To what age do most pediatricians see your dc's?

[jacqui in mo]

nt

[Holly IN]

Our now 13 yr old son requested to stop going to a pediatrician when he was 11. So we switched all the kids to dh/my family dr. So much easier!! The kids love their family dr and I feel so much better and less stressful for me.

Holly

[Jennifer in MI]

I saw mine until my college physical at 18. My kids and I all go to a family doc now.

[hpymomof3]

My oldest dd wanted to stop going to the pediatrician (a male) when she had to have her physical for freshman year. So for the past 2 years she has gone to my doctor whenever she needed to, which was only a few times.

We recently decided to go back to the pediatrician for her. I noticed a few things that made me suspect that she had Marfan's syndrome. I brought her to my doctor who examined her for 5 minutes. She obviously didn't know anything about the syndrome. I actually had to ask her to examine dd for scoliosis, which it turns out she had. She did order some tests for dd but was ready to just let it go. She was very wishy-washy about the whole thing.

I decided to go to the pediatrician for a 2nd opinion. He spent over an hour examining her. Not only did he seem to know what he was looking for but actually spent time before and after the exam doing some further research. She had some signs that were questionable. The next day he phoned and said that he wanted her to see a geneticist. To make a long story short the geneticist agreed with the pediatrician and had her sent for genetic testing. Luckily the tests came back negative, although there is a percentage of false negatives. He wants her to followup with the Marfan clinic and to get another echocardiogram, etc. in a year and another eye exam in 6 months. So obviously he felt it warranted our attention.

Up until now I really liked my doctor and felt comfortable having her being in charge of my dd's care but I realized that the level of care was completely different.

We've been very lucky with our pediatrician. He is very friendly and thorough. The only reason she had originally stopped going to him was because he was a boy. Now she tells me that she wants to go to him forever. I think that I will continue to take her to him until she goes to college. The only exception is if she needed gynecologic (sp?) care. Then I would take her to my ob/gyn.

[TCoppock]

My son's pediatrician will see him up to age 21 if he chooses. When I was growing up I never saw a pediatrician only a family practice doctor who I loved.

[Begonia]

Both my dds (13 and 20 yo) see a female pediatrician. They both still see a pediatric dentist, too. Older dd hasn't expressed any interest in changing. When she does, though, we'll move her to our docs.

[Lady Katherine]

...it is very hard to get in to see her, we always have to wait, and there are inevitably contagious children in the waiting room. So I have switched to a family practitioner as soon as our kids are old enough (3). He's been great!

(Of course, YMMV. All three of my kids require regular trips to various specialists for diabetes, thyroid, asthma, etc., so we never need "well-checks" anymore.)

[Mom2GirlsTX]

and she is only one block from the house! She and the other doctor partner keep a busy practice, but they are so thorough and careful. My youngest has special needs due to stroke/seizures and this Dr. has been so wonderful at figuring out many things. She sees patients until 21, and I always see older teenagers in the office to see the Docs. I doubt I've seen a 21 year old though...LOL Another thing they do that I like, 2 very seperate waiting rooms..one for sick and one for not sick kids.

[Jean in Newcastle]

She didn't have any kids of her own and was always asking ME if my kid's developmental milestones seemed to be on track. She was really good for general diseases but the more childhood things she really wasn't sure of. We are very happy with the switch to a pediatrician. (Now, granted, I'm sure many family doctors have more experience with children than her!)

[Hen Jen]

ours will see the kids into their early 20's...actually she has seen me a few times, and dh once...when I hit 35 I figured I should probably get my own Dr... but we love her, she has 7 kids and is adopting a few more.

I love that when the kids are sick, she gives me a big bottle of whatever we need, knowing it is going to be used by everybody, probably. She gets it.

[Laura K (NC)]

The pediatrician is female, but occasionally my sons see a male ped. She has been very excellent for even teen issues.

Our pediatrician's office has a "teen" waiting room. I've never seen a teen actually waiting in there.

[Adrianne]

my roommate in the hospital room said she had just stopped seeing her pediatrician and now she was going to take her daughter to him. When she became pregnant, he told her she was too old and needed to find a internist. She was 23.

Adrianne

[Laura Corin]

We all see her.

Laura