August 20, 2025 • 20 mins
Whether dealing with sexual, mental or physical health, becoming responsible for your health care decisions can be confusing, overwhelming and even costly, especially for those new to navigating the health care system.
Dr. Zachary Bittenger is a family medicine doctor who enjoys treating patients of all ages and throughout their lives, helping patients understand their options, counseling on treatments and educating about health concerns at every age.
He's a University of Cincinnati Medical School graduate and works at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center as the Clinical Assistant Professor of Family & Community Medicine.
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center website
Dr. Zachary Bittenger is a family medicine doctor who enjoys treating patients of all ages and throughout their lives, helping patients understand their options, counseling on treatments and educating about health concerns at every age.
He's a University of Cincinnati Medical School graduate and works at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center as the Clinical Assistant Professor of Family & Community Medicine.
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center website
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week on iHeart Sits.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The reality is, no matter what you do, your children
will eventually make the decisions that they wanted me.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Sending your kid off to college or to their first
apartment comes with a boatload of emotions and a lot
of unknowns. Will he be responsible? Will she'll be safe?
Will they be happy and healthy? Out on their own? Today,
my guest wants to share some information for young people
setting off on their own for the first time, and
for their parents and guardians. Doctor Zachary Bittinger is a
(00:27):
family medicine physician at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
He's a UC graduate. He's helping families navigate this major
life transition.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The reality is, no matter what you do, your children
will eventually make the decisions that they wanted me.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
He shares practical advice today on how young adults can
build a mental health plan before even unpacking, recognize silent
risks like substance abuse and sexual health concerns, and take
charge of their own health care without relying on a
parent or guardian. From finding a new doctor and managing
prescriptions to understanding insurance, Doctor Bittinger breaks down what every
(01:03):
student should know to stay safe, healthy and empowered on
campus and later.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
People are looking to get back to a normal life
a way of living.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Cancer takes its toll, and survivors are different after treatment.
Reconnecting with the body that has failed you in a
sense is a challenge that doctor Kelly MacLean has taken
head on with the program she founded, Move Beyond Surviving.
Doctor McLean is a breast surgical oncologist with the Christ
Hospital in Cincinnati who relies on her experience with patients
(01:35):
to create a fun and natural way to begin to
heal the physical and emotional scars of breast cancer treatment.
Move Beyond Surviving is open to women who want to
reconnect with their bodies, begin to heal and challenge themselves
in nature, and it doesn't cost them a thing. Now
on iHeart Sinsey with Sandy Collins. Welcome back to the
(01:58):
show on a Sandy Collins, glad you here this week.
This is a public affairs show for the Tri State.
Let's meet our first guest right now. This is doctor
Zachary Bittinger.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Hello, all right, hello there.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Welcome to the show. Doctor Bittinger.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I see a little birdie tells me that you were
the twenty seventeen class president at the University of Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, that feels like many moons ago, but that is true,
and it was a pleasure living in Cincinnati for four years.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Where are you from.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I grew up south of Cleveland and Strongsville, Ohio, and
then I went to Ohio State. As you might be
able to tell from my background here. Yes, so I'd
like to call myself a career Ohioan.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You are the clinical assistant director at Ohio State at
the Westerner Randical Center, Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine,
so you teach as well as see patients.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Correct. So my family physician hat that I wear most
of the time has to do with seeing patients in
my office, taking care of people of all ages for
all needs. And then a solid portion of my time
is dedicated to medical students, to driving interest in my specialty,
to make sure that the next generation of family doctors
are already and excited for the work.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
We're talking about going to college, and I wanted to know,
is this okay? Can we talk about also just going
out on your own for the first time, because really
that's Basically, what we're looking at is being out and
being responsible for yourself. Is that okay with you?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Absolutely? Because we're just talking about a period of transition,
right So whether you're joining the workforce, you're going to
trade school, you're going away to college, they're all big moments.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So going off on your own college or otherwise and
beginning to navigate everything can be so exciting and so stressful.
People at an adult age usually have a family doctor
or a pediatrician, or maybe no doctor. Parents doing this
right now, sending your kids off to school, So what
are your very first thoughts on what they should consider
(03:55):
doing when it comes to their kids' medical health.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
When it comes to the first steps that we take
with our young adults' health as they transition into adulthood,
is making sure that we have our records in order.
