August 20, 2025 • 9 mins
From those very first checkups to guiding your child through growth milestones and illnesses, your pediatrician becomes a key part of your parenting team. But with so many options in providers, it can feel overwhelming to know where to start. In today’s episode, we’ll speak with Dr. Lynn Milliner, Pediatrician at MetroHealth, on how expecting parents can choose the best pediatric provider for their baby and family.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, it's real. Welcome back to another episode of
Mammy Virtue, brought to you by Metro Health. Again, this
is our village, our place, our people, moms to get
all the resources, insight, some of your questions answered, just
all things mimmy, mothering and all that good stuff. So
today we are going to be talking about choosing their
best pediatric doctor for your baby. You know, from those
(00:20):
first checkups to of course the growth of your child
over the years, milestones, illnesses, all of that, your pediatrician
becomes a key part of your parenting team. But with
so many options in providers, it can feel a little
bit overwhelming to know where to start. So in today's episode,
we're going to talk to Metro Health pediatrician doctor Lynn
Milliner on how expecting parents can choose their best pediatric
(00:42):
provider for their baby and their family.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So let's jump right into it. Welcome, thank you for coming,
Thank you for having me. I'm great today. Thanks good, good,
good good.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Okay, So what types of children's health providers are here
and available at Metro Health.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
So there's a general pediatrician that just deals with babies
usually from birth all the way up through college and
there's Family Medicine that does birth and all the way
through geriatrics, so they can treat the whole family. And
there's internal medicine and PEDS, which is sort of a
little less than the family that does geriatrics, but they
do babies through adulthood.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So you cover everything, cover everything and everybody and everybody.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Why is it so important to choose that provider before
the birth of your baby.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I kind of think of it like a job interview.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
You want to have a good connection with somebody you
want to trust your most precious asset to.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I usually tell my families I'm a little bit of
old school, a little bit of new school, and a
little bit of middle school.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And you want to have that right connection and fit.
So it takes time to get that fit from the
day one. So if you have time to go and
beat them in person before you have the baby. Sometimes
you get a lot of questions asked. After you have
the baby, the mind starts to go, the memory goes.
You don't remember to ask all those questions while you
have the opportunity to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Absolutely, Now for myself, I'm a mom and I had
the I guess the luxury of not having to do
all the extra research because my child's pediatrician also is
the pediatrician of my nieces and nephews and there's five
of them. So I got experienced that and it was
easier for me to make that decision because I had
(02:09):
a trusting source within the family. But would you say,
like you can even just maybe word of mouth or
how would you recommend someone kind of get more from me?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I think it's a combination of both.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
For people that are new parents that sometimes don't have
the opportunity to have you know, your sisters and your
aunts and uncles can say like, well, you know, we
went to this one where we've heard that one. Sometimes
you can go to the hospital, look on their website
and select one. I think word of mouth is important
because if you have, you trust the opinion of your
family and your friends, Yeah right, and if they're comfortable
with that person, you look to them to say, I
(02:42):
think you might like this pediatrician, and then you want
to go get a chance to meet them and see
if it's a good fit for you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So you kind of mentioned something earlier about like a
job interview kind of sort of is that similar to
the pre birth pediatric virtual visits.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah it is. I think that's really a nice feature.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So before you deliver baby, you have time to sort of,
you know, make a short list of you know, go on,
do your little bit of research to see who you
might connect with, and then you can set up a
virtual visit or a video visit or an in person visit.
You know, write down your questions because it's always easy
to forget what as I was supposed to ask.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And this is really important to me.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
But just have that little connection and that opportunity to
talk to them beforehand.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Now, just for those viewing like, well, who would I ask?
There's probably a first time mom who's like, I don't know,
what do they like? What are some questions they might
ask in that pre birth.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, I think think about the things that are important
to you as a parent. So if you're more the
breastfeeding mode, do you want to know does that pediatrician
or that provider support breastfeeding or are they gonna, you know,
give you a hard time if you try breastfeeding and
then switch to formula feeding. I know vaccines is a
huge issue, right, so you want to know will your
providers still encourage you to get vaccines. You know, how
(03:51):
much does that mean to you? And how aggressive is that?
If it's an issue and you don't see eye to
eye on it, that may not be the best fit
for you. We're always going to encourage it, but you
want to be able to have that conversation.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
With your provider.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, I love that resource because it allows you to
really like prepare, Like I mean, of course you can
prepare in other ways, but with a doctor just being
able to have some of those questions already outlined and
you kind of just create that like smooth path for yourself.
