Do you take your newborn to the ped? - Page 3

[mama_ani]

Originally Posted by the_lissa

I'm not risking my child's health by not taking them to a doctor "because I would rather hang out at home." I don't think anyone else is either.

Where I live, the baby is a patient of the midwife until discharged at 6 weeks. She can do everything for a newborn, pku, hearing test, and everything else a doctor does. She has the skills and expertise. If anything is not right, then she would obviously refer us to a doctor. Midwives also come to our house at 1, 3, 5 days, 1, 2, and 4 weeks, and a clinic visit at 6 weeks.

They also weigh them all those times.

Perhaps a little sensitivity for those who do things differently. I'm sure you wouldn't like it if someone said you were endangering your baby's health by exposing them to all the germs at a doctor's office.

:
I was just going to post the same thing.

[Chinese Pistache]

Originally Posted by the_lissa

I'm not risking my child's health by not taking them to a doctor "because I would rather hang out at home." I don't think anyone else is either.

Where I live, the baby is a patient of the midwife until discharged at 6 weeks. She can do everything for a newborn, pku, hearing test, and everything else a doctor does. She has the skills and expertise. If anything is not right, then she would obviously refer us to a doctor. Midwives also come to our house at 1, 3, 5 days, 1, 2, and 4 weeks, and a clinic visit at 6 weeks.

They also weigh them all those times.

Perhaps a little sensitivity for those who do things differently. I'm sure you wouldn't like it if someone said you were endangering your baby's health by exposing them to all the germs at a doctor's office.

I completely agree.

[the_lissa]

Another thing is while I agree one should try to find a doctor that is a good fit for one's family and choices, that is not always possible because of insurance or financial restrictions, availability, location, etc.

[sierralily]

my midwife checks the babe, does the pku if we want it and such. so no...we won't go to the ped unless we feel the need or for babies 2 month check up...

[ZoeyZoo]

We will do an initial one since I want some tests like the hearing test that our mw doesn't perform. I don't see are real reason to do all the wbvs since we aren't vaxing.

[ColwynsMommy]

Originally Posted by the_lissa

I'm not risking my child's health by not taking them to a doctor "because I would rather hang out at home." I don't think anyone else is either.

Where I live, the baby is a patient of the midwife until discharged at 6 weeks. She can do everything for a newborn, pku, hearing test, and everything else a doctor does. She has the skills and expertise. If anything is not right, then she would obviously refer us to a doctor. Midwives also come to our house at 1, 3, 5 days, 1, 2, and 4 weeks, and a clinic visit at 6 weeks.

They also weigh them all those times.

Perhaps have a little sensitivity for those who do things differently. I'm sure you wouldn't like it if someone said you were endangering your baby's health by exposing them to all the germs at a doctor's office.

I wasn't trying to be insensitive, I'm sorry it came across that way. I was just responding to the people who said, "No, I don't take my baby to the pedi, you're supposed to be in bed cuddling the first two weeks" or something similar.

I was also trying to make the point that not all midwives give you 6 postpartum visits, nor can all midwives do all the tests that pediatricians can. That's great for you if your midwife can weigh your baby that often and can do the PKU and hearing screen.. but some can't. I was also trying to point out that if you don't like your pediatrician, that you should find a new one, and that in many hospitals, it *is* the pediatrician who does the newborn exam.

That's fine for you to not take your baby to the doctor, you're the mom, that's your perogative. For me, I wouldn't be comfortable doing things that way. It's the same way that I don't have a problem with people UCing, but for me, I prefer to have a midwife.

[mama_at_home]

I didn't but I would have if something seemed wrong.

[MCKH]

We did at 4 days old. My midwife suggested it since she did not do the PKU/metabolic screening.

For me, it's important that my pediatrician get to know my child while he/she is well. I like to keep things on the "up and up" with him, and he sees all newborns within 1-week post hospital discharge so I did the same even though I had a homebirth. I would hate for my first experience with our pediatrician to be a sick call for a child he's never seen and has no history on. I want him to trust me when it counts, so I show him the respect of following his suggested well-baby exam schedule (although I do deviate from his suggested vaccine schedule, we discussed this and came to an understanding.)

Yes, you are supposed to be in bed resting with baby, but a 30 minute trip to the doctor really didn't ruin my babymoon.

