Re: preemie-l Need advice on dr
Suzanne900@aol.com
Fri, 7 Jun 1996 22:48:15 -0400
In a message dated 96-06-07 11:22:06 EDT, you write:
>Now I'm having my doubts and am wondering if other premie
>parents used neonatalogists instead of pediatricians? There
>is one neonatalogist here that seems to have a private practice,
>as opposed to just doing hospital care, and I think I'm going to
>make an appointment.
When my son was going to be discharged from the NICU I asked the social
worker to make up a list of pediatricians who she thought would be
appropriate, then we had our favorite neonatologist pick a couple of them who
he thought would be best for John Henry considering his health history, and
for us, considering our personalities. It is really important (or so the
neonatologist told me) that you can work comfortably with the pediatrician.
You have to be able to ask the pediatrician about any of your concerns.
We chose our son's pediatrician because we felt very comfortable with him at
an initital meeting and the neonatologist thought he would be the best
choice. He had been head of peds at the hospital "our" NICU is in and had
experience dealing with high risk and premature babies. He is with a practice
right next to the hospital, and many of the NICU nurses use that group of
peds for their children and they recommended several of the pediatricians to
us. On the list were a few doctors that occasionally did night work in the
NICU and ex-neonatologists. Perhaps if you call your NICU social worker, she
can help you with a list of peds.
Suzanne
(mom to John Henry, 24 weeker, now 14.5 months)