At a family outing to the zoo a few weeks ago I sat on a bench to nurse my 6-month-old son while my husband took our older son on the carousel. I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Nice job, Mama!” I looked up and saw a woman smiling ear to ear as she was dragged by her own child towards the carousel. I got a little misty. Even as …
Nice job, mama! How a physician makes breastfeeding work.
A while ago, I asked an 8-year-old patient of mine what she wanted to be when she grew up. She replied, “I’m not sure because right now I want to be a doctor, a firefighter, and a teacher … so maybe I’ll do all three … I’m not quite sure.”
Uncertain about how to respond, I mumbled something like, “I don’t think you’ll have much free time.” Adulthood tends to make …
What’s happening in Syria is a conversation we need to have
First, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to read this; I know you’re busy fund-raising and campaigning, so I’ll try to keep this brief. It’s recently become quite apparent that several of you have some misconceptions about our immunization program. That’s unfortunate for people who are seeking such a prominent position. …
A pediatrician gives vaccine advice to presidential candidates
I did something really death-defying with my daughter this summer.
I taught her to drive.
Truly, teaching a teen to drive is scarier than just about anything else we do as a parent. It’s scarier than giving birth, as there are usually skilled people around during labor who can take over if things go awry. It’s way scarier than first days of school or first dates, scarier than most illnesses and injuries …
Just like driving lessons, parenthood is terrifying
I first met Marie five years ago. A petite, soft-spoken woman in her thirties, she was the patient of one of the residents whom I supervise at our community hospital. Marie worked in housekeeping for a large corporation; she and her husband, a bus driver, had a six-year-old son. Now she was twenty-six weeks (six months) pregnant with their second child.
Marie’s blood pressure was markedly elevated (168/120), she had fairly …
Much of the human spirit lies outside a physician’s power
The 20th century saw striking advances in curing childhood cancer, primarily as a result of the discovery that broadly toxic chemotherapy agents could kill malignant cells. As a result, pediatric cancer, once a virtually incurable disease, now enjoys an overall long-term survival rate that tops 80 percent. In the 21st century, attention is turning to newer agents that promise to open additional, less toxic avenues to cure. As we mark Childhood …
4 things on the horizon in childhood cancer
“Why aren’t you treating this patient?”
Over the phone, the pediatrician’s voice crackled with disdain. I had just spent the last 5 minutes explaining why I didn’t think surgery was necessary for a patient whom the pediatrician had referred to me (unwillingly, as she pointed out during our conversation — the patient’s insurance wouldn’t cover visits to the much bigger competitor hospital that she normally referred to). I remembered the little …
As a physician, it is difficult to admit to a lack of control
Overtesting — it’s an epidemic threatening consumers of U.S. health care. The notion that testing can be anything but beneficial belies the common assumption that more information is always better, as exemplified by billionaire Mark Cuban’s proclamation earlier this year that he obtains “baseline” quarterly blood tests and encourages others to do so. Knowledge is power, right? Not always. Aside from adding economic strain to our already beleaguered health care …
Getting patients and physicians to ask the right questions
As a pediatrician, I get lots of questions from parents — but sometimes I wish they would ask different ones.
That’s what check-ups are for, really: questions. Aside from questions about illnesses (obviously my purview, as a doctor), I get questions about just about every aspect of a child’s life. The parents of babies and young children ask the most — here are some of the most common:
Should my baby’s poop …
6 questions parents don’t ask their pediatricians but really should
“If he is hungry when he wakes up, and you don’t let him eat, we’re taking him to another hospital,” the man shouted. I stood trapped between a protective papa bear and his cub. My instinct was to find an exit, but I braced myself for more. This father gave me one last glare before side-stepping around me and wrenching open the door to his child’s hospital room. I glimpsed …
Parents and pediatricians are fighting for the same cause. Remember that.
I have a confession to make: I sometimes look forward to my trips to the bathroom at work. Being a busy pediatrician, it can be the only alone time I get to myself; and on occasion you just need a quiet place where babies aren’t crying, and phones aren’t ringing. The other day as I was leaving the bathroom and returning to the bustling clinic, I did something strange. I …
Nobody teaches a physician the emotional consequences of medicine
This past March, thousands descended on Austin, TX, home to the famous and much celebrated South by Southwest (SXSW®) conferences and festivals. This year, I decided to attend the education-focused festival, SXSWedu®, a relatively new addition to the SXSW® family of events. A four-day conference chocked with interactive workshops, panel sessions, and even play summits, SXSWedu® is designed to showcase the creativity …
What’s wrong with the current entertainment screen time recommendation?
There’s an awful lot we don’t know about the effects of screen time on babies and toddlers — which is too bad, as babies and toddlers get an awful lot of it these days.
We don’t know if watching TV or using tablets or smartphones will turn them into violent zombies, make them brilliant computer scientists, do something in between or do nothing …
Here’s why babies and screens don’t mix
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Recently I met a boy, a boy with leukemia, a young boy with comic-book worthy superpowers. This boy, this superhero, is one I will never, never forget.
When I entered the exam room, I was immediately struck by the sight of a young boy who should have been playing football with his friends at the park or jumping off the high-dive at the pool, but instead …
Children with cancer are the real superheroes
The explosion of tech and screens into the lives of children is outrageously obvious to me as a pediatrician. Besides the fact that most kids and parents seem to be attached to a phone or tablet when I enter the exam room, when I ask questions about how kids spend their days (and nights), screens seem to be part of everything.
You’d think …
Parents don’t ask me about screens. But this is what I’d say if they did.
Before I was a doctor, I was a dad. My oldest daughter was two years old when I started medical school, so I did a little bit of parenting without the benefit of any medical knowledge at all. I remember her 2-month visit well. It was one of the few visits that I was able to make, and my baby girl …
A doctor’s personal story of vaccine hesitancy
How is it that, in this day and age, a talented teenager treated for lymphoma emerges cured but with a life-threatening eating disorder? How is it that, in our nation’s capital, a boy dying at home from neuroblastoma experiences excruciating pain in his final moments? How is that, when we develop new drugs to treat children with cancer, we do not, at the same …
Pediatric palliative care: We must do more
Swim season, sleepovers, and summer sports camps — many tweens and teens are asking about tampons. It’s time for a refresher.
1. It’s OK for her to use a tampon. Using tampons is normal and safe, even from the very first period. In other words, there is no medical reason that a young girl cannot wear a tampon. Using tampons do not imply “sexual maturity” or advanced sexual interest. Tampons are just another form …
7 things parents need to know about tampons
When I chose a career in pediatrics, everyone had something to say about my decision. While most of my friends and colleagues were supportive, there were more than a few that just couldn’t understand why I would sign up for a lifetime of “ear infections and runny noses.”
Even among other medical professionals, it’s not uncommon for pediatrics to be viewed as a less-than-serious …
What is pediatrics? It’s more than just runny noses.
The selfie, for those of you living under a rock, is a photo of yourself, taken by yourself, by holding your phone out in your outstretched arm, pointing it at your own face, and snapping away. You then post it on your Facebook or on your Twitter for all the world to see and admire.
Let me pick out the key words …
Are you a selfie parent? Here are 4 clues that you are.
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