So as your child, your adult child moves off to
college or again transitions to more independence, they might need
their records readily available. They might need their vaccines up
to date. They might even need a tuberculosis screening test.
(04:22):
So really making sure that we understand what's being asked
of them before they arrive on a campus to make
sure that their health isn't in the way of just
attending classes or getting started with the next stage of life.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
This is the first question about vaccines I'll ask you today.
What are your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh, I'm a huge vaccine proponent. I'm a huge advocate
for vaccines. I understand that lots of people have hesitation
when it comes to things that we might not have
a full understanding. But we're also talking about something that's
existed for decades that's kept millions and millions of Americans safe.
And especially when it comes to our young adults. They
(04:59):
want to be attending clas, they want to spend time
with friends. They don't want to end up in an
emergency room or a hospital from something that could have
been prevented.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Most people are in good health at this age of
their life. They have to plan then, So it's like,
what are you planning for sudden illness and accidents, emergencies?
What do you recommend in those areas right now?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
When it comes to planning for the unplannable, I generally
recommend that my young adult patients know their options now.
Like we touched on a second ago, insurance plays a
big role in that, so understanding our costs when it
comes to urgent cares, seeing your primary doctor, seeing an
emergency room, but knowing that those are the levels. So
(05:40):
if you feel a little sick, maybe we see student health.
If you feel a lot sick, maybe we see an
emergency room. And if we're just trying to get our
medicines refilled or ask a question, maybe we check in
with our primary doctor.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Mom and dad may still be helping you out with
some of that stuff, especially in your freshman year. You're
trying to figure things out. Parents are sending their kids
off to school, hoping that your daughters are taking their
birth control and you've got all your shots just like
a good dog. And what do you recommend for parents
at this time when they're trying to transition out of
(06:14):
the responsibility Because once your kid's eighteen and I had
this happen, they're adults, and so the providers don't have
to tell you anything, and that is so freaky for
most parents to accept.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
What I recommend for the parents of my adult patients
is starting early having conversations about their independence, about the
legal things that we have that you just asked about,
So making sure that we tread a careful line between
not overstepping our welcome but also understanding where our young
(06:49):
adults and our patients need us, and so maybe that
means becoming a proxy on their chart, which the young
adults do have to over the age of eighteen physically
allow well, especially for my patients that are a little
bit more medically complex, that have lots of specialists, take
lots of medicines, have lots of appointments. Having somebody as
a backup person to make sure we don't accidentally miss
(07:11):
an appointment might be a good thing. But if we've
been in otherwise good health and we're looking to grow
in our independence, maybe we let a few things fall
through the cracks as a learning experience to make sure
that we understand what our responsibilities are.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That's a good transition which we did not plan, folks,
because you know, we've all heard of helicopter parenting, but
I learned that new term this week, snow plow parents.
And this is the people who love their kids so
much that they clear their path no matter what. So
what you're doing is you're raising your kids and you
think you're protecting them, but actually studies are showing that
(07:47):
they lack confidence, they lack self esteem, because they're unsure
they can rely on themselves. So what do you think
about letting those parents, let them make decisions that they
mess up? And then how when does a parent need
to come in and quote unquote interfere.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I think when it comes to the general approach to parenting,
it's important to say there's not necessarily a right or
wrong way to go about it. When we talk about
even snow snowplow parenting, the best intentions are at play
that we want our children to succeed, we want them
to have a happy childhood. Those things are important. I
think the drawback to such an approach is how do
(08:29):
we then build resilience. If our children don't face failure,
if they don't face many challenges, how are they supposed
to face those things when we're not around? Because again,
eventually we will grow older, Eventually we'll be unable to
serve that same function for our children. And then what
so I think it's about understanding the risks, understanding each
(08:50):
given situation, Understanding what role we can truly and safely
and reasonably play. And I think if you can allow
your children, as they grow older and they grow into adulthood,
to fail in a way that they can still bounce
back from that they won't be grievously heard or injured.
