Franziska Haydanek: People come in and they're so unsure. They're so unsure of how to parent. They're so unsure of what to feed their kid. They're so unsure. And not because of lack of information. It's almost fire hose of information, right? It's hard to be a sturdy parent in 2026, I think, with all the information. And always like the message I wanted to give moms, I would be like, but what do you think? Welcome back to I Did My Own Research. I'm Dr. Fran, and today I'm joined by Dr. Patrick Scogman. Dr. Scogman attended College of St. Benedict for her undergrad. She received her medical degree from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency at Iowa Stud Family Children's Hospital. She now works as a pediatrician and posts online where she talks about being a pediatrician, being a mom, wellness, all the things that come with being a mom and a physician. Dr. Scogan, welcome to I Did My Own Research. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to have you here. We have a lot. Of similarities in our life. We are both moms of three, busy trying to figure out how to do that while working. And then we decided, you know what we should do on top of that? Make some content online because we don't have that going on. Tell us how you got into this space. So I was in clinic for I worked in four years as like a primary care pediatrician. And During that time, it was kind of getting progressively worse. I would it was like from 2018 to 2022. All day I was just parents were coming in already like knowing the information because of what they had seen online. And especially back then, there wasn't a lot of like medical doctors content creating. So often the content was not the best, right? Like a little bit inaccurate or a little bit extreme or a little bit kind of like the parents would be overly anxious or things like that. And so I was spending a ton of time About it in clinic, but then also really like not having time, right? I don't like the general pediatric clinic, like you just don't have time to like delve into all the wellness and lifestyle and screen time and things like that. And so I really wanted to like address some of that. And then the other piece that I'd love actually to get your perspective on is often I feel like when moms come into clinic, they want they're trying so hard, all they want is to be affirmed that they're like doing an amazing job. And that's all I want to give them too, right? Or like when you see pregnant women, right? Like you know how hard they're trying, you know what they're doing. So you're like, yes, you're doing a great job. This is awesome. But then when I tried to slightly educate on like food, especially, or screens or activity, like I could tell very easily, like it was a fine line of like, ooh, they were maybe feeling a little bit of shame or like judgment or things like that. And I never wanted them to feel it. So I would kind of like dance around that a little bit, but then decided to start creating content online because I'm like, ⁓ then they can like passively look at if they want to, maybe gain some helpful tips, maybe let it go. Maybe that's not good for them. But it felt like kind of a good way to expose some of that education without accidentally evoking shame, which I just think no one grows well from. I mean, I think especially when you're like parenting, right? All and like for me, like my pregnant patients are trying the best they can to raise their little babies in their bodies. All you want is to do well. And it's really hard because like no one gives you a report card, right? No one's like, Great job. You raised a good human. Or like what you're doing is gonna be good in the end. So it's really hard to get like feedback on what you're doing. And, you know, Children aren't like just little pieces of clay who do exactly what you say. They're their own little people. And so even if you're doing all the right things per like parenting experts, they're still people who are their own person and that's hard. And as a parent, that's hard because you're trying to like, you know, you want them to be good, kind people. And how do you do that? No one, you know, these babies don't come with manuals. No one tells you how to like raise a child. They do not. And I often see like even other pediatricians. And I'm like, they're on the side of being just insecure and anxious. in general sometimes. And so I'll be like, how do they like how what are they doing? Or like how are their kids or like pediatricians that give a lot of like parenting advice? I'm like, I just wish I felt like a parenting expert. Like who does really right? Right. I mean who technically is a parenting expert? I mean that's the problem with online, right? Is that parenting, like there's not like a degree real I mean there probably is d like there are degrees in like childhood education and childhood psychology and all those things. But like when it comes to parenting, yeah, there's not like a true Like who do you go to? Which I am thankful for all the ⁓ people who do have a lot of expertise and like do look dig into the research and like teach me online how to parent. I think me being someone who consumes a lot of social media, but can like kind of like discern what makes sense for me and my family and like what seems a little bit more logical has been very helpful. I also, you know, it's always hard to balance people sharing their own experiences with like medicine or parenting or whatever versus like giving advice. But I do appreciate people who kind of like talk about their philosophies of how they parent their children, how they go about certain things. Like, you know, screen time is a big one. Obviously, I've seen you talk about that a lot too, with like how do we minimize screen time without shaming? And so I've always appreciated when people like talk about how it works in their house. How do you approach