BTDT moms: Choosing a pedi

BLT20051 · January 2013

Did you interview your pedi? Read reviews? Someone recommend them? Our OB wants us to have one chosen before labor but we're still pretty new to the area and this is our first so we're clueless. I have a list of ones approved by our insurance but that is as far as I've gotten.

skio · January 2013

I asked for recs from friends and got a bunch of cards at my birthing class. I then narrowed it down based on how many doctors in the practice, how long the practice was established, and how close it was to home. I interviewed two pedis before choosing.

ASmallWonder · January 2013

I didn't interview and in hindsight that was ok because I don't think you really get to know a pedi until you have an issue and see how they handle it. Not everyone agrees but that's how I personally feel. We were in your boat last time so I googled some places near us. I looked for places that were close by and had good hours (including "after hours" and Saturday appointments). We were really pleased with the doctor we got and when we moved, she happened to have a former colleague who works in our new area so we switched on her recommendation.

CoffeeBeanFiend91 · January 2013

The Pedi I had as a kid is still in practice and all the children in our family see him. He is the best in the area. So for us it will just be a matter of talking to him to give him our info and SOs insurance stuff on file with him. There are sites with doctor recommendations if you're looking for a place to start.

btartaroind · January 2013

The hospital required we have an appointment set up before we left the hospital, but our pedi didn't make appts until after the birth. So we checked to make sure he was accepting patients (we picked him from a referral, and he has great reviews) and then made the appointment in the hospital. You have to wait until then to make the first appointment anyway because it has to be a certain amount of time after the birth (2 or 4 days, I forget).

ilovemarfa · January 2013

My husband's good friend is a pediatrician so we asked his opinion. We also asked our friends for their recommendations and ultimately checked out 2 offices based on their recommendations. Ultimately we just ended up switching pediatricians and now see my husband's friend, who is a 30 minute drive for us, because we didn't like the office we chose for a number of reasons.

jane.says · January 2013

I didn't, I just asked friends and my OB for recommendations. We initially used a big group that a lot of people raved about but after awhile (maybe 6-8 months?), we just didn't like them. So we switched. I never felt that it was a huge commitment. I figured if we didn't end up liking a pedi, we'd switch. I felt comfortable that all my choices were competent, it would just be a matter of personality once I actually had to use him/her.

buggybear87 · January 2013

I asked my OB for recommendations. The particular doc I had that day (there's 6 OB's in the practice I go to) has young children and so she told me about the 2 different pedi practices in the area. I asked where she took her kids and why. I ended up going to the same place because they had the most pedi's (4) and had much better hours. I didn't do any sort of interview with them, but it worked out great. Truthfully, I would take their hours into consideration the most, because a lot of places aren't open late or on Saturdays and that's usually when you feel like you need to call/rush in for a last minute appointment.

MoparWife67 · January 2013

We interviewed. It was nice to come in and have a newborn and have that not be the first time we had met her.

AlliSam · January 2013

We asked friends for reccomendations and interviewed him :

Britt8058 · January 2013

Initially, We asked other parents in our area and chose based on recommendations. When DD was born, 3 pedi's from that office came to see her. We ended up liking including the one we had chosen. We ended up liking one of the other much better and switched.
After we moved back home we went with the only pediatric office in town. It has about a dozen doctors and multiple nurse practitioners. We have a pedi there, but I prefer to see a Nurse practitioner. But I almost always prefer a NP to a Dr.

llbta85 · January 2013

I asked for recommendations from family friends, some of whose children were teenagers and practices close to my office (although in hindsight closer to home is more practical). I ended up choosing the most recommeded practice that was accepting patients. I also liked that it was affiliated with a nationally respected hospital in the area. I did not interview the pediatrician but have really liked her.

starrjelly · January 2013

elmoali:
I didn't interview and in hindsight that was ok because I don't think you really get to know a pedi until you have an issue and see how they handle it.

This x 1000. We've had several over the years due to moves and once switching doctors within a practice. I've always used the on-call pedi at the hospital and then visited my choice pedi for the week check-up.

MrsKatieW · January 2013

I had a friend recommend ours. I like her, she's also a certified nutrunist and has a background in physical therapy. But she's always busy, I haven't seen her since my oldest's 6 month well check (he's almost 2). I honestly don't know when she sees patients because when I've called for sick visits she's not available and have been told she doesn't do well checks anymore. So we've been seeing a NP, while I don't mind seeing a NP I would like to see my child's doctor on occasion not to mention I don't like the NP's bedside manner. I'm planning on switching offices but am waiting because we might be moving out of state soon

Manderlin923 · January 2013

There were 4 pedis in the practice that was in our network. We interviewed 3 and fell in love with the third. Even though they're not in our network anymore and we have to pay more, we still stayed with him. He's great.

jlaOK · January 2013

We asked around for recommendations and went and interviewed/met her before I had the baby.

There were some basic things I wanted to know about such as how they handled after hours calls and to make sure she didn't have any wacky opinions on some of the "hot button" topics such as bottle vs breast, SAHM vs WM, etc.

bridetobe920 · January 2013

We asked friends for recs, and also posted on our local board. We met with one that we didn't really like, but we were happy to find someone else in the same practice that we liked very much.

Dragonfly1226 · January 2013

We interviewed our pediatrician and loved her. We asked about the process for contacting them after hours if DS was sick and how we could contact her for non emergency questions. We also wanted to get a feel for how current she was. She is an attending at Children's Boston so we felt confident with that. We really liked her personality too.

MrsAery-to-be · January 2013

I asked my OB's nurse. I think nurses have a different perspective on Drs than other Drs and even patients have. Of course she said all were good but told me which ones were hard to get into on short notice, who was retiring in the next couple years, and who she thought would be a good fit after knowing us for 7 or 8 months. We took her recommendation and love our pedi.We didn't meet her till DS was born but she was amazing and stopped by every day we were in the hospital. We have since moved but still travel back for routine appts.

+Preppy+ · January 2013

We got recommendations from friends and family. It's an established practice that's been around for a while. We also chose this pedi because she is open on Saturday. It always seems like kids get sick then.

I never interviewed her, but she's a board certified pediatrician with children's hospital experience. We love her.

Kmommytobeof2 · January 2013

We asked the NICU for pedi recommendations, our DS was way early, we had not picked a pedi yet. So we did some interviews, and then also interviewed a pedi a friend recommended and ended up going with her, she's wonderful!

LeggyNic · January 2013

CoffeeBeanFiend91:
The Pedi I had as a kid is still in practice and all the children in our family see him. He is the best in the area. So for us it will just be a matter of talking to him to give him our info and SOs insurance stuff on file with him. There are sites with doctor recommendations if you're looking for a place to start.

Same here. I also went to school with his daughter. My friend is a ARNP in the practice as well. I wanted to make sure they all had hospital privledges and was impressed that they always have a pedi on-call/rounding at the hospital. So we saw a pedi from our practice when the girls were hours old.

We've ended up seeing several of the doctors and ARNP over the years in a pinch and enjoy most of them. All are very competent.

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