I think that is something that's important for them to
experience and navigate as independently as they can.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
If you just joined us, I'm Sandy Collins with my
guest today, doctor Zachary Bittinger. He works at the Ohio
State University Wexner Medical Center and Family Medicine. He's here
to talk about helping your kids transition to adulthood. Doctor, though,
let's kind of just remind people again, just go back
to what you just said, and that is it is
so hard you have kids. It is so hard to
(09:34):
step back and let them make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
The black and white line that I try and draw
for my parents of my patients is as our children grow,
as the age, as they near adulthood, as they transition
to adulthood, the situations they'll find themselves and are ever
more complex. Right, my children are young, it's easy to
(09:58):
tell them to not play in track. That seems simple.
As our children age into young adulthood, how do we
counsel them safely about substance use, about their sexuality and
their sexual health? How do we counsel them about their
mental health, especially if they've never faced such a crisis before.
(10:18):
Those are situations that involve many other parties. It involves
a lot of theoreticals, and it's a lot of things
that many people are uncomfortable talking about, maybe because they
never had a solid conversation in the first place when
they were young. So I think it's about acknowledging that discomfort.
It's about knowing our limits and again and the things
(10:39):
that we can control. And I think it's about trying
to build an adult relationship with your adult child. The
relationship that you had with them when they were six
is not what you can still maintain when they're nineteen,
and so that'll take time. It takes trust on both sides,
but taking it a step at a time and finding
healthy ways to communicate is the only way to build
that trust.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
My daughter's pediatrician started transitioning us at about fourteen years old.
When my daughter was going in, she'd say, Okay, we're
going to have this done today and we're going to
check for this and mom, you're going to be asked
to leave here in a few minutes and leave us alone.
And it is the weirdest feeling because now what they're
doing is trying to isolate the child, to give them
(11:22):
the freedom to speak freely. And when you're a parent
that's doing nothing wrong, that just feels like, you know,
a dagger in the heart. Of course, you can trust me,
but then you realize as they're pushing you out the door,
this is the most important thing that the kid has,
is that relationship of honesty and trust with their doctor.
(11:44):
And so once they get to the college age, it's
not so unfamiliar. But what do you suggest about sending
your adult kids out into the world and they've you know,
they're not really ready yet.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
What I tried, or at least the guidance that I
tried to give my patience as they grow older and
their parents as well, is to understand that time will
pass regardless of what we do. And so as much
as parents wish that they can control things and again
save their children from the kinds of challenging things that
(12:18):
will arise in their futures, there's no controlling that, and
so I try to help them understand that. Like you mentioned,
when it comes to my visits where I have the
parents step out for children as they reach the ages
of fourteen fifteen or so. The first thing out of
my mouth is everything that we talk about is between
you and I unless you want me to share it
with your parents. And the next thing is, I always
(12:41):
encourage you to talk to your parents about these things
because we're all on the same team as their pediatrician.
As parents, all of our goal is to prepare our
children again for those theoreticals, those situations that we can't anticipate,
but want to prepare them for, because the reality is,
no matter what you do, your children will eventually make
the decisions that they want to make, and so the
(13:03):
only role we can really play is to give them information,
to give them knowledge so that when somebody offers them
a cigarette or a vape, when somebody offers them alcohol,
when they are thinking about entering into a sexual relationship,
can they think back to the discussion they had with
me or with their parents and say, oh, these are
the decisions I am okay with and these are the
(13:24):
ones I'm not. And in my head I can think
through all the consequences short and long term because of
those trusting relationships I have.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
This is a very digital information generation. Do you have
any thoughts on health tracking apps? Everybody's got fitbits and
iPhone watches that track everything, But there's just this huge
amount of information now and different things to track. Do
you have any recommendations on how to approach that?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Sure? When it comes to tracking our health and understanding
our health using technology, broadly speaking, I ensure people have
a healthy relationship with such things and that we know
their limits. A good example is the burgeoning use of
artificial intelligence and AI in health settings. I think, on
(14:11):
one hand, it's a great tool for people to start
asking more complicated questions. Using AI is probably more useful
than just googling a long sleugh of symptoms. But it's
important to keep in mind that whether we're talking about
the Internet more broadly or we talk about AI, these
are still man made, generated tools, and so they are
limited by the information that we give them, and they're
(14:34):
limited by the people that made them. And so I
don't know that these tools necessarily replace having somebody we trust,
having a doctor that we have access to readily for
when things change, or to know our full long term
medical history, which is why I love my specialty in
primary care. The longtudinal relationships just can't be replaced by technology.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
You just said something that may me think about watching
a movie, and you don't want to know anything about
it before you go to the movie because you just
want to make your own ascertainment. You don't want any
bias in there thinking about that. When you're a doctor,
how do you respond when someone says, well, I googled it,
and doctor Google says it might be blah blah blah
(15:21):
blah blah. Do you find that that is helpful or
do you find that that puts an idea in your
head maybe that you wouldn't have had. Is it good
or bad? Which how do you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I think when it comes to patients arriving at appointments
with more knowledge with things that they've looked up in
regards to their concerns, and a visit is a little
bit of both. On one hand, I love being able
to get to the crux of a concern as quickly
as possible, and so if somebody's done some research, that
(15:55):
in itself gives me a better guide as to what
they're truly worried about and what their concern might be
in terms of the underlying cause. And that might mean
that I can give them reassurance from the start, and
I can say I appreciate your worries, but based on
our conversation or your history or your testing, such a
thing as nothing that we got to worry about, or
maybe it's a good reminder. Maybe then maybe I say, yeah,
(16:19):
that could be a cause. Thank you for bringing that up.
