Pediatrician or Family Dr??

We use a family doctor that accepted newborns simply because there aren't many good peds where we live (if any). We made an appt. with this doctor, has a small issue 2 days after my daughter was born that he responded too amazingly and exactly how I would have wanted him too and have stuck with him ever since.

UNtil the child is finished with the well baby shots and is able to verbally tell me us what exactly is wrong I kept them with a ped. Now I have the three at home with a famly doc but my youngest is now 9 and was 6 when we started woth this new doctor. I like the practie just fine, but with a baby I would still use a ped. Try to find a new one.

I only know about the doctors I have had contact with myself obviously. But I personally would not take my son to a family doctor. I just think a pediatrician knows more about children. Their symptoms and behaviors and treatments aren't the same as adults. I really like my family doc that I see myself, but I just don't see him as a baby doctor. That is just my opinion. I did have to take my son into my family doc's walk in clinic once but saw the other doctor in the practice. And she was completely clueless how to deal with a toddler and how to read an xray of a toddler's arm. I could definitely tell she didn't deal with young children on any sort of regular basis.

As for YOUR pediatrician, he sounds completely incompetent and I would certainly find a new one. A 2 yr old (from looking at your other post, I am assuming you are talking about the 2 yr old) should NOT be on a cough suppressant. They stopped prescribing/advising those at least a year ago for children under 6, I believe. And you obviously know this, but of COURSE a 2 yr can have allergies and asthma. I would not go back to this doctor, no way. I think any family doc would undoubtably be better than them. But I would still just seek out a new pediatrician. Not all pediatricians are like that. I'm betting very few are like that. You can even ask your family doc for recommendations, or any other moms you know. You should definitely feel safe and trust your doctor, and I certainly wouldn't trust that one.

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I'm so sorry you are having a bad time. We have a pretty good Ped., but Mom's always know their child better. Ours kept telling us that one of our twins had reflux. He put her on Reflux meds several times. I agreed for awhile because I didn't know any better, plus food allergies are hard to diagnose in one so young. As she got older it got worse. I asked if it could be an allergy to milk. I was told no, because she didn't throw up every day.
After she had been off of formula and on cows milk, it got worse. We asked for a referal to a pediatric allergist. We got an allergist that acted like he had never seen a toddler in his life. He wanted to draw blood and said that she couldn't be allergic if she didn't break out every time she had milk.
A friend recommended a ped. gastroenterologist at Childrens hospital in Knoxville. She was the most wonderful Dr. ever! She agreed that Tori is allergic to milk and didn't need to run any tests. The fact that I could tell her exactly what happened, when it happened, even how it sounded before she threw up told her a lot. I had also changed her to goats milk (unpasturized, strait from the farm) two weeks ealier as I figured it couldn't hurt, just in case I was right. I told the Gastro. about the goats milk and how long she had been on it. She said,"Well, you really figured it out on your own. So why did you come to see me?" When I told her that the Ped. still said it was Reflux she wrote him a letter. Every other time, out Ped. has been great.
Anyway, long story short, Mom knows best. If your insurance allowes it go over the Dr.'s head to a specialist, or insist on a referal.
Good Luck and let us know what happens,
Beth

I believe you should just go to a different pediatrician. The one I had as a child was very involved and did everything he was supposed to in order to ensure than I was healthy. Never once did my mother have to question his diagnoses.

I think it would be much safer for the child if you found another pediatrician. I think Family Doctors are physicians who took the time to learn pediatrics as well as basic medicine, even though they don't particularly specialize in it.

From what you describe, I think anyone would be better than your pediatrician! Have you looked for another pediatrician? Who is treating your son's asthma if the pediatrician hasn't done anything about it and are you happy with that doctor as your son's regular doctor? I'd ask friends/family for recommendations, if they like their pediatrician, if they know of anyone who has kids and likes their pediatrician. If you have a great family doctor already, I'd switch your son over permanently and immediately, so you're not wasting another dime on poor health care. Family doctors can be great, but it's just my preference to use a pediatrician because they're much more specialized. Good luck!

I love my my son's pediatrician, they just trest him so well and i've never had any problems with them, the only thing is i do have to go to brier creek but to me it's worth it because i to did not like his first doctor, i take him to Growing Child Pediatrics.