talking about your body? How do you talk about eating? Right? All those things because If you don't listen to other people talk about parenting, I think most people just default to how they were parented, right? Like as a child yourself. So I think it's one of those nice things about the internet. And especially like I think for pediatricians, especially if you're a pediatrician and a mom or a parent, then you have a little bit more insight too, because you are also parenting. Yeah. Yeah, that's so true. And I also think like as part of screen education, so that's been like my biggest area of advocacy just for parents here. And not that I have The right answers, but mostly encouraging families to be digitally mindful of what they consume, right? And so just like that you're aware of, ⁓ hey, these are the hours a day we're spending on this and these are the potential repercussions, kind of. But whenever I give that presentation, especially to my parents or educators, there is a graph that demonstrates how anxiety has changed in like rates of generalized anxiety kind of diagnosed or whatever. And in the last 10 years. it's from 2012 to 2022, teenage anxiety is fourfold, right? So they are trying to grow and develop their ego, right? Who am I in this big world? Which is the basic task from the ages of 13 to 21, while being inundated with all this information kind of. And then when you look at that though, the age group that's 25 to I believe it's 34, their anxiety is also like double. Right. So even and these are my moms in clinic, right? So people that I see. And I think what I see or want to affirm the most, right? And I'm guessing you also probably feel this in like OB clinic, but is the fact that like people come in and they're so unsure. They're so unsure of how to parent. They're so unsure of what to feed their kid. They're so unsure. And not because of lack of information, it's almost fire hose of information. Right. And so you're being like, Constantly inundated with like, ⁓ the the best parent does this and the best parent does this, then this other parent does this. And then these these poor parents are like, what is happening? You know, like it's hard to be a sturdy parent in 2026, I think, with all the information. And always like the message I wanted to give moms, I would be like, but what do you think? Right. Because like at the end of the day, part of being a good parent is raising your child within your own cultural context. And knowing what you and your spouse or just you, if you're a single mom, like what you feel good, what you value, and what you want to teach your kids as they grow, right? Because all kids need unconditional love, they need boundaries, they need consequences for their behavior, right? And then outside of that, it's like go, right? Like there just are many, many, many good ways to raise a child within your own cultural context. And I really want I really want moms to feel that, right? To be like, yeah, I like trust myself to parent my child. Because I think we're starting to see a lot of just downfall and like kind of then more anxiety in the kids because the parents are a little bit less sure, you know, and things like that. And even my age group, I'm 41, we also have like doubled the anxiety just because of that. And I'm run a little anxious, but I would say I can feel that as I consume information and want to make sure that everyone's just like, aware of that as a filter. So then you can choose how much do you consume? When do you shut it off? When do you limit it? You know, because I think there's a limit to the value of some of it. ⁓ absolutely. I think it's also like when you're saying like knowing when and not to do it. For me, like I have noticed with myself that if I am like if the last thing I'm doing is scrolling before I go to sleep, I don't sleep as well. I have like weird dreams. I'm like that last night I was having like weird anxiety things of like things I have to do when I wake up. And I think it's because I was like scrolling and I have noticed that. But if I like even just watch the TV, right? If I'm watching like script if I'm watching a television show where I don't have any ownership over what's in front of me. I'm not like scrolling through, my brain like is able to shut down a little bit more. And I can especially for young children, I imagine that that is and not just imagine, I know that that is incredibly overstimulating. Is there I mean, a lot of the things that I see online when it comes to screen time is usually like Try to limit as much as possible. Bigger screens are bigger than smaller screens, right? If you're gonna do screen time, do the big TV. Don't hand them on a phone, right? But are there like things that you think are maybe commonly misunderstood or you see online when it comes to screen time that may be not like as accurate as people are saying? Yeah, I think the biggest to go, and I'm not sure that I you see this online, right? But people go really extreme, right? So in anything, whether it's health food eating real food or screens or whatever, people are like all or none. So then, you know, then the moms come into clinic and then they're like, if there's any screen time, they're like, ⁓ no, that's so bad. Like I'm just gonna tell my pediatrician, like, we do zero screen, you know, like that kind of thing. But I'm like, no, no, no, we have to be real here, right? Like we live in 2026, screens are everywhere, and that is okay, right? So yes, there's huge differences. And the AAP is starting to have really nice, they built kind of a digital ecosystem, which does an it's an amazing model. They just published a study on it. But the biggest piece is as a parent, a lot of the screen challenges that you're facing are not necessarily your problem, right? In the ecosystem, it's like, yes, what your child consumes, right? Then you as a parent, your own digital media consumption