I’ve seen a lot of social media posts or comment threads that say we don’t have any studies to prove that the CDC’s vaccine schedule is safe or effective.|
As a pediatrician, the first time I read that, I was surprised. But now, I think I know what they mean.
I think they mean that we haven’t done the best study. Those of us in the scientific and medical fields frequently demand …
I’ve always wanted to be a pediatrician because I love kids; if you ask most people who work in pediatrics whether nurses or physicians they may say that. It’s a very common response to the question “Why pediatrics?” Or how can you do pediatrics?” when students and physicians are asked. Yes, we love working with children for many reasons. Some love the unexpected unrehearsed things kids say; they will shock …
I am a new mom to a beautiful 8-month-old girl, and I am breastfeeding. I am also a doctor at a large, well-known academic institution. The hospital where I work delivers several thousand babies a year, and highly encourages their new moms to breastfeed. They offer a postpartum consultation with a lactation consultant, keep the baby in the mom’s room 24/7 while in the hospital, and provide several other pro-breastfeeding …
William Osler once said, “Listen to your patient; he is telling you the diagnosis.” Anybody who practices medicine knows that is easier said than done. The ability to take a skillful history takes years to develop. There are many nuances in a medical history and physicians must know the right questions to ask. The next step is to avoid asking the wrong questions and the wrong wording of the right …
One evening this past week, after my wife finished feeding our 5-week-old daughter, I took over baby duty. I sat her up on my lap and gave her a few thumps on the back. Not hard enough to hurt, obviously, but just to make her burp.
She didn’t burp. So I gave her a couple more gentle-but-firm whacks, still without a result.
And then I remembered the phone call I got a …
Coughing is one of the most common reasons parents bring their children to see me. And I can understand why. Coughing is noisy and uncomfortable and gets kids dirty looks in schools and subways. Even worse, coughing keeps kids and their parents awake. We’ve all been there, and no one likes to cough.
But coughing is there, usually, for a reason. Almost all coughs are from upper respiratory infections (that’s fancy …
Someday, we may miss the quaint idea of going to see your doctor for your medical concerns.
I realize taking your children to see their doc is a pain. So is taking your car into the mechanic, waiting for the cable guy or going out for groceries. There are other things you’d rather be doing with your time. Can a quick phone call substitute for a doctor visit?
At least one huge …
Her 17-year-old legs dangled over the edge of the exam table. She had come for a prescription of oral contraceptives. Her boyfriend, she said, had been patient. He wasn’t ready to be a father, and so they were waiting. But lately he had started to put the pressure on and asked her to come in. She wasn’t eager for this change in their relationship, but it seemed like the next …
Another child has been severely harmed by a naturopath—this time, in the UK.
A four-year-old boy with autism received naturopathic treatments that landed him in the emergency room. The boy had severe dehydration and dangerously elevated calcium levels. A naturopath had prescribed a regimen of vitamin D, calcium, cod liver oil, zinc and a long list of other substances that included silver, enzymes, salts and trace minerals
As a …
Once upon a time, there was a land where parents were anxious, information was pervasive, and trust was hard to come by. Misinformed celebrities with impressive influence (despite minimal education) were spouting ideas that provided concrete solutions to poorly understood situations, and parents were clinging to them as if their (child’s) life depended upon it.
Pediatricians everywhere were scratching their heads, wondering, what has happened? Why are our patients doubting us? …
Growing up during the 1970’s and 80’s, Little House on the Prairie was an iconic part of my childhood. Doc Baker was the physician and veterinarian for all of Walnut Grove, in spite of limited resources. Medical lessons were everywhere in the beloved television series: Mary experiencing onset of blindness (most recently attributed to viral meningoencephalitis, likely from measles), the death of Laura’s infant son by unknown cause, and Rose’s …
Walking into Riley Pediatrics Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, and having just completed two prior rotations in emergency medicine at two different level 1 trauma centers, I thought I would be able to easily fit in with pediatric population here. I thought I would be able to slide fluidly from patient to patient, oral reports to consults, while staying connected with the rest of the team. I thought I would be …
“Someone else will lend a helping hand,” a physician told me once, when asked to help with an emergency in public. As a PALS instructor for more than a decade, I have always responded when possible. In the last decade, there have been three in-flight emergencies, two elderly individuals who passed out in church, and a host of other less serious maladies. A week ago, I discovered the best reason I …
ADVERTISEMENT
When, aged thirteen, my best friend died of complications from sickle cell disease, her parents could not attend her funeral or find out where she was buried. My mom explained to me that in the Yoruba culture because parents are not expected to survive their children, it is considered an abomination for a parent to know where their child is buried. So, the young adults in the extended family attended …
During our dermatology section in medical school, a classmate recounted having had Henoch-Schonlein purpura as a child. Over a holiday break, he visited his primary care physician and asked if he could review his records out of curiosity. His family physician pulled out the index card that served as this man’s medical record. Yes, you read that correctly. It was not a chart or computer printout; rather a 4 x …
There are over 400 pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in the USA, as most recently estimated by the Society of Critical Care Medicine. These units vary widely in size, from 4 or 5 beds to fifty or more. The smaller units are generally found in community hospitals; the larger ones are usually in academic medical centers, often in designated children’s hospitals, of which there are 220.
Given this size range, it is not …
Medicine can wear down our hearts and souls. My journey in pediatrics has been filled with many rewarding experiences but haunting ones as well, like this one from my third year of residency. By that final year of training, I was no longer certain medicine was really the right choice for me. I was struggling with the notion that after almost 11 years of education, the destination was not quite …
Recently, former reality television star Kristin Cavallari released a potentially lethal recipe for homemade baby formula in her new lifestyle book, Balancing in Heels. Cavallari, who rose to fame as high-schooler on MTV’s Laguna Beach, is attempting to rebrand herself as an all-organic Suzy homemaker and offering dangerous medical advice along the way.
In her book, Cavallari goes against all conventional medical wisdom, advocating for feeding young babies a homemade concoction instead …
You may be aware of Ezekiel Stephan, a 19-month-old boy, who died in 2012, after his parents chose home remedies and naturopathy for the treatment of viral meningitis. The parents currently are on trial in Canada for failing to provide the necessities of life.
Over the course of many days, Ezekiel’s condition rapidly deteriorated, but his parents chose to “give him as much natural product as possible,” including syrup, frozen …
There are several Tumblr sites where people submit their actual name and compare it to the name the Starbucks employee writes on the cup. There’s “Starbucks Name Fail,” “The Starbucks Name Game,” “Starbucks Can’t Spell My Name,” and “That’s Not My Name, Starbucks.”
There aren’t Tumblr sites for calling out Starbucks when they biff your drink. “Starbucks F***** Up My Drink,” “Would You Just Look at This Beverage,” and “There’s No …
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
