Kianey Carter: My pediatrician is my homeboy, my new best friend

When I was pregnant, everyone kept making a big deal about picking a pediatrician. Honestly, I didn’t understand why.

As a kid, I had a pediatrician. I don’t have any memories of him, but I know I had one. And as an adult, I have never had a regular doctor I could go to whenever something came up.

This whole idea that I would need to do a lot of research, interview and ultimately choose the best doctor for my little guy was a little foreign to me and seemed to be blown out of proportion.

How much of an impact would a pediatrician have? Why was it so important that I liked him and the practice? I couldn’t really wrap my mind around it until about a month before my son was born. Sometime during those last few weeks, I got serious about finding a doctor.

One of the best pieces of advice anyone ever gave me was to make sure our pediatrician’s office wasn’t too far away from our home. I am so glad I listened. Not only do I love our pediatrician and the practice but the office is less than two minutes from our house! Score!!

What no one told me was exactly how many times I would make that two minute drive to the office. My son is nine months old and we’ve seen our pediatrician or someone else in the practice a dozen times.

Just this month, we’ve been once a week. While nothing has been terribly serious and my son is a happy and healthy little guy, taking all those trips to the office can be taxing. You feel helpless as a parent because you don’t know what’s wrong and are not able to help your child feel better.

I’ve made countless phone calls to the nurse’s line to get questions about a rash or fever or runny nose. Nothing prepares you for that portion of parenthood. Not being able to help.

Every time I have gone into my doctor’s office. I’ve been given an answer and told what I can do to make my child feel better. My doctor has never made me feel silly for asking a ton of questions, including citing things I read on the internet which many times have proved to be so false or made me feel like I was not doing a good job as a parent.

We truly have a great relationship with our doctor and the practice.

As many of my friends and co-workers get ready to have their own kids, I have one piece of advice: Audition pediatricians and pick the one that makes you feel comfortable. You’ll be seeing A LOT of them.