AAP pisses me off

I can't stand the American Academy of Peidatrics. They have a few good things to say, but a lot of thier positions are crap! The irritating part is that their positions are treated as gospel by much of our society.
Last I checked, I am responsible for my children until they are 18 years old.
Articles and positions like this piss me off on so MANY levels:

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090309/MOMS/90309037

By BETH J. HARPAZ • Associated Press Writer • March 9, 2009
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NEW YORK (AP) — If you're the parent of a 'tween or teen, chances are you've been asked to leave the room during your child's visit to the doctor so they can have a private chat.
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Now of course I believe that teenagers should have a trusting relationship with their doctors. But while I'm sitting there alone in the waiting room, watching the younger mommies bounce babies on their knees, I can't help but wonder what my kids are telling the doctor behind that closed door.
See, I'm a nosy mom, and if something's going on with my children's health, I want to hear about it. I mean, if your kid was suicidal, or a heroin addict, and somehow you didn't know it, would the doctor tell you?
Turns out the answer is yes. "If we are concerned that someone is in danger, we are compelled to share that information," said Dr. Joseph Hagan, who is part of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Bright Futures initiative to improve children's health.
But Hagan emphasized that giving kids a chance to speak privately with doctors "is not about secrecy. It's about autonomy. A 16-year-old should begin to ask his own questions about his health."
In fact, if your pediatrician doesn't ask you to leave the room during teen visits, maybe he or she should. "The pediatrician should spend most of the office visit alone with the adolescent," according to Dr. David Tayloe, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "It's very important for teenagers to have confidential conversations with their pediatricians."
Tayloe said "the emphasis on confidential appointments for adolescents has become more the norm over the last 10 years."
Tayloe added that 75 percent of teenagers are sexually active by their senior year of high school, and Hagan said he starts talking to kids about sexuality around age 12, to let them know that sexual feelings are normal and to answer questions.
But he also tries to get patients and parents communicating. "If a girl is concerned about pregnancy, I might say, 'what do you think your parents would say if you talked to them about this? Shall we tell them together?'"
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Some of the other things that keep me up at night — oh, the usual nightmares about teen smoking, car accidents and too much pepperoni and soda — are also on doctors' lists for teenage checkups.
According to Tayloe, at least two-thirds of teen traffic fatalities involve teens who are not wearing seat restraints. Thirty percent of teens are overweight and need to be enrolled in fitness and nutrition programs. And the vast majority of adult smokers began smoking by age 18.
Tayloe added that most teenagers have experimented with alcohol by the time they are high school seniors. "Pediatricians need to level with teens about alcohol," he said, including the fact that underage drinking contributes to car accidents and unplanned pregnancies.
He also said that 20 percent of children have mental health problems, but only 20 percent of those kids are getting help. Pediatricians should screen adolescents for depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder and suicidal thoughts.
Kids who are teenagers now may also have missed some of the newer vaccines that became available after their early childhood inoculations against diseases like polio, mumps and measles. The AAP recommends that kids 11-12 and older be vaccinated against meningitis, a disease that can spread in settings like sleepaway camps and college dormitories, according to Dr. Meg Fisher, a member of the AAP committee on infectious diseases.
Fisher says AAP also recommends that girls get the human papillomavirus vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer. And kids who were not inoculated against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis when they were little need a one-dose combination vaccine against those diseases.
Optional vaccines to consider for teens include flu shots; a second dose of the varicella vaccine against chicken pox, because the single dose many teens received when they were little may not be effective; and the hepatitis A vaccine. By the way, some doctors are interested in parents' behavior too. If you do meet the doctor with your teen, you might just get asked whether you smoke, or whether you wear your bike helmet.
So while you're out there in the waiting room thumbing through a copy of Babies magazine that no longer holds any meaning for you, don't just worry about what's going on with your kids. Take a look at yourself as well.By BETH J. HARPAZ • Associated Press Writer • March 9, 2009

1. What is with throwing all that vaccines crap in there? My pediatrician better not be talking my kid into shots ( or any other treatment) while I am not there. Does that part even have anything to do with the article " What Doctors talk to your teens about when your not there."
2. Society seems to have developed this notion that teenager need to be protected from their parents. I know there are bad parents out there, but that should not be the assumed.
3. AS a parent, it's my job, and my right, to approach subjects such as sex, drugs, and mental health in ways that I see fit, and no doctor has the right to step on that.
4. I would hesitate if my child wanted to see the doc alone, but might chose to respect that ( a choice that is MINE), but the doctor has no right to expel me from my child's health care.
5. Many of the issues they are said to discuss here are social issues, not medical ones. MYOB doc. It's not your responsibility to run every aspect of human existence. Stick to healing the sick, please.
6. If my child is in need of mental health resources, that's a psychologist or psychiatrist job, not a pediatrician.
7. It all boils down to the development of the belief by many pediatricians and the AAP that somehow the label MD makes them omnipotent in all areas of child's existence. ( Parenting, psychology, physical health), along with the idea that they believe that all of their suggestions ( at least they should be seen as suggestions), are actually infallible and people should follow them without question.
8. My teenager is not mature enough to make important medical, social or other decisions. WE have decided this as a society. That's why we make parents responsible for them until a certain age. NO ONE should be guiding my child's decisions, because they aren't his to make yet.
9. I would have no problem with the doctor talking to US about the things he/she thinks are good ideas. This allows me the opportunity to discuss them with my child, and address the doctors thoughts and suggestions within the perspective of our family values and ethics. To kick me out of the room, so they can have a private discussion is just not his place. If he needs therapy, our family will decide that and take him to a therapist. Otherwise there is no reason to exclude me.
10. I know what other people's arguments are about this- don't worry e.g. kids don't want talk to their parents about sex. Doctors should be encouraging communication about these subjects between kids and parents ( if they are involved in any way), rather than suggesting (through the action) to children that there really is something they should be hiding from their parents.