I don't have any one thing that I need a doctor to be on board with me on. Sure, it'd be great if they supported breastfeeding, and some of the other things I'm on board with, but I'm not one of those parents who isn't going to vaccinate their children at all. If I was, then I would have to search for a doctor with those views.
*Side note: there's nothing wrong with choosing not to vaccinate. In my opinion, I'd like my child's shots to be spread out, but I'm totally not judging whether your child gets 8 shots at one time, or never gets a shot in their life.*
With my midwife appointment last week I decided to meet the pediatrician who was in the same building. The one that I'd been assuming I would take my child to.
I didn't love her.
I didn't love her.
I didn't hate her either.
I don't know the kind of relationship I need/should/want to have with my pediatrician. We didn't totally disagree on any topic, although I will say the moment I mentioned the word vaccine she was very adamant about giving the shots on time with no changes in the schedule. The only other thing was that she didn't understand the concept of baby-led weaning, but seemed adamant about giving rice cereal as a first food, which I'm not sure I'm on board with. She also has a strong accent, which can be hard to understand at times. I hope that doesn't make me sound racist, I'm totally interested in other cultures, but it can be hard to understand people with strong accents, especially when you need to understand what they're saying. She doesn't have any children, but says she has a bunch of nieces and nephews which aren't the same as your own children in my book. Granted, she might not be able to have children, but she loves them and that's why she's a pediatrician, and that's totally understandable.
So once I got home, I figured that I would still use her as our pediatrician and if things didn't work out, I could always switch, right? But then I thought about another pediatrician a friend recommended. She didn't want her son to get any shots, so I thought maybe this pediatrician was more open to other ways of things, specifically with baby-led solids/weaning, so yesterday I called and made an appointment to meet with her. Luckily, Mr. Skinny was headed home early due to a rain day, and that meant he could come with us!
We didn't love her either.
I was kind of expecting a more "hippy-like" doctor, who pushed breastfeeding and natural childbirth. Wrong. She said she should have had 3 c-sections with her 3 9+ lb. babies and if I'm "lucky" enough to have a c-section, I should "praise the Lord." So not what I was expecting. I will say that I liked her more than the first pediatrician, mostly because she seems to give her medical opinion, but then not judge you if you decide to do something different. I mentioned co-sleeping, just to get her opinion and she said something along the lines of "if you want to be a California-sleeping-in-one-bed-family" then good for you, but I couldn't do it. She did mentions that breastfeeding past 9 months was silly, and people who have home births are doing it for attention. So while I don't agree with all that, I think she's more open to other people's opinions than the first pediatrician. She also gives out her cell phone and will take phone calls at any time, which is something the other pediatrician didn't even mention.
Mr. Skinny and I talked about it. Well it was more of a once sided conversation which was along the lines of "what do you think we should do?" "I don't know, whatever you want" But, I think we'll go with the second pediatrician. She's been a pediatrician for 36 years, and raised 3 children. She's gotten multiple awards for being the best pediatrician in our area, and comes with wonderful recommendations. If we don't like her, we could go back to the first pediatrician.
Man, parenting decisions are hard!
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How did you pick your pediatrician?
I don't know the kind of relationship I need/should/want to have with my pediatrician. We didn't totally disagree on any topic, although I will say the moment I mentioned the word vaccine she was very adamant about giving the shots on time with no changes in the schedule. The only other thing was that she didn't understand the concept of baby-led weaning, but seemed adamant about giving rice cereal as a first food, which I'm not sure I'm on board with. She also has a strong accent, which can be hard to understand at times. I hope that doesn't make me sound racist, I'm totally interested in other cultures, but it can be hard to understand people with strong accents, especially when you need to understand what they're saying. She doesn't have any children, but says she has a bunch of nieces and nephews which aren't the same as your own children in my book. Granted, she might not be able to have children, but she loves them and that's why she's a pediatrician, and that's totally understandable.
So once I got home, I figured that I would still use her as our pediatrician and if things didn't work out, I could always switch, right? But then I thought about another pediatrician a friend recommended. She didn't want her son to get any shots, so I thought maybe this pediatrician was more open to other ways of things, specifically with baby-led solids/weaning, so yesterday I called and made an appointment to meet with her. Luckily, Mr. Skinny was headed home early due to a rain day, and that meant he could come with us!
We didn't love her either.
I was kind of expecting a more "hippy-like" doctor, who pushed breastfeeding and natural childbirth. Wrong. She said she should have had 3 c-sections with her 3 9+ lb. babies and if I'm "lucky" enough to have a c-section, I should "praise the Lord." So not what I was expecting. I will say that I liked her more than the first pediatrician, mostly because she seems to give her medical opinion, but then not judge you if you decide to do something different. I mentioned co-sleeping, just to get her opinion and she said something along the lines of "if you want to be a California-sleeping-in-one-bed-family" then good for you, but I couldn't do it. She did mentions that breastfeeding past 9 months was silly, and people who have home births are doing it for attention. So while I don't agree with all that, I think she's more open to other people's opinions than the first pediatrician. She also gives out her cell phone and will take phone calls at any time, which is something the other pediatrician didn't even mention.
Mr. Skinny and I talked about it. Well it was more of a once sided conversation which was along the lines of "what do you think we should do?" "I don't know, whatever you want" But, I think we'll go with the second pediatrician. She's been a pediatrician for 36 years, and raised 3 children. She's gotten multiple awards for being the best pediatrician in our area, and comes with wonderful recommendations. If we don't like her, we could go back to the first pediatrician.
Man, parenting decisions are hard!
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How did you pick your pediatrician?
I have to disagree with your comment about vaccination. Not vaccinating your child is a HUGE ISSUE, and one that, in my opinion, mothers SHOULD feel strongly about. While I think that sometimes the schedule for vaccinations should be spread out a bit, and it seems a little much to give 5+ shots to an infant, there are very important reasons to vaccinate, and major societal issues reaching far beyond the argument for individual choice of the parents. Vaccinations are performed to prevent outbreaks of potentially deadly communicable diseases. These diseases are preventable and contraction and spread of them create a huge burden on the family, the hospital and insurance system, and carry tremendous financial and societal costs that can affect individuals of all ages with compromised immune systems (many childhood vaccines wear off as people go through adulthood, so a child who is unvaccinated knowingly creates a risk to sick and older adults). There has been no link between immunizations and autism, and there have been attempts to hold parents who do not vaccinate their children criminally liable due to conscious disregard of known risks and the degree of severity of those risks to the community. It will also significantly impact a child's opportunities in education, as many schools do not permit children to enter if they are unvaccinated. While there are many parenting decisions that can be made in lots of different ways, this is not one of them. Please recognize this and vaccinate your child.
ReplyDeleteThere was really only one option for us so we took him. He seems really nice. He also has an accent which can make it hard to understand sometimes. But he fully supports breastfeeding and has been great with Isaac so far. I haven't talked to him about solids yet. I do plan to bring that up at his next appointment. I'd be willing to bet he suggestion 6 months corrected age with Isaac... so 7 months. When I asked him about circumcision while he didn't come right out and stay how he felt I could tell what his stance was on the matter. This leads me to believe he's more the "hippy" type that you mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThe most shots Isaac has gotten so far has been three at one time. He did great. He cried for a bit then was fine.
By the way, did the one pedi say why breastfeeding past 9 months was silly?