We love our pediatrician!!! Unfortunately, we also had to tolerate "the wrong one" for a while before we found this practice that is absolutely wonderful! I highly recommend Stepping Stones Pediatrics on Raven Ridge road in North Raleigh. It is right off Falls of Neuse and Durant rd. Their philosophy is having a small, intimate and personal practice where you have one doctor who treats them from day one in the hospital until they have outgrown the need for a pediatrician. Dr. Karen Burke-Haynes is very soft spoken, caring, and professional. My children absolutely LOVE her. I would recommend giving them a try! Good luck!! and I'm sorry you had to have this unpleasant experience :(

I just wrote this huge response and lost it! So I will try again
I have never taken my daughter to a pediatrician she has always seen our family doctor. The office sees everyone from birth to seniors. I had a preemie too and I thought at first I needed to take her to a ped but my family doctor put me at ease and has been wonderful and very knowledgeable. In the practice are several doctors with different specialties internist, general practice, ped. etc and they also have special interests gyn/ob, allergies, asthma, intestinal orders. This is great and the receptionists are good at directing you to the right doctor. You can choose which doctor you want to see and they have same day appointments for everyone. Which means I can take my daughter in right away if something is wrong. They also have a lab connected to their office so I don't have to go somewhere else for testing.
I would call your OB they usually have a list of doctors they recommend or call your insurance to see what doctors in your area take your insurance and then talk to other people about their experiences. Regardless of whether you choose a family doctor or ped I think you need to get a new one. You can't trust someone you don't like and your child's health is just too important to not get a new doc.

Hi L. - just like you described, you can have a great experience or a terrible experience simply based on the doctor you choose.

When I'm asking for a physician referral, I always ask my doctor or my doctor friends - who would you choose for a doctor if you needed ____? Ask your doc or nurse friends who they use for a pediatrician and why. That will help lead you in the right direction.

We use a pediatrician and my sis-in-law sees a family doc. The family doc is a little easier especially if mom and kids are sick at the same time. They usually have to wait at least a day to see a doc for sick visit though. I can usually get my kids in that day, if not that morning to see ped. for sick visit.

I think the most important thing is finding a doctor that you trust and have confidence in. There are many family doctors now that do it all, pediatrics, gynecology appointments, etc. I think you need to find a new doctor no matter what you choose. If you go with a family doctor, make sure they have experience with children.

pediatrician. they specialize in kids whereas family doctor is for everyone and as you know specialization = more knowledge, experience in that certain area. so get the pediatrician! only the best for our kids ;)

update: just read the rest of your post..sorry. looks ur ped sucks so find a new one!! ask the docs u know if they ahve any recommendations..good luck!

Change pediatricians. We had an a-hole pediatrician were I live who was like the one you described. Immediately upon the opening of a new pediatric facility, I changed to them and could not ask for better doctors. They are quick to catch any problems and are even quicker to try something new if they even suspect a problem. They have no problems running tests if they suspect there are problems whether it be a problem directly with the child or a family history issue.

For example, I am Native American Indian and as such, my family is prone to autoimmune disorders. All the elders had some form of autoimmune disorder. I was diagnosed some 9-10 years ago with lupus (SLE) and Sjogren's disease. My husband, who is of pure European descent, has juvenile diabetes. Most of your adult doctors and even some peds will say that diabetes does not run in families but the evidence is showing that not to be true. It DOES tend to run in families.

Our pediatrician has checked our girls, and continues to check our youngest since our oldest is 23 now and could not remain with the peds' doctors after her 19th birthday but they tested each of them each year at their annual physical and if there was a problem that hinted at juvenile diabetes... They also ran a series of blood panels to find out if the girls' blood work were showing any early signs of autoimmune diseases in addition to having us keep a log of any symptoms that might show they could be experiencing a form of autoimmune disease. There is one 1st cousin older than I am who has had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis since he was a young boy. I was the 2nd diagnosed with autoimmune diseases and since then there is a 3rd diagnosed and a couple others who are symptomatic with a few going through the testing phase to find out which they have and to start treatment as soon as a diagnosis/diagnoses is made.

I absolutely abhorred our previous pediatrician but the ones we have been dealing with these last 16 years or so are the greatest. They call back immediately and even have a service over the weekends who take calls and if there are any questions they have a nurse practitioner and a doctor, if needed, on hand to answer them or if it's more serious, they send us to the nearest hospital where one of the doctors in the practice will meet us when we arrive to take care of our child.

As you can imagine, after this new service moved into town, the previous pediatrician lost well over 2/3rds of her business. The last I heard, she has hardly no patients; yet, our pediatrician has so many patients they have recently opened their 5th satellite office! Most of the peds docs rotate between offices although some stay with one office in particular. It mostly depends on who lives closer to which office. Thankfully, we usually get the two to three peds docs we deal with on a regular basis as well as our trusty nurse practitioner who is always there as well as the staff who work the desk. Over the years we have had so much fun getting to know each other and keeping up with the kids and their accomplishments.

