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We actually only talked to one pediatrician sometime in my third trimester and decided to go with her. She had an information session (which many in our area do) and then that was it. We never told her we wanted to use her or anything. We just called the office from the hospital and left a message saying we just had a baby and needed an appointment the next day. I think most pediatricians leave spots open for newborns. It's not like you can predict when they are going to need their first appointment :-)

My family practice doc doesn't see babies under age 2 so we asked around and chose a ped based on friend's recommendations. After baby was born we told the hospital staff who we had chosen and they called and made baby's first appointment before we left the hospital (actually a requirement that we have an appointment made before we left since we were there only 24 hours.)

During my third trimester, I just called the office of the pediatrician we were interested in (honestly, I can't totally remember how I picked her), and spoke to the pediatrician's nurse for a while about general policies and such, and then the pediatrician called me and we discussed my specific health concerns. After my daughter was born, I called their office and set up an appointment for when the hospital pediatrician said that I should (I think it was the day after we were released from the hospital), and it was nice that we were already in their system so that made it a bit easier to set the appointment up.

I have my own dumb question. I'm watching a baby boy for the first time in a while, and I don't know where to put diaper rash cream on boy bits. Do I put it on his penis? On the scrotum? Just on his bottom? His mom told me that I should use some cream on him, and I should have asked her where to put it, but it seems silly to call her now just to ask where I'm supposed to use the cream. If it makes a difference, it's a zinc oxide diaper rash cream.

sounds like i dont need to worry about the pediatrician thing for a long time :-)

question #2 du jour

apparently i have a dentist appt on monday. im 90% sure last time i went i didnt get xrays so i think im due.

i think i remember one of my books saying dental xrays during pregnancy was fine but i wanted to double check.

i realize i could just tell them i dont want to get them but im actually interested in getting them.
one of my friends who was pregnant about a year ago went to the dentist after having her baby and had like crazy amount dental degradation from her pregnancy. i kind of want a before and after to look at. im totally paranoid about my teeth and jaw and mouth cause i had major surgery on it two years ago.

I went during my third trimester, and I didn't even have to mention it - they were like "no xrays for you this time!" and suggested I set up an appointment after the birth.

ill see what they say. ill let them know since it's not obvious.

usually they just do what i think are called bitewing xrays where it's just in your mouth.
they put the lead jacket thing on you.

We chose a pediatrician group based on recommendations from our midwife group and calling a few people to ask a couple questions. Really the only questions we could think to ask were about vaccination policies (we are pro-vac, but didn't want to do Hep B at birth) and vegan-friendliness. The place we wound up at happens to have a vegan doc, but we never wind up talking about it anyway. We also deliberately chose a practice that has privileges at the hospital I birthed in and does the initial visit there - we indicated that on our forms and the hospital called the peds for us. In the end I was really glad we had done that because Malka was born with Erb's palsy and a fairly large birth mark that might have become problematic and we had continuity of care from birth on. (She still has the birth mark that's being monitored, the palsy resolved itself by a few weeks old.) We didn't start looking for peds until the third trimester.

I did a 15 minute consult visit in my third trimester (book a consult kind of early though, just because I hate to wait a few months to get in -- they only did them on certain days). I already knew the practice since my acupuncturist worked out of there at the time, so I felt comfortable. If I was starting to look without a relationship with any practice, I might have checked out a few practices.



I usually put it on the scrotum, perineum and around the bum. Those are the parts that seem to get red!

Thanks, mandycoot! That sounds pretty analogous to where I put cream on girl bits, actually (outer labia and perineum + bum).


Yeah, this should definitely be a consideration. Our pediatrician does not have privileges at the hospital we use and they aren't on the same medical record system, so my daughter's records took forever to reach the ped's office. This was especially a problem since we wanted to know if Lydia's jaundice was getting better, but since our ped didn't have my daughter's hospital blood test results, she couldn't compare them. We are planning on using the same hospital and ped for the twins, so this time, I know that my husband and I have to make sure that we write test results down ourselves so that we can show those to our ped.

This would be a lot easier if we had a different hospital or pediatrician, but I really like both of them, so I think it's worth the extra hassle of the confusion from the first couple ped visits.

re: dentist...ours said to skip the x-rays when pregnant unless there is something serious warranting it (injury, severe pain, etc). I think it's a pretty small dose, but I saved the x-ray exposure for the things we can't avoid.

