pediatrician

Alessia87

I am still slacking and haven't looked into pediatricians...I have 7 recommendations to call...that sounds like too many to interview...how many did you interview and what made you decide on yours?

Bella2425

I relied heavily on the recommendations of friends and family. Got lucky and most all of them said the same practice. Maybe put the question out there on FB and go from there?

Irisheyes1247

With DD1, we had one recommended to us and we went and met with her. We liked her, we went there. After being there a little over 2 years, we decided it wasn't a good fit (more based on scheduling and staff interactions), and we switched to another recommendation from friends.

I would pick one or two and call them and see where it goes from there. If you don't click with who you choose, you can always switch. You aren't locked in with them forever. 

emmylu30

You can check out if any of them have any new parent orientation classes.  Some of them do and we were able to meet the doctors and they gave us a general overview of their practices beforehand.  Some important things for us were extended and weekend hours, policy on antibiotics, breastfeeding support, and making sure that doctor had same ideas regarding child behavior/development styles.  (ie- you wouldn't want a pro "cry it out" pediatrician if you were going to do attachment parenting).

Djcieply

I wanted to go to the pediatrician I went to as a child since he was still practicing, but he is not in my network. So I asked friends who they went to and luckily for me they all went to the same Dr and hes in our network. I went and met him and really liked him, DH also liked him and he really dislikes Dr's (for whatever reason idk). This thread reminds me that I need to call his office!

brittneyandadam

I have a total of 2 friends with children...and neither live by me, so I had to research myself. My OB actually recommended one that's in the same group as DH's and my PCP , so I made an appt and went to interview her. Luckily, I like her a lot so I'm just going with her.

Ask your OB, sometimes they'll have some advice or preferences. Also, a big thing for us was for the doc to be relatively close in case we had to pick up baby girl from daycare or school and bring her in.

Minmcgar

Use a recommendation from a mommy friend in town or neighbor. We trusted our neighbors opinion and went with their pediatrician and so did our other neighbor who just had a baby. Good luck!

ashleyb1114

I honestly didn't interview any for DD. I looked up reviews and the one wih the best reviews in the area only lived 5 mins away so we went there and loved it. I joined a moms group on meetup and I have seen people ask there as well. IMO word of mouth is te best. Just make sure they have a sick side and a well side.

saraeric

My mom is a nurse at a pediatrician's office so I just went with who she likes best. If that hadn't been the case, I'd probably ask my friends and family who they use. 

mapchick77

After DS was born we discovered that the pediatrician we had picked (through my insurance website doc finder and based on reviews) actually didn't take our insurance. Since DS was in the NICU for two nights we were not allowed to be discharged until we had an appointment with a pediatrician made. One of our wonderful nurses gave us a recommendation and we ended up loving him. We plan on using him for this baby too.

Alessia87

I write to a moms forum in my county which is how I ended up with 7 different recommendations! Ugh

amom2four

I went with a friend one time when she took her son in to check the place and doctor out. I think surprise visits like that are where you learn a lot about patient interaction. He was funny, made voices and sounds at the kiddo, thorough and very knowledgable.

Shortly after that I needed a second opinion from our current gp and asked to see him. Again it was a great experience and we spent nearly 2 hours through his lunch talking about what was going on with ds.

We have been seeing him for ds and dd2 for 5 years now and dd1 was more comfortable with a female so we went with another doc in the office that we had seen when an illness came up and love her also.

After this novel, I recommend word of mouth and visits with someone already established in the practice. You learn a lot.

ashaw512

At my hospital after delivery, they give you a list depending on your insurance and have you pick one so they can make you an appt. if you don't like who you picked you can always change; but I suggest calling your L&D and ask what Drs are available and go from there.

peanutbuttervibes

I did a lot of research online, then asked around. I ended up narrowing it down to a couple of pediatricians who lucky for me, practiced at the same office. I recommend doing this prior to labor because in the beginning, there are a lot of appointments so it helps to be happy with your choice! Who wants to be switching doctors when you have a newborn to take care of? There are also lists of questions to ask your pediatrician somewhere on thebump. I noticed I was able to get most of my questions answered by looking up the practice online. Good luck!

