How to Prepare for a Pediatrician Visit

I remember feeling overwhelmed with all the questions and paper work the doctor's office had for me. I started to log their questions for me. The next time I was able to answer them easier.

Here's some of their questions for me:

How many stools does he have a day? 

For some that's easy. Your kid may be regular. For others it's more of a challenge. Each day is different. I had kids on the regular side. They never had problems with constipation. They did however have problems with diarrhea. What I'd recommend for a child that isn't regular, count their stools everyday for a week. Then round it out. Example: If every other day they had four stools, then I would say they have two stools a day.

How many hours do they sleep at night and at nap time?

This to can vary. Again I was lucky to have kids that were pretty consistent. The first couple times I was asked this, I was thinking, Gee wiz hold on for 5 minutes, while I count, attend to my kid and finish filling out the paper work you give me EVERY TIME. So I would count the hours. Again if this is done ahead of time, it's much smoother. You can round for this to.

How much milk do they drink in a day?

When they are babies and breastfeed like mine did, that's a hard question to answer! If the are bottle fed by someone else, some of the time you can get good counts from that. Otherwise you have to guess. Let them know you are guessing because you breastfeed. I kept a record for a few days prior to the visit. For my bigger babies, each well feeding was considered an 8 oz bottle in my book and each short feeding was a 4 oz bottle. I'd count the oz up and had my number. That didn't include all the milk that my youngest spit up! I told them that as well. He was a spitter! 

It's important to have a list of questions or topics for the doctor as well:

I found if I didn't do this I would forget things I wanted to ask or talk about. Everyone's list is different. Below were some of my questions.

How do I go about weaning?

Everyone will answer this differently, but it's important to get your child's pediatricians feedback. The boy's doctor said to start taking one feeding away each week. Then in the end take it all away. 

What do I do about a spitty baby? 

Their doctor said to feed my youngest little bits at a time. That certainly helped, but was hard to do.

Other things I asked about: 

• Potty training (day and night). More about night then day. They don't worry until the kid is around age 7 for night time accidents.
• Both my kids had diarrhea issues in their late toddler years. We came to the conclusion that they have something called toddler diarrhea.
• Behavior in my oldest. He tends to be hyper sometimes. He does well in school, so it doesn't concern me, but it concerns my husband AKA Daddy.
• My oldest had problems being low on weight. We have a history of tall bean pole in both our families. I asked if we should keep him on whole milk longer? He agreed to keep him on it an extra 1/2 year to year. 
• How to get them to blow their noses? He pretended that they were fire breathing dragons and had to blow out fire with their nose. It actually worked. They still are not experts.
• How to up my milk supply when I needed to. Fenugreek, malt powder, Mother's Milk tea, other Mommy tea's and drinking more water all help.
• Follow up visits. When will they need to see your baby/kid next?
• I had questions about my youngest son's bowed feet. He told me to let them be, or put hard soled shoes on the wrong feet.
• I had questions about my oldest son's tongue. He was born with a cyst under it. We just had to wait that out as well.
• I had questions about my oldest son's walk. He limped when he started out walking. That was another thing we had to wait out.

That was pretty much my list at different times. Some of my issues may, or may not apply to you. The important thing is, is write your topics or questions down prior to the appointment! Otherwise you may forget.