How to Navigate Pediatric Care: Ensuring a Quality Experience for Your Child

Most parents care more about their children’s doctors than they do their own. It is an important relationship. Where adults may see the doctor only once every one to two years, school-aged children are constantly in and out of the doctor’s office. 

It is important to find someone that you feel comfortable working with. In this article, we take a look at what it takes to navigate pediatric care to ensure a high-quality experience. 

Note

To “navigate “pediatric care assumes the privilege of having options. If you are struggling financially, do not have insurance, or are struggling to find high-quality care with your insurance network, it can be difficult to obtain pediatric care that you are comfortable with.

Ultimately, some healthcare is almost always better than no healthcare. That said it is important to advocate for yourself and your child. If you are not happy with the direction your provider is taking your child’s care speak up.

Raise concerns with the doctor. Complain to your insurance company. It’s important to remain civil— easier said than done when the topic of concern is your child’s health— but also adamant. Don’t settle for care that you are uncomfortable with.

Choosing the Right Doctor:

It’s important to choose a doctor that you feel you can collaborate with. While they bring expertise to the table, it is ultimately you who has to make the choices when it comes to your children’s health. 

Ideally, the provider you choose will be:

• • Open to discussion: You’ll probably wind up asking your child’s doctor WAY more questions than you do your own. “Does this antibiotic come with side effects?” Kids are constantly on antibiotics. “Why does my kid seem to get ear infections every 15 minutes or so?” “If they get pink eye even one more time, I’m going to cry. No, that’s not a question. I just needed you to know.” Doctors are extremely busy and many aren’t shy about letting you know that. Still, when it comes to your child’s help, it is important to choose a doctor who will patiently answer all of your questions. 

• Great at working with your child: It is important not to forget that your child is the patient, not you. While good pediatricians are masterful at working with parents, they are ultimately employees of the child themselves. You want a pediatrician who will be able to work directly with your kid without needing you to constantly intercede. Yes, you probably will need to provide insights and make clarifications, but the more autonomy your child feels they have, the better the relationship will be. 

• Available: Admittedly, this last consideration can be elusive. Depending on where you live, you may find that it is very hard to get even urgent appointments with your pediatrician. Because young children have constantly evolving health concerns, this can be a major issue. Ideally, you will be able to find a pediatrician who can see your child the same day when they get sent home from school for a facial rash. It happens more often than you’d think.

Of course, finding this mythical awesome pediatrician is easier said than done. How do you find a doctor that you will be happy with? We’ll get into it with the next heading. 

Finding Your Dream Doctor

It’s best to start looking for a good doctor early on— ideally when you and your partner are still in the expecting stage of parenthood. Pregnant parents can make pediatric appointments while their child is still in the womb. In fact, that is ideal because:

• Newborn babies require a lot of doctor’s appointments. They will usually see the pediatrician within the first one to two weeks of their lives, followed by many more appointments over the next year. Also
• Good doctors may have waiting lists. Because pediatricians need to maintain schedules that are flexible enough to maintain urgent same-day appointments (ear infections wait for no one) they generally limit their patient load. This means that popular doctors may have lengthy wait lists. To get in, you may need to apply early on in your pregnancy. 

Start your research as soon as you can. Recommendations can be a great place to start. Speak to your friends who have children about what they like and dislike about their child’s pediatrician. You can also do your own research. Online review services make it easy to gain a clear understanding of what it is like to work with a doctor.

Pro tip? Focus not just on the physician you will be seeing, but also the other healthcare professionals working within that practice. One doctor’s office may consist of several pediatricians and nurse practitioners. While your child will see their primary doctor for all of their wellness visits, other professionals may pitch in for sick visits. 

It’s important that you are comfortable with everyone in the practice. If you belong to a minority group, this may also mean looking for practices that include team members with backgrounds similar to your own. 

Why? Unfortunately, minority patients experience poorer healthcare outcomes when working with majority group member healthcare providers. Selecting a practice that consists of diverse team members can improve your experience. 

I’m Experiencing Friction: What should I do?

Sometimes healthcare doesn’t go as smoothly as you would like it to. The most important thing is that you advocate for yourself and your doctor. If you feel that the pediatrician is being dismissive of your concerns, or that they simply do not fully understand the problem, say something!

Generally speaking, the doctor will recalibrate their response and try to work with you. If they don’t, you may need to find someone else. Switching doctors is a big pain but sometimes it is necessary. 

The relationship between pediatricians and the families they care for is both highly intimate and involved. You will be working closely with this person for the next eighteen years—possibly longer if your child winds up with younger siblings. It’s important to pick someone you like. When it comes to pediatric care, never settle for less than the best.