Here are ways that we could reasonably figure that out
or exclude that. I think the fine line then tips
into when does such a resource? When does information become
too much? Right, we're seeing an ever increasing amount of
health care based anxiety because now that people can look
into any symptom or any condition, they are looking into
(16:42):
every concern in every condition. Can become overwhelming to the
point that we get lost in the weeds over what
our true concern really is. And so I think, just
like we talked a second ago about AI, it's about
using the information that's out there to our advantage and
knowing where to set a line in boundaries with our
own health history.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Case in point, getting blood test results and so you're
googling constantly what does that mean? What part of the body?
So it does educate you a little.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Bit, that's fair, And especially when we talk about our
transitioning adults, right, what can hopefully be a useful tool
is my chart to say to then send a message
to your doctor to say, hey, I might be away
at college, I might be away at my job right now,
but can you weigh in on this. I did that
for a patient just yesterday. I might not have been
the one that ordered those, so I can't necessarily speak
(17:33):
volumes of it, but I was able to give them
a lot of reassurance to say, I understand your worries
for seeing all those red numbers crop up, but those
are ones that are not so worrisome, and we can
keep on with the plan that we have.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And if you haven't used my chart before, it can't
be kind of maddening trying to get in. It's locked
down like a worse than Fort Knox. But once you're
able to actually get in, if you're having trouble with it,
contact your doctor, contactor, the hospital that's working with you.
But once you get my chart, it really is amazing
the amount of information that it has about you. If
(18:08):
they ask you what your medications are, you don't have
to remember anymore. You don't have to reach for your
purse and grab a piece of paper and say, well,
I'm taking this heart pill, but I don't know what
it is or what the dose is. You can just
actually pull all that information up and show them on
your smartphone. So my chart is kind of the way
most everybody is going. And the idea of being able
to send you a note and saying, hey, doctor, I'm
(18:31):
worried about these these red numbers. What do you think
is a great help? And sure it takes time out
of your day, doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
It does. My chart in digital communication is a challenging
thing to balance with the rest of the job for
teaching young doctors and seeing my patients, and so it
can be a challenge for us as physicians to have
healthy boundaries for ourselves and how we take care of
our patients in that way. And I think again it's
(18:59):
a great tool for those young adults that are transitioning
away from home because the rules and the boundaries for
the medical system and what doctors can send which medicines
across state lines or even within the state of Ohio
can be quite gray. But if you transition to a
new home in a new city or a new state,
(19:20):
you know, if you feel comfortable seeing a new doctor,
you can share your my chart information with them in
that visit. And so in an age where we're still
relying on faxing information and the semi reliability of such
a technology, my chart can be a way that in
a visit you can update your history with a new
doctor and a new office to make sure that nothing's
(19:41):
left out.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So it's not just one health provider on my chart.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yes, generally speaking, especially for large health systems, you can
contact lots of different folks. Unfortunately, we each have our
own my chart systems, so you'd need an account for
each system that you gi.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Folks. I hope you found this helpful and interesting. I
certainly did. Doctor Zachary Bittinger. He is here from the
Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, a proud graduate
of UC Medical Center, Class president of twenty seventeen. We
have to really applaud you for that, but not hold
it against you that you went to Indiana University.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Oh you know, that's why I said a career o'higland,
because I did spend technically three years outside of the state,
but I came back as fast as I could.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
All kidding aside, Doctor Bittinger, thank you so much for
your time. We're going to get this word out and
hopefully make the transition to adulthood a little easier for folks.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I certainly hope, so thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Coming up next our treatments. Really aggressive surgery physically changes people.
