Rachel K. Schlueter, M.D.

My name is Rachel Schlueter and I am one of the pediatricians at Children’s Physicians, West Village Pointe.

What made you want to become a pediatrician?

My mom is one of the NICU and newborn nurses in my hometown and so I’ve been around babies my entire life. I’ve always known that I wanted to be a doctor and I never imagined anything other than pediatrics.

What is your approach to treating patients and families?

I am a big joint decision making doctor which means that no one knows a child as well as the parents. And it’s my role to help provide really good evidence-based medicine and information. I always tell families that the return policy is pretty strict on your kid but the owner’s manual is really crummy and so my role is to answer questions and concerns. If my families are worried or concerned, I hope that they feel comfortable coming to me to talk through things. I want to either be worried with them or I want to ease their fear.

How has motherhood shaped you as a pediatrician?

Having kids changes us in so many wonderful ways. But it’s important to me that I approach every patient as if they were my own kiddo. Know that I think about the care of my kids as if my patients were my own. That involves the medicines that we use, the conversations we have, and the specialists that I send them to.

Do you have any clinical areas of interest?

I love watching children grow and develop, but I have a passion for infant nutrition. With our infants and toddlers, there’s so much that goes into how and what we feed them. Part of my training I am a certified lactation consultant, which I think is really important as moms learn how to feed their babies regardless of if it’s formula or breast milk or exclusively pumped milk. Each mom and baby partner has a new challenge and so learning how to feed your babies is one of my big passions.