Developmental Pediatrician - What’s the point?

[Anonymous]

My child is autistic, with diagnosis by neuropsych. The developmental pediatrician has been helpful to help us prioritize therapies (we can't do everything) and has helped us brainstorm solutions to behavioral problems. Because he sees her more often than the neuropsych, he's been the first to catch mental health issues, including anxiety. He also does med management, which saves us adding a psychiatrist to the team.

[Anonymous]

The developmental pediatrician gave us the ASD diagnosis that we needed for insurance to start covering services. We were already in Infants and Toddlers and we were told that their psychologist’s diagnosis would also suffice for insurance purposes. Other than that we just have an annual visit.

[Anonymous]

You've already had one start school so I'm assuming you have been through the IEP process? You are going to want that Dev Ped relationship if the school system starts pushing back on services etc. That said, our DP, did the same things as part of our visits, but did copious note taking, spent an hour with us each time, had an awesome bedside manner and was willing to help with letter writing and referrals for other school and medical needs.

If you find someone better and your insurance pays for it, is it bad to have an extra ally on this journey?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our insurance required it to pay for services but otherwise it was pointless like you are saying.

This. The developmental pediatrician was the one who kept the tap flowing in terms of resources covered by insurance. They also provided reports that were useful for qualifying for services under an IEP. Most of what they did was useless, but they were able to quantify the delays in a way that others accepted as the basis for providing services.

[Anonymous]

Our oldest was a preemie and the developmental pediatrician would keep track of when he caught up to his actual age peers. It was helpful.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you, it was totally pointless for us. Metro DC dev pediatricians take MONTHS to an appointment. In our case, it was 10 months before we saw a CNMC doctor. We were doing therapies for those 10 months. She gave us a diagnosis which we already knew and then milked our insurance for a lot of money. We still ended up paying that office almost $500.

[Anonymous]

For our very premature child the developmental pediatrician was the one who did regular testing to make sure they were on track and when they were not on track she provided referrals for assistance.

I found it really helpful.

[Anonymous]

There used to be a developmental ped at Childrens who told EVERY parent that their kid watched too much screentime and that there should be no tv, ipad, etc etc, implying that it was affecting their development. No, Paw Patrol didn't give my kid autism, but it certainly saved my sanity.

Developmental ped at KKI missed Autism DX twice.