"Every new parent has found themself in that Google doom scroll in the middle of the night, wondering if what your little one is going through is normal. Does it warrant an emergency call to the pediatrician or visit to urgent care? Sure, it could wait until the morning, but your anxiety can’t. And even if it’s not the middle of the night, small questions about your child constantly come up starting on day one.
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I recently found myself facing a small medical problem for my son when he came down with a rash out of nowhere on a Saturday. It wasn’t a “let’s run to the urgent care now” event, but it wasn’t a “wait until my pediatrician responds to the message portal in two days” one either. A friend recommended I use Summer Health, which literally bills itself as a “pediatrician in your pocket” and it felt like a good time to try out a service that answers your pediatric questions without an in-person doctor’s visit.
How the Pediatrician Text Service Works
Here’s how it works: after signing up for the service, parents are able to directly text with a medical provider. After sending my question via text, I was given my personal provider’s bio page full of information that helped me be sure I was chatting with a trusted professional.
After sending my initial question, I sent through a photo of my son’s rash. Turns out, it was a pretty routine post-viral rash, the doctor recommended Benadryl, and it resolved itself in a day. This took all of 15 minutes to diagnose and saved me probably two hours of sitting in the urgent care waiting room and who knows how much money in bills.
When I’ll Use Summer Health vs. My Pediatrician
I have an older child, so my run-of-the-mill medical questions end up being more like, “Is this pink eye? Is he having growing pains?” or “Has he pooped enough this week?” than about milestones, lactation or sleep. As someone who has a lot of anxiety around every cough, every eye itch, and every tummy ache, it’s tremendous to have the immediate gratification of peace of mind by using this text pediatrician service.
Does this replace my regular check-ins with our pediatrician? Definitely not. Our pediatrician is a trusted member of my kid-raising village. But getting an immediate answer and solution to a question that otherwise might have waited hours at the urgent care or days on a portal message—and cost many co-payments—was a game changer for me. And at $20 per month (that includes unlimited questions 24/7) the yearly cost is equivalent to the price of one co-pay for us. It’s also helpful (and priceless, honestly) as we plan to spend the summer away from home and having access to immediate medical attention when we’re not able to make a sick visit. This is definitely something I will keep in my family toolkit moving forward—and something you should consider, too!