[MamaVolpe]

I am planning too for several reasons. One is I want the NP we use to have her in her records. The purpose for this is so I have a primary provider to go to if I need referrals, or emergancy comes up, or need medication, I need to have her with a provider for those. Also by going with a newborn when she is health gives the provider a base line to go by so when we do need to come in for a sick visit she will know what her normal stats are. And of course to show her off I do not use a pediatritian though, I have a nurse practitioner who is great with the whole AP style. She even brought up co-sleeping with me before I even got pregnant, and some of her other clients have even used the same midwife for homebirths as the one I am using. I love her office, they are all great

[DocsNemesis]

My midwives do the newborn check, check them again the next day, and then again at 6 weeks. At that point I start seeing their ped, unless something is up. In fact, I took my last baby in at 4 weeks because she still looked VERY jaundice. She was eating ok, but sleeping a lot and I was a little worried. We ended up seeing someone who wasnt our normal ped and she was horrid, acting like she was dying. She sent us out for a bili test and my daughter was WELL below the dangerous level. (I think it was a 7.6; they said if she were above 12 it would be cause for concern/treatment)

I am lucky in that my ped is very open and even says herself she sees no problems with me postponing vax. My 2 year old hasnt had any and I've never been even remotely pressured into doing it. The nurse usually goes ok, we doing any vaccines today? I say no, she says ok, end of it. Shes also anti circ, so I dont need to watch her like a hawk or be scared that she'll say *oh noes! he needs a circ!* I also love that shes willing to do tests-I know that sounds odd, but Ive had doctors that refuse to do any tests despite a good reason.

I do not however, go in on the normal schedule. We usually only go in for sick visits or if its been awhile and I want to know what the baby weighs. lol Again, Ive never been told off about that either

[Miss Chris]

We took our baby in because we were fidgety new parents full of nerves and it was good for us to have our very nice and relaxed pediatrician coo over our little bundle and pat us on the back and tell us for the 10th time that she was just as beautiful and strong as we fervently hoped

Also, it was great when I had new parent terrors over her first year to be able to call up and get answers right away because she was already a "patient". She was never really sick, but it was tremendously reassuring when our little bug fell off the bed and I was practically beside myself with guilt and fear to call up and have them gently reassure me that I hadn't broken her. If we'd never been there I would not have had access to that service.

Chris
mom to Maggie (2 years old)

[RoadWorkAhead]

We didn't with DD, and not having a record of her previous weights at their office really made it alot harder to start working on her medical issues, so this time I will so that we are making sure all is well. I will probably also obsessively go in for weight checks again. If it weren't for DD"s medical issues, I'd probably not be too concerned about it at all.

[barefootpoetry]

We don't plan on it. We don't have a "family doctor" anyway. Since we learned about vaxes and stopped doing them around 1 year, we haven't had reason to set foot in a doc's office once. If babe seems unhealthy, then of course we'll go, just as we would with DS1. But otherwise, I see no need to.

[honeybee]

We have a great fp that is non-vax and AP friendly. She does not give unwanted parenting advice. She was also my doc when I gave birth to ds1, but barely blinked an eye when I told her about our planned hb with ds2. Most of the peds and fps in the area refuse to see patients who selectively or delay vax.

She requested to see ds2 2 days after birth just to check things out, and I agreed even though it wasn't necessary. It was a small thing to do to keep up good relations with our doc. Plus, they got to see all the birth records my mw kept, and could see that everything was monitored well, etc.

So, partly I do it to keep up a good relationship, partly just to show off my new baby to a doc who is kind of like a family friend, and partly to be an ambassador for homebirth (which probably only works if your doc is nonjudgemental and open minded).

[Twwly]

MW does home visits until 6 weeks PP and then no, we don't do 'well baby visits". We take DS to see our Naturopath if there's a problem, or concern and if there is a medical emergency, we go to the hospital.

[ColoradoMama]

My midwife does baby checks when she does mama checks! Even if she didn't, the only thing I would take my baby to the doctor for would be a PKU test. I don't need a physician to tell me that my baby's doing okay. If we have a problem, then I'd take my child to the doctor. I don't take my children to the doctor just to make sure they're growing properly or gaining enough weight.

[lunamegn]

I older son has a pediatrician because he had his issues going on and so I decided to keep the same one for my youngest. He's seen the ped one time when he was a little over 2 months old and that was to establish him as a patient in case I need to get him in quickly. Haven't been back since.

My midwife checked him out after birth and a couple times after the birth and that was good enough for me.

[happyme226]

We have taken our babies to the ped at 1 month for a check.