This is iHeart, Cincy.
This week on iHeart Sits.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
The reality is, no matter what you do, your children
will eventually make the decisions that they wanted me.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Sending your kid off to college or to their first
apartment comes with a boatload of emotions and a lot
of unknowns. Will he be responsible? Will she'll be safe?
Will they be happy and healthy? Out on their own? Today,
my guest wants to share some information for young people
setting off on their own for the first time, and
for their parents and guardians. Doctor Zachary Bittinger is a
(00:27):
family medicine physician at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
He's a UC graduate. He's helping families navigate this major
life transition.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The reality is, no matter what you do, your children
will eventually make the decisions that they wanted me.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
He shares practical advice today on how young adults can
build a mental health plan before even unpacking, recognize silent
risks like substance abuse and sexual health concerns, and take
charge of their own health care without relying on a
parent or guardian. From finding a new doctor and managing
prescriptions to understanding insurance, Doctor Bittinger breaks down what every
(01:03):
student should know to stay safe, healthy and empowered on
campus and later.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
People are looking to get back to a normal life
a way of living.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Cancer takes its toll, and survivors are different after treatment.
Reconnecting with the body that has failed you in a
sense is a challenge that doctor Kelly MacLean has taken
head on with the program she founded, Move Beyond Surviving.
Doctor McLean is a breast surgical oncologist with the Christ
Hospital in Cincinnati who relies on her experience with patients
(01:35):
to create a fun and natural way to begin to
heal the physical and emotional scars of breast cancer treatment.
Move Beyond Surviving is open to women who want to
reconnect with their bodies, begin to heal and challenge themselves
in nature, and it doesn't cost them a thing. Now
on iHeart Sinsey with Sandy Collins. Welcome back to the
(01:58):
show on a Sandy Collins, glad you here this week.
This is a public affairs show for the Tri State.
Let's meet our first guest right now. This is doctor
Zachary Bittinger.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Hello, all right, hello there.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Welcome to the show. Doctor Bittinger.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
I see a little birdie tells me that you were
the twenty seventeen class president at the University of Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, that feels like many moons ago, but that is true,
and it was a pleasure living in Cincinnati for four years.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Where are you from.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I grew up south of Cleveland and Strongsville, Ohio, and
then I went to Ohio State. As you might be
able to tell from my background here. Yes, so I'd
like to call myself a career Ohioan.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
You are the clinical assistant director at Ohio State at
the Westerner Randical Center, Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine,
so you teach as well as see patients.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Correct. So my family physician hat that I wear most
of the time has to do with seeing patients in
my office, taking care of people of all ages for
all needs. And then a solid portion of my time
is dedicated to medical students, to driving interest in my specialty,
to make sure that the next generation of family doctors
are already and excited for the work.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
We're talking about going to college, and I wanted to know,
is this okay? Can we talk about also just going
out on your own for the first time, because really
that's Basically, what we're looking at is being out and
being responsible for yourself. Is that okay with you?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Absolutely? Because we're just talking about a period of transition,
right So whether you're joining the workforce, you're going to
trade school, you're going away to college, they're all big moments.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So going off on your own college or otherwise and
beginning to navigate everything can be so exciting and so stressful.
People at an adult age usually have a family doctor
or a pediatrician, or maybe no doctor. Parents doing this
right now, sending your kids off to school, So what
are your very first thoughts on what they should consider
(03:55):
doing when it comes to their kids' medical health.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
When it comes to the first steps that we take
with our young adults' health as they transition into adulthood,
is making sure that we have our records in order.
So as your child, your adult child moves off to
college or again transitions to more independence, they might need
their records readily available. They might need their vaccines up
to date. They might even need a tuberculosis screening test.
(04:22):
So really making sure that we understand what's being asked
of them before they arrive on a campus to make
sure that their health isn't in the way of just
attending classes or getting started with the next stage of life.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
This is the first question about vaccines I'll ask you today.
