How do you find a doctor who doesn't push vaccines??

[daisylynn]

We recently moved and I'm looking for a doctor. We have 3 kids and rarely take them to the doctor. But my son has some speech delay that we really want looked at. I called one pediatrician but the lady on the phone was so rude when I told her he wasn't vaxed (she asked). I just don't even want to deal with someone like that. He's MY baby, noone else's! I just don't get it!

Anyway, I have been trying to do a search to find doctors who won't push vaccines. I would love an anti-vax dr. for them but I will settle for one who is at least ok with me making those decisions for my kids.

How do I go about finding a doctor like that?

Or is there an alternative way to get his speech checked out? I would rather do that! lol

Thanks!

[Marnica]

Not sure about alternatives to check the speech delay,(what about a speech pathologist??) but finding a doc who won't push vaxes is hard. It takes patience and more patience!!
Most peds are very provax and many won't take you on if you don't. Some will push and push, but will see your child, but make you sign the "bad mommy" form.
A better bet is to look for a family practice doctor. They tend to be more mellow about the vax issue.
I have been through 2 docs already and my son is only 8 months old!

Try dr. sears's website. He has a list of docs by state who see non vaxed children.
Also don't know if you are into alternative care ie chiropractic, but that's how I found my current son's doc. I asked her where her kids went. Chiropractors often do not vax their children.

[a(TM)?Star]

Some school districts handle the evaluations for speech. You could try calling them or your county dept. Askdrsears.com has a list of vax friendly doctors in major cities. Have you checked there?

[tanyalynn]

In terms of finding a doctor, these are the placed I'd look/ask:
-Finding Your Tribe (pedi or more likely a family practitioner, who could maybe refer you to someone for speech evaluation)
-local midwives and chiropractors
-yahoo groups (local homeschooling, holistic moms, babywearing, AP parenting, native nutrition (weston price foundation offshoot))

Best of luck finding a doc and finding someone to help with the speech issue.

[La Rune]

I looked in Finding Your Tribe, and I Googled "nonvaxing pediatrician/ped/pedi *insert area*".

If that hadn't worked my next plan was to open my insurance book and call them all. I've read that when you do that you should just ask "Do you see unvaccinated children?" and if the receptionist says no or lectures you, just say thanks and hang up. Call the next one on the list.

I called the one that was mentioned most often in the Google searches and FYT, and he's great.

[Christian_mom]

We see a family doctor covered under our insurance. I was really lucky though because she has been supportive of all our decisions such as not circumcising and when we said we weren't vaxing, she moved right along to her next question.

I don't know if it has anything to do with it but our doctor has a Nurse Practitioner that we see about fifty percent of the time. The NP seems to take more time with us and be more open to alternative parenting in general.

Best of luck to you!

[daisylynn]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I haven't tried dr. sears. I will have to go look that up. I did think of trying just a family practice. My sister actually sees a lady in a family practice who doesn't push too much with her. But she isn't on our insurance list

I'll keep looking!

Thanks again!

[*Erin*]

you could say you don't vax for religious reasons. most docs will respect that and you won't have an issue. you could look for a family practioner who is a DO (doctor of osteopathy) they don't tend to push vax like a ped would, and usually don't give them in office so they don't have the financial push to give them like a ped.

your very best bet would be to find some like minded mamas in your area-la leche league is a good place to start-and ask them who they see and what they think about them.

i googled my socks off trying to find someone in my area, docs and dentists, and wound up founding the most crunchy ones of both by asking some crunchy local mamas.

good luck with your search, and with your little one.

[momto l&a]

I may ask around and see if anybody recommends a dr but for the most part when we need to take a dc to the dr we aren't bothered about vaccines. I dont call and ask about the dr views.

If anything when ask when they fill out forms I just say religious exemption and thats the end of that.

[wrenbrrd]

It is just about impossible to find docs who don't push vaxs on me/my son... because I have Medicaid, and can only take us to certain doctors.

[daisylynn]

Thanks ladies!

I never even thought of trying LLL. I'll have to look into that as well.

It's just so frustrating! I was so annoyed that the one lady at that place gave me a hard time when she asked me and I said no. And then they never called me back like they said they would. I don't want to deal with someone like that! I always go in to a dr's office with my guard up and already on the defensive bc I know that I will hear it from them. I just want someone who will respect my decisions for MY child! :

Thanks again!!

[gardenmommy]

Well, I found one in the most amazing way. I would never have thought it would have happened that way. I signed my children up for our state child health care, and was referred to a doctor by the insurance company to which we were referred. I had very low expectations for the first visit, but was shocked when the staff was very low-key about our non-vax status. It helped, I think, that I was well-informed, but even so, they did not pressure us AT ALL about it. So, fwiw, that's how I got ours. I had no luck in the FYT area, either.

[Theoretica]

You aren't going to have much luck calling up and asking, but I'd recommend contacting your local LLL and getting some MD recommends from them.

HTH
Bellevuemama