repost on questions to ask pediiatrition

"Larry McMahan" wrote in message
...
daisy writes:
: Hi
: I posted this question a couple of days ago and didnt seem to get any
: responce, Im thinking that my server may have been down, or I asked it
in a
: confusing way.

: DH and I are meeting our babys pediatrition tomorrow (Im 36 1/2 weeks
along
: with our first and hes a boy) and I dont know what questions to ask him.
: Does anyone have a list of questions they asked their pediatrition?
: TIA
: Daisy


OK. I have to admit skipping over your post the first time, mainly
because
I don't have a good set of questions to ask, even though I know what I
would
want out of a doctor for my child. A lot of it has to do (for me) with
how
much personal responsibility I take for parenting my child, and how much
"advice" I am willing to take from a ped. ...

Do you plan to breastfeed? If so, then I think it would be important for
a
pediatrician to support your choice. But again, how long and how much is
that support going to hold out. This becomes much more apparent in the
office environment when the baby is seeing the doctor than it does with a
simple question.

What are your views on vaccination? Do you plan to accept every one
unquestioningly, or do you plan to skip or delay any? (we skipped some
and
delayed others significantly) Will your pediatriciaon be OK with that?
Have
you even done the research yet to know what your view is?

What are your views of what constititutes a well baby, staying on the
weight
curve, supplementing or not, and how important are these to you? Would
you
rather
a. aquiesce
b. keep quite and do your own thing,
c. confront, or
d. find a new pediatrician

I really think this is just to involved and complicated a question to
answer
without a) knowing your views on what you want, and b) having some long
and
involved discussions over child rearing philosophy?

What are you doing for the next 3 1/2 weeks? :-)

Larry


Hi Larry,
It looks like I will have a busy 3 1/2 weeks reading up on child rearing
philosophy, hu? : )

I do plan on breastfeeding, but why would the Dr be concerned about that if
he didnt agree? and what dr wouldnt agree to that? I think that I probably
wouldnt feel comfortable with a dr that thought that was a bad thing.

I do hope they give us info on vaccinations. Im assuming that nothing will
be forced on us if we decide not to vaccinate as much as they say.
Thanks,
Daisy

"Sue" wrote in message
...
Hi Daisy,

The things that are important to me in a pediatrician a

1. Separate waiting rooms for sick and well children.
2. Same day, preferable ASAP, sick appointments for really sick kids.
3. A separate nurse line to call and ask questions.
4. A doctor that will call you back the same day (they usually can't until
after their patient's are seen for the day) unless it is an emergency and
I
need to talk to them now.
5. Courteous and helfpul staff.
6. Ask what the typical waiting time is. If you go there and the waiting
room is full and they end up sitting there for a long time, you probably
don't want to go there.
It would help if the doctor was breastfeeding friendly and know something
about it, so they don't go offering formula at the slightest problem.
Other
than that, the best you can do is go there and see if it is a good fit and
if it isn't, then you will have to find another one. I asked friends with
kids for who they used, your OB/GYN, midwife could give you some names of
good doctors I bet. For us though, I asked my first daughter's specialists
on who would be a good pediatrician and I got a great recommendation.
--
Sue
mom to three girls

daisy wrote in message
...
Hi
I posted this question a couple of days ago and didnt seem to get any
responce, Im thinking that my server may have been down, or I asked it
in
a
confusing way.

DH and I are meeting our babys pediatrition tomorrow (Im 36 1/2 weeks
along
with our first and hes a boy) and I dont know what questions to ask him.
Does anyone have a list of questions they asked their pediatrition?
TIA
Daisy



Thank you for the really helpful list.
Daisy

"Truffles" wrote in message
...
daisy wrote:

Hi
I posted this question a couple of days ago and didnt seem to get any
responce, Im thinking that my server may have been down, or I asked it
in a
confusing way.

DH and I are meeting our babys pediatrition tomorrow (Im 36 1/2 weeks
along
with our first and hes a boy) and I dont know what questions to ask him.
Does anyone have a list of questions they asked their pediatrition?

Sorry. I can't help you because we just see GP's in our neck of the
woods. Paediatricians are considered specialists here.

I just didn't want you to think you're being ignored. :-)

ditto

--
Marie
Mum to DD5, DS3 and due #3 July '03

Hi Daisy,

You strike me as a very honest and straightforward person, but perhaps
just a bit naive about what goes on in the real workd. :-) if you don't
mind me making the remark. I am not saying this to be critical, but to
say I think it is important for you to get personally educated on as many
topics as possible, and not to rely on the good will of those you deal with
in a professional (or even personal) basis. :-)

Often, even if they have an honest desire to help you, thier views and
background may be enough different from yours so they they will *asume*
that you want or need something different from what you actually require.
In these cases it is best to be educated so that you an confront their
substandard choices with solid evidence. See more below in specific topics.

First, though let me say that unles you *really* want to, you do not have
to repond to each poster in your thread individually. It is ok to read
5 or 6 posts, then post an update that summarizes your response to all of
them. This is expecially OK when we are a very redundant group and all
say the same thing, which is often. :-)

daisy writes:

: Hi Larry,
: It looks like I will have a busy 3 1/2 weeks reading up on child rearing
: philosophy, hu? : )

Uh, yeah. Somebody suggest some good books. Since I'm so pig headed and
single minded, I haven't bothered to collect a good library. :-)

: I do plan on breastfeeding, but why would the Dr be concerned about that if
: he didnt agree? and what dr wouldnt agree to that? I think that I probably
: wouldnt feel comfortable with a dr that thought that was a bad thing.

This is the first area where my "naive" comment came from. To shorten a long
story, the resurgence of breastfeeding is a relatively recent phenomenon, and
there are a lot of practicing doctors who were raised in the era when the
feeding of formula was thought to be just as good. Many of these will give
lip service to bf, but when difficulties arise, the first thing they will
suggest is supplementation with formula. I don't think you are going to weed
these out by asking them if they support breastfeeding. If the doctor is a
woman you might ask her how LONG she breastfed. Anything over 2 years is
good! :-)

As far as getting educated goes, I think you should subscribe to
misc.kids.breastfeeding. You WILL run into unexpected problems, it WILL be
teriffically hard for the first 2 to 6 weeks. There are LOTS of tricks and
ways to cope until you get good at it and the mother over there know ALL
of the techinques to succeed. :-)

: I do hope they give us info on vaccinations. Im assuming that nothing will
: be forced on us if we decide not to vaccinate as much as they say.

This is the second comment that made me think you might perhaps be a little
optimistic. :-) A doctor is often going to have an agenda in thsi area, and
what they tell you is what they are going to want you to hear. If you want
objective information in this area, you are going to have to do the research
yourself. There is a lot of information out there, and much of it is conflicting.
You will have to study a lot. For us, we delayed chicken pox until 4 yearsw,
we are delaying Hep B until 12 years, we insisted on the killed poilo vaccine
first (which is now the standard, but not then), and we delayed MMR until 3
years. I think each parent has to read the research and make up their own
minds.

: Thanks,
: Daisy

There are a lot of other things, but time is short and I can't thing of them
right now. Get on over to m.k.b.

Good luck,
Larry

"daisy" wrote in message ...
....

I do hope they give us info on vaccinations. Im assuming that nothing will
be forced on us if we decide not to vaccinate as much as they say.
Thanks,
Daisy

No one can physically force you to vaccinate your children but public
schools in the US require proof of proper vaccination for enrollment.