and screen use like impacts them. But then outside of that, there's three additional layers that are like all bigger than what is happening in your household, right? So As parents, I think that's a little bit nice to recognize. And then hopefully there'll be more legislation and like regulation, right? Because right now we're up against these massive super profitable companies that ultimately like are probably trying to do a good thing, but are harming, you know, kids kind of. So so I think saying some of that, and then most important is I would say knowing the difference in content type, right? And so We now have the ABC D study. I don't know if you've heard of that. Was this cohort of children? They're actually just finishing it. So it's about 10 years of data where they obtained functional MRIs of the brain for children growing from like pre puberty through puberty. Right. So we're going And I do just want to interject because I know people are gonna be like, ⁓ my god, you scre like you scanned all these babies. MR MRIs are not, they don't have like radiation. No radiation. So you're not radiating babies' brains. All the parents consented. So these are like a very safe way, but MRIs are also very, very expensive. So we've never before had this data to be able to see like how does the brain actually grow and change. So there's they're publishing studies like all the time because the data is available to the public. So like if you had a question and wanted to apply to use the data for it, you could, which is really awesome. So we're getting a lot of information. But things we're discovering are like. ADHD is not actually a deficit in the attention aspect of the brain. It has to do with the amount of interest and dopamine that's excreted when kids with ADHD do a task. So if they're sitting to like try to read a book or try to finish a worksheet, they're getting less of a dopamine hit kind of from that, right? And so from that, I'm like getting a little in the weeds with the ADHD, but we're learning that. Screens impact all these kids in kind of different ways. So you have to know the context of your kid, right? So some kids are less affected than screens than others. So if you have like a more of an ADHD kid, they can be more affected than us. So that's a kid that you might want to limit it a little bit more. The biggest one is type of content. So it is not that all screens are bad, right? But even what you were describing of, you know, when I scroll. At night, right? So you're like fast clicking, you're seeing lots of images, you're going from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next, right? Which really increases the amount of dopamine in your brain because you're seeking that like quick pleasure. And then from that, you're more anxious and have more withdrawal whenever you stop that, right? Versus if you're watching a movie that has a one and a half hour plot that yes has some exciting moments but some not so much and like you're not in control of clicking on and off. That is a totally different thing. And for little kids, it's like that that's not bad. And it's important to like sit with them while you're consuming so they can ask questions and learn from it. And then probably the most important thing for all parents, and actually I'm educating a lot at schools about this as well, is that we know for a fact That kids do not learn the same from a screen that they do from paper. So, like the fact of like physically writing and what they're seeing and how it's affecting their brain is different. And so I even think we'll see this shift with time from schools, right? Like the school that my littles go to right now, like their kindergartners get iPads and they're doing stuff on it. And I'm like, Why you have an iPad? Why do you have an iPad in there? Like, you know, but I'm also I recognize I'm extreme. My kids do have iPads. We only use them on the airplanes, you know, because they then can click, they can change. And some of the games that they play, even at school, are very reward heavy. So you want to avoid like fast-paced content, reward heavy, right? Because none of that then teaches them kind of that intrinsic reward of like, ⁓ the reward of reading a story is that I like got to complete it and think about it. Not that I got six stars or then I get to play this fast-paced game or different things like that. So it's kind of more about the context of the content. Yeah, but also then knowing with the kids. So I can't say like, ⁓ Fran, never do video games. Because for my house that might work, but for yours it might not. And video games aren't all universally bad, if that makes sense. So that's kind of which makes it trickier for parents, I think, in the moment, because it's like I can't give one blanket. In general, I think less is more, right? Like that's always kind of beneficial because you want them like playing and being creative and being an imaginative and, you know, that sort of thing. But yeah, that's kind of the the big piece of it. You know, I ask a lot of my guests, like, do you think overall social media is like a net positive, a net negative? And I think we talk about the negative so often that we j we should address that there's so much there's so much positive out there too with social media. When I when I moved to where I live now, I had a almost two year old and a baby and I was like was the first time I gonna spend a of time at home all day with my with my oldest because I had was finishing residency, you know, and now I was gonna be s at home for six months. And so that was like new to me. I had never been with her all day, every single day. And I remember like asking online, like, ⁓ what like YouTube videos, like shows do you guys like for your kids? And so many people were like, okay, I highly recommend not going to YouTube for these reasons. Like cocoa melon is not the best. Here are my