Peds...

MyLuvBugs wrote: Do you like your pediatrician?

Do they listen to you?

Do they seem to care about you and your child?

I'm just curious if anyone else has ever questioned their ped like I do.

coasterqueen replied: Do I like my PED? Yes and No. He's breastfeeding friendly but highly UNDER educated on the subject which drives me batty. Who's the one getting paid so much to be the doctor? I shouldn't be the one educating him. His wife did BF all their children, though. I also have issues with him on vax, but we deal. He is great w/everything, though. He respects my wishes when it comes to vax and BF and HE is the one who actually educated me on solids to begin with. I LOVE LOVE the fact that he knows it's the right thing to do to wait til 6 months with solids. He did try to push them with Megan though with her reflux so there again, he was undereducated on teh subject.

Does he listen? Yes. We have a great partnership in the health of my children. We respect each other's opinions and work together as a team to ensure the health of my girls. Couldn't ask for anything better. I know I could find someone who is completely on my side with views, but I want someone that has a bit different views than I, so we can both become educated and decide together what's right.

Do they seem to care? Most definitely.

Now I don't like the fact that my PED is a Cub fan. That one REALLY made DH and I think about if we wanted him to be an influence in our children's lives but we decided we'd 'deal' as best we could with that. Seeing our PED during baseball season can get a bit sticky but we manage to survive each other during the visits.

MamaJAM replied: Do you like your pediatrician?
We use a local group of peds...and see all of the docs in the group. I like them well enough - there are issues I have with the office-staff...but also feel a bit 'trapped' as the few other local peds really turn me off.
Do they listen to you?
Some of the docs in the group defiantely listen a bit more than others.
Do they seem to care about you and your child?
All of the docs in the group definately care about the kids. Some deal better with the parents than others. If I didn't think one of the docs really cared about my child I'd refuse to use that particular doc...and if I ever felt that way about the group - I'd leave.
I'm just curious if anyone else has ever questioned their ped like I do.
My kids' health care is MY responsiblity...therefore I don't just trust a doc to know what's right all the time. I make darn sure my concerns are addressed at each visit. I take a list of questions (to well and sick visits) and I won't let the doc leave until _I_ feel they have answered all of my questions and concerns well. If that takes more than the 5 mins they planned to spend with me and my child - tough crap.

Jamison'smama replied: I adore him and am pleased with most of the physicians in the practice. He is less of a co-sleeping friendly doctor--well really he doesn't give his opinion but believes all parents really want their kids out of their beds so he likes to give us tips on how to make that happen.

As far as the healthcare portion---I think he is fantastic--treats both kid's asthma problems with concern and promptness.

CAMSMOM1 replied: The Ped we had at first, I didn't like. He was very short with us. He'd see Cameron for a total of 5 min, hurry...hurry...hurry us out of the room. He wasn't very friendly or seemed to interact much with Cameron. I didn't feel comfortable with him. So when Cam was 6 months, I decided to switch doctors. It was hard, because our Ped had seen him since he was born. But I knew we could get better care somewhere else.
So I asked for recommedations for a new Ped doctor. And I found a great lady. She is very friendly, you can tell she loves her job and working with chidlren, she takes her time to check him out and asks me a lot of questions. And she has called me on the phone to check up on Cameron. I feel 100 % better with her, then I did with the first doctor.
I felt like I am paying good money to have a Ped, I might as well feel like they are doing their job. So if you don't like your Ped, and have issues with him...I would suggest finding another one.
Ann

coasterqueen replied:
That's mine. I think doctors believe they should give parenting advice because so many parents seek it from their doctors. I never understood that. Why would someone ask their doctors for parenting advice?

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
I ask my ped about parenting advice sometimes and feel that as a parent, it's my responsibility to take what I want from what they offer. It's a take it or leave it situation IMO. If it's completely against my method of doing things and they're forcing me to change, well then yes, I suppose it would be difficult to be with that doc, but I figure their opinion is their opinion and I can walk away with what I want. As long as they don't force it on me, I'm there to listen, but that's just me.

I do like my doctor. We are seeing a new ped in the group since the old one moved to a new office. The new one is a little more pushy on vacs than I would like her to be, but she respects my wishes and that's really all I ask for. For everything else, she treats Wil really well! And yes, she does listen. I too believe the parent and ped relationship should truly be a team. Peds know we moms know our kids best, so I personally don't think it works if I was the type of parent who just went in to have the ped tell me exactly what to do and then go do it because the doc said so, kwim? There's been plenty of times a ped has said it's time for an antibiotic and I said no. Thank god we have choices.

coasterqueen replied:
And I think that's your right to ask. I just don't see why people do. To me my PED is no different than asking any other parent for advice, it's just that people think that a PED's parenting advice must be the right advice because they are doctors or something. They didn't go to school to learn how to parent, therefore they are not anymore an expert than any other parent. It's the people that follow their advice, like "my ped says my child should be sleeping all night now, or my child should be sleeping in their own bed" etc that I do not understand. Whether a child sleeps in their bed or their parents bed has nothing to do with medical opinion/expertise IMO.

MyLuvBugs replied: Ok. So you all seem to enjoy your Peds.....But have you ever just gotten a vibe that says "I don't know about this person"? maybe I'm just being paranoid, but Lorelei's new Ped seems nice and she's a mom herself, but I just got a vibe.....I don't know how to describe it anyother way.....

She seemed to listen, but I couldn't tell if she was actually listening or just skimming what I was saying. I dont' know....

coasterqueen replied: If you are getting a vibe, I'd say get a new one. Follow your instincts .

kit_kats_mom replied: Do you like your pediatrician? Love him. He's awesome.

Do they listen to you? Yes he does. He's also very knowlegable about different styles of parenting and supportive of your decisions as long as they won't harm the child.

Do they seem to care about you and your child? Yep

MamaJAM replied:
If you're getting a vibe - definately look/ask around for a new ped.

Guess I shouldn't have just answered this question about our CURRENT ped.....we did leave another ped years back. It was one doc in a small office of his own -- the office staff was really nice. The doc had been recommended to us. We did see him for a few years with DD#1. We were new to this parenting-thing and kind of relied on him for a bit....he was older. Then I started realizing that he NEVER LISTENED to me. He also gave me the same 'speech' at every visit about "strong-willed children and strong-willed parents... " Thing is - DD#1 was the most easy-going child I have ever met.....NEVER gave us trouble about anything - I have no idea what started him on that - but he never dropped it.

I then asked a few close friends who they used and interviewed a few docs. Ended up choosing the office we're at now because of the one doc - he retired but in the time between we had met a few of the other peds and stayed. Like I said before - I like the doc...some of the staff I could do without.


Anyway - back to you comment -- if you are getting a 'vibe' - trust your instincts and look around for a new ped. Or - if you really like this ped, talk to her about it - maybe she was having a bad day the last time you were there.
Good Luck!