Jenner37

I asked my OB for recommendations before we had DD, I went to interview him and ended up really liking him so that's who we use. His office I very kid friendly, the hours work for us, he is very involved in the community, bilingual (which is a key factor for us) and he is very in line with how we want to raise our kids, as far as parenting style.

ConversationFear

We know who we want, but we have not had the time to meet with him yet. We are going to let the hospital assign whoever for the hospital monitoring and circumcision and then switch over to this doc right after.

He is being used by one of our friends and his practice is about 5 minutes from our house - AND his office has Saturday hours which was a big deal for us! Our friend has a special needs child, and she couldn't speak highly enough about this doctor. (Our LO isn't SN, but we know this friend is very particular about the care of her daughter, so we trust her opinion.)

mytinc

I'm in a smaller town and there's only one pediatrician's office that is adjacent with the hospital.  For a few different reasons, I didn't want to go there (location being one of them).  A friend of ours is an office manager at a doctor's office and we asked her if any of the staff that she liked was accepting new patients.  AT the time DH and I didn't have a general practitioner, so we actually were looking for someone to take all 3 of us.

We met with her when I was around 32 weeks along with DS and she's been great.  I've not had any issues with her being a GP instead of a pediatrician.  She'll also be LO's doctor and will work with his/her cardiologists to ensure that everything is going smoothly.

mcstrepp

I got 3 recommendations from friends, 1 doesn't take the insurance and 1 was a very small practice so we went with the 3rd. I asked a few questions over the phone but decided not to interview. If we don't like them then we will switch.

lbonga1

We just went with who came to check on us when we were still in the hospital. It's a husband and wife team, and even though we've moved farther away, we stuck with them because they're a good fit. If we did have to switch, some things I'd look for are being able to be seen quickly for urgent issues, and someone who listens to fully understand an issue before just prescribing something.

purplestarz

I looked up reviews on Angie's list and just picked one. I met with her, and got a good vibe from her and her office. I didn't stress too much. If I end up hating her (not likely), I can always switch.

aliciak316

I asked my doctor if they had any recommendations, they gave me a name of a practice and I picked one from there and have loved them.

amyc216

When pregnant with DS I made a FB post asking for recommendations in my area. There were lots of positive remarks on one and they offered a q&a session for new parents every few weeks. It's worked out great with this practice!

JustCricket

We literally had 2 options (or maybe 3). I just went with the recommendation of some of h's co-workers since multiple suggested that practice. I also went and looked at their website and I liked it a lot (I know not the best way to judge someone, but it counts for something!) So far we're LOVING the practice. LOVE both of the doctors there and we've pretty much been seen by every ped in town (because of the rotating on call staff does early morning check ups).

formerwigirl

Two of our neighbors who have become close friends use the same pediatrician. They recommended him so we decided to meet with him to see if we'd like him. He seemed really nice so we are going with him. He always answers his own phone after hours and encourages new parents to text him if they have any questions. Also he said we can email him too. The bonus was about a week after we decided to pick him we found out he made a home visit for one of our neighbors whose baby had a bad cough. It really amazed us because doctors these days don't do house calls.

RedBaramid

We're in a tiny town, so basically I'm going to be making our first appointments with whoever is taking new patients (I'm going to start making phone calls towards the end of this week to find out.) I was HOPING to find a family practice doctor to take all three of us, I haven't had a GP in years, DH has NEVER had a GP since his family is just now really starting to Americanize in a lot of ways. It looks like all of the family practice Docs around here are booked pretty solidly though. Luckily I have pretty universal insurance so most places accept it so that won't be a limiting factor. I figure if I hate the pede we start with I can always change, but it's important to start her somewhere.

camichael84

My OB gave us a list of peds they recommend. There were three practices on the list in our city, two of which are in network through our insurance. I went to both practices' websites and checked them out. We decided we liked one over the other, and I set up a meet and greet with the ped at that practice that had the first available opening. We liked her and the office so decided to go with it and didn't do any more interviewing. I wouldn't have hesitated to keep looking around if we hadn't been happy, though.

Linz-E

I didn't interview any... There were two offices that all of my friends/family recommended and I went with the one that accepted my insurance... we've been happy.