Hellobee Boards

My OB actually suggested her pedi and I just went with it! And now that I've seen her a few times, I LOVE her and am glad I did!

You could always do some research on-line and then maybe interview some. But I'm not really sure how to go about doing that since I didn't do it!

We found ours by accident. Prior to giving birth, I had no idea about a ped but when LO was born she was tongue-tied and the hospital on-call ped was the one who was going to look after LO and in speaking to him (we were in and out of the hospital several days in a row due to LO's dropping weight and my inability to BF properly for the first week), he mentioned his practice and that he and his clinic were accepting new patients. He's great!

We started with online research and referrals from friends and co-workers. Then we narrowed that down to 3 options and set up meet-n-greets with the top two. If you end up picking someone you don't agree with down the road, you at least have some backup options in the wings based on your search.

I'm in the same boat right now. I asked my midwife for recommendations, and I'm researching those. I also plan on posting the question to a local mother's group I joined. None of my friends have kids yet, so I can't go that route.

I think it's important to know what you want from a pediatrician when you start your search. For instance, ask about wait times, how easy it is to get a day of appointment, etc. I'm interested in delayed vaccination, so that plays a big part of what I plan on asking.

Friend referral. Didn't even meet her before. Figured if it didn't work, I would only know after we were knee-deep in baby issues. The office lady gave me a lot of info ahead of time (well baby visits are kept separate from sick baby visits, etc) but I didn't really feel strongly about things I wanted in a ped, either...just that a LOT of the nurses at a local hospital use her, so I know she has to be good!

I waited until about 37 weeks and then panicked! My insurance is so limited, so DH and I posted a plea to our friends for recs on Facebook. Then I had my insurance website open and narrowed it down to who was covered, then went through and read reviews and narrowed it down further based on those and what we wanted out of a pedi (not a huge practice, a more personal approach, close to home, etc). We really love ours now! Good luck

We picked the same pedi as my nephew goes to. My brother said they really liked her, so we decided to go with her as well and love her too!

I wanted a practice with a lot of doctors since our last experience sucked.

I researched the practice and settled on one that was in the town we were moving to. I called and asked who was accepting new patients and we were offered a choice of a few docs. I didn't do any interviews or anything and it's turned out to be the best decision I've made.

We also have the option to do the walk in clinic, which is part of the practice, so we can just walk in on weekends or whenever we can't get in to see our doc. LOVE that option.

I started searching for offices in our town (we're a small town, so the selection here is limited) on our health insurance website. I jotted down a couple of names at a satellite clinic through the same hospital that I received my prenatal care/delivered at, and called and asked to meet them. The receptionist gushed about the first one I asked about, said she wished she could be her doctor, etc, and set up a time that I could meet her.

I went in with a list of questions regarding things like her feelings on vaccinations/vaccine schedules, circumcision, sleep training, feeding, and the use of antibiotics for normal things like ear infections. At the time we had a general idea of how we wanted to parent, and if her opinions/feelings on topics that were very important to me were starkly different from mine I would have moved on and talked to someone else. But I LOVED her. She instantly put me, and later DH (and now DS) at ease.

But while I love her I don't particularly like her practice, though. It's a perfectly ordinary clinic, but when I imagined a pedi's office I pictured something a bit brighter. With toys. Especially those ones with the beads on the wire tracks. They have some books and some small decals up on the wall, but that's it. And there's no separation of well/sick baby. You should think about whether or not things like that are important to you.

But as I said, we're in a small town, and a good amount of the pedi's that work here work there so our options are limited. It's within walking distance of our house, and that's important since most days I'm without a car (i.e. we can't go to other town). And we do LOVE Dr. Heidi.

i wanted my pedi's office to be very close by, so i googled and yelped based on our home address. i had it narrowed down to 2 reputable places, and my coworker had used one of them so i just chose that one. it's 5 minutes away, which i appreciate..

I asked friends, and looked at things that were important to me - separate well and sick waiting areas, Saturday and Sunday hours, and a nearby location. I also knew the one we had in mind has two small children, so I knew he'd be up to date on health info. I noticed they had a lot of philosophies posted on their website that we agree with so we went for it. I LOVE our pedi!

We also went through friend referrals. If you find a doctor you really like, you might want to ask specifically about the care provider's insurance policy even if they're outside of your network. This happened to us - we decided to use a pediatrician outside of our network and were prepared to pay on our own, but for whatever reason, our insurance covered all of the visits!

I googled/ looked in our insurances list. Went in for a meet and greet and that's how we picked ours. 16 months later and we still love ours.