What are your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh, I'm a huge vaccine proponent. I'm a huge advocate
for vaccines. I understand that lots of people have hesitation
when it comes to things that we might not have
a full understanding. But we're also talking about something that's
existed for decades that's kept millions and millions of Americans safe.
And especially when it comes to our young adults. They
(04:59):
want to be attending clas, they want to spend time
with friends. They don't want to end up in an
emergency room or a hospital from something that could have
been prevented.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Most people are in good health at this age of
their life. They have to plan then, So it's like,
what are you planning for sudden illness and accidents, emergencies?
What do you recommend in those areas right now?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
When it comes to planning for the unplannable, I generally
recommend that my young adult patients know their options now.
Like we touched on a second ago, insurance plays a
big role in that, so understanding our costs when it
comes to urgent cares, seeing your primary doctor, seeing an
emergency room, but knowing that those are the levels. So
(05:40):
if you feel a little sick, maybe we see student health.
If you feel a lot sick, maybe we see an
emergency room. And if we're just trying to get our
medicines refilled or ask a question, maybe we check in
with our primary doctor.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Mom and dad may still be helping you out with
some of that stuff, especially in your freshman year. You're
trying to figure things out. Parents are sending their kids
off to school, hoping that your daughters are taking their
birth control and you've got all your shots just like
a good dog. And what do you recommend for parents
at this time when they're trying to transition out of
(06:14):
the responsibility Because once your kid's eighteen and I had
this happen, they're adults, and so the providers don't have
to tell you anything, and that is so freaky for
most parents to accept.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
What I recommend for the parents of my adult patients
is starting early having conversations about their independence, about the
legal things that we have that you just asked about,
So making sure that we tread a careful line between
not overstepping our welcome but also understanding where our young
(06:49):
adults and our patients need us, and so maybe that
means becoming a proxy on their chart, which the young
adults do have to over the age of eighteen physically
allow well, especially for my patients that are a little
bit more medically complex, that have lots of specialists, take
lots of medicines, have lots of appointments. Having somebody as
a backup person to make sure we don't accidentally miss
(07:11):
an appointment might be a good thing. But if we've
been in otherwise good health and we're looking to grow
in our independence, maybe we let a few things fall
through the cracks as a learning experience to make sure
that we understand what our responsibilities are.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
That's a good transition which we did not plan, folks,
because you know, we've all heard of helicopter parenting, but
I learned that new term this week, snow plow parents.
And this is the people who love their kids so
much that they clear their path no matter what. So
what you're doing is you're raising your kids and you
think you're protecting them, but actually studies are showing that
(07:47):
they lack confidence, they lack self esteem, because they're unsure
they can rely on themselves. So what do you think
about letting those parents, let them make decisions that they
mess up? And then how when does a parent need
to come in and quote unquote interfere.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I think when it comes to the general approach to parenting,
it's important to say there's not necessarily a right or
wrong way to go about it. When we talk about
even snow snowplow parenting, the best intentions are at play
that we want our children to succeed, we want them
to have a happy childhood. Those things are important. I
think the drawback to such an approach is how do
(08:29):
we then build resilience. If our children don't face failure,
if they don't face many challenges, how are they supposed
to face those things when we're not around? Because again,
eventually we will grow older, Eventually we'll be unable to
serve that same function for our children. And then what
so I think it's about understanding the risks, understanding each
(08:50):
given situation, Understanding what role we can truly and safely
and reasonably play. And I think if you can allow
your children, as they grow older and they grow into adulthood,
to fail in a way that they can still bounce
back from that they won't be grievously heard or injured.
I think that is something that's important for them to
experience and navigate as independently as they can.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
If you just joined us, I'm Sandy Collins with my
guest today, doctor Zachary Bittinger. He works at the Ohio
State University Wexner Medical Center and Family Medicine. He's here
to talk about helping your kids transition to adulthood. Doctor, though,
let's kind of just remind people again, just go back
to what you just said, and that is it is
so hard you have kids. It is so hard to
(09:34):
step back and let them make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
The black and white line that I try and draw
for my parents of my patients is as our children grow,
as the age, as they near adulthood, as they transition
to adulthood, the situations they'll find themselves and are ever
more complex. Right, my children are young, it's easy to
(09:58):
tell them to not play in track. That seems simple.