It's best you can.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And sometimes just to kind of set your mind at ease. Right,
it's sort of like what do I need to know
what to expect? So you mentioned, you know, just what's
the schedule for visits? How often are you going to
see my baby? Can I get you to see my
baby when baby sick?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Can I reach you when I have questions?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Because new parents have a lot of questions, whether you're
a new new parent, your first time or your fifth time,
you forget a lot, right, So you want to be
able to ask questions and feel free to ask questions.
If your provider doesn't hear your concerns, listen to or
address your concerns.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Then that's also not good for you, Yes, a red flag.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I mean it builds that trust because ultimately that doctor
becomes a part of your.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Family for a very long time. Yeah, a very long
time for real, eighteen years. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
And some of them look so very sad when you're like, okay,
you have to go to the adult side, right, really
not having about like can I stay with my pediatrician
for life? I'm like, I'm sorry, no, there's the reason
why we chose pediatrics, right.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Oh I know, but it's like dang, all right, so
but shout out to my doctor doctor because she's the
bound two and even with my adults, so's she's about.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And it's nice that you like them, so I think.
And nowadays you know, people like, is it important that.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
You like your doctor? I really do think it is.
It is because you want to.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It helps you establish trust and confidence, and if you
don't like them, it's it's a sure to go back
to them, right And if you don't like one, you
can always choose another one.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
You can't.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
What are some common mistakes parents make when choosing a
pediatrician and how can they avoid them.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Sometimes not doing research about if credentials are important to you,
do you want a provider that has been board certified.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So that's sort of an extra.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Layer of credentially and professionalism you have after you graduate
from medical school and residency, knowing the pediatricians philosophy right
about things like vaccines, about growth and development, about feeding,
because there's a lot of issues right, and kids change
very quickly and very frequently, and sometimes if you don't
see eye to eye on it, you may stop going
(06:08):
because there was a philosophical difference, not because the care
wasn't the best care for your child, You just may
not have appreciated the message or how it was delivered. Yeah,
those kinds of things can always kind of sway your mind.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, And I kind of want to bring another point
up to we mentioned word of mouth, you know, because
a lot of times people will tell you like, oh,
you got to go see doctor and.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So and so they're the best.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
What the truth is, maybe they're not the best for you,
and that's fine, it's correct, you know. So I do
want to kind of go back to the point of
the pre birth pediatric virtual visits because that allows you
an opportunity to kind of see for yourself, even if
it's the doctor they're talking about, you know, if that
is how it worked out. But I think that's a
cool way to in a sense just kind of.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Try it on for size.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, I think I think that's the exactly right way
to look at it, right, because you are so right,
I have. You know, families will go to one and say, well,
I really loved her, and then the next person will
say like mm hmm, that wasn't the one for me, right,
And you know, everything isn't for everybody, So providers aren't
cookie cutter. You know, we have I don't want to
say opinions, but sometimes we do. But a lot of
(07:09):
what we do is you know, fact driven, science driven.
We don't get our information from the Internet or doctor
goul or WebMD.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You know, we go to school for a very long
time to know what we know.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Sometimes it's important for families to go to a pediatrician
who's also had children.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I don't think that's necessarily fair.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Although your mindset is different if you've had kids versus
you haven't had kids. The training is the same for everybody, right,
but sometimes you know, you having a baby, sometimes for
some families will give you more, you know, more street cred,
right if you have kids or kids, right, because they're like, well,
you know you've never breast about a baby, like we no,
if you haven't had a baby, but if you've had one,
and that experience means.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
A lot of families, and that would be that would
be important for me, you know, especially a little addition
like all right, we can we can relate, right.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
You've had this similar experience, right, And it.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Doesn't take away the expertise, It does not, It doesn't.
