Hellobee Boards

I looked for a woman who was a former chief resident who was a few years ahead of me in school but also likely to be up on the latest and greatest. I asked all my colleagues who they recommended and a few names kept coming up. I then looked for a practice where I was going to like the other docs in case I had to see them. Voila, only one person fit my criteria!

@HabesBabe: You can still ask friends for recommendations and if the same names keep coming up, you are likely on the right track!

@Mrsdaredevil: Are there really pediatricians who don't support breastfeeding? (Serious question here... just wondering). Ours even had a part time lactation consultant in the office.

We picked ours because it was the practice my OB kept recommending as "the best", and I trust my OB. We interviewed them and liked them.

I asked for recos from co-workers, online (local bump boards might be a good resource for this one!) etc.
Lots of pediatricians have monthly pre-natal visits, and some have certain days and times set aside for you to walk through the office, meet with a pediatrician etc.

My OB also gave us a list of pediatricians in the area along with their hours, if there's a LC on staff. My OB also gave me recommendations on which ones from the list she has heard good things about from her patients.

Ultimately we chose based on location, whether we clicked with the ped and their stance on vaccinations/medications.

Note though that even if you choose a specific pediatrician if it's from a group practice the ped that will check your baby at the hospital will likely be whomever is on call. That was fine with us because we wanted at least someone from our peds office to be with our baby from the beginning.

I'm lucky that my two best friends use the same pediatricians office, and referred my sister there when we were all noticing something wasn't right with her 1 year old son (mom didn't see it) and they immediately diagnosed him with autism. His old pedi didn't pick up on the signs at all. Scary!

I started with google/yelp/citysearch/friend reviews and then narrowed by insurance, and then narrowed again by location/interviews/meet-and-greets.