Family Practice vs Pediatrician

Mrs.Cooley2bee · December 2008

Opinions needed. I was thinking I would just take the baby to the family doctor I go to. What do you all think? Thanks in advance for the help!

kel716 · December 2008

We love our pediatrician, and I did think about taking Brandon to my fam doc. However, he's in Montgomery and I'm in Eastgate. We found one in Eastgate because I know how much we're going to be in and out for the first 2 years. I'm really glad we did because I feel much more comfortable with our pedi and I feel like she knows baby issues, which a family doc may not. I think that's the most important thing-- how comfortable are you with your family doc because you have to talk to them about all sorts of embarassing things???

A friend of mine uses a family doc and is very happy with them. However, her son has had zero med issues and even she has said that if he did, she'd probably find a pedi because they just don't know as much.

Meg41208 · December 2008

I thought about taking ours to our family doc, but hesitated because they only have one waiting room and having my new baby in there with sick old people kind of freaks me out.

nire99 · December 2008

My pediatrician is married to my family doctor so I felt kind of guilty for going that route, but I really prefer having someone that only works with kids. It also helped that our pediatrician has 9 kids of her own and I love how she'll give me medical advice and then real life mom advice too. I'd recommend interviewing a few of each to see who you're comfortable with.

cat81305 · December 2008

IMO, I think babies need pediatricians. I feel that they need someone who has their main focus on children. My cousin takes hers to a family doctor and he says total opposite of what my friends and my pedi says. It is almost like he is not educated much in babies or is not comfortable in treating babies. With that said, I know every doctor and pedi has different beliefs and methods so not one is any better than another. Go with your gut feeling :-)

little-peanut · December 2008

I take DS to my family practitioner and have no regrets on not choosing a pediatrician. I love my doc and feel totally comfortable with him. He even has 6 kids of his own, so he has seen a lot. I go to a group on the west side and there is a pediatrician in the group. I feel comfortable that if anything were to come up that needed the attention of a pediatrician, or any other specialist, we are in good hands there. In fact, we are seeing a pediatric ENT tomorrow morning! Good luck with your decion. I know many people have strong feelings either way.

adamsbabble · December 2008

If you really love your family practice, I see nothing wrong with that. I'm not in love with mine, but I'm also not there often enough to care about switching, so I decided to just look for a pediatric practice I really liked for DD. Perhaps if I do ever switch to another family practice, I will consider switching our DC too.

deeregirl31 · December 2008

I agree with cat, I take Rylee to a pedi just because I feel more comfortable since she only works with kids. My cousin takes her kids to her family doc and she says the complete opposite as my pedi, but that just might be her family doc.

Megs&Nick · December 2008

We decided to use a family doc over a pedi. He is board certified in pediatrics as well so I guess he is not just a true GP. After meeting with him and not being happy with our current doctor, DH and I have decided to transfer our records to his office as well so he will be treating the whole family. I like that he will get to know all of us and will be aware of our medical history in treating Allie. He is fantastic with Allie and has young children of his own so he's up on all of the current issues facing kids and parents these days. His office is also right across the street from our house which makes it nice. I grew up going to a GP doctor instead of a pedi so using a pedi only wasn't a huge issue to me. It's an individual decision so you have to find what's right for your family.

Meg41208 · December 2008

Megs&Nick:
I grew up going to a GP doctor instead of a pedi so using a pedi only wasn't a huge issue to me. It's an individual decision so you have to find what's right for your family.

I did too, and if I still lived there I would take DD to him because he was a good doctor (he even told my dad that it was too bad that I don't live there because the he would see her and he's not even taking new patients). I feel just okay about my GP practice- the doctor I would want the baby to see hardly ever has appointments and generally when you call in for anything they try to schedule you with the nurse practitioner whose judgement I question for many reasons. Also, it seems like there are always really sick people in the waiting room and I would hate to take the baby in for well baby exams and have to be in the germy waiting room with her. So we are taking our baby to the pediatrics practice that DH went to when he was a kid.

MrsMoher · December 2008

We use a family doc for E. Personally I am on the fence. It depends on the doctor. If we had a different doc at the same practice I would be fine with it. Our doc ALWAYS runs an hour or 2 behind. It is rediculous. Plus he changes his schedule last minute A LOT which means a ton of reschedules, but I think it is just the particular doctor we use at that practice. The others aren't like that.

But then again I am not the type to go to the doc a lot myself and tend to do the same with E. However I do wish I had a dedicated doc. We don't get to see the same doc each time and get different info from different docs, but imagine a pedi practice would do the same.

Like some previous posters I like that he treats my family (in fact DH and I happened to go to teh same practice before marriage and the docs there know our families and what specific problems we have, back to great grandparents in some cases for DS). Additionally the docs there can write me a prescription if DS and I both have something. And I also was a GP baby, no pedi for me as a kid!

Family Practice vs Pediatrician

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