What an exciting time in your lives! The doctors, nurse practitioners and staff of PAR are honored and humbled to join you through these next 21 years, as we watch your child grow and develop into young adults. With each encounter we strive to provide your child with the absolute best and most up-to-date medical care possible. We are a group of medical professionals who have dedicated their careers to studying, learning and helping parents navigate the various stages of growth and development. We hope you’ll find us to be your go-to resource for information regarding your child’s health.
If you have not yet done so, you may familiarize yourself with our providers, our approach to care, our offices, our vaccine policy, and our prenatal open houses.
PAR is pleased to offer your family a variety of services:
- Online booking for check-ups and sick visits
- Prenatal welcome class
- Full-service lactation center
- Well child check-ups
- Same-day and weekend sick visits
- Seasonal extended hours
- Development, behavioral and mental health consultations, including ADHD, anxiety and depression
- Behavioral health therapists specializing in art, play and talk therapies
- International travel consultations
- Laboratory services
- In-office procedures and treatments for newborn tongue-tie, breathing difficulty, ingrown toenails, and warts
- Expertise of a former neonatologist and ER pediatricians, in addition to lifelong primary care pediatricians
PAR strives to be a one-stop-shop for all your newborn and infant health care needs.
- Our Lactation Center features multiple board certified Lactation Consultants (LCs), who are also Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. With rare exceptions, we have at least one LC at each office location Monday-Friday. They also see newborns on Saturdays from October – March.
- LCs assist breastfeeding infants and their parents with:
- Pre- and post-feeding weights for an accurate assessment of milk transfer
- Difficulties with latch
- Increasing milk supply when production is not meeting baby’s needs
- Feeding multiples (twins, etc.)
- Breastfeeding tongue-tied (ankyloglossia) infants
- Feeding infants with special needs
- Feeding premature infants
- Extended pumping and maintaining milk supply
- Counseling regarding the impact of medications while nursing
- Sore nipples/painful latch
- Weaning
- Preparing for Mom’s return to work
- Breastfeeding accessory services include:
- Nursing bra fitting
- Breast pump rentals, sales and adjustments
- 1 or more lactation rooms at each of our office locations
- Former neonatologist, Dr. Powell, works with many of our premature infants/NICU graduates
- Several doctors perform the tongue-tie release procedure when medically indicated
Newborn Topics
We have compiled a list of topics/questions frequently asked by new parents. These topics follow in our Explore resource library. Of course you may always ask questions during your child’s visits, or call and ask to speak with a nurse or provider on the phone as well
Prior to Your First Visit
- Please verify that we accept your child’s health insurance by visiting our insurance page, or by calling our billing office at (804) 288-9190. You have 30 days to add your child to your insurance plan
- Request your child’s first appointment by calling (804) 282-4205. After the first appointment, express sick visits and well child check-ups can be booked directly online
- The online pre-registration process will include submitting a picture of your insurance card and ID, so please have those handy when completing. You will receive a text with a link to pre-register after booking your appointment
What to Bring to Your First Visit
- Tally of feedings, wet diapers, and dirty diapers per day since being discharged from the hospital
- Please ask the hospital’s pediatrician to fax us their records at (804) 673-6432 (Three Chopt Office), (804) 559-9227 (Mechanicsville Office), or (804) 525-5156 (Short Pump Office), depending on where your child’s first visit will be
What to Expect at Your First Visit
- Review of your newborn’s hospital records
- Weight, and sometimes height and head circumference, measurement
- Review of feeding frequency, duration and/or quantity
- Review of your baby’s urination and stooling frequency
- Head-to-toe examination of your baby
- Counseling about caring for your newborn, when to return for the next visit, and what to expect from your baby between now and then
- If your baby did not have the Hepatitis B vaccine in the nursery, we will recommend it be done at your first visit in our office. We recommend every baby have this done in the hospital prior to discharge. Read more about Hepatitis B: What is it and why is there a vaccine?
- If you are breastfeeding and would like to combine your first visit with a lactation visit, please tell our schedulers and request one of our Lactation Consultants (Jan, Lauren , Heather and Abby). This is not a requirement but rather an additional service we offer to you