Paed visits???

Dr Theart is really great. Yaz I think you will like him. Very quite but relaxed and not opinionated on child care (like me ) He will be your childs advocate and not pushy with meds etc.

Aah Charnenay, that's the paed Julz recommended to me since we're new in the North - will be seeing him for the first time on Monday with Lilly. Thanks for the eye candy info, will be sure to watch out for that hehe.

I took Emily for her 6 week check up and then again for a 3 month check up and we are going back for a 6 month check up. Also took her once before 3 months for a breathing problem.

My paed is WONDERFUL and he definitely does not interfere with your parenting style. Infact, we always have a nice little chat and it is always a 2 way stream, he is not overbearing at all. I prefer going for the routine check ups while she is still so young just because it gives me peace of mind Besides, he is also a bit of eye candy

P.S - if anyone in Northern Suburbs is looking for a paed, I can highly recommend him, Dr. Theart - he has rooms at Panorama and Cape Gate Medi Clinic.

In my experience, most clinic sisters are unfortunately not very clued up when it comes to baby's development. They mostly stick to weighing, measuring, giving jabs and feeding advice (which is great, of course).

In Germany (and other European countries), they do systematic check ups at the paed with every child, starting from birth until 18 years. The check ups are very thorough and the doctors have to go through a whole check list. The first year is very important and the check ups coincide with the months where the most important milestones should be achieved more or less. We decided to stick to this pattern just for our peace of mind:

6 weeks
3-4 months
6-7 months
10-12 months
from 1 year onwards it's one visit per annum

Maybe I should add that most of the countries we "look up to" have very advanced health care systems and mostly national health insurance, so there are no costs for the parents unlike in SA's private sector.

My baby hasn't been sick so far (touch wood), but for minor conditions I would probably still take her to my clinic sister and she can then assess if I need to see a GP or paed with my LO.

Em has been to the pead once, when she was 6 weeks old, and it was a waste of time. Admittedly I think I got a bad pead. I called to make an appointment for her at 3 months when she was covered from spots and was told they would see me in 4 days! My child could be dead by then. I called my local GP and they saw me in 30min! Thankfully we have a long standing relationship with our GP and he took wonderful care of Em anytime we needed. And if they thought it was needed then they would make an emergancy call to the Pead to book Em in. Thankfully this has never been needed

I actually prefer going to the pead than the clinic sister. I find that the clinic sister is much more rushed and won't always just stop and listen to my questions, whereas our pead (a wonderful guy) is just so relaxed and always ready to answer any questions.

I'm sure everyone's experience is different though.

Claudia, my clinic sister is actually quite lame. She weighs and measures him and ofcourse the dreaded vacs.