Pediatricians

How are you finding your pediatrician, and when are you starting to look? My ob suggested I do this early on, so I have one less thing to worry about. I have gotten recommendations. Did you interview them? What kind of questions did you ask?

Re: Pediatricians

I am doing this now. I asked all my friends with children for theirs and how they like them plus my sisters and i will narrow it down from there.

Re: Pediatricians

I started around 34 or so weeks - i just did a search for doctors who accepted my insurance - and set up consultations to meet with them personally and learn about their practice, office hours, emergency calls procedure etc....
Basically i wanted to find someone I felt comfortable with - since this baby is the first in the family - i really didn't have too many recommendations but i did find a peditrician that is close to my house and the practice seems like a good one - so im looking forward to using them soon.

Re: Pediatricians

I asked friends and coworkers that lived in my area for recos. I also asked on the parenting board for recos in my area. Then I made an appt with one I really felt strongly about and really liked them. It's worked out very well so far.

ETA: I asked stuff like:
* how they felt about breastfeeding (I wanted to try and wanted a ped. who was supportive of that. It didn't work out for me, but I didn't know that then)
* their schedule for innoculations and if I didn't want my child to get one what the office policy was
* office hours, what happens if I need them when the office is closed
* what kind of first aid stuff should I have on hand
* how often they would want to see us the first year for well baby visits
* what they looked for when they checked on the baby in the hosptial when it was first born
* would it be a problem if I needed to call for help in basic baby care in the first few weeks, since this was the first baby in my family in a long time (and I ended up calling the second day she was home)

Message edited 2/16/2006 8:14:16 PM.

Re: Pediatricians

I just looked into the one in town and she is also a parishioner at our church. She takes our ins and is affiliated at our hospital.

I opted not to meet with her before. I rather wait to see how I like her when the baby is born.

Re: Pediatricians

I called the hospital we are delivering at and they sent me a booklet of all their affiliated DR's. That is how I found my midwife and am happy with her. Plus I've been asking around too.

One of the most important things we want in a Pediatrician is that they have a separate sick room! We don't want our daughter in the same room as sick kids if she is just going in for a regular checkup. We also want someone who is not going to shove mediations, antibiotics, etc down her throat for every ailment. And it is important for us to have someone who supports breast feeding.