recommendations, right? Like Clifford's on the PBS app. So I was like, ⁓ a PBS app. Okay. I'm gonna go to the PBS app, right? And then like taught and then I found people who made content about like ⁓ lower stimulation shows versus like higher stimulation shows. And I learned so much from that four and a half years ago. And we still really like I still really maintained those like kind of like boundaries in my own home. And I wouldn't have known that as a new mom, as not a pediatrician, someone who doesn't do any of this research, someone who didn't read a parenting book. Maybe I should have. But I, you know, I got something so positive out of that and I've really maintained that so far in our house. You know, I really try to limit those like high contrast, speedy shows. My children aren't allowed to play on iPads or iPhones like in our home or anywhere. It's just is like our that that's what works for my family because those are my children and you know, that has worked for us. Like you've said, that may not work in someone else's home, but it has worked for us. But I may not have known about that or really like explored it as much if I didn't one. have the outlet to ask for advice and then have other people who already had made the content to be like, here's some of the studies, here's some of the shows that I recommend, here's ways that you can like incorporate into your life, those kind of things. So I think you know, there's a lot that that's like at the positive with social media, right? Is that some like you can be there and be like, listen to this amazing study. All the things we're learning, I would never have learned that, you know, I think doctors and other healthcare professionals can really learn so much from each other in our other fields, even in the same field when I follow other OBGYNs and they like talk about a study I haven't heard or they, you know, they're menopause experts, so I learned so much from them. Those are all like those net positives of social media that we tend to not always talk about, but we should give them their flowers too. There's like good things. Well, or like as for me, I getting into content creation, right? And meeting other like I would never be on this podcast. If it weren't for following you on social media, loving some of your content, learning to be a better medical content creator because of what you post and are teaching me. And then getting the chance to connect with like, I feel like I've built, I mean, I live in the middle of Iowa. Like I am, I'm not in an academic setting, like I'm in a community setting, but I love networking with other colleagues. And so now I'm like on this national committee for communications and I like collab with people from like CHOP and I'm, you know, working with people in California. And like that is so cool. So like the community that I've been able to build from it, right, is like insane. But to that point, I think then like sometimes though, if I scroll, it makes me feel anxious and not good. So I'm more into like the creator world of it. And so that's where I really encourage people like, even if you're consuming my content, if it does not leave you feeling like A more empowered, better version of yourself as a mom, don't follow me. Like if you're feeling shame or like worse anxiety from following, don't do it. Right. Like just let me go. Like I will, you know, like only follow what like brings you joy and like helps you be your best version of self. Cause I do think how do we like stamp that on our social media? Like when people leave me comments, like, why why is this girl on my screen? Like, I hate you. I'm like, There's a black button, babe. Like you don't have to be here. Like there are eight billion people on this planet. If you don't like me, that's fine. I get that. I don't, you know, like if we don't align, there's plenty of people whose content that I'm like d not interested, sh don't show me for my own mental health or because I don't enjoy it. Doesn't mean they're a bad person. I don't hate them, but it's not for me. So like move on. Totally. Yeah. It's less about like a moral judgment of like who they are. It's just like, ⁓ yeah, know yourself, know what works best for you and like let it go. And I encourage parents to like really look at that but then talk to their kids about it, right? Because that is like our children are going to have to live in this world, right? Like there is going to be so much information for them all the time. And so we just need to teach them like, hey, if it doesn't like leave you feeling really good after you consume it, maybe that's not for you, right? Or like how do you feel after you scroll if you do YouTube for hours? This is more like as their teens, right? But encourage some of that evaluation so that they're aware of like you are like, ⁓ if I scroll at night before bed, that doesn't make me feel good. I'm the exact same. So I created like, I love James Clear Atomic Habits, like his book. I don't know if you've read it, but I created the habit stack of like I plug in my phone on my bathroom vanity at like 7 p.m. at night. And if I wanna use it, I have to go stand at the vanity counter and like tip and sometimes I do because I need to like send a quick email or do whatever. But the amount of like sleep, time with my husband and like time with my kids, like I feel genuinely rested then. And then same thing in the morning, I try to not pick it up for the first hour. Like I try to kind of like do my meditation, hang out with the kiddos. You know what I mean? Like it sets kind of like my tone for the day. Then I jump into like the rest of the world. But I feel a little bit like sturdier as I do it. So I think some of those kind of mindful tips, that's a lot of like what I'm talking about as I'm doing advocacy, right? Is that like it's not bad. You just need to make it like a tool that works for you, not a thing