As our children age into young adulthood, how do we
counsel them safely about substance use, about their sexuality and
their sexual health? How do we counsel them about their
mental health, especially if they've never faced such a crisis before.
(10:18):
Those are situations that involve many other parties. It involves
a lot of theoreticals, and it's a lot of things
that many people are uncomfortable talking about, maybe because they
never had a solid conversation in the first place when
they were young. So I think it's about acknowledging that discomfort.
It's about knowing our limits and again and the things
(10:39):
that we can control. And I think it's about trying
to build an adult relationship with your adult child. The
relationship that you had with them when they were six
is not what you can still maintain when they're nineteen,
and so that'll take time. It takes trust on both sides,
but taking it a step at a time and finding
healthy ways to communicate is the only way to build
that trust.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
My daughter's pediatrician started transitioning us at about fourteen years old.
When my daughter was going in, she'd say, Okay, we're
going to have this done today and we're going to
check for this and mom, you're going to be asked
to leave here in a few minutes and leave us alone.
And it is the weirdest feeling because now what they're
doing is trying to isolate the child, to give them
(11:22):
the freedom to speak freely. And when you're a parent
that's doing nothing wrong, that just feels like, you know,
a dagger in the heart. Of course, you can trust me,
but then you realize as they're pushing you out the door,
this is the most important thing that the kid has,
is that relationship of honesty and trust with their doctor.
(11:44):
And so once they get to the college age, it's
not so unfamiliar. But what do you suggest about sending
your adult kids out into the world and they've you know,
they're not really ready yet.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
What I tried, or at least the guidance that I
tried to give my patience as they grow older and
their parents as well, is to understand that time will
pass regardless of what we do. And so as much
as parents wish that they can control things and again
save their children from the kinds of challenging things that
(12:18):
will arise in their futures, there's no controlling that, and
so I try to help them understand that. Like you mentioned,
when it comes to my visits where I have the
parents step out for children as they reach the ages
of fourteen fifteen or so. The first thing out of
my mouth is everything that we talk about is between
you and I unless you want me to share it
with your parents. And the next thing is, I always
(12:41):
encourage you to talk to your parents about these things
because we're all on the same team as their pediatrician.
As parents, all of our goal is to prepare our
children again for those theoreticals, those situations that we can't anticipate,
but want to prepare them for, because the reality is,
no matter what you do, your children will eventually make
the decisions that they want to make, and so the
(13:03):
only role we can really play is to give them information,
to give them knowledge so that when somebody offers them
a cigarette or a vape, when somebody offers them alcohol,
when they are thinking about entering into a sexual relationship,
can they think back to the discussion they had with
me or with their parents and say, oh, these are
the decisions I am okay with and these are the
(13:24):
ones I'm not. And in my head I can think
through all the consequences short and long term because of
those trusting relationships I have.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
This is a very digital information generation. Do you have
any thoughts on health tracking apps? Everybody's got fitbits and
iPhone watches that track everything, But there's just this huge
amount of information now and different things to track. Do
you have any recommendations on how to approach that?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Sure? When it comes to tracking our health and understanding
our health using technology, broadly speaking, I ensure people have
a healthy relationship with such things and that we know
their limits. A good example is the burgeoning use of
artificial intelligence and AI in health settings. I think, on
(14:11):
one hand, it's a great tool for people to start
asking more complicated questions. Using AI is probably more useful
than just googling a long sleugh of symptoms. But it's
important to keep in mind that whether we're talking about
the Internet more broadly or we talk about AI, these
are still man made, generated tools, and so they are
limited by the information that we give them, and they're
(14:34):
limited by the people that made them. And so I
don't know that these tools necessarily replace having somebody we trust,
having a doctor that we have access to readily for
when things change, or to know our full long term
medical history, which is why I love my specialty in
primary care. The longtudinal relationships just can't be replaced by technology.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
You just said something that may me think about watching
a movie, and you don't want to know anything about
it before you go to the movie because you just
want to make your own ascertainment. You don't want any
bias in there thinking about that. When you're a doctor,
how do you respond when someone says, well, I googled it,
and doctor Google says it might be blah blah blah
(15:21):
blah blah. Do you find that that is helpful or
do you find that that puts an idea in your
head maybe that you wouldn't have had. Is it good
or bad? Which how do you feel about that?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I think when it comes to patients arriving at appointments
with more knowledge with things that they've looked up in
regards to their concerns, and a visit is a little
bit of both. On one hand, I love being able
to get to the crux of a concern as quickly
as possible, and so if somebody's done some research, that
(15:55):
in itself gives me a better guide as to what
they're truly worried about and what their concern might be
in terms of the underlying cause. And that might mean
that I can give them reassurance from the start, and
I can say I appreciate your worries, but based on
our conversation or your history or your testing, such a
thing as nothing that we got to worry about, or
maybe it's a good reminder. Maybe then maybe I say, yeah,
(16:19):
that could be a cause. Thank you for bringing that up.
