Wolffe Nadoolman, MD

We love Dr. Wolffe. He has been an amazing resource for our two kids ages 14 and 17. They appreciate his humor and we love that there is never a long wait. He is a solo practitioner and about a year ago had some health issues — so the comments about him not answering his phone may have had to do with that… I have never not gotten a message or talked to his nurse Tammy who is also great. He is great at diagnosing illnesses and really loves his work. If you are looking for a doctor who goes above and beyond what is typical today. Dr. Wolffe is your man.

Answer your phone. This is unprofessional and unacceptable. I need my sons chart and i have no other way to get it if you dont pick up your phone.

We have been going to Dr Wolfe for 5 years. There is no doctor like him. His bedside manner is so gentile and playful that my son (and my husband) are always wooed by his kindness.
That being said, he is very unconventional. You really have to allow yourself time as he gives each appointment what seems like an hour. We are not panicky parents– we have healthy kids, so I can only imagine if there are issues what that time and connection would mean to you.
What I have totally appreciated over the years is if you have an issue like a fever spike in the middle of the night– you call the office phone and you get through to your dr. This is where his dedication truly surpasses anything I’ve ever heard of.
You might find yourself at Walgreens talking about diarrhea for the better of 20 minutes with him– with him practically screaming for you to get the grape flavored pedialite– to not even consider the Orange!!!
He’s funny– he’s smart. He’s weird. My family loves him.
We now drive an hour to keep him as our doctor– but I also know… If we needed him, he would come to us. There aren’t enough stars to express that gratitude.

Is this guy still practicing?!! He’s got great reviews and a great website but NEVER answered or returned my 20 calls. I wouldn’t waste my time if I were you.

It’s hard to know where to begin reviewing Dr. Wolffe. He is amazing in so many ways. First, his bedside manner is beyond compare. I’ve never had a doctor who listens and explains issues and treatments like he does. He clearly has respect for his patients (and their parents) and is painstaking in listening to concerns, validating them, and breaking down his take on things. He has the approach of doctors of a by-​gone era (house calls, what?!). Actually, even my small-​town family doctor as a kid wasn’t as accessible as Dr. Wolffe.
Second, he is obviously brilliant … Ivy League degrees to spare. The thing is, though, he does not have the ego to go along with that pedigree … or he hides it really, really, REALLY well. It’s like he has the brain of Dr. House with the personality of a slightly more kooky Mr. Rogers. Dream mash-​up!
Lastly, and on a more serious note, I’ve never EVER known a doctor as dedicated to his patients as Dr. Wolffe. Shortly after my daughter was born, it became clear that breastfeeding was not going well, and she was not gaining weight as she should have been. Dr. Wolffe was not alarmist about it, and he encouraged my breastfeeding efforts long after many would have pressured me to go to a bottle. He saw us almost every day for a while for weigh-​ins and check-​ups. One morning, on our way to his office, he called to say he could not be at the appointment … his mother had passed away. He told us to go to the office and have his nurse (Tammy, who is also AWESOME) weigh the baby. The plan was that she would report her findings to him and he would follow up with us later that day by phone. Not only did all of that happen (he talked to me on the phone for no less than 30 minutes about her progress), he said if my daughter’s weight was not up a certain amount in the next two days he would stop my my house on his way home from the airport later that week. I mean, mind BLOWN. He gave us so much encouragement during that time, it’s impossible to imagine getting through those difficult first months without him.
Since then, we have been fortunate to not need to see Dr. Wolffe except for routine check-​ups and vaccines, but every experience with him and his staff has reaffirmed our early impressions. Brilliant mind, huge heart, and wacky ties all in one amazing package.

Dr. Wolffe is an amazing physician! We consider ourselves lucky to have him as our son’s doctor. He’s been so patient with me (first time mom, incredibly worried about every little sneeze and hiccup). Not only will he take great care of your child, he also cares a great deal about you — the parent. No question is too silly or out of place, and he is always (always!) available if you have a concern, even in the middle of the night. If you are looking for an excellent pediatrician search no more. You have found him! Seriously.

