How Old Is Too Old For The Pediatrician

There have been several interesting articles about this very topic. Interested to hear your opinion.

I work in adolescent medicine. Personally I do not think there is an issue if a patient wants to have a parent up until age 21. However, others feel differently.

To clarify, don't think there is an issue if a patient wants to go to the pediatrician until 21 years of age.

I went until I was 19, I think. It felt like I was too old at that point.

I had the same pediatrician until I was 18.

When I went for my last physical before going to college I was wondering how extensive or invasive the exam would be. In the end it was pretty superficial. Just pulled my underwear out to glance down at my penis, no touching of penis or testicles. Did not look at or examine my bottom at all.

But I do trace my medfet back to the first pediatrician exam I had during puberty. So intense and memorable!

Went until finished undergrad which puts it at 22 or so I believe. They told me as long as I didn't develop any serious adult health issues it was fine. Mine was incredible, extremely smart, caring towards all their patients. I actually shadowed them a while when I became interested in healthcare as a profession. Its the waiting room bit that gets awkward if there are a lot of people lol. Also all those little munchkins are incubators for a large plethora of bacteria and viruses so maybe find a regular internal med/family doc sooner than later.

Ultimately, think it is up to the patient whether he or she still wants to go the pediatrician. Pediatricians see patients up until 21 years of age. I work as an adolescent specialist. I see patients from 13 years of age until 21 years old. I see a lot of patients that have transitioned from their pediatrician. They have outgrown their pediatrician and looking for an alternative.

I went until I was 18, I think. It felt like I was too old at that point.

A similar thread "Age you stopped going to the pediatrician" is found here.

https://en.zity.biz/index.php?mx=forum;ox=display;topic=18565;mark=Pediatrician

There maybe some answers to your question in the responses.

My last visit was when I was 18yrs old.

I suppose I am pretty conservative and believe that the cutoff should be 18 - though I would also suspect most teens would feel too old still seeing a pediatrician

I was 14 I think when I stopped going. I just remember going to a new doctor for my physical for my freshman year of high school. It wasn’t really weird in the seeing a new doctor stranger way as he was my moms doctor already and I met him a bunch of times. In fact he had see me occasionally since I was like 12 so I guess technically I switched at 12.

I switched at age 13 or 14.

I believe when I turned 15--I went from a child patient to a quasi adult patient.Full adult status was at 18.

Growing up in the 50's and 60's I'm not sure pediatricians were that common. In any event we had a old grumpy family doc that we used for everything. My mom the nurse even went to him while she was pregnant which was most of the time. In those days in a family of 10, unless you needed a shot, stitches or were sick you didn't go to the doctor. We didn't spend money on things like wellness checkups. I probably went at least a decade from the last time I went at 10 or so to the next time when I needed something for college.

In Germany you can go to the pediatrician until the 18th birthday. At the latest with 18 you have to go to the family doctor. But many boys and girls switch to the family doctor before they turn 18. I by myself went to the family doctor at the age of 16.

I went to the pediatrician until I graduated college. I think the cutoff age was 22 or 23, where you would have to find another doctor. While there were some older kids still going there, the majority were much younger, and I kind of felt like a little kid when I would have to go to the office.

It is definitely up to the patient at the end of the day. It is not uncommon for students in college up to the early 20's to still see there pediatrician. I would say most transition around 16-18 years old.

I myself saw the pediatrician for the last time when I was 16.

I finished up in my freshman year of college with my pediatrician. I was now attending school far from home and it was easier to go to the university health service. The college had a medical school so there was no shortage of student nurses or doctors in training along with staff docs. It wasn't really much of a call to decide. I felt a bit odd at the pediatrician who by the end of things was doing a full adult exam on me! Still used kiddie band-aids!

My little brother was kicked to the curb by his Pedatrician and Children's hospital when he turned 26.

Now him having the same doctor all that time it was probably the doctor "thinning the heard" so he could start retiring he was close to 70 when my little brother stopped seeing him.

I switched at age 18. My last exam was a week before to go to the university

Here in Argentina you switch when you turn 12 years old, unless it's a Family Dr so you can keep seeing him if you feel comfortable enough. Besides at that age pre Teens and Teens feel weird of sharing the Waiting Room with young kids and Toddlers both in Hospitals or Private Practices. Last time I've visited one I was about 11 and a half yo. Next time I've visited a Dr it was a GP in a Hospital and I just turned 13 a couple of month earlier.

