Picking a Pediatrician?!?!

KH826 · February 2014

So the next item on my Baby Prep To-Do List is to research and select a pediatrician. I am not super sure where to start.

I have spoken to some friends/co-workers and asked for recommendations for the peds that they use for their kids. I have one name from that endeavor so far. I have spent time googling LGBT friendly family medicine practices, but haven't found much in my area. I know that we would like a ped that is within the healthcare network that my wife and I already use for everything (which isn't really limiting - there are still hundreds of choices within that network), but that's all I really know.

So here are my questions for parents and pregnant folks who have already checked this off of their lists:

Tips/advice in general for picking a pediatrician?
Did you meet/interview possible pediatricians first (is this common?, if I ask for this will people think I am crazy?)
Did you specifically seek out an LGBT friendly practice? What is your experience with this?
What is something you wish you had known or done differently when selecting a pediatrician?

Please explain this to me like I am a 5th grader here, because I really don't know where to start. So as much detail as you are willing to share, the better!

Thanks in advance, friends!

ATXmommas · February 2014

Our first step was to ask friends for recommendations. We didn't have any LGBT friends with children in the area we were looking for a pediatrician, so we couldn't specially ask whether the pedi was LGBT-friendly; however, it has never been much of a concern in Austin. It would be more rare to find a provider that isn't LBGT-friendly.

Anyhoo, it is most definitely OKAY to "interview" a pedi first. The pedi office that we ended up going with actually has a meet-and-greet a couple of times a month. My suggestion once you make a small list of potentials is to visit their website. Most pedi's websites will have information for new patients, including whether they offer interview visits or meet and greets. If they don't - call and request it. I would not feel comfortable meeting the pediatrician for the first time after delivery.

The meet and greet we attended was really helpful - we met the two pedis and the nurse practitioner, which was great since any one of them could be the person seeing your kiddo at the hospital and potentially who will conduct your visits in the future (primary doc might not always be available to see you and, in our case, the NP routinely conducts some of the visits, such as the 2-week well check).

For folks who will be declining vaccs, you will want to know if your pedi will accept your child as a patient. Our pediatrician, for instance, does not accept patients that won't be vaccinated. Wasn't a problem for us since we planned to vaccinate, but I know folks IRL that have had this issue.

Can't think of anything else, but let me know if you have questions. We didn't interview any other pediatricians, though I wish we had in retrospect. It was Z's task to find the pedi and she didn't get very far in her search. We liked the doctors we met at the meet and greet, so just decided to go with them without looking further.

ball.and.chain · February 2014

So obviously I don't have experience with an actual pediatrician yet but I am in the process of looking. The building where I see my OB is a satellite facility of the hospital at which I will deliver, and so it has pedis, pedi specialists, orthopedics, urgent care, surgery, imaging, etc...like a mini hospital (I will deliver at the actual hospital though). It's so convenient to have so much in one building and it's in our town, so we are just going to go with their pediatrics practice (the hospital it's affiliated with is also #2 in the country, which doesn't hurt, and we've been very happy with the OB practice). However, there are 6 pediatricians there and I have to pick one for a primary, so I was asking my OB about it today to see if she had any recommendations. She basically just said, "The entire practice is great and you can't go wrong with any of them," which is good to know but didn't really help me narrow. She did offer the following advice:

1. Location. At some point you are going to have to drive there in a snowstorm with a sick child. You don't want to have to go far.

2. You aren't picking a pediatrician, you're picking a practice. You do need a primary pedi and you will see him/her for well visits, but if your kid has an ear infection, you're going to see whoever is available.

My research turned up the following additional advice:

1. Find out which hospital the pedi is affiliated with and see if it is convenient/you are comfortable taking your kid there.

2. Are there evening/weekend hours if needed?

3. If your doctor has his/her own practice, who backs him/her up when unavailable?

In the Boston area, I simply don't worry about LGBT friendliness -- I just assume people will be, and I've yet to be proven wrong. Pennsylvania is a little more conservative, but in the Philly area I think you'll be fine.

I gather it's not uncommon to interview pedis. That said, I doubt we will. I think we're going to pick whichever one of the 6 we like best from online bios and leave it at that. If we don't like him/her, we'll switch.

Also, I've heard it can be advantageous to have a pedi affiliated with the hospital you deliver at, but I'm not sure exactly why.

KH826 · February 2014

Thanks for so many great responses so quickly! I am going to discuss all of this with my wife tonight. I would like to make it a goal for February to have this process completed and have a pedi ready to go!

2brides · February 2014

Tips/advice in general for picking a pediatrician?Asked friends and asked members of our multiples group. Also looked at their site to see about their policies (sick/walk-in/advice nurses/etc.)
Did you meet/interview possible pediatricians first (is this common?, if I ask for this will people think I am crazy?)No, they are called prenatal visits and ppl do they all the time. Our practice had a designated date/time each month for these interviews. We did it.
Did you specifically seek out an LGBT friendly practice? What is your experience with this? No. I have no idea if they had other gay families (I know they do now since we've referred friends.) We stuck with a former resident at the practice where I work (too far from home) who was younger and had no issues. We've seen other peds in the practice with varying results. Our 7y physicals were a disaster because the (new to us) doc pretty much ignored L. We wrote a letter, but I don't think we sent it. We gave good thought to transferring their care to where I work, but it is really not convenient. It has taught us to stick to the ped we love and only schedule with her. When they (rarely) go for sick visits it is typically just one of us taking them and it doesn't come up.
What is something you wish you had known or done differently when selecting a pediatrician? There are lists of questions out there for you to ask that are helpful. Find a practice that is convenient since driving in traffic with a sick kid stinks.

