Hi BPN!
I'm due in early November and looking for pediatrician recommendations. Ideally a stellar doctor located anywhere from Hercules to Berkeley. Has anyone had experience with Kiwi Pediatrics or New Day Pediatrics? We live in Hercules but I haven't seen a ton of great reviews for anyone around us. Thanks for any and all suggestions!
We been going to Berkeley Pediatrics https://www.berkeleypediatrics.com/ since the moment she was born. (We contacted them while I was pregnant and the doctor that was on rotation at Alta Bates Hospital was notified and did her first check up at the hospital.) They have a cute converted house looking building with parking and separate entrances for sick patients and patients coming in for check ups. Easy street parking if the lot is full, but no bike parking though as far as I can tell -- we lock our bike(s) to a sign. She likes her primary care doctor a lot (Dr. Learned) and as a toddler, she used to point toward the building and say there's my doctor whenever we walked or drove near that part of Shattuck Ave. But we've seen other doctors and nurse practitioners there too and we've been happy with all of them.
One thing that was important to me is that they only accept families who vaccinate their kids. I believe they're willing do a slightly alternate schedule but not no vaccines whatsoever. They run flu vaccine clinics and covid vaccine clinics in the parking lot at the height of the pandemic, which was nice. They will vaccinate adults with their kids for flu if you'd like -- this was super helpful for my daughter to see her dad get his shot no problem, then get her shot, then tell me it's my turn like it was all her idea. :) Then they give her a cartoony bandage (important?!) and an organic lollipop or something from the treasure box.
I saw 2 different doctors at Kiwi Pediatrics and was not impressed. The first ignored my post-partum anxiety, like, literally ignored the fact that I was standing there with tears streaming down my face. The second had a student and was demonstrating how to check my son's testicles and he was *screaming*. When she couldn't feel them she said "I'm sure it's fine". So she either tortured my child solely for the benefit of her student, or ignored something that could be a problem (it ended up being a potential problem that thankfully resolved on its own, which I know because the pediatrician I switched to sent him to a specialist). I didn't stick around long enough to try a third.
I've been really happy with Dr Lauren Strelitz at Stanford Children's in Pinole. She seems to really care about my daughter and my concerns, and I just have no complaints about her!