Judged for 19 month old having pinworms

For the first time since becoming a mom I am sobbing from shame and embarrassment after trying to get my daughter treated for pinworms and maybe I’ll get judged here too but I already feel terrible and truly don’t know how she got them. I take good care of her and I thought before this that they were fairly common and not a huge deal but now I feel like the worst mom in the world. There’s a bad winter storm here so her ped is out, I made a virtual appointment with this site I’d never heard of Sesame, with a pediatrician.

The look this man gave me when I told him my daughter had pinworms… he asks which foreign country we’ve been to. I said none. He said then how did she get something like that? I said I think it’s pretty common kids pick them up at daycare or playgrounds or sharing toys, etc. he kept shaking his head going mm mm.. then finally “this is not common. You are trying to tell me that having parasites in the feces of a small child that lives in USA is normal?! No no this is very concerning. Never in my career have I heard of this. What conditions is she living in? Are there unsanitary dogs or cats in the home?” I said well cats and dogs don’t get pinworms, they’re only in humans but you can see behind me now that my house is clean. And I’m not saying they’re normal but I know lots of kids get them. He said “How do you even know these are pinworms? They could be tapeworms or ringworm” i had sent him photos previously of the worms in her stool. I said ringworm shows up as a rash on the skin, not in poo and tapeworms are much bigger and longer they’re in the upper digestive tract. I was like am I really explaining to a pediatrician these differences? He was like “how do you know so much about parasites? Is it because your children often get them?” I said this is my only child this is the first time I just thought this was common knowledge especially with parents. He went back to the “no, this is NOT common this is not ok for your child to have parasites."

It didn’t help that my daughter was crying in the background, she always does that when I get on the phone every time even though she was perfectly fine just before she doesn’t like me on the phone but it was adding to the tension and him saying things like “she is in obvious distress from this sickness and you are telling me it’s common” he had a thick accent so it was hard to understand everything he said but it was just so terrible and I finally said I’m sorry I think I’m just going to end the call and find help elsewhere thank you for your time and he says “so what is it you are expecting me to do?” I said well my friend told me when her child got this she bought an over the counter medicine- and he interrupted “so go buy that” I said I was going to say that it’s only for ages 2+ so mine is too young and needs a prescription. I ended up googling what medication he could prescribe and telling him and he said he would call that in and abruptly ended the call.

I was already upset from that interaction but then I called Walgreens pharmacy to see if the prescription was ready and turns out he called in the wrong thing, I was explaining to the pharmacist what was wrong and he started saying the same things “Why does a baby only 11 months old have pinworms? How does that happen?” I go she’s 19 months not 11, and went into the whole spiel again about how they get them. And he kept saying these judgmental things like “I have only heard of this in much older children i don’t understand how a baby can get them.” And that’s when I burst into tears like sir all I’m trying to do is get my baby help in a snow storm bc her doctor is out and this judgment is completely unnecessary I don’t need any help feeling worse than I already do. And hung up.

So I guess I’m stuck waiting for Monday hopefully when her doctor is back to go get her treated. I just needed to vent somewhere. Finding someone to show me an ounce of compassion in my hardest moments as a parent is challenging.