Doctor Wolffe is not only a knowledgeable and caring pediatrician, he’s a doctor with a rare outlook on medicine practice. He operates his own private practice, which allows him to spend as much time as *he* thinks is right with each patient. He spends the full hour talking with us, observing our baby, and answering any and all questions we have. He keeps in touch with us over email and phone. We even have his home number for rare emergencies.
We all know that at larger medical groups the doctors are paid per visit and they try to jam as many visits into a day as possible. This is why a nurse or physicians assistant does most of the intake while you only get to spend 5 minutes with the actual doctor. Things don’t work this way with Dr. Wolffe. Once he drove over an hour to make a house call on a Sunday night. We were staying an hour away from Berkeley (where his practice is located) but he came right out and helped us get through a really rough night when our newborn wouldn’t feed properly and was wailing nonstop.
He is an experienced physician with sterling credentials but also a delightful human being with a great sense of humor. He may seem a little goofy at first but underneath his sense of humor is a very serious investment in the well-​being of children. He loves kids and they seem to love him too. He holds our baby and calms her crying like a master baby whisperer. He will tell you that his first commitment is to the child — she is his patient. But as new parents we have benefited so much from his advice and guidance. He has gotten us through our real problems and our silly worrying too.
It makes me angry that one of the reviewers here gave Dr. Wolffe a one-​star review just because he didn’t validate her refusal to ever give her child medication. I hope you will disregard this spurious opinion, especially since the reviewer states she only saw him one time. She was obviously searching for some kind of alternative practice and uninterested in the advice of an actual doctor. Dr. Wolffe is NOT prescription-​happy and always tells us when something is optional. He has respected our choices to use or not use medications, techniques, or dietary supplements as long as the safety and health of the child is assured. If he ever did put his foot down and insist on something, we would take his advice without a moment’s hesitation.
I wish there were more doctors in the world like Dr. Wolffe. He is a really extraordinary man and I feel unusually lucky that we found him. I am so glad that my little daughter is in his care and I would advise anyone with a child to see him. There are very very few things in the world that I wish I could give 6 stars to and Dr. Wolffe would get 7. I’m sorry if this review sounds hyperbolic. I really am just very happy with and very grateful for all his help since our baby was born. Awesome doctor.

We were told that he would be more open minded than the other more established and traditional pediatricians out there. We ended up being very disappointed. What we found bizarre was that he presented as a progressive and «thinking» pediatrician; but, he wanted to medicate our child after one meeting. This was contrary to the advice of our «conventional» pediatrician and other professionals we consulted.
Since then, we decided to stay with our original pediatrician and we resolved the issue without medication.

Amazing doctor. That about sums it up. He is intelligent, articulate, explains things and is AMAZING with kids. I have 3 year old twins and he interacts so naturally with them and spends an amazing amount of time with us during visits. My boy has been ‘doctoring’ the past few weeks since our last visit and finds elephants and hippos in my ears. :-) Thankfully, he extracts them. We’ve been patients of Dr. Wolffe since our twins were born. He was so attentive and came to the hospital daily, checked in, called and. best of all, he makes house calls when necessary! Plus, his website is a bonus with great thoughts and articles on pediatrics and medicine in general. He’s a real rare find in a doctor these days!

I always hate to share good places and people as I fear I will get stuck behind them in line when there once was none. But someone needs to tell the world about the last ethical, good natured, and intelligent doctor on the planet.
He has always spent a solid hour with us at our appointments despite my not being too much of an alarmist. He never pressures us to hurry along or limit my husband’s silly questions. He remains very current in research and medical literature, and based on his blog spends a fair amount of his free time fascinated by and dedicated to pediatrics. He takes the time to detail the action plan with you so by the time you leave you feel confident about caring for your sick child. He answers phone calls on the weekends, he does house visits, AND he takes insurance!
Worth noting, because he stays current on medical research he demands that patients are vaccinated. I appreciate knowing that my daughter can walk through his office and not be exposed to a family «opting out» and carrying a disease that could affect my infant before she has the chance to get vaccinated. Let those that expect herd-​immunity to keep their families safe go elsewhere, please.
His assistant Tammy is a delight. Always easy going and efficient at what she does. You won’t have the grief from the front desk you have likely encountered elsewhere. She keeps her cool, gives great shots, and keeps the show moving.
The office is quaint. A tiny waiting room is clean and cozy, although I’ve never had to to sit there. He has an impressive collection of antiquities relating to children that are fun to check out if you even have a chance.
Now I hope this isn’t all going to turn into a pipe-​dream when everyone rushes their kids to his office, but I want the community to know what a great man Dr. Nadoolman really is.

If I could give more stars, I would. By far, one of the best pediatricians. Like the other post, it is true, he does home visits and answers his own cell phone (not an answering service). And my children have his cell phone and know they can call him anytime of the day.
My 12-​year old son was in the ER at Children’s Hospital and Dr. Wolffe met us there to make sure that we were taken care of and that my son was okay. He sat there with us for a couple of hours. The ER nurse mentioned to me, «I’ve never known any pediatrician to meet their patients in the ER.»
My husband and I went to Spain without kids. Yahoo. Unfortunately my 17-​year old came down with H1N1. Dr. Wolffe was at our house daily to check on my daughter. How many people can say that?
He’s funny and easy with kids plus he’s brilliant and totally on top of his field.

