what to ask a pediatritian

[Anonymous]

I'm 6 months pregnant and I'm lookking into picking a pediatritian...Can anyone help me with what I need to ask. I'm very concearn when it comes to all the shots and autism...What do I need to look for when choosing a practice? Thanks so much

[Anonymous]

These were the key things I was looking for (and I threw in a couple things I wish I'd thought about)...

1- what are the hours- any weekend/evening hours?
2- how many doctors in the practice and how many usually there each day (speaks to how quickly I can get in)
3- when I have a "need to come in today" thing- how likely is it I can get an appointment?
4- do you have a sick/well child waiting area separated in your practice, and is it really honored?
5- Do you charge for phone calls after hours?
6- are the doctors on any current/active boards, do they lecture, do research (are they up on the latest things or stuck in medieval practices - and are they pretty balanced about their responses - do they dismiss me when I bring up issues like vaccines and autism? Will they honor my requests?
7- if I'm going to/ not going to breastfeed, will they be supportive (I had an overbearing "thou shalt nurse" doctor at the start and she was NOT helpful).
8- how does my child respond to the doctor - obviously this is a post delivery question. Let's just say I'm lucky that my 13 month old son responds well to both of the docs in our practice - makes things a lot easier!
9- Do they provide guidance/milestone type info at the main checkups? That was useful information.
10- convenience of location (a last priority but still a factor)

Those are just a few of the hot items for me. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

There was a thread on this on the original site. If you do a search I am sure you will find tons of great infomration