Finding a veg-friendly pediatrician?

[Mamamia]

Is this as impossible as it seems to be to me? I have no idea what to say that won't set off alarm bells and bring social services to my door, looking for 'child abuse/neglect'. :rolleyes: People seem to think babies/children MUST have cows milk or they will die. Sooo ridiculous...

Am I better off not saying the V word or labeling my families' diet in way? That's pretty much what I've done with my OB/GYN. As long as the baby is growing right, I feel ok, and my blood results were good (excellent, actually), I don't feel the need to volunteer the information.

What sort of things do I need to ask to weed out the doctors who will give me a really hard time? This is such a daunting task! Am I wrong to feel like I need to prepare for a war? :confused:

[xmysticprincessx]

i think that i saw in another post that youre from denver. denver seems like a big city, so you *should* be able to find a doctor who either agrees with you or will work with you.
if you have health insurance, your provider should have a book with a list of doctors in their network. (if you dont have one, call, and they will be happy to send you one.) i started calling the doctors in the book and asking if the dr had a problem with a baby being raised vegan. (if you have other concerns, like you dont want antibiotics every time your baby has a little sniffle, that might be something else to look into also.) you should be able to meet with the doctor before "hiring" him/her to be your baby's doctor. definately check out the office too. remember that if you do choose a doctor and you dont like him/her, you can always switch. dont worry about hurting his/her feelings. you shouldnt have to feel like a bad mom every time you come in for a well baby visit because youre not giving your baby 3 glasses of milk a day.
if you cant find a ped in your area, you might want to try family doctors or a D.O. (i forgot what d.o. stands for.)
check on the mothering.com message boards (finding your tribe) for some denver area dr recommendations.
good luck! let us know how it goes!

[Erin Pavlina]

I wouldn't mention your diet to any doctor. When do meat-eaters mention what they eat to their doctors? I mean, unless of course it's a food borne illness they are trying to treat.

I would look for a doctor that is open minded when it comes to lots of things, and not rigid.

[Christa]

I know that you are not going to want to come all the way up here, but we do have a wonderful D.O. at the Fort Collins Youth Clinic who has no problem w/ veggie diets for kids, extended bf, selective vax, etc. I did basically what Mysticprincess suggested and called around to ped's offices and told them that I planned on doing x, y & z w/ my children and wanted to know if they had a ped there who would work w/ me and be comfortable with my different choices.

We went through one ped before we found our current one, but I just love her. She has been so supportive of our choices. She cuts off the nurses when they inquire as to why dds aren't vaxed for chicken pox - "they're not doing that vaccine" - and told me that I absolutely made the right choice when she inquired about how school was going for dd last spring and I told her that we had taken her out to homeschool due to issues with the teacher. Likewise, at my younger dd's 2 yr check up (a few years ago!), I was nursing her b/c she was upset & the dr said that it was "the best thing for her."

I agree that D.O.s tend to be a bit more understanding. For a peek into the differences btwn MDs and DOs, check here (http://www.stronghealth.com/services/primarycare/domd.cfm) .

[Mamamia]

Thanks, Christa! I'd been wondering, so I'm off to read that now.

[Jergisen]

I think you should be honest and say your family is vegetarian. You will probably be with this doctor for many years.

Interview a doctor until you find the right one.

[shai]

We don't see a ped, we have a family RN practitioner. He is a vegan, and told us (even before we told him that we don't do milk) that cows milk is for baby cows, not people. Of course, I told him I was a vegan, and it went into hos he is too from there. We go to an office where there are lots of docs and RNP, but we always request him when we go in. Some of the other medical practitioners there are all "do South Beach diet to lose your pregnancy weight!" and "where do you get your protein????!?" So we don't see them, we only see Mike, our vegan NP. It's nice finally having a doc that understands us.

[annie7]

Originally posted by Erin Pavlina
When do meat-eaters mention what they eat to their doctors?

Ditto^

[Jergisen]

Why assume a pediatrician would give you a hard time?

