Help Picking a Peditrician

[callmeKD]

Comfort level (i.e. Gut instinct), ability to communicate via email or messaging etc. clinic hours and being close to home.

[meggypoo1]

Some of the questions we asked:
-Does having separate waiting rooms matter to you?
-Same day sick appointments?
-Hours? Late hours because we work. Weekend hours?
-How does on call work - if we have a question at midnight can we call and get an answer
-When will you first see the baby (ours came the day she was born and every day leading up to her departure)
-LC on site or recommendations?
-What is the likelihood of seeing her PCP when she is sick? (Their practice has "teams" so we can't get in with her PCP for sick appointments they try for a team mate)
-Do they do vaccines (they don't except anyone that won't follow the CDCs schedule)

I think that was it!

[callmeKD]

I've been very happy with our pediatrician. She was a referral from our OB (who personally used the same pedi for her kids).

[daisylola11]

I went with who was assigned to us (we have kaiser) and knew I could change if I didn't like them.
We ended up keeping this pedi since he wasn't pushy but very informative. We've only had to go in for well check ups so quick in and outs, luckily, so I didn't feel like we had to build a "relationship" with him.

Unless you have specific concerns on how you want your LO to receive care Id consider distance and how busy they are, I've known ppl who wait sooo long for visits.

As much as I respect pedis there's always going to be different info they give vs what others do when it comes to parenting, sleeping habits, pacifier use, solid foods, weight gain etc. and I didn't know all this until I was there with LO, you can ask and get there input then do your own research and decide if they're on the same page

[moutonrouge]

I looked for ones near home, to start. Once I had that list, I started to narrow it down based on:

1. Hours - Do they have Saturday appointments? Days with later hours?
2. Sick visit policy - Do they have a set time for sick visit walk-ins? How many days a week are they offered? Is there a sick patient waiting room?
3. How do vaccines work? One place actually required you to pick up the vaccine at a pharmacy before your visit and bring it in a cooler to the appointment.

There were then 3 offices with pretty similar hours and sick visit policies, so I narrowed it down further based on some bonus things:

3. LC on staff? I didn't know this was a thing, but the MW suggested it
4. Do they offer expectant parent information sessions? Do they charge for them? One place actually charged $100 to attend a new patient session, which I understood but decided was a negative.
5. Privileges at the hospital I will deliver at? I wanted this but wound up vastly preferring a practice that doesn't have privileges, so oh well.

[moutonrouge]

Jan 3, 2017 11:41:00 GMT -5 corinne said:

Jan 3, 2017 11:38:40 GMT -5 moutonrouge said:

I looked for ones near home, to start. Once I had that list, I started to narrow it down based on:

1. Hours - Do they have Saturday appointments? Days with later hours?
2. Sick visit policy - Do they have a set time for sick visit walk-ins? How many days a week are they offered? Is there a sick patient waiting room?
3. How do vaccines work? One place actually required you to pick up the vaccine at a pharmacy before your visit and bring it in a cooler to the appointment.

There were then 3 offices with pretty similar hours and sick visit policies, so I narrowed it down further based on some bonus things:

3. LC on staff? I didn't know this was a thing, but the MW suggested it
4. Do they offer expectant parent information sessions? Do they charge for them? One place actually charged $100 to attend a new patient session, which I understood but decided was a negative.
5. Privileges at the hospital I will deliver at? I wanted this but wound up vastly preferring a practice that doesn't have privileges, so oh well.

I've never heard of picking up a vaccine ahead of time! That seems so strange to me.

They had a good explanation for it (they'd have to buy a lot up front to have them on hand and then reimbursement was very slow once they were used), but...I just wasn't interested in taking baby to CVS on the way to a visit. Or to making a separate trip and keeping it in the fridge at home. 

[suelou18]

We just see our family practice doctor for DD and will for LO as well. The office is close to our house and we can now schedule appointments online. With the things we've dealt with, I haven't missed having a pedi and like that the family practice doctor knows the whole family. We didn't do interviews. We did receive a recommendation for our family practice doctor via my sister who reached out to her contacts in the medical field in our town. I figure if we are ever unhappy we can switch.

[Deleted]

Jan 3, 2017 11:24:29 GMT -5 @amc25 said:

STM here, and I don't have any specific feels about picking a pedi. DS's pedi was randomly assigned to us based on appointment availability at the military clinic nearest to our house. While she's not a perfect fit for my overall parenting philosophy, I just take what she says with a grain of salt and do my own research on things like BFing, sleep training, etc. All I really expect from her is to give him vaccines according to the CDC's recommended schedule, and she's been good at that, so it's worked fine for us...