that controls you, you know, because your phone does have a lot. ⁓ yeah. I feel very controlled by my phone. Right. Like I like when you were talking about that, I was like, I couldn't do that. And like I that is like and I know that I know what I'm trying to seek out of my phone when I, you know, like you're talking about the dopamine test. I recognize in myself if I'm having a busy day, I just had a difficult patient encounter, I immediately want to like just scroll for a little bit because I want like mindless. I wanted like, is a funny video gonna gonna come up? is like a video that I want to talk about going to come up. It's like people talk about like the social media lottery, but that's what it feels like. Every time you scroll, you're like, maybe this will be the like funny video that's gonna get me out of my funk for today. But like, but I as a 38 year old woman, it took me a while to recognize why I was doing it, right? A four year old can't like logically make their way to that point. They just know they like the way it feels. And so as an adult, it's it's hard and for anyone listening, like it is hard to like cut yourself down on the things that like you're but you're busy So many people need things from you. Sometimes you just want to escape into like a little bubble of like, let me just get a little bit of dopamine from my little screen. And I recogni like it's like a it is an addiction and like it is hard. It's hard to like put it down. But I think it's important to like recognize how that can impact our little people in our lives too. Well and then as you like yeah, when you recognize it, then you have the opportunity to change it if you want, right? So no shame if you decide that like that is my best way to decompress. You know what mean? Like, go for it. But then it also gives you the chance to try, like, ⁓ what if I take a walk outside for five minutes? Like, I actually feel way better if I do that versus that. You know what I mean? And no one is perfect. So we're all doing versions of it in a variety of ways. Yeah. I mean, I really appreciate your approach to just like parenting and teaching and like meeting people where they're at. I saw your video recently. Danny Austin, I think that's her name, shared her like birthing video or like her she shared like All the things she declined in labor and for her baby. And I think a lot of us like healthcare professionals first saw it and were very like I was very taken aback. It like to make a video that you know is gonna go viral because like it's viral to talk about declining medical interventions. I love that you were like, next time, because you have such a great plat big platform, I would love for you to bring in other people to talk about that. Like because when you just say like, ⁓ I declined in IV, all the obstetricians there are like Great. Now everyone's gonna hear declining IVs and not realize that she was having a low, she had a low risk pregnancy. She was in spontaneous labor. She had a low risk birth, but that may not apply to the girl who's watching it who has chronic hypertension on two medications and insulin dependent diabetes and is like, Well, that girl said she declined in IV, so I want to decline in IV. And I just, you know, same with like the, you know, eye ointment. You know, I did appreciate that she they got vitamin K. So I appreciate that. But I love that you're like, I would love to come just talk to you about that because that's the problem with social media, right? Someone sees this video about this girl who has millions of followers who goes, These are all the things that I declined in my labor. And then they're like, ⁓ well, I should decline those things. And then the the reality is is that but that situation may not be your situation. And that and no one was there to tell you that. No one she wasn't and she didn't say like you should do what I did. So I don't want to put that on her. No, no, no, no. She was very good about saying, like, you know, ⁓ this is not I'm not your medical doctor. I think we have to recognize though Humans are influenced by stories of others, right? And so even I think about that, I'm sure you do too. But like when I post something, right, I have to be like, okay, like I'm gonna tell this story. People are going to consume it and be changed by it, right? And so like, is what I'm doing for the best of the general public. Because now I know from all these, you know, people talking online, I'm now rounding a newborn nursery and almost like ⁓ my gosh, a couple weeks ago, it was like almost half of the moms were declining hepatitis B. And that's not wrong in all situations. So that's I think where like the general public wants doctors to say, like, you have to follow the AAP a thousand percent all the time, you know. And I'm like, in the dream world, probably everybody would. But the reality is, like, if I, you know, if we could really, really look at your risk and know all the people in contact with your baby without and we know for a fact that everyone is HEP B negative. Chances are that would be kind of a situation. But here's the reality: we don't screen anyone except the moms. We don't screen anyone. And so it's like if if we really want to go to kind of an optional heppy at birth, then we need to implement some sort of like universal heppy screening where we check it at this age and this age and this age. And then still you have to recognize though that like the population that's really at risk are not the people getting regular checkups always. And so those babies still could be, but their parent can decline HEP B just like everyone else. And so it's kind of one of those where you're like, ⁓ I just wish I could have like a singular conversation with each of you because everything, there's so much nuance to everything. And you know that when you see and treat a patient, like you can have so much more of a discussion