Seeking Pediatric Gastroenterologist

Yvette Wild or Vivian Nguyen Oakland’s Children’s 

I second both Vivian Nguyen and Yvette Wild.

Vivian is quite responsive, and is hands down the most well-liked GI at CHO-O. Dr. Wild and her have collaborated on our tough case. They both speak highly of each other. Dr. Wild seems busier, based on time for a response to MyChart questions. From Berkeley, UCSF Mission Bay is definitely less convenient than CHO-O. Good luck with your son.

I recommend Dr. Sue Rhee with UCSF. She was very kind to our kid and us and incredibly helpful to our kid with sensory issues that involved their digestive system. Good luck!

We've been very happy with the pediatric gastroenterology department at UCSF, where we've been taking our child for the past sixteen years.  Doctors we've worked with include Melvin Heyman, Yvette Wild, Sue Rhee, and nurse practitioner Laura Cooke, and I highly recommend all of them. The clinic is at the Mission Bay campus in San Francisco, so it's not exactly convenient, but for a child with a serious illness or a complicated diagnosis (or if you're having trouble even getting a clear diagnosis), I wouldn't really consider anything else.  

Any of the Pediatric Gastroenterologists at UCSF Mission Bay in the city- they are a solid team: Yvette Wild, Sue Rhee, Sara Kathryn Smith, Emily Perito, Patrika Tsai, Jim Bayrer, Hassan Hamandi, etc. I also love their NP Laura Cooke. I think Drs. Wild, Smith, and Rhee have really lovely bedside manners. You didn't mention what type of GI concerns are leading to this referral, but their specialties/interests vary a bit; the clinic can help steer you. https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/clinics/gastroenterology_and_liver/ (full disclosure, I'm a Pediatric RN, not a parent of a GI patient). 

Have you considered Stanford Children’s. They have a GI clinic in Walnut Creek. I was a child with Crohn’s disease - diagnosed at 14 and now am a dietitian at Sutter in Berkeley. Please reach out to me if you need support. 

For what it’s worth, Vivian Nguyen has great bedside manners and was able to rule out many things. She was not, however, ultimately successful in correctly diagnosing our son’s FPIES (that took 5 more months and two allergists).

Doctors Gleghorn, Nguyen, and Setty at the Gastroenterology Department at Children’s in Oakland are all great! 

What do you need a GI for?  My son has a fairly rare GI condition, so I had to do a tremendous amount of legwork and interviews and literally we found someone on my husband's plan who...wait for it...is based in Fresno.  We do phone appointments.  I'm seriously unimpressed with GIs in the Bay Area (And we looked from Stockton to Stanford to Davis!) and have found our pediatrician and dietitian 100% more helpful.  I hope you have better luck!  If you can follow up and say what you need GI treatment for, you're more likely to get recs for a specialist who does just that.  Otherwise it's worth emailing many of them and actually assessing how much they know about your child's condition and what you can expect in terms of expertise/support beyond the general.

Dr Goughner is the head of gastroenterology at Children’s in Oakland. We took our three month old to her, after a pediatrician mom friend said “that’s who I would take my son to”. She was lovely and supportive.