Below is a letter I have written to parents who are hesitant about giving vaccinations to their children. I don’t know how many it will convince, but I needed a respectful and informative way to follow up with parents who expressed concerns or declined vaccinations, and this is what I now share with them after such visits. This is written not …
A letter to parents hesitant about vaccines
One Google search can sometimes change everything.
After learning something new about our child’s health or condition, especially for worried parents and caregivers, leveraging online search as a resource in diagnosis, clarification and education is typical behavior. Searching out support, camaraderie and tips online just makes sense. In fact, 2013 data from the Pew Research Center finds that 1 in 3 …
A Google search can make all the difference in the world for patients
My inbox has been flooded lately with emails from fellow pediatricians begging for help fighting the American Board of Pediatrics MOC program. These are doctors with decades in the care of children, now threatened with complete loss of their ability to practice because of the onerous ABP MOC process. In trying to help my colleagues, I visited the ABP website today and …
Our most celebrated pediatricians are not maintaining certification
Here’s a question for you: Which causes more deaths, motor vehicle traffics accidents or firearms?
I asked a bunch of people that question, including a bunch of doctors, and everyone said that motor vehicles did, by a lot.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2013, 33,804 people died from motor vehicle traffic accidents — and 33, 636 died from firearms.
They kill the same number of …
Which kills more? Guns or cars? The answer will surprise you.
Desiree wrote in, “My 15-month daughter and a few other kids at her daycare were just diagnosed with hand-foot-mouth disease. I would like to hear how common it is, what treatments (or ways to soothe) you find helpful, and how you would differentiate this from measles or chickenpox. For example, my little one has blisters all over her body, not just H-F-M. …
My child has hand-foot-and-mouth disease. What do I need to know?
A recent series of articles in the Washington Post and a segment on NPR have caused quite a stir. The articles are about what we have called for decades shaken baby syndrome. It can be fatal. We now use the term non-accidental head trauma. This term replaced the older one because it is more specific; children can be …
The controversy about shaken baby syndrome actually isn’t one at all
Recent events in Baltimore sparked by the tragic death of Freddie Gray in police custody have thrust our city into the national and international spotlight.
As others have observed, the anger, violence and grief that erupted in Baltimore following Gray’s death have roots that run much deeper — and much wider — than the highly publicized clashes between law enforcement and minority …
What 3 pediatricians think about the civil unrest in Baltimore
While examining a newborn baby for the first time, a mother happened to ask me, “Doc, what was your name?” “Dr. Bailony,” I replied. “Wow, that was the name of my pediatrician as a kid,” she said with a surprised tone in her voice. It turned out that her pediatrician as a young girl was my father, and by random chance …
This pediatrician realizes the power of families
When you send your kid to dance class, it’s reasonable to think that not only are they learning how to dance, but that they are getting exercise. Most parents think that way; dance class certainly gets mentioned when I ask parents in my practice what their children do for exercise.
Not so much, says a study just published in the …
Exercise for kids is more than just dance class
As adolescent medicine physicians based in the Bronx, which has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation, we frequently see how young patients become pregnant before they are ready to be parents.
While U.S. pregnancy rates among girls aged 15 to 19 years have been declining over the past two decades, still nearly 600,000 girls younger than 20 years …
When young patients become pregnant before they are ready to be parents
A new clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics is a rare beacon of coherent thought about lice and children.
Rather than humiliating children and driving them away like lepers, the AAP recommends common-sense steps to identify and treat lice. Some facts really shouldn’t be in dispute:
Common sense guidelines for children with lice
The other day, a teen patient of mine told me she is pansexual.
We were having the usual talk I have with teen patients, the one where I we talk about sex and sexuality and birth control and sexually transmitted infections. But over the past few years, that conversation often takes interesting turns when I ask about sexuality, like it did the …
Bruce Jenner is evolving the birds and the bees talk
We physicians have long labored under the belief that if we provide objective data about the safety and efficacy of vaccines we can change anti-vaxxers’ minds. But political scientist Brendan Nyhan, Ph.D. has shown that directly addressing patients’ concerns about vaccines does little to change their decision to immunize. And he’s probably right. Other research examining the effects of education …
How to win patients and vaccinate people
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It was May 13th, 2012. Mother’s Day. My wife, Cyrena, was having an incredibly difficult pregnancy. She had pounding headaches, blurred vision, and searing pain throughout her body. As a matter of fact, she had been in and out of the hospital for the last two weeks. Our tiny daughter was only developed 23 weeks in gestation. Her due date was …
My wife wanted to fire our pediatrician. What can we learn from this?
As I have been known to say on this blog once or twice before, one of my favorite things about being a developmental pediatrician is the opportunity to follow the children I see for initial diagnostic evaluation over the long term. New research presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies conference makes me especially hopeful.
When our …
New hope for those diagnosed with autism
On May 2, 2015, at approximately 6 a.m. local time, the Duchess of Cambridge was admitted to the Lindo Wing of Saint Mary’s Hospital after going into labor. At 8:34 a.m., the Duke and Duchess welcomed a baby girl, Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, into the world weighing 8 lbs. 3 oz. Kensington Palace announced the arrival of the fourth royal in line to the British throne at 11 a.m. At around …
Deliver a princess. And then be home for dinner.
A few months ago, I became aware of the ongoing measles outbreak that has been traced back to visits to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, which began in December 2014. I remember reading the news reports, including the defense of those who did not believe that vaccines are safe, and witnessed the …
There should not be a body count to disprove bad science
Each year children ingest an array of foreign bodies including coins, magnets, and a new subset of batteries known as button batteries. Awareness of this small yet very dangerous foreign body is important for parents to understand so they can act quickly if their child is suspected of ingestion.
What is a button battery?
A button battery is a cylindrically shaped object measuring …
So your child swallowed a button battery. Here’s what you need to know.
At a recent block party, neighbors asked me questions about the life of a resident. It amazed me how little the general public still knows about the hours a resident works. Over the years, TV shows have shed some light on what the experience of a resident is like, although none are quite realistic, but it is hard to appreciate from …
Counting 80 hours: The life of a pediatric resident
The riots in Baltimore are all over the news. As a parent, it would seem like the best thing to say to your kids is that riots are bad, that violence isn’t the way to solve anything.
But that would be missing the point — and missing an opportunity.
Don’t get me wrong; I don’t think that riots are good or that violence is the way to solve things. But what is …
What to tell your kids about the Baltimore riots
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