When to take infant to Doc.

[JorgieGirl]

My baby is now 6 weeks old and we were officially discharged from our midwifery clinic as postpartum.

We don't have a family doctor and generally just go into the walk-in when we have issues with our health.

So, for those of you who prefer not to frequent the doctors office, who delay vaccines and who are generally very healthy people, when do you take your baby in for a well child visit? Are they really that important if you know your baby is growing well, is happy and meeting developmental milestones?

[limette]

Originally Posted by JorgieGirl

My baby is now 6 weeks old and we were officially discharged from our midwifery clinic as postpartum.

We don't have a family doctor and generally just go into the walk-in when we have issues with our health.

So, for those of you who prefer not to frequent the doctors office, who delay vaccines and who are generally very healthy people, when do you take your baby in for a well child visit? Are they really that important if you know your baby is growing well, is happy and meeting developmental milestones?

We don't vaccinate at all and have never taken our kids to well visits. Family doctors have huge waiting lists so I'm not dragging my kids out to the walk in just to get them weighed.

If there is something worrying about them, then we take them in but I found it really easy to see that they were thriving without all the measurements and a doctor who sees them for a couple of minutes telling me so.

[aramat]

I don't do well visits at all--we just go in when something comes up. But it is important to have a good pedi lined-up.

[EmilyVorpe]

3 days, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 2 years, 3 years....

[angelachristin]

i don't go unless there is a problem i can't handle on my own. my DD is 9 months and has never been except for at 1 week old to check on her jaundice. My midwife weighed her at my 6 week PP checkup and took the blood for her newborn screening. That's it. My DS, I was a scared new mom and took him in up to 6 months, when I stopped vaxing and realized I didn't need to go. Since then, he has been in a few times when he has had breathing problems. That's all for him. I weigh and measure them at home.

[Jaesun's Dad]

We go at the recommended intervals. While usually all that happens is he gets weighed and measured it's a time to also ask questions and since I'm not a doctor and have no medical training I have to have some blind faith that the pediatrician might be more perceptive of problems that aren't obvious. I'd never forgive myself if my son suffered from a treatable problem that wasn't discovered because we did not take him in for regular visits.

[littlest birds]

We didn't. We do not have a family doctor. We used to have a nurse practitioner we would always see at a particular clinic who was pretty darn neutral about our vax status. She's still there so it would be cool to ask for her again. We tried keeping a regular ped way back with dd1 but it just wasn't helpful to us.

Our kids got physicals when they did preschool/school. My ds has been to emergency room a couple of times, had shingles which we went in for, we've occasionally checked on a rash or virus just in case it was something we needed to identify. And our oldest is susceptible to UTIs so we sometimes get a dx and antibiotic although we often can clear one up on our own. All of this can be at a clinic and we can ask for an appt. with a particular doc.

I seriously don't even get the point when it comes to having a particular doctor or doing well baby visits. I don't agree with the mainstream model of wellness, it leaves way too much out and includes too much dumb stuff so for me it doesn't really promote overall health. We have had some wacko negative medical experiences way back when so that helped me sort out my willingness to have a high level of involvement with that system. Typically, I know more than the practitioner or at least as much. I get stupid advice sometimes, prescriptions for things we don't actually need (including just in case abx w/o a dx ) and I don't fill. They are only human and I am good at figuring things out and digging up accurate info. I have had so many experiences where the doctor didn't really know what was going on any more than I did and things didn't really go anywhere.

FWIW I was almost forced by social services to get a surgery for dd1 @ 6mos but when I managed to hold off (with monitoring) until she was 3yo the doctor decided she's been miraculously and spontaneously cured. I won't even go into what a crazy experience that was, but it was rough.

We keep it minimal. That said we know quite a few of the docs here that we might see on occasion and there are three different clinics we have access to where we would likely see someone we know. It's basically a friendly situation.

[limette]

Originally Posted by aramat

I don't do well visits at all--we just go in when something comes up. But it is important to have a good pedi lined-up.

In Canada pediatricians are specialists that are by referral only. You can only get one if your kid has an issue that can't be handled by either the family doctor (most places have a waiting list lasting years), the walk in clinic etc.