Just if that's something that makes you feel more comfortable than.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Cool, it makes you more relatable.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
To absolutely absolutely anything else you would like to leave
our view worries and listeners about their pediatrician journeys.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Just have a good fit with your provider, right.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So I sometimes love to laugh and joke, and I
think pediatrics is fun for me because I get to
that's my excuse to go to all the kids' movies, right,
So I see kids movies because.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
My patients see kids movies. Right.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
So you want to have fun, but it's also serious
and you want to trust that if there's something wrong,
you're pediatrician or your provider can tell you right, because
most visits.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Are great, they're gaining the growing, we're all happy.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
And I usually tell families you know, worry when your
pediatrician worries. It's not that we don't think that your
child is as sick as you think they are, but
it's really important if your pediatrician is really concerned about
how your child's doing, that they're comfortable enough to tell you,
and you're in the right place to hear that information.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I love that the Metro Health team cannot wait to
meet you and be a part of the special chapter
in your life. To schedule a pre birth pediatric virtual
visit with one of Metro Health's Board certified pediatric providers
called two one six, seven, seven, eight, ten, ten,
Hey everybody, it's real. Welcome back to another episode of
Mammy Virtue, brought to you by Metro Health. Again, this
is our village, our place, our people, moms to get
all the resources, insight, some of your questions answered, just
all things mimmy, mothering and all that good stuff. So
today we are going to be talking about choosing their
best pediatric doctor for your baby. You know, from those
(00:20):
first checkups to of course the growth of your child
over the years, milestones, illnesses, all of that, your pediatrician
becomes a key part of your parenting team. But with
so many options in providers, it can feel a little
bit overwhelming to know where to start. So in today's episode,
we're going to talk to Metro Health pediatrician doctor Lynn
Milliner on how expecting parents can choose their best pediatric
(00:42):
provider for their baby and their family.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So let's jump right into it. Welcome, thank you for coming,
Thank you for having me. I'm great today. Thanks good, good,
good good.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Okay, So what types of children's health providers are here
and available at Metro Health.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
So there's a general pediatrician that just deals with babies
usually from birth all the way up through college and
there's Family Medicine that does birth and all the way
through geriatrics, so they can treat the whole family. And
there's internal medicine and PEDS, which is sort of a
little less than the family that does geriatrics, but they
do babies through adulthood.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
So you cover everything, cover everything and everybody and everybody.
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Why is it so important to choose that provider before
the birth of your baby.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I kind of think of it like a job interview.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
You want to have a good connection with somebody you
want to trust your most precious asset to.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I usually tell my families I'm a little bit of
old school, a little bit of new school, and a
little bit of middle school.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And you want to have that right connection and fit.
So it takes time to get that fit from the
day one. So if you have time to go and
beat them in person before you have the baby. Sometimes
you get a lot of questions asked. After you have
the baby, the mind starts to go, the memory goes.
You don't remember to ask all those questions while you
have the opportunity to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Absolutely, Now for myself, I'm a mom and I had
the I guess the luxury of not having to do
all the extra research because my child's pediatrician also is
the pediatrician of my nieces and nephews and there's five
of them. So I got experienced that and it was
easier for me to make that decision because I had
(02:09):
a trusting source within the family. But would you say,
like you can even just maybe word of mouth or
how would you recommend someone kind of get more from me?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I think it's a combination of both.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
For people that are new parents that sometimes don't have
the opportunity to have you know, your sisters and your
aunts and uncles can say like, well, you know, we
went to this one where we've heard that one. Sometimes
you can go to the hospital, look on their website
and select one. I think word of mouth is important
because if you have, you trust the opinion of your
family and your friends, Yeah right, and if they're comfortable
with that person, you look to them to say, I
(02:42):
think you might like this pediatrician, and then you want
to go get a chance to meet them and see
if it's a good fit for you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So you kind of mentioned something earlier about like a
job interview kind of sort of is that similar to
the pre birth pediatric virtual visits.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah it is. I think that's really a nice feature.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
So before you deliver baby, you have time to sort of,
you know, make a short list of you know, go on,
do your little bit of research to see who you
might connect with, and then you can set up a
virtual visit or a video visit or an in person visit.
You know, write down your questions because it's always easy
to forget what as I was supposed to ask.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And this is really important to me.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
But just have that little connection and that opportunity to
talk to them beforehand.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Now, just for those viewing like, well, who would I ask?
There's probably a first time mom who's like, I don't know,
what do they like? What are some questions they might
ask in that pre birth.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, I think think about the things that are important
to you as a parent. So if you're more the
breastfeeding mode, do you want to know does that pediatrician
or that provider support breastfeeding or are they gonna, you know,
give you a hard time if you try breastfeeding and
then switch to formula feeding. I know vaccines is a
huge issue, right, so you want to know will your
providers still encourage you to get vaccines. You know, how
(03:51):
much does that mean to you? And how aggressive is that?
If it's an issue and you don't see eye to
eye on it, that may not be the best fit
for you. We're always going to encourage it, but you
want to be able to have that conversation.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
With your provider.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yeah, I love that resource because it allows you to
really like prepare, Like I mean, of course you can
prepare in other ways, but with a doctor just being
able to have some of those questions already outlined and
you kind of just create that like smooth path for yourself.
It's best you can.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
And sometimes just to kind of set your mind at ease. Right,
it's sort of like what do I need to know
what to expect? So you mentioned, you know, just what's
the schedule for visits? How often are you going to
see my baby? Can I get you to see my
baby when baby sick?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Can I reach you when I have questions?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Because new parents have a lot of questions, whether you're
a new new parent, your first time or your fifth time,
you forget a lot, right, So you want to be
able to ask questions and feel free to ask questions.