about all of it. But the reality is we're not able to do that with everyone. And we need to recognize as a society, I think that like what we're putting out there. does have influence on other people. And so my my thing to Danny was like, you're not wrong necessarily for any of the things she did, right? Like her baby's healthy. She's probably very low risk. Like all you said, like I'm not judging her at all. I'm just in trying to encourage her. Like you have 2.5 million followers. Like, you know, and I'm like a baby. Like I have like 2500 followers and I'm like so proud of it because I've like built it, you know, and I'm like, good. Like that's so great. You know, but like I'm not Able to make near that impact versus like you have a much larger platform, but even had she invited you onto that, you're so great. And you would have been like, yes, like if you want to decline your IV, just make sure you discuss with your provider about your potential risk for postpartum hemorrhage or need for other medical interventions or situations where, like, then we're not able to get an IV, you know? And I also like, I'm which I would never say my platform, but like. had three natural births with no epidural, you know what I mean? And one of them, I didn't have an IV. I was like, do you think I'm okay without this? And the OB was like, yes. You know what I mean? So like everyone got vitamin K, you know, so like I get I just if I get the nuance of all of it. And I totally relate to the families like only wanting to do what's medically necessary. But then as doctors, what we see is then people are convinced from online they they're not getting an IV. Just full stop. And that's their right. And that's how they get to decide it. I'm like, technically it is, but everything has a risk benefit ratio. And I'm not trying to fear monger you. I'm not. But I have seen the bad, right? Because as physicians, I think we have to own that. Like we've seen the bad and the ugly. Like we've seen the worst case scenarios of everything, which does taint our view as well, but also I think makes it more I don't know. It's hard because we've seen the really negative things and we're trying to protect our patients, but in some ways that can be paternalistic if we tell them they have to, right? It's our recommendation, but like I can't force you to do anything. I think the thing with social media, and like, for example, that video for me is if someone sees that video and goes, Okay, sh I her experience seems to be something like that I want to have, that you should talk to your own doctor about that and be like, Hey, I saw this video about someone who's having an unmedicated birth, and she talked about these other things that she declined. How does that apply to me? Because like I said, if you're being induced, this half of those things no longer apply for you. And it's important that you know that and understand why. And it's important that your doctor had the chance to be able to sit down with you and be like, I hear that you don't want an IV and I understand that, but because I do recommend induction, because you have chronic hypertension on medications, we will need an IV for these reasons. And like Hopefully then everyone understands and feels educated and heard and like maybe there's things from her birth that were very important that you now also want to do. Maybe you want to birth on hands and knees. Maybe you want to have as few people in the room as possible. Maybe you want the lights down. Maybe you want to not have an epidural. All those things, like there's still many things that you can draw out of there and make it applicable to you without it being like I'm going to copy paste the stranger whose medical history I don't know to myself, although my medical history is quite different than that person. And that's like all of social media, any like condition that people see or symptoms that they're having. Like I just really encourage you to see it and then take it to your doctor and be like, does this apply to me? Does this treatment option apply to me? And if you say no, can you tell me why not? Right? Because that's how you that's another positive way that you can use that like internet research, the exploring other topics online and then. You have to talk to the person who knows you. It's you can't just like take what a stranger says online and apply it to yourself because your doctor who does know your medical history may say, like, that does not apply to you though, because of these reasons. Right. And you're not trying to be paternalistic when you say that. You're just aware of all the risks and benefits, and you're truly trying to keep the patient as safe and empowered as possible. Right? Like that is, I think that is like the one. Miss Nomer, like if I could give the whole general public just a better like view of physicians, it's like we're, I mean, I think most of us are in this for like the purest of reasons. Right. Like I genuinely became a pediatrician because I wanted to help kids be as healthy as they could for their life. You know, and I think that if you imprint some of those habits when they're younger, your health as an adult is so much easier. And that's Like just the beauty of it, you know. Yeah. And I hope that people see that, you know, with the people who are medical content creators, they do it because of the love of medicine, right? And I hope that slowly in some ways, as people see not just like our love and joy of medicine, but ⁓ sees us as people, sees us as people who either if it's like people sharing their journey through residency and how hard that is, what it's like to be a new attending, what it's like to be in a new attending with young children, what's it like to share how hard it was to be a pregnant resident. that people start to see again that like we are people. We're not just like machines who are here to inject you so we