Looking for a Pediatrician

[mcktymck]

So I've started the search for a pediatrician, and have narrowed it down to a few that have good online ratings. My question now is (especially for the STMs), what do I do now? Meet with each one of them? What should I be looking for when it comes to a pediatrician? How can I tell they will work well for our family without the baby being here? Any tips or words of advice? TIA!

[TheTuna15]

I just picked the pediatrician that my OBGYN recommended. He told me that he brought his kids to her, so I thought that was good enough. I called her office asked if she was taking new patients and made sure that she took my insurance. That was it. When I got to L&D, the nurses asked who I wanted the pediatrician to be and I gave her name.

IMO you can interview doctors and all of that before hand, but you won't really know how you feel about a doctor until you're bringing them your sick kid. It kind of sucks to say, but there's really no way to gauge how they/their office is going to handle bumps to the head/respiratory infections/development/general FTM insanity until you get there. I think it's worth it to go to the pedi with the best reviews, but have a back up option JIC you don't like the response you get the first tim the LO gets the sniffles.

[sarcaztic10]

It really depends on what you are looking for and what you want out of a pediatrician. You could do a short interview with them to see if you get along. In my opinion a pediatricians main purpose is to give medical advice so as long as you like them and you think they will listen to you and not brush you off then I would think they are ok but if you are looking for more then you might want to have a list of questions to ask.

With DS I have had good pediatricians and bad pediatricians in the past. The bad ones were the ones that tried very hard to offer me what they thought was "helpful" parenting advice. I am not interested in being judged or shamed by a medical professional for practicing AP methods or for not doing CIO. So, to me a pediatrician that is just there for the medical advice when my child has a physical or is sick is the type of Dr. I want.

If you choose someone and you find out later that you really don't like them then it is not that hard to switch.

[lostinfaith225]

I did what you did and got friend recommendations. Most pedis offer meet and greets. So we met with 2 places. One was a meet and greet and the other was just with the dr . Then we selected.

Having a place with early walk ins is nice, a nurse line, and weekend hours!

[comicSans]

Call those you are most interested in and ask if they have a meet and greet.

Consider if you want a large practice or small, if they have a separate infant waiting room, if they have privileges at the hospital you'll deliver at if it's important to you that they be there at birth.

There are 3 practices that are associated with the hospital where I delivered, so we started there. There are other practices around, but someone from one of those 3 would see baby at birth and the days following. We met one, who had a solo practice, at our birth class and didn't like him so ruled him out. Of the other 2 one was half the size, and we liked the idea of a smaller practice. We did a meet and greet and really liked the pediatrician we met with. Had we not liked her as time went on we could have switched. One of the other pediatricians from the practice was on call when I delivered and had rounds there the next couple of days so we saw him every day while in the hospital and liked him too.

[tootsie]

Our old practice was recommended to me by a nurse. I hated it. Dd hated it. I wish I had found a new practice after our first appointment. They didn't have separate sick baby and well baby waiting rooms, the nurses were brash, the doctor barely communicated after we waited FOREVER to see him.

I found our new pediatrician online. I found the practice and read the bios of all of the doctors. One stuck out to me because she is on the younger side, mentioned being supportive of breastfeeding, and has several young kids of her own. The facility is new and all of the staff actually seems to like kids, which is nice... so she will be DD2's doctor too.

I didn't do a meet and greet, but I know a lot of people do. Probably worth it.

ETA: Oh, and the new pedi is all about extended rear facing. I really like having a doc who is up on current recommendations and is proactive about spreading the word. I think that's a really valuable quality.

[acorn99]

I picked one close to my home that was one of two practices recommended by a friend. I didn't go in for a pre-visit, but I did call to make sure they were accepting new clients and would take my insurance.

My office has a number of doctors so I am always able to get in. There are definitely a couple that I prefer, but I gave a few of them a shot first. Now, for regular well visits I request the doc I like the most. But it is nice to have multiple providers available through one office when I need to get in for an acute care visit.

[beebe918]

I chose a pedi based on recs from coworkers, proximity to my house, number of doctors, operating hours and whether they were accommodating to walk-ins/last minute appointments.

I didn't really see the point in interviewing pedis because there was nothing I felt particularly strongly about/felt would be a deal breaker.

My MIL told me she interviewed pedis b/c she wanted to breastfeed and wanted to be sure her pedi would support her in that endeavor especially should it end up being difficult. If there's anything like that for you some extra research might be needed.