If your provider doesn't hear your concerns, listen to or
address your concerns.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Then that's also not good for you, Yes, a red flag.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I mean it builds that trust because ultimately that doctor
becomes a part of your.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Family for a very long time. Yeah, a very long
time for real, eighteen years. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
And some of them look so very sad when you're like, okay,
you have to go to the adult side, right, really
not having about like can I stay with my pediatrician
for life? I'm like, I'm sorry, no, there's the reason
why we chose pediatrics, right.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Oh I know, but it's like dang, all right, so
but shout out to my doctor doctor because she's the
bound two and even with my adults, so's she's about.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And it's nice that you like them, so I think.
And nowadays you know, people like, is it important that.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
You like your doctor? I really do think it is.
It is because you want to.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
It helps you establish trust and confidence, and if you
don't like them, it's it's a sure to go back
to them, right And if you don't like one, you
can always choose another one.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
You can't.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
What are some common mistakes parents make when choosing a
pediatrician and how can they avoid them.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Sometimes not doing research about if credentials are important to you,
do you want a provider that has been board certified.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
So that's sort of an extra.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Layer of credentially and professionalism you have after you graduate
from medical school and residency, knowing the pediatricians philosophy right
about things like vaccines, about growth and development, about feeding,
because there's a lot of issues right, and kids change
very quickly and very frequently, and sometimes if you don't
see eye to eye on it, you may stop going
(06:08):
because there was a philosophical difference, not because the care
wasn't the best care for your child, You just may
not have appreciated the message or how it was delivered. Yeah,
those kinds of things can always kind of sway your mind.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yeah, And I kind of want to bring another point
up to we mentioned word of mouth, you know, because
a lot of times people will tell you like, oh,
you got to go see doctor and.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So and so they're the best.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
What the truth is, maybe they're not the best for you,
and that's fine, it's correct, you know. So I do
want to kind of go back to the point of
the pre birth pediatric virtual visits because that allows you
an opportunity to kind of see for yourself, even if
it's the doctor they're talking about, you know, if that
is how it worked out. But I think that's a
cool way to in a sense just kind of.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Try it on for size.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, I think I think that's the exactly right way
to look at it, right, because you are so right,
I have. You know, families will go to one and say, well,
I really loved her, and then the next person will
say like mm hmm, that wasn't the one for me, right,
And you know, everything isn't for everybody, So providers aren't
cookie cutter. You know, we have I don't want to
say opinions, but sometimes we do. But a lot of
(07:09):
what we do is you know, fact driven, science driven.
We don't get our information from the Internet or doctor
goul or WebMD.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You know, we go to school for a very long
time to know what we know.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Sometimes it's important for families to go to a pediatrician
who's also had children.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I don't think that's necessarily fair.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Although your mindset is different if you've had kids versus
you haven't had kids. The training is the same for everybody, right,
but sometimes you know, you having a baby, sometimes for
some families will give you more, you know, more street cred,
right if you have kids or kids, right, because they're like, well,
you know you've never breast about a baby, like we no,
if you haven't had a baby, but if you've had one,
and that experience means.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
A lot of families, and that would be that would
be important for me, you know, especially a little addition
like all right, we can we can relate, right.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
You've had this similar experience, right, And it.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Doesn't take away the expertise, It does not, It doesn't.
Just if that's something that makes you feel more comfortable than.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Cool, it makes you more relatable.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
To absolutely absolutely anything else you would like to leave
our view worries and listeners about their pediatrician journeys.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Just have a good fit with your provider, right.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
So I sometimes love to laugh and joke, and I
think pediatrics is fun for me because I get to
that's my excuse to go to all the kids' movies, right,
So I see kids movies because.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
My patients see kids movies. Right.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
So you want to have fun, but it's also serious
and you want to trust that if there's something wrong,
you're pediatrician or your provider can tell you right, because
most visits.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Are great, they're gaining the growing, we're all happy.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
And I usually tell families you know, worry when your
pediatrician worries. It's not that we don't think that your
child is as sick as you think they are, but
it's really important if your pediatrician is really concerned about
how your child's doing, that they're comfortable enough to tell you,
and you're in the right place to hear that information.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I love that the Metro Health team cannot wait to
meet you and be a part of the special chapter
in your life. To schedule a pre birth pediatric virtual
visit with one of Metro Health's Board certified pediatric providers
called two one six, seven, seven, eight, ten, ten,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.