Here are ways that we could reasonably figure that out
or exclude that. I think the fine line then tips
into when does such a resource? When does information become
too much? Right, we're seeing an ever increasing amount of
health care based anxiety because now that people can look
into any symptom or any condition, they are looking into
(16:42):
every concern in every condition. Can become overwhelming to the
point that we get lost in the weeds over what
our true concern really is. And so I think, just
like we talked a second ago about AI, it's about
using the information that's out there to our advantage and
knowing where to set a line in boundaries with our
own health history.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Case in point, getting blood test results and so you're
googling constantly what does that mean? What part of the body?
So it does educate you a little.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Bit, that's fair, And especially when we talk about our
transitioning adults, right, what can hopefully be a useful tool
is my chart to say to then send a message
to your doctor to say, hey, I might be away
at college, I might be away at my job right now,
but can you weigh in on this. I did that
for a patient just yesterday. I might not have been
the one that ordered those, so I can't necessarily speak
(17:33):
volumes of it, but I was able to give them
a lot of reassurance to say, I understand your worries
for seeing all those red numbers crop up, but those
are ones that are not so worrisome, and we can
keep on with the plan that we have.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
And if you haven't used my chart before, it can't
be kind of maddening trying to get in. It's locked
down like a worse than Fort Knox. But once you're
able to actually get in, if you're having trouble with it,
contact your doctor, contactor, the hospital that's working with you.
But once you get my chart, it really is amazing
the amount of information that it has about you. If
(18:08):
they ask you what your medications are, you don't have
to remember anymore. You don't have to reach for your
purse and grab a piece of paper and say, well,
I'm taking this heart pill, but I don't know what
it is or what the dose is. You can just
actually pull all that information up and show them on
your smartphone. So my chart is kind of the way
most everybody is going. And the idea of being able
to send you a note and saying, hey, doctor, I'm
(18:31):
worried about these these red numbers. What do you think
is a great help? And sure it takes time out
of your day, doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
It does. My chart in digital communication is a challenging
thing to balance with the rest of the job for
teaching young doctors and seeing my patients, and so it
can be a challenge for us as physicians to have
healthy boundaries for ourselves and how we take care of
our patients in that way. And I think again it's
(18:59):
a great tool for those young adults that are transitioning
away from home because the rules and the boundaries for
the medical system and what doctors can send which medicines
across state lines or even within the state of Ohio
can be quite gray. But if you transition to a
new home in a new city or a new state,
(19:20):
you know, if you feel comfortable seeing a new doctor,
you can share your my chart information with them in
that visit. And so in an age where we're still
relying on faxing information and the semi reliability of such
a technology, my chart can be a way that in
a visit you can update your history with a new
doctor and a new office to make sure that nothing's
(19:41):
left out.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So it's not just one health provider on my chart.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yes, generally speaking, especially for large health systems, you can
contact lots of different folks. Unfortunately, we each have our
own my chart systems, so you'd need an account for
each system that you gi.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Folks. I hope you found this helpful and interesting. I
certainly did. Doctor Zachary Bittinger. He is here from the
Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, a proud graduate
of UC Medical Center, Class president of twenty seventeen. We
have to really applaud you for that, but not hold
it against you that you went to Indiana University.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Oh you know, that's why I said a career o'higland,
because I did spend technically three years outside of the state,
but I came back as fast as I could.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
All kidding aside, Doctor Bittinger, thank you so much for
your time. We're going to get this word out and
hopefully make the transition to adulthood a little easier for folks.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
I certainly hope, so thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Coming up next our treatments. Really aggressive surgery physically changes people.
This is iHeart, Cincy.
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