get money from big pharma, right? Like we're humans who really love the job that we do, who really want our patients to like have the best possible outcomes, be healthy and then have like enjoy their contact with the medical system and understand that like we're humans who like want all the same things that you want in life. And I think that's the nice thing about social media too, with kind like medical doctor like doctor content creators, especially just because of the long journey. that like it humanizes us again a little bit in a way I think that society may have forgotten about. Yeah. I do love that. And even some of the like have you watched The Pit? So I can't so I recognize this about myself as I I need dumb, mindless Real Housewives TV because I in our jobs, I just it's too much, it's too sad. And then like you know, the pit is about emergency medicine and the it just shows like the biggest fears of my life. Like I tried to watch it. I did. I watched like the first six up seven episodes of the first season. Yeah. And then in the last episode I stopped watching, it was my biggest fear. I have a pool at my house, and my biggest fear is that my children will drown. I do have all these like safety measures in in place. Like I have two gates. I'm gonna get a pool alarm this year. Like I have all the like I have all the things, and then there They are coding a six-year-old who drowned in their pool. And I was like, I can't watch this. This isn't this isn't good for my heart. I want to because everyone loves it and I did enjoy the characters, but I can't watch my worst fears on television 20 minutes before I go to sleep. Yep. Where the sister jumps in to save the little sister. Yes, like I like we're literally fast-forwarding through everything. And Chris is like, Where my husband was like, What we're not even watching the episode. I was I don't want to. This is terrible. And I was Why am I doing this to myself? I need to watch The Real Housewives. arguing about whose Birkenbag is better. Yeah. Like that's the nonsense I need to like call myself. I'm sorry. That was a side side story. Please go on about the pit. No, no, no, no. That's I mean, I mostly also watch like the Kardashians is my guilty pleasure. I don't watch much TV, but it's so it's so great. It's so mindless and it's so far from the reality of my life that like I never get pulled into it, you know? Which is awesome. The Pit I did watch only the the first season. I haven't seen the second yet. But what I I loved that they show So much of the emotion that the medical team is undergoing as these families are also having the worst day of their lives. You know what I mean? Like, especially on the pit, because it's all like from the ER. But then sometimes like their worst day also really is a horrible day for me. You know, and not like my day is even close to theirs, but like, and then you can't, I don't know about you, but I don't talk about it a ton at home. Like My husband is a lawyer and and he also has to like very privately protect his patients. And I don't want to like traumatize my children. So often, like I'll care for a baby that died. I mean, this happened to me just a couple of weeks ago. And it's like so awful and heartbreaking. And you're like thinking about them all the time, you know, and like could anything have been different? Could you be, you know, whatever? And then you can't talk about it to anyone. And so I actually just love that like Noah Weil and the Pit have like thrown that out. to society and showed like I have felt what they are going through. And so much of even the medical training where, you know, you're the medical student, you're just like watching it all happen and you're like, how is this my getting blood scorted on you like seven times a short? Yeah. So that I found like I really beautiful and relatable. And I'm hopeful that like some of society, you know, is thinking kind of like, yeah, we're not, we're not like robots. We are just as human. As everybody else. And this is like the part that makes our job really beautiful and really hard. Because I do love, love the work that I do. Yeah. But I find And people don't understand that like we can't like online share those stories either. Like, you know, we all every like healthcare professional listening has had those days where something really terrible happened and you just kind of wish that you could have the outlet to talk about it online and you don't. One time I had someone who I took care of who got really mad at me that I didn't acknowledge. that online. And I was like, I never talk about anything related to my patients really online or like or situations or like my like feelings through a situation. Like that is not my place to share. Right. Like that is what like your therapist is for. That's what your partner's for in a HIPAA compliant way. Right. Like I was like really taken aback that they were mad at me that I didn't share that I was there for this like traumatic thing that they went through. And I was like, I I can't Like that is not the space for me to talk. And it's also like not my trauma to share. So I just, you know, to have a space where people can see like how hard it is to be a part of these like sad things for people, I think is a nice way to do and humanize medicine. