PED Or Family Doctor?

I think that's totally fine. I'm pretty sure growing up I only saw my ped until I was like 5 too and then switched to our family dr.

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When my now 9 year old was born, a pediatrician saw him in the hospital, I called and made an appointment to go in at 2 weeks (or 4? - whichever the first visit is). We show up at the office and were told that since we weren't 15 minutes early (they never told me to be early) - that we had to wait until the next open appointment, which was 3 hours from then. I asked for my co-pay back, walked out and took him to our family doctor and have never looked back or gone anywhere else, except to an allergist and to a cardiologist for a complete check up (his sister had a heart issue - so all the other kids got checked out).

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Sounds like it would make sense to me too. We opted for a pedi when our girls were born, thinking that the pedi would see more kids than a family doctor and might stay better informed about childhood illnesses. But now that my girls are 4 we're considering all going to the same family doctor. I just don't know that pedis offer that much that family doctors can't for the "older" child.

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We were told that we needed a pediatrician so we found one and have been using them for almost 3yrs. At our annual physical last summer, we saw a 3mo being treated at our family doctor, and were told they treat all families from birth up. I've been wanting to switch my son to him ever since. The only thing holding me back is the extended hours at our peed's office . . . .

Good luck!

Hi, C.:

Ask your ped this question?
Good luck.
D.

Once my boys hit their teens - we'll be using the same family practice. I love our pediatrician!! It will be hard to say BYE!! in a few short years!!

From a different point of view.

My family doc is a DO which is my favorite. He was a good physician for me. He took Sooner Care and was the assigned doc for the kids at one time. He had no idea the baby was supposed start solids at 6 months or that they were supposed to register their shots online. He was not a pediatrician and had no working knowledge about the issues in billing, having a doc that took Sooner Care as his back up when he took a weeks vacation, etc....he just had no idea what he was doing. We had them quickly changed back to the pediatric clinic. He was not hurting them, but he could have easily missed something.

Our Pediatric Nurse Practitioner that sees our kids is wonderful. She does developmental evaluations at check ups, hearing tests, keeps the shots up to date, knows everything that is new and wonderful in pediatric medicine, and is exceptional at her job. I would not take the kids anywhere else.

I can't imagine not having the kids see a pediatrician. They are not small adults and I think having their own doc is not all that bad of a deal anyway.

My kids have always seen a family Dr.

I can't think of why not especially if they have no chronic health problems that would neccesitate staying with the dr that you know.
You might want to consider asking the family dr about immunizations if you do them, -wait is that dumb? I don't know how often they are supposed to get what and at what age-- what i was thinking was that my ped combines certain shots and it seems as a "newer" way of doing things, so if the family dr gives shots in a different combination you would want to be aware of that and make sure the new guy knew how the old one did it.
oh and i have seen posts before about requesting records be sent to the new dr and being charged alot for that to happen so be sure to ask up front and figure out the best way to do that, maybe the new dr requests them?? I'm not sure. Just some things to think about and hopefully find actual answers to.
personally i would love being at one family practice but DH is hesitant so we agreed to wait a little longer.

WE have always seen a Family Dr. and my kids are 5,4, and 5 months. I love the idea that we are all seen by 1 Dr. and the Dr. has our entire family history. There is a gret repore between us and have been satisfied. I don't feel like we missed out on anything for not seeing a Ped. All my kids are happy and healthy.

Good luck with your decision.