Persian-speaking Pediatricians

In Germany children have their own doctor. Care is not handed to the parents' family practice: you register the child with a paediatric practice, and that practice keeps their file for years. Demand is high and many practices are not taking new patients, so the first job is not booking an appointment, it is finding a practice with room. So look before you need one, during pregnancy or in your first weeks in a new city, not on the day your child has a fever.

In an emergency, or if there is a risk to life, call 112. Outside surgery hours the medical on-call service answers on 116 117, and it can also help you find an appointment. This page is only a directory and is not an emergency service.

What the Verified badge does and does not say

Verified says one thing only: a real person stands behind this profile and manages it themselves. YabInfy does not check anyone's certificates, licences, experience or competence, and the badge is not for sale.

Finding a practice is the first task

Registering means one practice becomes responsible: it tracks the check-ups, records the vaccinations, and is the first number you ring when your child is ill. Work through several practices in one sitting rather than waiting on one reply, and ask whether they are taking new patients and, if not, when to try again. Some take children only from their own immediate area, so weigh the distance: with a baby in your arms, a short journey is worth real money. None of this happens remotely, so the city genuinely decides for you, and the city list at the bottom of this page is where to start.

This list is not split into sub-categories. If you are looking for a practice with a particular focus, only the practice can tell you whether it has one, so ask on the first call.

The check-up series and the booklet it is written in

A series of scheduled check-ups (U-Untersuchungen) runs from the newborn weeks through the school years, with one more for the teenage years. The result of each goes into a booklet that stays with you, not with the practice. It is the record of your child's development and gets used outside the surgery too, when a daycare or a school asks for something, or when you move. Bring it every time.

The practical point that rarely gets explained: these appointments are tied to an age band, not a date, and each band has its own window, so you have weeks rather than a day. If a window has passed, that is worth asking about rather than quietly letting go: the practice will tell you whether the check-up can still be done. The bands, and what is covered once one has closed, are set by state law and by your insurer, so take that answer from them, not from this page.

Vaccinations, and the record you brought from another country

Germany has a national vaccination schedule, recommended by a national expert committee, and practices work from it. Vaccinations go into a booklet that belongs to the child and travels with them, from daycare to school and from one city to the next.

If your child was vaccinated in another country, bring the record, even if it is not in German and even if it is incomplete. It can usually be carried over into the German booklet after review, and that review is the practice's job: they say what counts and what needs completing.

One thing to know in advance so it does not catch you out: proof of measles protection is required for admission to daycare and to school. What will be accepted for your child, and when it is asked for, is between the practice and the daycare or school itself, so ask both.

When your child is ill

There are three separate routes and it is worth knowing them before you need them. During opening hours, your own practice, which may have a phone hour or slots held back for same-day cases, so call first. Outside hours, the on-call service on 116 117, which in some places runs a separate children's surgery. And in a life-threatening situation, 112.

There is also a piece of paper many parents learn about too late. If you have to stay at home to look after a sick child, the practice issues a separate certificate for exactly that, and you send it to your insurer to claim through them. It is not your own sick note and does not replace it. Ask for it at the appointment, not a week later. How many days you get, and on what conditions, is set by your insurer, so get the number from them.

A child should not interpret their own appointment

The language argument runs the other way round on this page. In Persian-speaking families the person with the best German is usually one of the children, so the same child ends up interpreting their own appointment: relaying the doctor's questions to their parents, carrying the answers back, while being the patient. That puts a weight on them that is not theirs, and what reaches the doctor is still thinner than what the parents said.

A paediatrician who speaks Persian puts that back where it belongs: they talk to the parents directly and treat the child in German, the way they would any other child. The parents can describe the whole worry and ask again until they are sure, and the child stays a child.

Development, speech and growing up bilingual

The paediatric practice is the door to everything that comes after it. If you have a question about development, movement, hearing, speech or behaviour, that practice is what sets an assessment or a referral in motion, and without it the route usually stays shut. For speech and occupational therapy see Allied health, but this is where it starts.

On language, do not hide anything. Growing up between two languages is normal and is not itself a disorder. Say which language is spoken at home, who the child hears each one from, and what they say in each. That is what helps the doctor separate ordinary bilingual development from something worth looking into.

What to bring

• The check-up booklet if you have one, and if you do not, say so.
• The vaccination record, or any history from another country, handwritten and incomplete included.
• A note of anything you have already given the child, with the active ingredient, the amount and the time. Brand names change from country to country, and that note protects a quarter of an hour of the appointment.
• The child's own insurance card; children have their own, and a parent's does not stand in for it.

What to ask when you call

• Whether they are taking new patients, and if not, when to come back to them.
• Which of the doctors there speaks Persian, and which days they are in; several may work out of the same rooms.
• Whether there is a phone hour, and what they do for a child who is ill the same day.
• Whether the check-ups and vaccinations are done at that practice, and whether you can get in with a pram.
• YabInfy checks none of this, so ask for it yourself, and ask to see the document where it matters.

Choosing from this list

Reviews here describe what a parent actually saw: how long the wait was with a restless toddler, whether things were explained to the parents rather than over their heads, whether anyone picks up the phone. They are not a verdict on clinical skill. Many practices here have no registered owner yet, so a missing Verified badge says nothing about their work.

Nobody sees where you went: YabInfy never attaches a page visit or a contact request to a name. What does become public is any review you write, under whatever name you pick for it.

For your own family doctor and the other fields, see Doctors and dentists and General practitioners. How this site works is explained in the FAQ, and if you run a paediatric practice, add your business.