Does anyone know of a good pediatrician in northern Utah?

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I need a pediatrician that doesn't brush off concerns as me being an over protective parent, and not just with my soon having AS. AS runs in my family, and odds were pretty high he'd have it and he has been showing signs from about a year on, but the last doctor kept saying he was just shy or he'd grow out of it etc... It's not just with that though. His pinky fingers are VERY crooked, lower legs are curving in to where it can be felt very clearly and is starting to be visible and one knee is much larger than the other. We have leg and hip deformities in my family, but only in the women so I'm not sure if this is from his father's side or not and his dad's family fights too much to get a straight answer out of them (lol, how hard is it to just answer 'is there any genetic disorders in the family?' so we can keep an eye out for symptoms and catch things early. I don't see what it has to do with a million year old arguement over this or that, but w/e).

Also, how do I explain sensory overload to his father. I've noticed our son covers his ears a lot, and his dad always insists he's just being stubborn or something. I don't know how to explain how certain sounds or sights or smells just... well yeah.

So where are you located? I used to live in Provo, years ago, and I can't for the life of me remember our Pediatrician -- obviously didn't leave an overwhelmingly positive attitude in my head.

I just know that if we had stayed in Utah with our son, things would have been less than stellar for his development. The schools were not inclinced to recognize ASD and take action as much as California or Pennsylvania, the other places we have lived.

Interesting observation. Utah is supposed to be known for its advanced medical care facilities.

Oh it does, U of U hospital is absolutely amazing and so is Primary Childerns; but for physical ailments (heart disease, cancer, reconstructive surgery). I don't care where in the world I live if I get some serious illness or injury I'm coming back here to get it fixed. But for mental is absolutely dismal if you don't respond well to medicine. The only decent physiologist I've met only works for the emergency department of McKay Dee. I wish she did regular counseling because she's great and got me through some very severe side effects of postpartum depression. Everyone else I've tried for anything to do with the mental side of medicine its all medications. Even the counseling was "how's that new pill doing for you?" "I'm totally numb and can't feel anything, this is awful" "oh that's great, can you sign this bill please?". There is no way I'm letting someone play guess which dose works on my kid when it is completely unnecessary. I know meds do wonders for some people, but it always seems to be only the ones who got lucky with the dose and cocktail or had the rare doctor who only wants you medicated enough to get you to where new skills and counseling can do their job, and want you on them for as short as possible or at least on as little as possible.

I lucked out and went to school up till the end of middle school in Wyoming. The class sizes were so small that even though the teacher's weren't sure what was wrong, they could take the time to give me the individual attention I needed to keep up and didn't leave it at that. I really feel I owe everything to that handful of teachers for getting me through those snags in my education so that I could do well in the mess that it Utah schools for high school.

I'm in the Ogden area so about as far North as I can afford is Brigham and south is Layton or in SLC proper since public transit between Layton and SLC royally sucks.

I agree -- that is a GREAT place to be if there's something physically wrong. The hospital care. etc, especially at Children's, is top notch.

I just have heard, and read, that at the school district level, Utah is not the place to be with kids on the spectrum. At least when we lived there, ten years ago (things may have changes) they just lumped all special needs kids together, and if they let them come into the regular ed class for "art" they called that "integrating".

Oh, I see what you mean. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you're able to find someone for your son

I found one at Wee Care that was ok up until I brought up AS. She listened about his hands and legs developing oddly and scheduled tests and xrays to look into that issue. She listened about him throwing up so much and recommended some changes in diet as well as a food diary we are going to keep for him to try and see if its only certain foods or if there may be something else at work. The moment I mentioned a family history of AS and his behaviors that lead me to suspect he may have it as well it was complete dismissal. It doesn't make much sense, because what is the harm in testing him for it? My insurance actually covers the whole thing since there is a family history (I have federal insurance so I don't get stuck with that preexisting crap when it comes time for them to pay). I even suggested alternatives to testing by doing some eliminating. I brought up how he covers his ears frequently in response to certain sounds or number of sounds, and asked if we should have his hearing tested. His father and grandfather have hearing issues after all. Everything from the covering his ears, to complete lack of eye contact ever, etc... was responded to with "its a phase they grow out of it". This is frustrating. At the very least I want to rule out AS, but if he really has it as I suspect I want to get a head start on things and avoid him getting misdiagnosed for other things later in life and going through the medication and counseling for problems he does not have.

Try and get the schools to test him. They have to if you request it call your school bord.

Schools here just refer you to the nearest behavioral clinic and hand you a voucher to cover the diagnoses.