How to Choose Your Pediatrician
Choosing a pediatrician for your baby may feel like a bigger decision than finding your own healthcare provider. Your pediatrician will be one of the first people to see your baby. Your pediatrician will also be the healthcare provider that you see the most over the course of your Baby's first year (or really, the next 18 YEARS!) Here are things to consider when choosing your pediatrician.
- Trust Your Gut
Your experience can and will be very different than someone else's. If something doesn't feel right then listen and consider looking elsewhere. If you click with your pediatrician and he/she "gets" you, then continue forward and feel confident in your choice!
- Proximity To Home
You want someone that is easy enough to get to when you have a sick kid at 5PM on a Friday (because, let's face it, this is inevitably when your child will get sick)!
- Office Hours
Does the practice have evening and weekend hours for sick visits? And are those visits done at their office or a satellite office? Naturally, you want to avoid going to urgent care or the emergency room with your baby.
- Calling About A Sick Kid
Speaking of sick visits, do you speak directly with a nurse or do you have to leave a message and wait for the nurse to call you back?
- Personal Preference
a. Consider your personal preference between a male of female pediatrician. Does the gender depend on if you have a boy or girl? You might have a male doctor and a female nurse practitioner depending on the office. This can be a nice balance.
b. Does the potential care provider have children? Is this something that is important to you? Before you even make a phone call to an office, check out the practice's website and you can usually find biographies on the team.
c. What is the doctor's experience with your feeding choices (ie breastfeeding, bottle feeding, donor breastmilk, etc.) As moms who have breastfed, we found it nice to have someone, either a doctor or an NP, who has personal experience with breastfeeding and can give you professional as well as real life advice. You can also have someone on speed dial for any breastfeeding concerns, questions, or issues and we will be at your house within 24-48 hours for a lactation visit.
d. What are their views on important parenting points such as, feeding choice, sleep advice, screen time, potty training, school/classroom related issues? You want to find someone that is either open-minded or whose are in line with the types of parents you plan to be.
- Admitting Privileges
Lastly, check to see where their admitting privileges are. Boston Children's Hospital, Mass General Hospital, elsewhere? Since we live in an area with the most prestigious hospitals in the world, take advantage of this luxury!
We know some of these points are so far ahead to think about. But it's good to consider all of these things now because your pediatrician is the healthcare provider you will see the most, for the next 18 years! You want to make sure you choose a pediatrician who is someone you connect with, trust, and who understands you and where you are coming from.
What if you want to change pediatricians? If you find you are not loving your pediatrician, it is ok to switch doctors! This may seem more daunting than just sticking it out, but it is worth the search to find the right provider for you, your child, and your family. Your relationship with your pediatrician is important and can impact the choices you make in those first few weeks, months, and years of your child's life. You owe it to yourself and your child(ren) to ensure this is a positive relationship.
Many pediatricians’ offices offer an "open house" once a month where you can go and meet the practitioners in the office. This may be a good place to start.
About the author:
Emily Silver is the co-founder of Boston NAPS, LLC. After graduating from Boston College, Emily began working on a medical floor for a few years before transferring over to labor and delivery. During her eight years working as an RN on these floors, she obtained her Master of Science in Nursing and her Family Nurse Practitioner license.
Emily currently works in a private practice in Brookline seeing OB/GYN patients. Her passion lies in education and she works as a maternity clinical instructor for undergraduate nursing students for both Boston College and Northeastern University.
Emily utilizes her Nurse Practitioner license and Certified Lactation Counselor license to spend time during the week doing in home breastfeeding visits for both new and experienced breastfeeding mothers. One of Emily's favorite part of Boston NAPS is visiting new mothers during their first few days home from the hospital. She spends time helping them adjust to life at home with a newborn through educating parents and providing support during this new milestone in their lives.
Emily lives in Charlestown with her husband and two daughters (Grace and Madelyn). When she isn't working, she enjoys going on walks with her family and sweet yellow lab, Maisey, around town. She also enjoys beach trips and traveling.
Also in Our Blog
What’s the Difference Between a Swaddle and a Sleepsack
Five Questions about Early Morning Wakeups for Baby
The team at NAPS helps you tackle the issue of early wakeups. *BONUS* NAPS is hosting a webinar on February 24th. Register here and use the extra-special code MAGICMERLIN and you can join the webinar FREE of charge!
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The sound of cheery calls of “MAAAAMAAAAA” from the next room may be lovely at 7am. At 4am, or 5 am, not so much. Your baby may be up and ready to start the day, but you probably aren’t.
Answering the questions below may help you get there.
- Is your nap schedule mucking up your baby’s overnight sleep?
This might seem like an obvious question, but your baby’s sleep needs will change fast in the first few years of their lives. A quick look at the average nap number and duration might give you an idea:
- For babies from 3-6 months old, it’s normal to take 3-4 hour-long naps per day.
- For babies 6-15 months old, expect 2 naps with 3-3.5 hours of total sleep.
- For one and two-year-olds, you should expect a single 2-hour nap.
Part of the reason you might be seeing earlier wakeups is that your baby has graduated from one nap cycle to the next.
- Does your baby have enough time between their last nap and their bedtime?
We call this an “awake window,” and it can make a big difference. It might seem strange that your baby went to bed fine the night before, and you’re seeing a response to nap scheduling in the pre-dawn hours, but if your kiddo’s sleep is disrupted at night, it will impact the morning.
- 3-6 months, at least 1.5-2 hours between final nap wakeup and bedtime.
- 6-12 months, at least 2.5-3.5 hours between final nap wakeup and bed.
- 12-18+ months, 3.5-4.5 hours between final nap wakeup and bed.
- Is the room staying dark after the sun comes up?
Black 0ut curtains can make a big difference here. Remember that our brains signal wakeup when the light changes. So if dawn is at 430am, and even a little bit of light comes into your baby’s room, their little brains will PING with wake up juice.
- Is your baby going to sleep too early or too late?
It might seem counter-intuitive, but a late bedtime can actually backfire on you. Overtired kids don’t sleep as well. If you made their bedtime later and it didn’t fix the problem, try an earlier bedtime and see if that helps. You might be surprised.
- How do you make it better?
Try to make one change at a time; just one. Stick with that change for 3-5 days to see if it impacts things. (One night is usually not enough to see substantial change.) Be as consistent as you can with the change you made. For instance, if you decide to increase the space between bedtime and final nap wakeup, make sure to stick to the wakeup time you planned.
If your baby is waking up and chirping happily to themselves, feel free to leave them there for a little while. Let them get used to being alone in the crib. If you can, try to delay the start of the day by 5-10 minutes each day. This can make a big impact.
Everything else aside, remember that this is a short time in your kid’s life; as they get older, their sleep will become more regular, and so will yours. Don’t let yourself get too discouraged. Things are hard now, and you’re doing a great job.
