Looking for a Ped Dr. in Chicago

Honey, have you ever heard the saying "If you hear hoofbeats, its probably not a zebra?'" Well, it makes more sense for the doctor to focus on the obvious before running a slew of tests on a kid that is waking all night. Sleep training as the first suggestion makes much more sense as a solution to night waking,then thinking something is wrong with your 7 month old health wise. Find a doc that is into attachment parenting if that is what you are looking for. Any doctor should be supportive of breastfeeding.

I don't know where in the city you live, but ALzein pediatrics in Evergreen Park and oak Lawn is rated in the top five in Illinois. Very accommodating, staff is nice, all the docs have been great. I nursed both my kids and had good feedback from everybody. I went to them because a doc i tried a doc who wasn't supportive of nursing, dumped her immediately!
As far as sleep issues, babies your little one's age wake frequently at night, especially at night. This is NOT a symptom of a medical issue, its a symptom of a baby. There are lots of sleep training methods that do not involve crying it out. Sleep is extremely important to brain development which explains the doc's interest in making sure your baby gets some. A rested parent is a safer parent. Also a good reason for your doc to take an interest. Sleep habits learned now carry over to childhood, and into adulthood. I am not suggesting you let you baby cry, even though I did at this age and had excellent results with my first, (didn't work with my little guy, but neither did anything else!). As a parent I would suggest you find a sleep method that works for you.

I highly recommend Town and Country Pediatrics. There are something like 20 doctors in that office, and all are different. I've never met a ped that doens't support BF, and of course, everyone is different on CIO.

I normally see Dr. Ellen Papacek, who generally goes with whatever flow you set. She'll make suggestions based on the path you choose. However, I've seen several of the doctors there, and have been very happy with all of them.

The website is www.townandcountrypeds.com. They are all tied to Children's Memorial.

Well, Dr Robert Minkus (part of northshore health system) might fit your bill if you want to travel to skokie or lincolnwood. I'm not quite sure what you're looking for though. Do you want someone who jumps to medical interventions easily or assumes there's something physically wrong first? If you're looking for that guy, Minkus is not it. But if you want someone who's supportive of things like attachment parenting, co-sleeping, extended BFing, delayed vac schedule, etc then Minkus might be it. In my experience, you're not going to find someone who is in both camps simultaneously. Both are equally valid ways of doing things, but they do often seem to be at odds.

Hi S.,

We use Dr. Carrie Gosch at Children's Healthcare Associates (www.chahealth.net). They have offices in the city (Lakeview/Lincoln Park) and in Northbrook. She's been pretty supportive of breastfeeding (although another doc in the practice said something obnoxious to me) -- I breastfed my daughter till she was 31 mos. And I don't think she'd encourage you to use the "cry it out" method if you weren't interested (we moved from MI and only started using the practice when my daughter was 9 mos. old, so it wasn't so relevant for us).

Dr. Shoshana Waskow in Wilmette is a friend of my family and I'm sure she'd also be great as a ped. You didn't say where you're located, though, so I thought I'd give some options. :-)

Best,
R.

Dr Starr at Streeterville Peds is great! She is a mom as well as a doc and gets it!