Yesterday, we met the babies’ pediatrician. She’s part of a four-person practice that has been in the area for quite some time. The group was recommended by some of my colleagues at work. She was quite pleased to learn that I am a pediatric neurology fellow, since there is a shortage of pediatric neurologists, and they always have a hard time finding physicians to refer their patients to.

I think my requirements for our kids’ pediatrician are slightly different than the usual layperson’s. Of course, I want someone “able, affable, and available”, as described in Dr. Sears’ book, but I was also looking for someone with quite a bit more experience than me, e.g. someone out of training for at least ten to fifteen years, and someone I feel that I could learn from. This pediatrician did fit my requirements–she’s about twenty-five years out of training, but still gave evidence that she was up-to-date on all the latest recommendations, and struck me as someone very intelligent and clinically skillful. (For those of you who are pediatricians, she trained in the era of rampant H. flu meningitis, which means she could give intrathecal gentamicin with her eyes closed.)

At the end of the interview, I met a mom who is an infectious disease attending, who just gave birth to twins, and was bringing them in for their one week appointment. They were crying and she was looking a little frazzled, so that gave me a glimpse into my future, four weeks from now. Then our pediatrician gave me and Bernard lollipops (sugar-free Splenda pops), and mentioned that they should be the same color, to avoid fighting between the twins of course.