Dr. Robert Jay Minkus, MD

My daughter had her first appointment with Dr. Minkus this week. He was amazing, we recently switched doctors and it was the best decision I could of made. He’s kind has excellent bed side manner and listens.

I love Dr. Minkus. My kids love Dr. Minkus. Once he is in the room with you he is in no rush to leave. He will listen to every concern and will even answer my questions about one of my other kids even if it isn't their appointment. He's wonderful.

excellent doctor

unacceptable little time spent with patients;

very condescending; unprofessional

Dr.Minkus has been our pediatrician for almost eighteen years. I have nine children, ages 8mo-20yr, and they all get excited when we are going to see Dr.Minkus. My 87yo Grandma comes along to every visit, because he is the kindest man, and always makes her feel cared about as well :) I drive over an hour to get to his office, and would drive many hours if that is what I had to do, to keep him as my children's Dr.. He spends all the time in the world with my family, and always spends time with me, asking how I am doing, and what I need as well. He is gentle (examine the children on my lap, so they are not nervous, and he supports breastfeeding and my partial vaccinating. He even spent a half hour helping my son program his watch one time. He is truly one of my families' creating blessings, and I have not a single complaint in almost eighteen years. His in office nurses have always been very kind. My very only complaint is the fact that when I ask to speak to him specifically (not a… nurse) I ALWAYS get a nurse calling me back, trying to deal with the issue, and always saying I HAVE to come in. When I refuse to schedule an appointment until I speak with him, and then do speak to him, he always tells me to just speak to him directly, and it's never the big deal his nurses make the issue out to be, I've chosen HIM as my Dr., not the nurses. Other than the phone nurses, I LOVE this man, and he is like family to us. You could not find a better pediatrician!

We scheduled a meet-and-greet with Dr. Minkus before our baby was born because we were interested in a doctor who accepted alternative vaccination schedules. He asked if I would breastfeed, and I said I was unsure at that point. He pointed to me and asked "are those real?" Stunned, I nodded. He said "then you can breastfeed."I felt the pressure to breastfeed from his office the second we brought my daughter in to see him. She was severely jaundiced and we allowed them to supplement her in the hospital. Dr. Minkus came down on us for that like a box of lead hammers. Way to make first-time parents feel like a bunch of child-abusers. Two bottles of formula are not going to spoil a child's health the rest of her life, and they were very concerned about the jaundice. Anyone with as much experience in medicine knows that a tiny baby can deteriorate in a matter of hours if there is an issue. We could not get a hold of this doctor! Our baby had a lot of difficulty breastfeeding and we were… very concerned about her apparent distress. We would call, and then 2 days later call again because no one had called us back. We were told that someone had sent an email to the doctor. After another day we'd get an unconcerned call from the doctor who would basically dismiss all our concerns; breastfeeding was more important than our daughter's comfort, apparently. In the meantime, I was experiencing severe medical problems due to breastfeeding and my auto-immune disease.Finally, after a couple months, my doctor and the third lactation consultant I went to told me that I had to dry it up because for some reason, the breastfeeding and pumping was exacerbating my auto-immune disease. When I called Dr. Minkus's office to get advice on formula feeding, the nurses were exceptionally rude. They seemed to have the attitude that I was a horrible mother because I could no longer breastfeed. They didn't care about my health or ability to take care of my baby, which was nil at that point because of how sick I was. They gave me token advice (basically, stick the bottle in the baby's mouth) and left me to it. When my daughter's GI issues continued on formula, I called every day for advice and never got phone calls back. Finally, I insisted on speaking with a nurse with a screaming baby in the background, and broke down in sobs that the doctor would no longer speak to me now that I was using formula. The nurse was somewhat sympathetic but gave us no real remedies. The doctor never called.We switched pediatricians to someone who recommended a probiotic, which worked wonders, and who didn't give me trouble about my inability to breastfeed. To this day, I remain fervently angry with this doctor and his horrible office staff. They never called to find out why we didn't show up for her checkup appointment, and were slow in getting medical records to her new pediatrician.I would not take a dog to this practice, much less a precious baby. Unless you plan on doing everything the way Dr. Minkus says (which actually contradicts what he told us in our meet-and-greet, that parents have to partner with the doctor to figure out what is best), don't bother. And if you cannot breastfeed, save yourself the trauma and go elsewhere.

Dr. Minkus is the BEST> I tell everyone he rocks!

My husband and I choose Minkus before having our first child. I have never regretted the choice. He is fantastic. Even after we moved from the city to the western suburbs we continued to make the trek to the north shore. I will continue to take my kids to him until he is no longer practicing.