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I want to get into a little quick rapid fire with you. Okay. What is your favorite vaccine? One of my new faves that actually you'll really appreciate that does not get enough street cred is HPV. Yes. Praise Jesus. Like I mean a vaccine against cancer. Amazing. Science is incredible. So good. And like we are not trying to give it to your teen because we think they are sexually promiscuous. No, no, no. No. This is because so much of the general population ends up HPV positive. We're just like cutting it off before it can even get there. And it is so wildly successful based on the data and like in a life-changing way. Because anyone as an adult that's been through cancer, like, you want none of that. Like it's none of that. I agree. I mean, but there are like I literally could give a shout out to probably every vaccine. Every single one. Yeah. What's your best tip for picky eaters? ⁓ picky eaters. Okay. So here's yeah, this is the thing I want to say. All children, every single one of them go through a picky eating phase. So if your child has not been, I call it selective, not picky, but like my four-year-old is deep in this still. Like her diet is like this big right now. And that is not because I'm not offering, but here's what I do. I know it's normal. It might last a couple years. She's gonna outgrow it because the other two have so far successfully. So what I do is I keep serving and cooking like I normally would. And at every meal there's something like pretty safe for her. And we encourage, we discuss textures, colors, flavors, and like exposure. And I feel so confident that for almost all children with continued exposure, they will come out of it. We're not pressuring, we're not controlling, we're just doing the parents decide what is offered. The child decides what to consume. There's like no mealtime battles, but we just do it. And I'm not kidding. She eats cheese roll-ups for dinner probably 95% of the time. Does it kill me as someone knows all of the nutrition? Yep. Totally does. She protein and carbs, very little fiber there. She also loves apple juice. I'm like, mm-hmm, what up? I got bigger battles to fight. So and she knows at dinner she can only have water or milk. Like we set our boundaries and then we just roll with it. So but that is, I think, what I would say. Like, do not panic about the picky eating. Do not think you need to do a bunch of separate things. Just keep going with your normal life and they will come out of it. And sometimes I mean She's probably one of my longest. Actually, that's not true. My current eight-year-old was has is still kind of selective. She was selective for like years. Like it was only pasta, butter noodles. Like that was delicious. Yes. So you will get through. Yeah, for sure. Perfect. What's your ⁓ go to show for younger children to watch? Ooh. I'm a huge fan of depending on the age, right? But like Daniel Tiger. I grew up watching only PBS, which was Fred Rogers, the OG of Amazing TV. I still post quotes by him sometimes. And I really love like Daniel Tiger is cute, it's slow moving, it's got good life lesson stories. Yeah. They're like kind of engaging, you know, that sort of thing. As the kids have gotten older, I shouldn't talk about this. I find this tricky. I have a of just turned 10, like year old daughter. And so her friends have iPads and do a ton of YouTube. And that is getting tricky for me because culturally that's what she wants to be doing. And so we're having all these discussions about like at some day and age you'll be able to, but like here's the reasons it's not great for your brain, it's not great for your body image, can make you a little bit more anxious, kind of. So she's deep into like Harry Potter movies because she loves those books. Okay. Yeah. So like you gotta kinda find right, as the kids get older, you have to like find a little bit of what they love. But yeah, that's what we've done in I who doesn't love Harry Potter? You know? ⁓ I love that. Okay. And then who are your three favorite creators that you're following right now? They don't have to be medical. ⁓ yeah, that's so good. You're one of mine. I love your nope, not even joking. Like your approach and realism and like how you like I try to like channel a little bit of you when I'm like posting to parents. And sometimes I just a little sassy, but like also fun. I am a little sassy and a little spicy sometimes, which honestly gets me in trouble. I think I need to make sure I like check my emotions before I post. Yeah sometimes. Cause occasionally I'm like, ooh. I'll get really fired up and that's when I want to do a video. And then I'm like, just check yourself. ⁓ so I'm learning that. So I love, love your content. I love Dr. Tommy Martin. He's probably my favorite pediatrician to follow. I know you're on like some boards with him with like the DO influencers and I like he's just the greatest human, I think. ⁓ and that comes through on his posts and I like love that. He's genuinely like a good person. Like just like like Deep in his heart, he is a good person. I have so I've never met him. This is like just from what he posts, right? But like, yes, I truly genuinely believe that he is a deep person. And someday when I meet him, I will be like, You are just as good as I really knew you were. Cause I like he just is so great. And I I mean, obviously, I think many of us physicians are, but the way he shows it and like I still love it. And I love all the like Combating, I'm also in recovery from an eating disorder. So like when he comes back with all of his weight stuff, you know what I mean? And he's like, Yeah, that's not nice. Like, don't do that. Like, this is not like let's not bood or fat shame anybody. Like, we're just yeah in it. You know, I like love his content on that. And then my third, I Jay Shetty. I don't know if you like follow him, but I like listen to a ton of Jay Shetty podcasts. I love his book, Think Like a Monk. Like, I just I'm a little bit into that like spiritual. Spiritual like life's purpose, like that each of us kind of like have a light and we're brought here into the world to show it. And so I tend to follow like a lot of that kind of stuff, but he's one of my faves. ⁓ I love that. Well, thank you so much for being here, Paget. This has been so wonderful. I'm just so thankful for the work that you are doing online, educating parents, keeping babies safe, all those things. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Ryan.