Pediatricians and the clinicians who care for children writing on KevinMD about child health: childhood illness, development, vaccines and the parents who refuse them, breastfeeding and the pressure around it, childhood obesity, prevention, and the realities of caring for young patients and their families. Most contributors are pediatricians. For a maintained record of what pediatricians have said about children's health since 2004, from fever and sleep through obesity, abuse, teenagers, and Medicaid, see Children's health: what pediatricians say, in their own words. For what physicians have said about vaccines and vaccine hesitancy, from the autism claim through measles, exemptions, and federal policy, see Vaccines: what physicians say, in their own words. For what child psychiatrists and pediatricians have said about children's and teens' mental health, see Mental health: what psychiatrists and physicians say, in their own words. For what pediatricians have said about breastfeeding and postpartum care, see Women's health: what physicians say, in their own words.
I boarded the 8:30 Metro-North railroad train home from Manhattan recently after leaving a medical meeting. It had been a long and productive day, but now I was searching for a mint in my pocketbook because I had a weird taste in my mouth. All I found was a lollipop.
Just before the train left Grand Central, a family of three hurried on and sat near me. The father said, “My …
Read more…
Being a doctor sometimes extends far beyond our own patients
It was the boy who was unable to speak who ended up teaching me the most.
I was seeing patients in the epilepsy clinic during my neurology rotation. The attending physician with whom I was working, an internationally renowned pediatric epilepsy specialist with a penchant for attracting exceedingly complex cases, wanted me to observe the end of a patient session with one of the child neurology fellows.
I entered the patient’s room …
Read more…
Medicine should never be about accepting the status quo
Angel was then, and is even now, one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen and I have seen many in my thirty years as a child abuse pediatrician. Yet, to look at her today, asleep against her foster mother’s shoulder, one could never guess at the devastation wrought upon her.
I first met Angel, then only a few months old, in the pediatric intensive care unit just before …
Read more…
In the midst of child abuse, the face of an angel
An increasing amount of parents are choosing to delay or spread out vaccines for their infants and toddlers. Dr. Allison Kempe and her colleagues at the University of Colorado School of Medicine found that in a typical month, 93 percent of pediatricians and family physicians reported that some parents of children less than 2 years of age requested to spread out their vaccines. The findings, published in the April 2015 edition …
Read more…
Alternative vaccine schedules dilute the vaccine message
People like tests. You get numbers, and maybe a printout, and there’s science and blood and things just feels more … serious, when testing is done. You can picture Marcus Welby (or perhaps a more modern physician), looking solemn, declaring “We’d better run some tests.”
Are medical tests magical and mysterious, and can they unlock the secrets of life? Usually, no. And among the worst and most misunderstood tests we do are …
Read more…
Are we ordering too many food allergy tests?
“I want to hurt myself.”
That was the only thing written on an otherwise blank page. The other day, the mother of a bright second grader, showed me that alarming note. Apparently the boy wrote it at his school. She went on to tearfully explain that her child has constantly been bullied ever since joining the institution. Sadly, it is not uncommon to encounter such stories when your profession is …
Read more…
Solving bullying: We must begin with ourselves
I have now been a “Tweetiatrician” for six weeks. Yes, I am a relatively late adopter of new social media technology but it’s been quite an education. I signed up for Twitter after the measles outbreak in Disneyland to join in on Wendy Swanson’s #MeaslesTruth twitterstorm to encourage families to vaccinate their children.
Since that time, I have joined followed conferences from afar (which is really useful) and tweeted primarily about …
Read more…
What I learned from my first 6 weeks on Twitter
Alarming headlines, based on a recent study, declare that diagnosis with ADHD doubles the risk of early death. Psychiatrist Stephen Faraone, commenting on the original study published in the Lancet, concludes that: “for clinicians early diagnosis and treatment should become the rule rather than the exception.” This conclusion represents a false assumption that the deaths occurred in cases that were not treated.
The large cohort study in Denmark, that looked at records of …
Read more…
ADHD and early death: We often miss the story
When I was in kindergarten, my school bus used to drop me off at the hospital where my mother worked. My older sister and I would sit quietly in my mom’s office and do our homework while she finished up her work. Most of my friends would get stickers or McDonald’s for their good behavior, but if my sister and I were on our best behavior, my mom would reward …
Read more…
Why I started a cuddling program in the NICU
Thanks to the measles outbreak, the news is full of stories on vaccines and anti-vaxxers. The blogosphere and Twitterverse and all the other social media dimensions are buzzing with invective against ignorant unvaccinated savages and their backward science denial. For the record, I’m a pro-vaccine physician. My children have been and are vaccinated, despite being unsocialized homeschoolers.
I’ve had my own share of needles; Physicians are mandated to have hepatitis B, …
Read more…
The sense of superiority by those who are pro-vaccine
You’ve likely seen the Jimmy Kimmel “public service announcement” on vaccines. Over 3 1/2 million people have viewed it on Youtube so if you’re not yet one of them you’ll likely add to the tally now. The first 3 minutes of the monologue are spot-on, and they’re also very funny. Jimmy takes a stand against the “anti-vaxxers.” He mentions that some parents are more scared of “gluten than small pox” …
Read more…
Were the physicians on Jimmy Kimmel professional?
To the staff overseeing my medically-complex child,
My child has been in this world much longer than you expected; thus I’ve been in this relationship with you much longer than I expected. If I could break up with you and find someone new, believe me I would (I’m sure so would you some days). But that isn’t possible; we’re in a dysfunctional relationship. If we recognize this together and just come to an …
Read more…
A message to those taking care of my medically-complex child
Dear doctor no longer seeing vaccine-hesitant families,
I know that creating your “no tolerance” office-wide vaccine policy was not easy or came without soul-searching. I can only imagine the heated boardroom meetings and passionate arguments throughout the weeks the policy was being drafted. I trust it is because of your support and love for the families you currently care for that you felt the need to create the policy, and it …
Read more…
A letter to physicians refusing to see vaccine-hesitant families
Myth #1: Vaccines work by preventing disease in individuals who are vaccinated. Nope, that’s not actually true — it’s quite wrong, but in a subtle way. And a misunderstanding of this concept, I think, has led to a lot of mischief. If people understood how vaccines really work, how they can best protect us from disease, it might help overcome some skepticism.
Vaccines do indeed prevent diseases in individuals, but that’s …
Read more…
3 surprising vaccine myths
When my older children were in elementary school, I sent in cupcakes for their birthdays or for class parties.
My youngest is in elementary school now, and for his birthday, I sent in pencils and temporary tattoos for classmates — because the school doesn’t allow us to send in sweets anymore.
When the change was first made, my reaction was: For real? Banning …
Read more…
Cupcakes are being banned from school parties. And that’s not a bad idea.
One of the cornerstones of the practice of medicine is finding imperfection in things. When the doctor encounters the patient, the latter expects the former to find out what is “wrong.” In fact, I often see a patient and find nothing wrong, and when I voice this out loud the parents often ask, “Are you sure?”
I completed medical school over 7 and a half years ago. During that time I’ve …
Read more…
Don’t forget to seek out the beauty in your life
