Disappointed with our Ped. :/ Vent - pls help me work through this.

[NotLad]

Drop an email to your pediatrician. Ask him if he's comfortable keeping you on as a patient if you opt out of well child visits. Remind him that he has seen your kids for the last four years with this type of relationship.

If he responds "oh yeah. whatever you want." - which is what I suspect you'll get, respond and let him know that you would appreciate it if his staff not lecture you on the matter and then go into what happened with the nurse. Use "I" statements - "I was very uncomfortable with her tone." "I was unhappy when she imposed her medical opinion when you and I have established a sick-visit only relationship."

And then I would give it one more visit. If Nurse Knowitall gives you crap again, PUT HER IN HER PLACE. Smile and say "The doctor and I discussed it. It's been taken care of."

[NotLad]

Originally Posted by Kiliki I see your point. ... I think I'm kind of confused why it would be okay before for me to skip them and suddenly it's a big deal. I get the nurse saying something, b/c of her own convictions, or whatever... but why the doctor? Did he not notice we were skipping well visits before and now that it's been brought to his attention, he's saying something? Did he not care before but now is changing his mind? Is the nurse pressuring him to say something?

I imagine it played out like this:

Nurse: She hasn't brought in her baby for well visits. Remind her to schedule a 2-month visit.

Doctor: (Hasn't checked his notes) Okay.


Pediatricians here have over 5000 patients. If they don't check their notes and the nurse says something in passing, he brings it up. It's habit. Talk to your pediatrician. If he's treated you this long, he's likely okay with you not doing well child visits.

[bluedaisyma]

I would just talk to the doctor next time you're there. She probably told the doc, "you know her kids haven't been in for well visits". "Ok, I will remind her". So he was probably just saying it to appease her. I would ask him straight up, what has changed in the past 4 years that he is all of the sudden worried about the kids and well-visits. Play ignorant. Ask if there was something he was concerned about that he wanted to be sure to catch?

We don't *generally* do well visits. I brought ds6 home from the hospital AMA (*wink wink, they didn't care, but had to say it was AMA), so I took him at a few days old and maybe one other time? He turns one in a few weeks so I decided I will get his 1 yr check and my 3 yr olds 3 yr check (he hasn't had a well child in a year or more) at the same time. Why? Eh, why not, for me. She LOVES the babies. Loves them so much and so I don't mind. These are DH's only littles, so he gets a kick out of it. If we didn't do any checks, she (the doc) wouldn;t be up in arms, though. (we go to a family practice).

I used to take my kids to a holistic ped and 2 of the peds were awesome, never cared about well-visits if you chose not to do them....but this one nurse always gave me such a hard time. "Oh!! Mrs Taylor! They haven't had their ___ appt!!!" me, *blank stare* "ok". lol.

Unfortunately, I usually don't get along with the nurses in most situations, but always the doctors. I have had doctors in the L&D ward come and talk to me about homebirths and not vaxxing and they agreed with my view for the most part

[bluedaisyma]

Originally Posted by NotLad I imagine it played out like this: Nurse: She hasn't brought in her baby for well visits. Remind her to schedule a 2-month visit. Doctor: (Hasn't checked his notes) Okay. Pediatricians here have over 5000 patients. If they don't check their notes and the nurse says something in passing, he brings it up. It's habit. Talk to your pediatrician. If he's treated you this long, he's likely okay with you not doing well child visits.

Uh yeah, that's what I was kinda trying to say before I rabbit-trailed, LOL

[Kiliki]

Thanks mamas. All great advice!

[danielle]

I've heard tell of family practitioners who don't care about vaccines. Wonder if this is true?

I delay until age 3, which is the same as not vac if you kwim. I actually found a second easy going ped closer to us (we moved) but I've decided to stick with the original. We are in a non-crunchy place, so I was happy there was an alternative.

Once my son has his vaccines, the ped is a goner. I want one doctor for the family, preferably one that will stick around and keep his script pad holstered.

[NotLad]

Originally Posted by danner I've heard tell of family practitioners who don't care about vaccines. Wonder if this is true?

It just depends on the doctor.

Do any of you see a D.O. vs. an MD? DO's have the same medical training but practice a more holistic approach to medicine. A few of my friends are DOs and are excellent physicians.

[Kiliki]

Originally Posted by danner I've heard tell of family practitioners who don't care about vaccines. Wonder if this is true? I delay until age 3, which is the same as not vac if you kwim. I actually found a second easy going ped closer to us (we moved) but I've decided to stick with the original. We are in a non-crunchy place, so I was happy there was an alternative. Once my son has his vaccines, the ped is a goner. I want one doctor for the family, preferably one that will stick around and keep his script pad holstered.

My 6 y/o is only missing 1 shot (a CP booster - big deal).

My 4 y/o was vaxed until 2 (or 3?) mos.

My 2 y/o and NB have no vaxes at all.

At some point, I would like to "catch them up" on vaxes. By that, I mean, I would like to get the vaccines that I think are important for older kids. Most of the vaxes are for childhood illnesses that pose no (or very little threat) after a certain age. So, obviously they would not be getting ALL the vaxes they missed in the first years of life, but the ones I think are necessary for an older child. KWIM?

My issue is, it's really hard to find a ped that will do this. Even my vax-friendly ped will only "catch up" my kids in the sense that he will give them all of the vaxes they have missed, accdg to the typical vax schedule.

I did find an A-mazing family practice doctor. He was an old school, "wait-and-see" kind of doctor. I loved his bedside manner, I loved the time he spent speaking with me and he seemed to really listen.. He was great.

I called his office to see if they would take my unvaxed kids, and the receptionist nearly had a heart failure. LOL. Her response was "Yea, we'll see your kids... but WHY ON EARTH would you choose not to vaccinate your children against DEADLY DISEASES and put them at such extreme risk!!!???! I mean, I simply CANNOT understand that." uh, yea, I said "ok, thank you!" and hung up. Obviously not somewhere that unvaxed kids are welcome!

I've thought about making an appointment with him and asking him face to face if he'll see my kids... but - again - I don't want any confrontation. I'm a wuss IRL.

[Kiliki]

Originally Posted by NotLad It just depends on the doctor. Do any of you see a D.O. vs. an MD? DO's have the same medical training but practice a more holistic approach to medicine. A few of my friends are DOs and are excellent physicians.

What is a D.O.?

[NotLad]

Doctor of osteopathy. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/osteopath/an02093