As for pediatricians, let me know if you find one that is even of average IQ. I typically diagnose my kids (and myself) and go straight to the specialist. I would never trust a pediatrician to advise me on allergies (or anything else). We have met some wonderful specialists, and I'm sure there are some great pediatricians out there, but I haven't found them. DH thinks I'm nuts but the kids in my HS who became doctors were middling students at best - not kids that anyone ever referred to as "bright".
We must have been lucky, because our pediatrician is definitely someone we trust. It was our pedi who alerted us to seriousness of allergies when we mentioned offhand during a visit for a different issue that we tried bananas for the first time and DS (8months at the time) threw up and had a mild reaction (hives on shoulders/chest), and he sat up and said "what? repeat that, please" and then firmly educated us on the seriousness of allergies and allergic reactions. We got very cautious with all new foods we introduced and avoided all bananas, but we are the lucky few parents whose child appear to have outgrown it (we got the all clear at 3 years old - as a result, DS refuses to touch a banana although he has developed a fondness for banana bread, go figure). And when he was talking to us about allergies, it was clear that he was up to date on the research and various, sometimes conflicting, information that are given to parents. Although he was surprised that bananas had triggered that reaction - and it is amazing how much baby food is centered around bananas.
(and when DS had a seizure at 2, he was really a big part of helping us deal with that until we got the all clear from our neurologist after a series of very stressful visits - and he was the one who realized that my co-worker's daughter had a very, very early symptom of Type 1 diabetes - even the children's hospital staff were surprised that it was detected so early).
