12 Tips On Choosing The Right Pediatrician for Your Baby

A pediatrician is a doctor who specializes in child care. Choice of a competent pediatrician for your baby is of utmost importance as it has a direct impact on a child's healthcare. Pediatricians have specialized training (s) to recognize, diagnose and treat children of all age groups- be it, infants, toddlers or teens. It is best to consider a couple of factors at the time of selection of Paediatrician. 

Important Tips On Choosing Paediatrician For Your Baby

The first year of the baby is marked with repeated visits to the hospital, and this alone is a big reason to choose the right doctor for your child early on. Though you will feel overwhelmed by the choice, with a little homework, and some references from friends and family should make your choice easier. Some couples start zeroing out on pediatricians during the last months of pregnancy, and it serves to be a useful idea to compile the list before the baby is born. Because this is an important decision, we would like to help you by giving you a few tips on how to go about finalizing your child's pediatrician. Few of such important factors to be considered have been discussed below.

• Site of practice: Visits have to be paid to the doctor very frequently during a child's growing years. It may be for immunizations, wellness checks or for treating common ailments like cough, cold and fever. Hence it is very important for the Doctors chamber to be within a reasonable vicinity of one's residence. Having the pediatrician's workspace at a location which does not involve much travel is a big advantage.
• Approachability: Since we trust a doctor for our little one, we need to ensure that the person in question is approachable enough and handles questions and apprehensions in the right spirit. One needs to check on the comfort factor, whether the doctor is patient enough to lend a listening ear to understand the concerns of the parents and whether he is open to discussions.
• Accessibility: Ease of getting a Doctor's appointment and duration of waiting are also important factors. Appointments of certain Doctors run waiting for months; such a choice is not advisable for regular childcare. One should select Doctors who are easily accessible. More to this, it is advisable to consider the waiting time. There are certain clinics which provide a fixed time and it is important to stick to those timings whereas certain clinics have long hours of waiting time. It may be difficult to wait for long hours with a small baby; hence these are of extreme importance at the time of selection of a Paediatrician.
• Qualification and affiliations: A pediatrician who has graduated from a reputed well ranked Institute is likely to have better knowledge. Experience is the best teacher when considering child specialists. Moreover, Doctors may be affiliated to various hospitals or health care units. Consideration of the above factors reflects a lot upon the quality of the Doctors. 

Read: Tips to Consider Right Hospitals for Your Pregnancy

• Facilities available in the Clinic: Though this is not a decision-making point, it holds a lot of meaning to understand the amenities available at the doctor's chamber. A convenient parking space, helpful and well-mannered staff members, a decent play area to keep the child engaged, availability of different modes for acceptance of payments, etc are few of the facilities which make it easier for any person visiting the doctor's clinic.
• Updated Techniques and Devices: A doctor has to be updated with the latest medical advances. His clinic has to be equipped with the latest devices in the market. These reveal a lot about the quality of a medical expert.
• Child's response: It is of primary importance to judge a child's response to a particular medical practitioner's diagnosis and medicines. This may be child specific. As a parent one has to study and understand how well his child is responding to the medication provided by a particular doctor. Selection of pediatrician and deciding upon changes is a challenge and has to be a well thought over decision.​
• Mode of Communication: There are a set of Doctors who prefer to advise only on inspecting the condition of the child while there are others who suggest on calls and emails and advice the child to be taken to the clinic only if need be. It is important to understand what suits an individual more and make a choice accordingly.​
• Seeking feedback: It is best to seek feedback while selecting a Paediatrician. Reviews on the net, discussion with other parents, suggestions from family doctors may be considered while deciding on the child specialist.​
• Handling and Managing approach: A child requires proper handling. It will be very important to take note of how well a Doctor works with children. An effective Paediatrician knows well as to how children will understand and is a master at convincing them as to what he wants them to do. A friendly approach towards children makes them happy and easily manageable. Doctors who are tough nuts or are rude are simply rejected by the children themselves​
• Back-up and Contingency Plans: A doctor may have travel plans, conferences to attend, personal engagements due to which he may not be available at certain times. Hence, it is important to ensure that the Doctor has the right network to take care of the child in contingent situations. These may be handled by team doctors or all time available assistants. The contingency plan should be known to all parents visiting the doctor​
• Emergency Handling: A medical expert's set up to handle medical emergencies needs to be considered. Factors like Doctor's associations with the right hospitals to treat the child appropriately in emergency situations and sufficient knowledge and expertise to handle emergency conditions need special consideration. 

If parents manage to choose a Paediatrician with suited conditions, it becomes very favorable and easy for child health care.

If you have any other tips to watch out for, do share with us in the comments so that it can help fellow parents.