Choosing a pediatrician for your baby is a personal process, depending as much on your nature as on the experience and reputation of the physician.

Your relationship with your baby's doctor may last until your child enters college, so give it careful consideration. If you are anxious about parenting, tend to worry a good deal about minor problems and feel you will need to be able to call the physician day or night, no matter how trivial the question, you should seek a physician who is supportive of your need for reassurance.

The following are a few suggestions for evaluating the appropriate doctor for your baby and personality:

Arrange to talk to the physician. Call the office and ask the doctor to return your call at his/ her convenience, maybe even scheduling an appointment for this purpose. Ask about his philosophy on child rearing, discipline and other questions of concern to you.

When you first visit the doctor's office, observe how other children are managed while they wait their turns. Are sick children isolated from those awaiting a "well-baby" checkup? Are there child-oriented furnishings and toys? Do they seem to be waiting a long time before being seen? Are waiting parents advised if the doctor is called out on an emergency so that they can choose to reschedule a check-up at another time?

Find out who handles the doctor's cases when he/she in unavailable (doctors have emergencies at hospitals, need to take business trips, attend seminars, enjoy vacations). Your physician may be in a group practice. Should your doctor be unavailable, another physician in a group may handle emergency cases.

Check the physician's hospital affiliations so that you know where to take your child should emergency treatment or admission be necessary.

The price of office visits, follow-up examinations and in-office tests are important to check. So is the availability of laboratory services. Some physicians maintain a qualified laboratory staff who perform essential blood, urinalysis and throat culture tests for common childhood diseases. It is also easier if you do not have to take your sick child to more than one location.

Lastly, have you found that the physician is easy to talk with? Does he/she offer hints that reassure your efforts as parents?

By taking these suggestions into consideration, there will be one less thing for you to worry about when the baby arrives.