JGY · February 2014

I'm going to go free-form in my response here, I'm running out of time in my day but wanted to mention a few things since I think we did something a little bit different:

We chose to go with a Family Practice group rather than a Pediatrician. We did this for a few reasons; this is the team that did our initial insems prior to us moving to an RE so we knew they were LGBT friendly. Also, this is the team that we both transferred our primary care to once they were in our network, because we think so highly of them.

Overall I've found it helpful that they know us (the parents) from a health perspective as well as our child. I believe we can also schedule successive visits if we want, in other words take care of the whole family all at once. We will likely take them up on that option in the future but it's nice to know that if we all get sick we can all be seen at one time.

Things I haven't liked to so much about the choice we made, are that they don't deal with babies all day every day. They certainly know what they're doing, but they don't already have a well-researched stance on every issue that I might bring up. They are always great about getting back to us with answers, but I sometimes wish we had a little bit more expertise at the ready. They don't seem to have their finger on the pulse, so to speak.

Back to the good stuff for a sec, it's totally awesome how much they fawn over Gabe every time we bring him in since they DON'T see babies all day every day.

Other things to consider, and have been mentioned above, are location, parking, and hours. Our Dr's office was always an easy and quick drive from our house ... until we had a sick and screaming (and hungry) kiddo in the rear-facing carseat in back. For this reason ALONE I am thinking about switching practices. If possible, you HAVE to find a clinic that has easy, convenient (and hopefully free) parking. Those car seats are NO JOKE to carry as your kid grows. Lastly I would highly recommend finding a clinic with some extended evening and weekend hours. There's just only so much work any one person can miss to take their kid to the Dr. And those well-baby checks really add up. Our clinic offers evening hours twice a week, but especially as your baby gets into that 6mo-5yr age range those evening hours start to conflict with the necessary routines of dinner and bed. Weekends would be way more convenient.

Good luck! We totally avoided interviews by going with a known entity, so I'm curious to hear how that goes for you guys.

valeriegp · February 2014

Tips/advice in general for picking a pediatrician?

Lots of good pointers here. You just have to decide what is important to you. We wanted a clinic with more than one doctor, affiliated with good hospitals in the area, emergency hours and after hours lines. We also went with a man because we hope that he will be our pediatrician for our son's entire childhood, and as a two-mom family we felt it was important he have a male doctor to talk to about various issues.

Did you meet/interview possible pediatricians first (is this common?, if I ask for this will people think I am crazy?)

We did this and were very glad we did. Not all pedis will do it. Ours did it at lunch time once day a week. We had a couple of "tester" questions to gauge what we thought of the doctor. One was about circumcision. There was no right or wrong answer, but it was important to us how he answered it. We both went and made it clear that we were a couple, and when he openly talked about that and his experience with same-sex couples without our prompting him, it made us feel very comfortable.

Did you specifically seek out an LGBT friendly practice? What is your experience with this?

Yes! We solicited recommendations from our local LGBT parenting listserv and then researched the recommendations.

Edit: this is totally messed up the numbering, but hopefully you can wade through it!

KH826 · February 2014

I found a practice that I think I like that is both affiliated with the hospital where I will deliver and within a 20 minute drive from our house. They are a relatively small practice with only 4 doctors, but many nurses and nurse practitioners. I liked their website and they have "prenatal appointments" offered several times a month in the evening to go meet with them. They also offer classes and workshops periodically. I like them - I think they are on the top of my list. I sent my wife the link and hopefully we will discuss tonight. Progress! Thanks all for making this daunting task a little easier!

Jazibel · February 2014

@KH826 - it sounds like the practice you're considering is very well rounded. I like that they offer classes, great plus.

We've had two good pediatricians and a Naturopath doctor so far. We keep in contact with the Naturopath via Skype and our new pediatrician is just great. I like that their office has a "sick" entrance and a "well" entrance, so my healthy baby doesn't have to hang out amidst the germs. Their staff is also very helpful, always answers the phone, etc.

I met with our original pediatrician (in our previous hometown) before Kaden was born to discuss the post-birth plan, vaccines, etc. I felt so much comfortable knowing we'd both be on the same page. And he was very supportive of our more alternative approach to care.

Our current doctor is also great and spends a good amount of time with Kaden, offering advice and feedback and more "natural" suggestions to dealing with our current issue (his eczema). I also like that they offer evening and weekend hours and are affiliated with our local hospital in case of emergencies (in fact they're in an adjacent building).

I like this office a little better because I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes (over 2 check-up visits).

Good Luck finding the right practice.

Belovedvirgo0209 · February 2014

We take Adasyn to the CHKD ( Childrens hospital of kings daughters) office and we love them.She sees the same Dr. and doesnt get passed around and her doctor is very respectful of our family and relationship and speaks to both of us as her parent, some places will kind of ignore the non bio parent.They have Saturday hours for emergencies and Dr.Cummings is great dealing with Addy lol sometimes she can stubborn and wont let the Dr examine her.We plan on using Dr.Cummings when Averie is born as well.Good luck and dont be afraid to try a few doctors interviewing is great but you also want to see how they interact with your child as well

Picking a Pediatrician?!?!

Re: Picking a Pediatrician?!?!

Choose Another Board

Search Boards