Think of it as YOU educating the doctor! I have had no problems with mine, and I live in the Bible Belt. Same pediatrician for 5 yrs and only had to interview....one.

[celtic-womble]

We got lucky. I picked a ped at random and went to talk to him, said we were going to raise DS vegan and he said that's fine so long as we're not fries and granola veggies.

You could try looking at your insurance companys web site. Start off with docs that look like they might be more veggie friendly e.g. young drs, docs from traditionally veggie cultures like India.

[Al Nowatzki]

I'm pretty sure I saw a website of vegetarian-friendly pediatricians (who, I imagine, would be fine with veganism too) in the book, "New Vegetarian Baby: An Entirely New, Updated Edition of the Classic Guide to Raising Your Baby on the Healthiest Possible Diet" by Christine H. Beard and Sharon K Yntema.

Unfortunately the book's at home and I'm at work. I'll take a look tonight and see if I can find the site.

My wife and I have yet to meet with a pediatrician (since we're just a few months pregnant), but so far everyone has been nonchalant about our veganism. The nurse didn't even bat an eye (she only respectfully mention calcium intake, which is fine by me).

I don't anticipate having trouble finding a vegan-friendly (or at least vegan-tolerable) pediatrician, since we're in the Minneapolis area. I'd hate to think what it would be like if we were in our native rural North Dakota. *shudder*

[Al Nowatzki]

Well, this is the site, as found on the ADA website:

http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/career_dpg14_ENU_HTML.htm

Unfortunately, it doesn't give a list of contact names in the practice group (sorry if I got your hopes up).

The Vegetarian Nutrition practice group can also be found at: http://www.vegetariannutrition.net/

[bbear]

we live in a VERY small town with ONE pediatrician. over 2 yrs ago when our daughter was born, we went to see him and found he was incredibly ignorant. he told me he'd be "battling it out" with me about our veganism until she was grown up. needless to say, that was the last time we went there. we ended up looking at all of the family practices around and found a WONDERFUL FEMALE dr who is extremely respectful of our diet choice and since the tootz grew to 20 lbs within 4 1/2 months, she knew nothing was lacking :) i've found the younger the drs, the more open-minded they seem about veganism. hope this helps!!

[mjm]

we live in boulder and our pediatrician supports our decision to raise our 18 month old daughter vegan..we are actually teaching her a few things! our daughter is in the 75th percentile for weight and 90th for height, and very healthy. if you are interested in her info, reply. also, we interviewed a few peds before choosing one, many people do this..

[celtic-womble]

One thing I would say is once you find a pedi that works try to stick with them. As I said previously our pedi is great. He asks how DS is eating like he would any other patient, sometimes says things like "and he's getting enough calcium/protein/B12/omegas?" but he's just checking, not nagging or accusing or anything like that. Some of the other drs in the practice aren't as nice however. Usually we can't see our usual dr for sick visits (thankfully vegan kids don't have many of those ;) ), probably because he's so great. Usually we get stuck with the old guy who still recommends that new moms don't leave the house for at least 6 weeks and who thinks baby wipes are evil and babies should be bathed every time they poo:rolleyes: Whenever DSs diet comes up we get a lecture so I try not to mention anything dietary with him. Would be much easier if we could just see our regular dr every time though.

[VegParent]

Warning: this is going to be a rant.

I think it's tragic that people need to worry about what their doctor's will think about a child being raised vegan - I mean, the traditional American diet is making people sick. Okay, I'm a little opinionated, but seriously: veganism is hardly the problem. I get so mad when I hear about people getting hasseled by medical professionals about such things as veganism, when MDs in this country don't know any more about nutrition than the average American citizen. Which is really a major part of the problem. This country is so confused as a whole when it comes to nutrition that it really doesn't surprise me, though.:mad:

[ahallit]

I actually have a vegetarian doctor who is on his way to becoming Vegan, (however we live in Rochester, NY) so need less to say he is very supportive of our lifestyle.

:)