[cristeen]

I took him in once for a WBV - around 3 or 4 mos, IIRC. To establish a patient file, and have someone to call if the need arised.

Since then we've been in 2 other times, once with hand, foot and mouth and once when I suspected an ear infection. The doc nagged me about WBV at the last visit, but I told her flat out that they're out of my pocket and we're no-vax, so not gonna happen.

[lkmiscnet]

We have a DS and our ped discovered an inguinal hernia that she monitored at all his WBV until it finally resolved on its own. I did not even know it was there. She checks heart rate, respiration and his overall posture/spine to make sure everything is good, along with eyes and nose. Lastly, she also checks the fontanels on his head to make sure they are at the right size for his age and that they are closing properly. I certainly am not qualified to do any of the above.

She as been a great resource to pose my new mom questions to, having raised 5 kids of her own.

[JordanKX]

I don't go to docs myself... but I have to say I've had some first-time-mommie fears with my DS. Just because it seems I've given him my horrible sinuses. I just wanted to make sure he wasn't developing asthma, or doubling up recommendations from family that what I'd treat myself with is OK for a baby.

If you read, if you write to these forums (which I think are a great help), if you are paying attention, the WBV are just monitoring general health and development, and pushing Vac's. I've really gotten little from the few that we did, so we stopped. And we had (what I thought) a very naturally-minded ped. There is SO much liability on their end, even if they are naturally-minded, that they HAVE to talk to you about certain things, even if it goes against their personal beliefs or what they'd do with their kids.

My dad's a homeopath. My step-mother is a nurse practitioner. So, if I have a question, I have resources. That's the main thing. If the Ped is your ONLY resource, use it. But if you have somewhere else to turn, especially if you're not vacc'ing, I see no huge value (except maybe having a relationship so it's easy to get in IN CASE your baby becomes sick).

[Marylizah]

It can be hard to get into see a doctor if you don't have an established relationship, so it might be wise to pick a doctor and do a check-up once a year.

Otherwise, and I cannot stress this enough, if your young baby (under 3 months old) has a fever, take that baby to a doctor. Fevers in young babies can be a sign that there is a serious infection. In older babies and young children, there's wiggle room to wait it out, but young babies can go septic really, really quickly.

(I learned this when DS2 was very sick at 6 weeks old and the *only* symptom was a high fever.)

[Mom2M]

We take them to all the regular scheduled visits at least for the first 2 years. My family dr doesn't take kids under 12 so we have a pediatrician who is wonderful. He doesn't push vaxes at all and doesn't hand out antibiotics or other Rx's.
I like to go and get her measured and weighed and ask questions when I want. He found that she had a sacral dimple so we got an u/s to make sure there was no cord involvement. I would not have known about it and if there were problems later, an u/s would not have been enough, she would have needed a bigger scan like CT or MRI because her spine would be developed.

DD2 started wheezing during a cold when she was 2 months old and having an awful time breathing overnight and I was extremely glad not to have to go to the ER

Anyway, I guess that's my comfort level, I like to know someone is always there. They are open 7 days a week and take after hours calls.

[Mandynee22]

I do them at the regular times (we do vax but I would even if we didn't). I have used the same pedi since DD's birth almost 11 yrs ago. If something comes up, it sure is helpful when your LO at least knows the Dr that's treating them and is familiar with the instruments (stethascope, eye and ear thing, blood pressure cuff etc). I'd imagine that DS's pnuemonia would have been a lot more traumatic if he'd had no clue wth was going on and who was doing things to him.
Not to mention how awful it would be to miss something that a WBV would have detected like PPs have said. I probably wouldn't notice a tiny eye tumor or a heart irregularity or a multitude of things you would have to look for to find.

[Tizzy]

We have a nurse practitioner but we never go. DS2 went once for a blood test, that's it. We don't vax, and she is perfectly okay with that because I have done my research. It's nice to know she is there if and when we ever do need her, otherwise I am confident enough to monitor my kids health and development. DS1 went to one well-baby visit after our last 6wk midwife appointment, it seemed utterly pointless, plus our then Dr. said he was not interested in seeing us if we weren't going to vax. Obviously we changed to a different HCP