should i find a pediatrician located closer to my work or my house"

[Anonymous]

I am due to have my first baby in august and am unsure if i should try to find a pediatrician closer to my work or to my home? I live in virginia but work in dc....

[Anonymous]

I would suggest you choose one closer to your house - I know that with my son, most of the early visits were sick visits and I wouldn't have wanted to drive in to the city on a day when I was at home with him.

[Anonymous]

Close to home. Think about it the following scenario (which will happen): you call the doc in the middle of the night b/c of a high fever, screaming ear infection, etc. and they tell you to bring the baby in first thing the next morning. Do you really want to battle rush hour traffic? Plus: for well-child visits you'll want to schedule an early morning appt (or else be prepared to wait an eternity while the morning appts run long) --- do you really want to deal with rush hour traffic? FYI, most peds offices are not accomodating if you get stuck in traffic.

[Anonymous]

House, absolutely.

[Anonymous]

House again here. You can always plan well baby visits for first / last visit of the day so you just do it before or after work. It's those sick visits that are really outside the schedule, and if your kid is sick enough to need one of those, chances are they're going to be home.

[Anonymous]

I am assuming you expect your child to be in daycare very near your work -- or else there's no question, it should be home.

Even if your child is in daycare near your work, I would vote home, for all the reasons above. Picture your morning commute, but with a feverish screaming infant or a vomiting toddler. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Home! Home! Home! Assuming your daycare is close to your work. If you child is sick, you will not be able to take him/her to daycare anyway. You will not be very happy having to drive into DC with a sick kid trying to get to the doctor.

[Anonymous]

Depends on whether or not you have a car. For us it was easier to have pediatrician closer to work (DC) because not many pediatricians that we liked were Metro accessible for us in Alexandria. Also my pediatrician is near GWU so if anything happened we could take her there. Also think of a pediatrician's office that if you had to get lab works and other tests that it can be done in the same building so you will not be running everywhere.