Several people advise the the OP to make an appointment with the kid’s pediatrician. Maybe they weren’t paying attention to the age of the kid (17) or maybe I know NOTHING about pediatrics (I have no children, nor do I plan to)–but isn’t pediatrics about children? Or does the kid’s original doctor/GP/whoever they see sort of become the defacto doctor?
Do people still take their children to the pediatrician at 17? (This is not my trying to be an ass, I’m curious.) Do doctors make an age cutoff at some point? Do they have a reason to?
The girl is 17. Still young enough to be a ‘girl’ to me (I’m staring 40 smack in the face) but old enough to be going to regular doctors and probably a gyno.
I went to my pediatrician for something when I was home from college once. I was still covered by my parents’ insurance, and I didn’t have another doctor near my parents or at college. I think I drove myself. I felt a little silly.
It can go either way. If a kid’s been healthy for years and hasn’t seen anybody your pediatrician will most likely be glad to take care of you if a problem comes up unexpectedly. You may, or may not have trouble getting a GP to pick up before the 18th birthday unless the pt is pregnant. OTOH, some childhood diseases that only recently have been surviving into adulthood like cystic fibrosis and congenital heart defects may stay with a pediatrician (for those diseases) most of their lives
I’ve actually read a couple of atricles about this, and it looks like this is an emerging concern in the area of medicine that few new doctors are willing to enter: adolescent care.
What teenager wants to wait in a waiting room with coloring books and Sesame Street characters painted on the walls? Are pediatricians willing (able?) to talk about STD’s, birth control, drug use with patients who may be involved in those activities? Can the patient speak openly without fear that their doctor will narc on them to their parents?
I remember talking to my mom when I was around 15 (y’know, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) about “needing” to switch to a regular doctor because I was too old to go to the pediatrician. Yes, it was about the tiny chairs, toys and Highlights magazines.
Imagine my chagrin when she proudly announced a couple of days later that she’d called the doctor’s office, and they took patients until age 21, so it was no problem!
OTOH, the Woman Child was still seeing her pediatrician at age 20 and in college. She likes her pediatrician and didn’t want to switch doctors. I think she was finally persuaded to see a grown-up doctor on the grounds that she was past time for starting obgyn exams. I dunno what the pediatrician may have discussed with her regarding birth control, etc., but I know they were perfectly willing to give the HPV vaccine. Since she was mostly setting her own appointments and getting herself there (having moved out to her own place), I don’t think she was terribly concerned about the doc tattling on her.
I think it’s pretty much up to the kid and parents to decide when to make the switch, up until around 21 or so when the pediatrician may refuse to see them any longer.
I switched from a pediatrician to a GP at 18. My mom’s doctor is amazing and took me on even though she hasn’t been taking new patients. At this point I got my college workup (meningitis vaccines, etc) and my first PAP.
I think this is pretty common among my friends as well. Some stayed with the pediatrician until college, but a lot switched at 18 like me.
I last saw a pediatrician when I was five. The next time I saw a doctor I was 11, and it was a family practitioner. That doctor also saw my brother, who was 2yrs old. A friend of mine in high school continued seeing her pediatrician throughout high school because she was comfortable with him/her. It seems to be a matter of choice.
My husband had leukemia at age 15. He still sees his pediatric oncologist annually at a children’s hospital even though he is 39. A few years back he asked if he should switch doctors. His doctor said there was no reason to, since they already knew him and had his history.
When my elder son had a medical incident at the age of 14, the ambulance driver took him to our nearest hospital. After they were convinced he was stabilized, he had to be transported again, because the local hospital has no medical pediatric ward.
When we arrived at the receiving hospital, my son was sleeping, which is just as well as he didn’t notice that he was first placed in a room with posters of Winnie the Pooh characters all over the walls! By the time he woke up he’d been wheeled into a room that was more obviously decorated for older patients, with subtler colors and no cartoon characters. I saw several teenaged patients moving around the corridors, and ward library was stocked with reading material, movies, and even computer games for teens. Fortunately he got to go home that night but if he’d had to stay there, that would have been the right place for him - not the adult ward at our local hospital, even if it was a bit closer to home.
Is this the one you said (a few months ago) doesn’t really like children so much as studying them and you used to draw pictures of him dying in terrible ways and he’d put them up on his office wall?
I’m 19, and I still see my pediatrician, the clinic apparently takes (and is equipped to deal with) people through college (I’m assuming that means “undergraduate”), then they pull out a list of GPs they like to refer you to.
A few months ago, I had to take one of the little thieves (age 6) to the pediatrician for strep or something. Normally, we get put in one of the exam rooms with Dr. Seuss or Barney or something on the walls. That day, they were very busy, and we got a room with stirrups (thankfully not in place), and pregnancy and STD pamphlets. As soon as we got home I told my wife she’ll be bringing the girls in when they need that room.
