Susan Besser, MD
Dr. Besser is a mom of six grown children, ages 28, 26, 24, 22, 21, and 19, a grandmom of one, a family physician, and the medical director of Doctors Express-Memphis.
What’s your specialty? My specialty is family practice, and right now I work at an urgent care facility. It’s skilled family practice, but we don’t do follow-up care. Today there’s an increasing need for urgent care because there are less primary care facilities available. We fill that gap.
What’s your favorite parenting tip? Relax! Children are lot more resilient than people give them credit for.
What has surprised you most about parenting? There’s no manual. It’s a learn-as-you-go process.
I thought that being a physician, I’d know it all, but in medical school they teach you how to deal with sickness, not health. When my babies were born, I was on the same footing as every other new mom.
How do you get your kids to eat healthy food? When my kids were young, they ate what we ate. If they chose not to eat it, that’s all there was. We never went out of our way to prepare special foods.
We keep kosher, and so there aren’t many options for eating out. There’s no McDonald’s for us! We ate at home almost all of the time. That gave me much greater control over what my family was eating.
How do you work exercise into your family’s life? We didn’t exercise much as a family; we’re not the big-family-football-game type of people. My kids got plenty of exercise in school. I try to make time for myself to exercise every day, but stuff happens. When my kids were babies, I walked them in the stroller a lot.
How do you recharge your batteries? I love to read; that’s rejuvenating for me. I also enjoy watching v id eos with my family. We also just love to sit around and talk.
Dr. Besser’s Q&As
I’m considering using cloth diapers. Did you and how did you make it work?
I’m ready to start giving my baby finger foods. What did you give your baby?
My toddler has a fever. Did you give your kids medicine for fevers?