I went to one until the age of 17 then I went to another doctor instead

I am 20 and I still go to my pediatrician.

And interestingly there is an article in today's Washington Post about guys in their 20s who still go to their pediatrician. I heard the story on the radio and then I looked up the article. It started with a pediatrician talking about a 26 year old guy who is her patient.

Some of my friends my age still go to a pediatrician. Here's the reasons why I didn't switch. I know him, he's been my doctor my whole life, and I like him. When I graduated high school I knew I could switch to an adult doctor, probably my dad's doctor, but I figured that when I graduated college I would get a job and unless the job was close by I would have to move away and find a new doctor wherever I landed. So I didn't want to switch doctors just because I turned 18 and then have to switch again 4 or 5 years later.

Read the article, it's interesting .

I stopped at 16 but I wanted continue because I knew very well my pediatrician

Females should consider gyn services on or before their periods start. Family practice or internal medicine for other health issues

Guys at 16 should consider family practice or internal medicine.

It depends on the practicing MD and the health issues of the individual

The last visit to my pediatrician was at 18, it was for my college physical. He retired shorty after this, but he refused anyone 18 or over. I probably wouldn’t have continued with him anyway, his practice was more designed for younger patients. All the exam rooms had clowns, balloons or other little kid theme paintings or drawings on the walls. I was felt strange looking at a clown while he was feeling your balls or hernia coughs, or then get a kiddy bandaid. . I didn’t have a regular doctor while I was in college. When at school, I used the doctors at the university health center. When I was home in the summers, I used the same doctors as my employer used for their pre-employment exams.

I have two friends that continued with their pediatrician until they graduated from college maybe 22 years old. Actually, their doctors were a part of a larger health care company. They didn’t have a sharp cut off age instead the goal was to retain them into adulthood. To have them transition from the pediatrician (adolescence / young adult) to one of their family/ general medicine practices.

In France we stop to go to a pediatrician very soon, generally at 12 age, and aftter we go to a doctor of our choice ( in fact it is our mother who choses the doctor for us )

There are obviously some differences, for instance we are never given a gown, and a private doctor (except if it is a specialist) is never assisted by a nurse during the examination, but ramdomly there can be a medical student who can be present, it is not often.

If you are an adult patient, the doctor will ask to you if you agree with his or her presence but if you are a pre-teenager or even a teenager, I doubt that you are questioned if you are alone at the examination room ( some mothers come with their sons at least until 15 or 16 age, other ones stop to come when the son is aged 13) )

Now for a pre-teenager or a teenager, most of the doctors ask only to their young patients to strip until underwear and during the examination either they pull down the underwear to look at the genitals either they lift the waistband of the underwear to have a look below.Normally they do not ask to remove it except for specific reasons.

And at school examination, there is almost never a mother present, the parents are informed by a letter that their son will have a school physical examination which is generally mandatory but in fact if a student at high school do not come the day of the physical examination, he is never summoned an other day. It was different in a recent past.

At a recent past, it was each school year and even sometimes like for me at middle school two other quick checking physicals at the beginning of each school term performed by the school nurse only and it was really a mandatory physical. We were summoned an other time with an other class if we had missed the day of our class.

The permanent school nurse was always present with the doctor, mainly a woman, they shared the examination room, so that the doctor saw what the nurse did, and the nurse watched at the examinations performed by the doctor and took notes. We were used to that process. There could be also sometimes a female nursing student to observe the examination during a training course,she was here to learn how perform the examination of a boy student, even at high school. No way to complain about her presence, we were told to obey to instructions of the doctor by a Pe teacher who supervised us in the locker room where we all together were instructed to undress and to wait our turn.

It could be embarrassing between 15 and 18 age if we were naked even for the weigh-in in front of a young nursing student but we might comply to the rules.

My pediatrician would see patients until their parent's insurance stop covering them. As for me, I saw my pediatrician until I was 18. I did, however, see a gynecologist starting at 15, so I had two doctors for three years.

For me, my pediatrician did my pre-college physical (I had already been to the gynecologist, I believe) and after that, I used the health center at my university until I found my own family practice physician after graduation.

Here most pediatrician see patients up to the age on 18. Some if the the child is special needs the pediatrician may go to the age of 21.