Editors: Samuel M. Wishik, M.D..
HOW OFTEN each one of us has been exasperated because a mother failed to carry out our recommendations! She may have misunderstood or disagreed with us. Perhaps our advice was not appropriate to her situation. In any event, we failed in our objective of achieving a favorable effect upon her methods of management of her child. There follow a number of suggestions for conducting an interview so as to minimize some of the barriers between the pediatrician and the mother and to substitute therefor an easy bridge of effective communication.
Use Names Rather than Labels for the Mother and Her Children
There is nothing that gives the mother a stronger impression of your disinterest in hem than to be called "mother." You should know her name and use it.