It's been a little over 4 years since they saw my oldest daughter, yet they all are aware that she is in college, soon to graduate, and will be getting married soon. Although, our daughter spoke with her dad yesterday and the wedding may be put off until either October of this year or April of next year. We have our fingers crossed for April of next year. I think they've hit a financial snag plus with our daughter's college education and working full-time it can't be easy as well as our future SIL working out of town now for a month at a time. So much is changing. Best thing is that at least they don't want children or rather my daughter doesn't want children. I believe she may change her mind in time but for now, she isn't up for the idea. I think she's a lot like me in that respect. I can't tolerate a lot of children; I could barely tolerate my own. It doesn't mean I don't love them with every fiber of my being or that I wouldn't give my own life if it meant saving their lives but I was never meant to be a SAHM. I was a career mom who made it all work in this nice neat little package until I got sick - first the blindness then later the autoimmune diseases (lupus (SLE) and Sjogren's). I have little patience for children. I implemented the Mommy Time-Out in my house. The girls thought it was funny because they had time-outs and Mommy had them too. When Mommy had a time-out they knew that they had to be quiet so Mommy could do her "time" in time-out just like they had to do when they had their time-out times.

We haven't been to the pediatrician since learning this information because it came about yesterday on Father's Day. But, I know the ladies will all be rooting for her no matter what.

If they get married in April, they're anniversary will be in the same month as mine and my husband's anniversary. I think that would be nice in and of itself. I just hope they don't elope. That's what we did and at times, I sort of regret it because I truly wanted my surrogate mom there even if it did piss off Mother and my MIL has only witnessed one of her 3 boys get married because two of them eloped while only one was actually married in a traditional but small setting. I'm hoping we can renew our vows before his mother passes away so she can be there to witness our love for each other despite the fact that we have had a rocky road getting to where we are today. It has been a long hard road but it was worth it. My MIL is in her mid to late 70s and not in the best of health. It's one thing I want to give her before she's gone. I only wish my surrogate mom could be there too but she died 6+ years ago. Mother and I rarely speak and I have no contact with my birth father and haven't in more than a decade. He's dead to me. I only hear from Mother about once a year, sometimes twice and usually it's to ask for something... I never wanted my girls to have a mother or a father like that. I guess it's why I always let them know I love them even if it's just a quick email or a text on our oldest daughter's phone. I do these little things to let her know I'm thinking about her; but I digress....

There are excellent pediatricians out there. You just have to look harder to find them sometimes and when you do find them, hold onto them tight because they become more than your child's pediatrician. They become an extended part of your family.

I've used both a family practice and a pediatric practice with good results. The only advantage of the pediatric practice was that they would always be able to fit my sick child in on the same day I called. The family practice group usually was not able to see them until the next day.

If you are unhappy with your child's care maybe it's time to switch to a different group. Sometimes it's just a bad fit with them not living up to your expectations. Definately try someone else. After all you are a mom/nurse and you know what's best for your child.

I was in the same boat as you! We ditched our pediatrician and ended up with a family doctor in a different clinic. I can't believe how wonderful our new doctor is. Our family practice doctor is so much more willing to work with our endocrinologist (my kids have diabetes) than our ped. was.
I am not knocking pediatrician's at all. Just saying that family practice doctors are just as qualified.
Good luck doctor shopping! :)

Hi L.
I have used a famiy doctor since my eldest son was 6 months old and never had a single complaint. I completely trust our doctor and I have always got a same day appointment for both my kids when they've been sick.
Whether you decide to go with another ped or a family doctor you definitely need to change doctors if you're not happy with your current one. It is very important that you trust your child's doctor and I don't think the issue is because they're a ped practice but they're just not right for you. Ask some friends about their doctors/peds, it's always good to get a referral from someone you trust, especially if your child has health issues. Or if you know of a good doc give them a visit.
Good luck, I know how hard it can be with a child with allergies and asthma.

I have 5 children and we all see a family doctor. I've fired every ped I've ever gone to. In my opinion, family doctors are the best... We all see ours and my kids are New Born to age 16... Good luck to you!

there are pros and cons for both. pros for using a family doc is that you all can get on medication if a contagious disease is going around. otherwise you put one on antibiotic, wait for others to be seen by the time they are the first one is off antibiotic and may catch it back from you. we had strep going through our house a while back, and we kept bouncing it off each other, until we all had gone through 3 sets of antibiotics. it was awful. in that case, i had wished we had seen the same doctor.
pediatricians are handy as they can see your child same day. or if a child has childhood -specific problems like add adhd or autism they're better to deal with. same thing with ear infections. in your case you need to drop this pediatrician, ask around from moms who is the best in the area. don't be afraid to change pediatricians if you incur experiences like this. we're on our 4th and i swear to you i'll drop this one too if my children are put at risk due to their moronic excuses.