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Guest blogger Jaime Bedrin is a Journalism professor at Columbia University and Montclair State University. She's a mom of two very active boys.
There’s a lot at stake when it comes to choosing a pediatrician. You’re going to rack up many visits during those first few years of your kids' lives -- when they're healthy and when they're not. So, it's a good idea to feel comfortable with whomever you choose to care for your little snot factory.
When my husband and I were looking for a pediatrician for our first-born son, we asked friends who they recommended. Then we set up a prenatal consultation with that practice. We liked all the doctors in the practice. But we especially liked the convenient location. It was a good fit all around.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Sometimes parents clash with their children’s doctors. A lot of this could be avoided with research. Figure out what’s a deal breaker and what’s negotiable. For example, do you need to be able to email your physician or are you okay calling the office? My current practice does not use email to communicate with patients. I wish it did. However, my practice is staffed 365 days a year. And every weekday there are sick children walk-in hours from 7:30-8:30 with no appointment necessary. Genius!
Here are other questions to consider before signing on with a practice:
What happens when your physician is away? Is there a back-up doctor?
Is the office staff helpful?
How long does it take to reach your doctor?
Are you and the physician on the same page when it comes to vaccines? Some have very strict policies about vaccines, so it's better to find out before you’ve committed to a practice.
Where are the admitting privileges?
Is there a sick child waiting room?
Can you access and download health records online?
Bottom line: Ask around. Talk to your friends and their friends about their doctors. Trust your gut. And if you are unhappy, change. Chances are, you will be there a lot, so you want to be happy.
Tomorrow I meet with hopefully the pediatrician that is going to be Caroline's doctor. I had a list of things that I wanted to ask him. But for the life of me I can't remember anything besides what his views are on exclusively breast feeding till 6 months. Why pregnancy brain?why?
Hailey had her first Dr.'s appt on August 17, 2012. The day seemed to start out pretty good as we got to the office on time and Hailey was asleep. After we got put in a room, a nurse instructed us to strip her down to only a clean diaper. The second I finished putting on a clean diaper, we heard her let out a huge load. Evan and I just looked at each other smiling and just knew this was going to be an interesting appointment. She was very fussy after the diaper change and was clearly rooting so the nurses suggested that I feed her. They weighed her before the feeding and would weigh her again afterward to see the weight gain to make sure she was getting enough to eat.
Now for the last couple days, all I had really been producing was colostrum. Of course, my milk would come in while I was at the Dr.'s office, totally unprepared. I go about the normal routine of getting Hailey to latch on and she does. After about 30 seconds, she unlatches and I see this stream of milk just shooting out (apologies to my non-mumblrs for the TMI). It's coming out so fast and it's so unexpected that I have to idea how to react. I take my free hand and cup it trying to catch the milk that's just coming out. Evan is laughing at me as I sit there holding our daughter with one hand and a small puddle of milk in the other hand. Finally after composing himself a bit, he hands me some tissue and I just put it in the hand with the milk. Oh, I forgot to mention that the doctor walked in right as this was happening. She saw that I was trying to feed Hailey and asked when my milk came in. I was honest as said, "um....just now!" She was like "oh...well i'll let you feed her and i'll come back in 10 minutes."
Though hilarious, this was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Hailey fed for about 10 minutes and afterwards they weighed her and she gained 2 oz. The doctor checked her out and everything looked great. Though quite eventful, it was all-in-all a successful doctor visit. We couldn't have been more happy to hear that Hailey was doing well and was growing.
