC pediatrician can ease family stress and help them to build resilience. 

Promote Healthy Living

As a DPC Pediatrician, I had the extra bandwidth to pursue a higher level of education in breastfeeding medicine. With this extra knowledge, I was able to help families both inside and outside of my DPC practice to find success with breastfeeding. Many women want to exclusively breastfeed their babies, but quit prematurely due to problems and lack of support. As a DPC Pediatrician and breastfeeding medicine specialist, I had the ability and knowledge to support these mothers and help them to meet their goals. 

Pediatricians have an immense body of knowledge when it comes to nutrition for young kids. In the DPC model, we have the extra time that we need in order to impart this knowledge to parents. There is a lot of conflicting information that families consume, especially when it comes to starting solid foods for their babies. Helping parents to master this early developmental milestone sets their kids up for good nutritional practices throughout their lives. Guiding parents on how to start solid foods for their babies was one of my greatest joys as a pediatrician. 

Lastly, I had the ability to promote healthy living by having specific discussions with parents about their kids’ eating habits. There is nothing more stressful in parenthood than when your kids don’t eat like you think that they should. I was able to take the time to explain the different stages of development and how a child’s nutritional needs and habits changed throughout those different periods. One of my practice’s favorite articles to read was Toddler Eating Habits: Surviving on Air and Unicorn Tears.

Translate Medical Headlines and Social Media

One of my favorite families that I had the privilege of caring for in my pediatric DPC practice was a family that experienced a previous infant loss. They came to me during their second pregnancy and signed up for my fourth trimester plan. Three kids later, I ended up caring for this young family for the majority of the time that I had my DPC practice. Mom was an intelligent, professional woman and had many other friends with young kids. She would hear things from her friends and/or on social media that scared her about traditional medicine. She would bring those things to me and we would discuss the topic and decide how to best apply it to her kids. 

Additionally, not only did I translate my medical knowledge for this family, but for most of the families in my practice during the COVID pandemic. As we all remember, there was conflicting information flying around daily during that period of time. I did my best to listen to the experts and translate this information into something that was useful and understandable for my patient families. Direct care pediatrics affords us the luxury of open communication and time to spend with families to help them to interpret the scary health related headlines and social media posts. 

Parental Guidance and Support 

There were also countless times that I offered support and guidance for parents. My practice was designed to offer convenient medical care for busy families. Most of the families in my practice had two working parents and kids in numerous activities in addition to school. By offering convenient appointment times or meeting families in convenient locations, my practice was a key component to easing stress for these busy people. In addition, the convenience of getting the answers to their parenting questions without all of the barriers that come with traditional medicine was priceless. 

In addition to convenience, I offered my listening ear to several families who were going through stressful divorces and custody changes while still remaining in my practice. I was able to use my own personal experiences (without getting too personal) to support these families in a unique way. I continued to provide medical care to the kids and support the parents while attempting to help them see the bigger picture beyond their current struggles. As someone who had already made it to the other side, I could help them to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Normalize conversations about Stress and Emotions

Modern life is stressful for most everyone. Emotions and stress are important components of health for both adults and children. With the somewhat slower pace of direct primary care, I had the ability to see beyond just a medical diagnosis for certain symptoms. A lot of times, I was able to help parents to see the root of common symptoms like constipation or anxiety could be due to a stressful event that their child was experiencing. While we treated the symptom, we could also dig deeper to work on the true cause of the problem.

A DPC practice afforded me the luxury of getting to know families so that conversations about these topics did not seem dismissive, but truly focused on caring for the whole child. 

Lead by Example 

As physicians, we may not have the same kind of wide popularity of a pop star, but our role and influence is just as important. People look to us to understand how they should model their lives when it comes to their health. This is especially true in direct primary care where we have a deeper relationship with families. Balancing your time in direct primary care pediatrics can be tricky, but there are ways that you can maintain your professional integrity while still leading by example. 

As a DPC pediatrician, I was open with my patient families about my own lifestyle, family and boundaries. While I wasn’t perfect, I discussed my own healthy eating and exercise habits with families when they were a useful part of the discussion. In addition, I could relate to families when they struggled to make a medical decision for their child. As the mother of a school aged child myself, parents would often ask me what I would choose for my own child in certain situations.

Direct primary care pediatrics offers unique opportunities to support families beyond just treating their child for their latest ear infection or giving them their scheduled vaccines. Physicians who practice direct care also have the ability to ease a family’s stress and help them to develop more resilience. 

If you are a pediatrician and curious if direct primary care is right for you, then download our free start up guide to get started down this exciting path.