First meeting

The first meeting with the local pediatrician, with the greatest possible probability, will not happen at all on your initiative. In accordance with existing instructions, the maternity hospital staff, on the eve of discharge, will please the staff of the children's clinic and inform them by phone about the addition to your family. And the local doctor will definitely visit the newborn, regardless of whether you make a house call or not.

It is clear that the amount of worries and troubles in the first few days after returning from the maternity hospital is very large. And the child must be dealt with, and the relatives, who are trying to adequately celebrate the event, must be satisfied, and the husband, who has gone wild during the absence of his wife, must be caressed... It’s good at least that on such days visiting guests are not accepted. But you need to prepare for the pediatrician’s arrival. For the subsequent development of your long-term relationship depends on this first meeting - hopefully, friendly and mutually respectful.

Even if this is not your first child, even if you consider yourself a serious and experienced specialist in raising human children, even under these conditions, the need for a pediatrician is very great. It is the local pediatrician who will give you advice free of charge (i.e., for nothing) on ​​the rules of care and feeding, provide assistance with illnesses, organize preventive examinations of the child by specialist doctors and vaccinations; without his conclusion, you (or rather, your child) will not be accepted into any hospital. kindergarten, not to summer camp, not to the pool, not to school. If the child is ill, only the pediatrician will issue a supporting document to the mother to present at her place of work. And it will be very prudent if you always follow the most important rule: you need to be friends with the pediatrician. If only for this reason, the pediatrician can manage without you, but you cannot do without him.

And it would be nice to be friends from the very beginning, from the first meeting...

Since the pediatrician’s visit will occur within a very specific time frame (the first - second day after discharge from the maternity hospital), it will be very good if you take some mandatory actions in advance so as not to fuss at the moment when the doorbell rings:

1. If possible, clean up the house;

2. prepare slippers and a clothes hanger;

3. hang a clean towel in the bathroom and make sure you don’t have to look for soap;

4. just in case, have a spoon on hand, which will be needed to examine the oral cavity. The spoon should be of medium size and without any frills;

5. if you have specific questions for the doctor, entrust them to the paper in advance, since, with a high degree of probability, you will forget everything you wanted to ask at the most crucial moment. You don’t have to rely on your own memory and it’s highly advisable to have a notepad and writing utensils on hand so you can quickly write down the advice and recommendations you receive;

6. Prepare the documents that were given to you upon discharge from the maternity hospital - the pediatrician will definitely need them.

Start communication with the generally accepted ritual of acquaintance (- hello, my name is Tanya, and this is our grandmother Maria Petrovna...). Find out and be sure to write down (because you will certainly forget) the last name, first name and patronymic of your doctor. It is not very correct to say: Tell me, doctor..., because for some reason neither candidates, nor, especially, doctors of sciences work as local pediatricians. For the convenience of subsequent appointments, check the days and hours of your appointment at the clinic.

After meeting the relatives, it’s the child’s turn. What will the doctor do? To begin with, he will pay attention to the living conditions in which the child is (children's room, number of relatives, financial capabilities, availability of baby care items), then he will ask you numerous questions: - about pregnancy, about the timing and course of childbirth, about breastfeeding, about treatment or non-treatment of mother and child, about vaccinations carried out in the maternity hospital. He will try to clarify the information received by studying the same documents we have already mentioned that were given to you in the maternity hospital.

Now the child itself. Here your task has already been endured