My daughter is nearly 2 years old. Taking her to see a doctor goes something like this:

Doctor examines her for about 60 seconds

“She either has a) [insert vague/common illness here] or b) [insert alternative vague/common illness here]. It is very hard to diagnose a young child. I would just give her some baby Panadol and plenty of fluids.”

Errr, thanks buddy. I could have put her symptoms into Google and got a multi-choice list of possible answers. I came to you so you would tell me with some inkling that you might be confident in your conclusion.

My parent’s generation deify doctors and when you’re a kid you look at them in much the same way. The day you realise that they are just everyday people, albeit more highly educated than me, it is a little frightening.