Same here. The pediatrician is mostly for shots to me....

[skk]

We went mostly off recommendation from family and friends who go to our pedi office. Everything has worked out well so far and the things that have mattered most have been hours of availability (our office is open 7 days a week, Sundays only for sick visits), tiny infants are always scheduled first thing in the morning, we can see any of the 5 doctors in our practice, our primary pedi and his nurse are easy to talk to and always welcome questions. We've never felt bad about asking silly little questions and they return calls quickly.

[erinshelley21]

Jan 3, 2017 13:58:15 GMT -5 @priss08 said:

Jan 3, 2017 11:24:29 GMT -5 @amc25 said:

STM here, and I don't have any specific feels about picking a pedi. DS's pedi was randomly assigned to us based on appointment availability at the military clinic nearest to our house. While she's not a perfect fit for my overall parenting philosophy, I just take what she says with a grain of salt and do my own research on things like BFing, sleep training, etc. All I really expect from her is to give him vaccines according to the CDC's recommended schedule, and she's been good at that, so it's worked fine for us...

Same here. The pediatrician is mostly for shots to me....

We go for shots too. We went based off recommendations from family. There are only 2 hospitals within 20 miles of us and we go to 1 for all healthcare except orthopedic. We just picked one from their pedis. Our original one is no longer there but he was replaced with someone that I absolutely love! She was excited to see bruises on ds's legs since that meant he was active while the last pedi expected me to explain where most of them came from.

I basically want a pediatrician that gets it and is realistic.

[glb30]

callmeKD love the email tip! I wouldn't have thought to ask that, and way prefer emailing.

[callmeKD]

Jan 3, 2017 20:21:33 GMT -5 glb30 said:

callmeKD love the email tip! I wouldn't have thought to ask that, and way prefer emailing.

Our health system uses "My Chart" and it's a great way to communicate with our doctors.

[britab]

There are two pediatrician offices within 5 minutes of us. We went with the ones with better hours. I decided they were just "ok"'. Felt very impersonal.

We tried the other one and really liked it. Evening and weekend appointments are important to us since I don't have much sick time and DH has none paid. It's smaller but I talk to real people when I call!

You have to like the whole practice because when you need to get in, you probably won't have much of a choice.

[Deleted]

Jan 3, 2017 19:26:32 GMT -5 erinshelley21 said:

Jan 3, 2017 13:58:15 GMT -5 @priss08 said:

Same here. The pediatrician is mostly for shots to me....

We go for shots too. We went based off recommendations from family. There are only 2 hospitals within 20 miles of us and we go to 1 for all healthcare except orthopedic. We just picked one from their pedis. Our original one is no longer there but he was replaced with someone that I absolutely love! She was excited to see bruises on ds's legs since that meant he was active while the last pedi expected me to explain where most of them came from.

I basically want a pediatrician that gets it and is realistic.

OMG, major side eye to the Dr that made you feel you needed to explain every little mark on a kid. Did this person have kids?! They get bumps and bruises all the time!

[erinshelley21]

Jan 3, 2017 21:40:45 GMT -5 @priss08 said:

Jan 3, 2017 19:26:32 GMT -5 erinshelley21 said:

We go for shots too. We went based off recommendations from family. There are only 2 hospitals within 20 miles of us and we go to 1 for all healthcare except orthopedic. We just picked one from their pedis. Our original one is no longer there but he was replaced with someone that I absolutely love! She was excited to see bruises on ds's legs since that meant he was active while the last pedi expected me to explain where most of them came from.

I basically want a pediatrician that gets it and is realistic.

OMG, major side eye to the Dr that made you feel you needed to explain every little mark on a kid. Did this person have kids?! They get bumps and bruises all the time!

He didn't make us explain EVERY mark, but he always asked where some of them came from. Half the time I had no idea since I wasn't with him for 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

He has small children. His oldest was a girl so she maybe wasn't as rough and rowdy as Ds. I don't know. New pedi has 4 boys 10 and under so I'm in good hands now.

[erinshelley21]

New pedi also laughed at mil's penis joke last time so she's my kind of people.

Penis joke story: the pedi asked ds where his heart was and he pointed to his penis. Mil has zero filter and said "well it usually is for most guys" Pedi laughed and thanked her for saying it because she was thinking it.

[madameovary]

Separate sick and well waiting areas are a nice touch!