[harlowjune1984]

We were assigned to a Pediatrician (I have Kaiser Insurance), and I went to him and figured that if I didn't like him, I would find someone else. Turns out, we love him. He isn't condescending (like one of the PA's at the office), allows us to do a delayed vaccination schedule (a majority of them in our area won't do that), and within a few appointments, was able to gauge that we were the type that weren't going to come in for every sniffle and sneeze...so when we do come in for something, he doesn't quickly diagnose, throw a prescription at us, and move along. DD was born with a dent in her head from where she was against my pelvis, and when I brought it up, he didn't think that she needed a helmet but sent me to a specialist for it to be measured and to ease our minds. DD was also born with some extra bone on one of her ribs. He (as well as MH and I) figured it was just how her rib formed, but he did an X-ray just to be sure....he said it was better to get that done and over with, than to find out a year or two from now that it actually is something different and regret not looking into it sooner. The fact that he doesn't just brush things aside, is comforting to me because I feel that I am being heard and such.

Since it is a male doctor, I have a feeling we will need to eventually switch to a female doctor if DD is feeling uncomfortable having a male doctor when she gets a little older. But my general doctor is a family doctor, so she will just get moved over to that doctor.

[mcktymck]

These are all really great ideas, I appreciate you all giving me thoughts on what you did when it comes to this!

[cabbagecabbage]

I asked around and did the interview and did everything right and ended up hating our doctor and switching. And that's ok. You can always switch. I suppose it would be a little harder with an HMO.

I found our awesome pediatrician through a huge facebook group called breastfeed Chicago where moms had compiled a list of favorite caregivers. I didn't know I was going to be as crunchy as I am and our first doctor was old school and a total asshole. He'd sneer at my genuine questions and not really answer them with some version of 'I know what's best, little lady, Har har.' when I was genuinely interested in studies and facts when I asked.

So for me, it was an attitude and best practices thing. I think he was fine at diagnosing babies but I hated his face after that and left.

[mcktymck]

Feb 25, 2016 17:48:57 GMT -5 cabbagecabbage said:

I asked around and did the interview and did everything right and ended up hating our doctor and switching. And that's ok. You can always switch. I suppose it would be a little harder with an HMO.

I found our awesome pediatrician through a huge facebook group called breastfeed Chicago where moms had compiled a list of favorite caregivers. I didn't know I was going to be as crunchy as I am and our first doctor was old school and a total asshole. He'd sneer at my genuine questions and not really answer them with some version of 'I know what's best, little lady, Har har.' when I was genuinely interested in studies and facts when I asked.

So for me, it was an attitude and best practices thing. I think he was fine at diagnosing babies but I hated his face after that and left.

Yeah, a doctor like that would really piss me off. I'm planning on being a fairly crunchy mom as well, so it's important to me to have a doctor that is in line with my thoughts and ideas and supports them instead of being rude. I'll have to look around and see if there is anything like that FB group out in my neck of the woods!

[ellebelle]

We picked ours because neighbors with kids recommended it and it was close to our house. They had good hours and they also round at the hospital I delivered at so they saw us on the day DD was born. I really liked that. They did have specific hours to meet with doctors/interview if you wanted to prior to baby being born but I didn't feel like I needed to meet with them since they had good word of mouth and an easy to navigate website. I think sarcaztic10 has good advice.

[willow]

I'm of no help because I'm going to use the same pediatrician that I had growing up, because she still practices and she's awesome. Thankfully her practice is covered by my medical assistance plan too.

[housecarder]

I just wanted to add that it's ok not to have one set in stone. With DD we had chosen the recommended one that had an office in her building and had great reviews. We didn't interview her ahead of time because we weren't picky.
Fast forward to the hospital and the pedi was rude and condescending. Might have been an off night but I was not impressed. So we asked to switch to the other pedi that was on call at the hospital the night before because we liked him a lot. We are still happy with him 6 years later.

[katelou]

We interviewed two pedis based on friends' recommendations. One was a huge, very popular practice that has been around forever and one was a smaller practice. We liked the feel of the smaller practice better. I am glad we did the interviews, but I ended up not loving the pedi we picked. I don't hate her either and think she's a fine physician, she's just said some things that got under my skin.

My DH felt very strongly that we pick a pedi that did not accept unvaccinated/delayed vax kids, and ours does not. As he put it, he did not want to bring our baby into a waiting room where the kid next to us was coming in with pertussis. He's kind of nuts and I think the chances of that are low, but whatever. When the pedi we didn't choose said she had no problem with delayed vax schedules and parents bringing in their own research on vaccines, he flipped.

I didn't think of this as a pregnant FTM, but the practice's hours are also really important. Especially if you have two FT working parents, things like Saturday or evening hours for regular appointments are so much more convenient. And early morning walk-in hours for sick kids are also a lifesaver. When your kids wakes up with something gross (thanks for the pinkeye, preschool!) you can have them in the doctors office by 7:30, on your way to get meds by 8.

[feisty]

One thing that was important to me that isn't mentioned here yet, is I checked for how breast feeding friendly my pediatrician was. Mine also had lactation consultants on staff that I used with DS. Def hours and location are important and how easily they can get you in when LO gets sick.