You might remember this post I wrote about choosing a pediatrician when I was pregnant. I suppose I should have taken some of my own advice, like to interview several and to do thorough research before selecting one. It’s not like I just picked one blind, though…

When I was about six months pregnant, I printed the list of doctors in our medical group from the online database and took it to one of my OBGYN appointments to ask him for his recommendation. He told us the one who he thought would be the best fit for us because she was young and close by, so when it got closer to my due date, I made an appointment to “interview” her. I didn’t ask many questions – she seemed ok and her office was really nice, so that was that. I didn’t interview any others or do any further research; I just put her name on our hospital registration that we completed a few days before we had the baby.

A couple days after baby TTT was born, the pediatrician I had selected came to check on him in the hospital. She seemed like she was in a bit of a hurry, but said everything was fine and that she wanted to see him the day after we came home. Baby TTT was slightly jaundiced, so she wanted to check his levels and make sure they were improving. She also said she would do a controlled feeding to see if he was getting enough milk. Red flag number one.

We went to the appointment and my husband was impressed with the office, but not really with the doctor or her staff. The controlled feeding was pretty stressful too. He was weighed naked and again with a clean diaper, then I was told to feed him 15-20 minutes on each side, and he was weighed again with his dirty diaper. The doctor didn’t seemed concerned with the results, but asked that we come back one week later to check his weight again.

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At the next appointment, the nurse said that he hadn’t gained enough weight (he gained 4.5 ounces in 6 days), and that he should be gaining one ounce per day. Then she asked me to do another controlled feeding, even though I had just fed him before we left for the appointment. Also, he had a diaper full of pee before he was weighed naked, so we were confused as to how this method was accurate (if he was weighed before he peed, it would have been 1-3 ounces more). The doctor came in after and didn’t seemed too concerned, but told me I should start pumping to try to increase my supply. Then, she told us to come back one week later to check his weight… again.

Meanwhile, we did a little research about newborn weight gain and found several sources that said that the one ounce per week was an average, not a minimum. I was pretty confident he was getting enough milk because he seemed satisfied, he had plenty of wet and dirty diapers throughout the day, and I just trusted that my body knew what it was doing.

By the time the next appointment rolled around, I was getting pretty stressed about the whole thing. My husband had gone back to work that week, so I asked my mom to go to the appointment with me because I knew I would need someone there for support. Again, the nurse weighed him, right after I took off a full diaper, and said he hadn’t gained enough (4 ounces in 7 days). She asked me to do another controlled feeding, which I complained about, but eventually gave in to. My mom got on her iphone and found the Dr. Sears newborn weight gain guidelines: 4-7 ounces per week for the first month, which meant he was right on track. At this point, I trusted Dr. Sears more than our pediatrician, which let me know it was time to try to find a new one. She told me I should pump after every feeding and if he slept more that four hours at night I should get up to pump. She also said to give him bottles of pumped milk and he wasn’t even three weeks old at this point. I pretty much ignored most of this, but it still gave me anxiety, which I knew wasn’t doing anything good for my supply.

After talking it over with my husband, we decided it was time to find somebody new, even though the idea of interviewing pediatricians with a newborn in tow seemed daunting. Instead of going off of the list from the medical group though, I decided to ask around for recommendations from friends and family, then call each office and ask if they took our insurance and medical group. I found two who came highly recommended who took our insurance and made appointments (both on the same day, actually) to interview them. At the interviews, I explained what had happened with our current pediatrician and asked what they thought. Both were very nice and agreed that she wasn’t right to say that he wasn’t gaining enough weight. One even said that newborns should gain a half ounce to one ounce per day, which he had done.

I liked them both and they both seemed to think his weight gain was not a problem, so it was a tough decision for me. The first one was a really large office with many doctors. There was only one waiting room with a tiny room for newborns, but we had to walk through the whole waiting room with all the sick kids to get to it. Everything seemed kind of old and it felt a little impersonal because it was just so big. I liked the doctor a lot, especially because he had a baby just a week older than Liam, so I felt like he really understood what we were going through.

The second office had separate sick and well waiting rooms with different entrances. The office was updated and more intimate – it only had two doctors and one nurse practitioner, but is still open every Saturday. The doctor was older, which can sometimes be a negative for me because I think that some older doctors aren’t as familiar with newer practices and research, but he seemed to be. Also, he is friends with my OBGYN, who I really like and trust, so that was a plus. Both of these doctors were not on my medical group list, but they both take my medical group, so that shows that sometimes it pays to just call around instead of trusting those outdated databases.

I ended up picking the second one, but knowing that there was at least one other option in case things didn’t work out helped a lot. We already had our first appointment and it was a much better experience. The doctor said Liam is perfect and his weight is just fine – he’s in the 90th percentile in height, and the 50th in weight. We’ve all heard that all babies are different, so it only makes sense that they would gain weight differently. I’m glad I trusted my instincts and didn’t supplement, even though it would have been easy to just give him a bottle of formula so that he’d gain more weight and our former pediatrician would be satisfied.

And since no post is complete without a picture of my growing boy…


Liam at 4 weeks, 9lbs 2oz, 22.75 inches

Have you had a negative experience with a doctor? How did you deal with it?

Hellobee Series: Mrs. Tic Tac Toe part 10 of 13

1. Bump Photos So Far by mrs. tictactoe
2. Gender Reveal by mrs. tictactoe
3. Our Birth Plan by mrs. tictactoe
4. Placenta Encapsulation by mrs. tictactoe
5. Maternity Photo Session by mrs. tictactoe
6. Baby Blue Book Shower by mrs. tictactoe
7. Shower Activity: Nursery Art by mrs. tictactoe
8. Measuring Up by mrs. tictactoe
9. Liam's Nursery: After by mrs. tictactoe
10. Why we fired our pediatrician by mrs. tictactoe
11. DITL: Newborn Edition by mrs. tictactoe
12. I'm better as a mom by mrs. tictactoe
13. Typical Day of a WOHM: Six Month Edition by mrs. tictactoe