Dr. Nadoolman (aka Dr. Wolffe) is a unique, rare health resource for children and parents. I don’t have his IQ score but he appears to be a genius as demonstrated by his ability to effectively assess, diagnose, inform, treat, show caring and compassion with humor.
We began seeing Dr. Wolffe for his skill with ADHD and behavior problems and have been amazed that he is willing and able to spend the time to give us detailed individualized analysis. He engages in meaningful discussion that leaves you reassured that any questions or concerns have been thoroughly addressed by an expert.
We are so thankful that we have found better care than we ever imagined would be available. Sometimes you wonder whether you should tell others about something so valuable because you fear you could lose it. In the case of Dr Wolffe, we received the great fortune of a referral from another satisfied parent and believe it is our responsibility to let others know they too can find outstanding health care.

We were very interested and excited to meet Dr. Wolffe after exploring his blog site. After meeting with him near the end of my pregnancy, we were thrilled and positive that he was our daughter’s pediatrician.
We are so lucky to have found him! He is off-​the-​charts wonderful. He cares for his patients and their families like you would not believe. I’m an RN, and I can truly say I have never worked with an MD like Dr. Wolffe. We are blessed to have found him.

Did you know that pediatricians still make house calls? Yeah, neither did I. Nor did I think that doctors called you at home on weekends or gave out their personal phone numbers. Hell, I didn’t think they answered their phones anymore or took more than 5 minutes to perform a complete exam.
We joined Dr. Wolffe’s practice on Thursday, went in for a «well-​child» check-​up (hello, 1 hour instead of the usual 10 minutes!) only to find out our 4-​year-​old had a fever. By Saturday our son’s fever spiked to nearly 105 and we called our new pediatrician in a panic. He showed up to our house no more than 30 minutes after the call (we live at least 20 minutes from his office on a good-​traffic day). Not only did he examine our son in our home, on a Saturday, within 30 mins of our call (for a $ 15 copay no less!), but he called twice to check in after that, and gave us his personal phone number. Seriously.
I am still recovering from the shock. We switched to Dr. Nadoolman’s (aka Dr. Wolffe’s) practice after having it up-​to-​here with Kaiser («Live well and thrive!» … indeed, because if you actually need on-​going medical care, you’re screwed!) and couldn’t be happier with our choice.
As the previous reviewer wrote, Dr. Wolffe has managed to retain a goofy and silly bedside manner with his small patients despite an Ivy League education, which I think is a truly remarkable accomplishment.
What a find!

Dr. Wolffe is almost obsessively dedicated to his patients and their families. When I think of my own pediatrician, I have the fondest memories, and he wasn’t half as devoted as we’ve found Dr. Wolffe to be to our daughter and to us. I’m so happy to have found a doctor that I know my daughter (and we) will cherish for a life-​time.
I’m not sure if he’ll want this all to be aired, but we want to give him our highest recommendation:
Brilliant?
Yes. Medical Degree from Yale, MBA from Harvard, Cornell undergrad
Empathic?
Yes.
— his blog, «The Empathic Pediatrician». On his blog there is a link to him being interviewed by NPR.
Funny?
Yes. In a most corny and wonderful way.
Up-​to-​date with cutting-​edge methodologies, opinions, studies, and other medical news?
Yes, and willing to discuss hot-​button (and any or all other) issues at length.
Takes calls at all hours?
Yes. The office line rings at his home.
Keeps a baby scale in the trunk of his car for newborns — «just in case»?
Yes.
Knowledgeable about postpartum depression, lactation issues and other motherly issues?
Yes.
Calls on his own volition to check in on you and your child?
Yes.
May make a house-​call with (or without) special circumstances?
Yes.
Ethical?
Yes.
His other blog — «the Ethical Pediatrician»
There’s so much more, I could go on and on. We love Dr. Wolffe!

My wife and I went in to meet Dr. Wollfe after she had done extensive research on the internet and read his blog… I wasn’t sure why it mattered who the Pediatrician was but he may be the best doctor I have ever met…
A true science geek (studies, research etc…) with a heart that should shine through imediately.
We have known him only a month but he has already been to our home, advised us on my wife’s birth complicatons and has just been a model human being and a terriffic doctor.