I didn't think about a pediatrician until I was 30 weeks or so. We're planning on leaving the area as soon as I finish school, when Scarlett will be about 11 months old, so we didn't really care what our pediatrician thinks about us being vegan since they wouldn't be taking care of her for very long. It makes sense for it to be a bigger decision if you think your pediatrician will potentially be following your kid for 18 years. Our only real qualification was someone who wouldn't call CPS on us for having a home birth.

Re: dental care during pregnancy. There doesn't seem to be any risk to dental X-rays or pretty much anything a dentist might do to you in the office.

http://academicobgyn.com/2011/03/03/an- ... the-world/

My dumb question: Are y'all bathing your toddlers in just the regular bathtub. I'm embarrassed to say that we're still putting Freya in the baby tub (inside the big tub). I get really really freaked out about her slipping in the tub (this happened to one of my nanny girls...my chest still gets tight thinking about it). She still likes the little tub mostly, but she's far too big, I think.

We never bathed Malka in the little tub period. She has always been bathed in the big tub, with one of us in there with her.

Kimba, I don't know where your post went, but it seems clear from everybody's comments above that dentists they've seen didn't understand that xrays during pregnancy are totally fine. I wasn't due for xrays when I saw the dentist during pregnancy (and I am so behind I haven't been back since!), I wonder what my dentist would have said.

We've been using the big tub for a while now, and one of those non-skid mats are really important. Lydia tries to run back and forth in the tub whenever she can, and while we don't let her do that, she does sometimes manage to run anyway, and she's never slipped or come close to slipping when the mat is down. She managed to get in the tub once when we weren't ready for her, so the mat wasn't down, and she slipped almost immediately. Luckily it wasn't a bad fall, but it did really scare me.

We also have non skid stuff.

Some posts got deleted because of the spam invasion. I thought it was weird that dentists would ask an OB if it is ok to treat. I train dentists from across the US and never heard of any wanting to ask an OB if they can treat. Dentists are supposed to be the experts in that area. I am surprised that people are having that experience. As for xrays, we generally defer if they are routine recall exams with no signs of disease and take them if there are signs of dental disease or a dental emergency. Basically, the idea is that they are safe with a lead apron, but if the dental health is such that they can be deferred, then we do. Generally, the recommended time for routine dental care is in the second trimester, but emergencies whenever there is an emergency. Disclaimer: ask your dentist - this is not medical advice.

I'm not sure how old Freya is, so this might not be suitable, but my sister has one of these:
http://www.mothercare.com/Mothercare-Aq ... #q=aquapod for my niece. It's a non-slip mat with a little seat thing attached so my niece can't escape and run round the bath.

we have been using the big tub We don't have a non slip mat but I know we should really have one. The only problem I have is him draining it

Other than already being aware there are no guarantees, every birth is different etc etc...
I know that there can be patterns between your mother's births and your own, does anyone know how much/if at all this applies to mother-in-laws? Potentially a really dumb question, but I just found out yesterday that of her five births, none were later than 37-38 weeks, and as I was planning on working till mid-way through my 37th week... I'm now a little concerned!

Thanks for the advice on bath stuff. I'll look around for a mat this week. She's been a bit funny about baths lately in general..normally likes them a *lot*, but now some tears even. Maybe some new kit is just what she needs. :)

oww, I think the lit on mother/daughter birth correlation is pretty sketchy anyway. I only looked at a few PubMed articles, but they seemed to say that there *may* be a connection, but that it's far from certain. I was very hopeful, as my mom had 3 short labors (longest something like 3 1/2 hours). Mmmyeah, it didn't quite work out that way. :D

i actually had lunch with my aunt yesterday and she is a dental hygentist and also teaches.
she said pretty much exactly what Kimba said.
they usually defer unless there is a reason like pain
she said there is no reason they should be doing x rays on me. guess ill see what happens tomorrow.

Thanks, refinnej - I know it's mostly anecdotal at best! I think I was just a bit blindsided to hear about a real pattern of early labours for the first time at 35 weeks and hoping there's not much chance it'll happen for me! [at least till I'm finished work!!]