Pediatrics

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.

Why digital health tools need to be rated

Thomas Santo, MD

Health Technology

March 23, 2013

The digital health revolution is in full swing, and there are an abundance of new mobile and web-based digital health tools that address everything from nutrition and exercise habits to disease-specific conditions and hospitalization. Consumers have embraced the new trend, and are becoming more actively involved in tracking and managing their own health.

This is an incredibly important paradigm shift on the oft-ignored side of the health care equation: the patient. …

What doctors are supposed to do when your child has an earache

Claire McCarthy, MD

Conditions and Diseases

March 19, 2013

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Your child has an earache. You are worried it is an ear infection. You call the doctor and make an appointment. After all, he needs antibiotics, right?

Maybe not.

We have a real problem of antibiotic overuse in our country–and because we are overusing our antibiotics, many bacteria are getting smarter and stronger. Because ear infections is the diagnosis that kids in the United …

Media and our kids: Are pediatricians out of touch?

Claire McCarthy, MD

Physician

March 11, 2013

Recently I’ve been wondering if pediatricians are out of touch when it comes to media and kids.

Our messaging is pretty straightforward: turn it off. The recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics is that children under the age of 2 should not watch TV at all, and everyone else should watch no more than 2 hours a day. And when we talk …

The baby had a seizure: Why was the mother smiling?

BirdStrike, MD

Physician

March 1, 2013

My first night shift in a stretch of 7 was almost over. It was 6:15am and I had to keep moving otherwise the minute I would stop, my eyelids would drop like two ton shades and I’d fall asleep. That never makes for a good drive home after a night shift.

“Got time to see one more?” asked Jenny the nurse.

“Do I have …

Sending your child to the chiropractor: Be very careful

Roy Benaroch, MD

Physician

February 28, 2013

There are plenty of things we don’t know about health and illness. Sure, we know a lot more than we did fifty or a hundred years ago—but every day, still, I have questions that aren’t yet answered. I read a dozen or so journals each month. (I know. Nerd.) Each one has at least ten or so good quality studies—good, …

What doctors and Abraham Lincoln have in common

Christopher Johnson, MD

Physician

February 27, 2013

I have a colleague who has lost his capacity to continue practicing pediatric critical care medicine. It didn’t happen suddenly; it came on gradually over a year or so. It also didn’t follow from a single event or bad experience. It was just a creeping uneasiness that culminated in his unwillingness, after two decades, to go on doing this. Even though I’ve been practicing pediatric critical care for thirty years, …

The reality of illness at work and the reality of wellness at home

Miriam Stewart, MD

Physician

February 26, 2013

I was changing my daughter’s diaper the other night when I noticed some spots. There was a cluster of six or so around her belly button and a line of them tracing her bottom rib on the right. They were reddish-brownish-purple pinpoints and when I pressed on them, they did not blanch. She did not seem bothered by them at all. I, on the other hand, began to quietly freak …

Refuting RAND: Why I am optimistic about EHRs

Sally Ginsburg, MD

Health Technology

February 24, 2013

I recently read an article on the RAND Corporation’s analysis of electronic health records (EHRs). As a practicing pediatrician currently using EHRs, and given the reality that EHRs are still a relatively new addition to the U.S. medical profession and have created a fundamental shift to the care delivery process, I am compelled to respond to assertions made in this article.

The first RAND study, sponsored by a …

Raising a child alone in a culture of quick fixes

Claudia M. Gold, MD

Physician

February 22, 2013

Sam burst into the office, a two-year-old wild bundle of energy. Squealing with delight — or was it distress; it was hard to tell — he ran from toy to toy not looking at me or his mother, Jane. He was unable to engage with anything. Jane had brought him to see me in my pediatric practice because, “he hits me, has explosive tantrums, and I can’t take him anywhere.” …

Teaching children how to behave: 5 essential principles

Roy Benaroch, MD

Physician

February 19, 2013

Young children are naturally petulant, noisy, and self-centered. We’re all born with ourselves in the center of the universe, an impression reinforced by parents who must cater constantly to their young babies. But babies become toddlers, and toddlers become children. Sometime during this transition, parents have to teach their children that they are part of a family. For a family to function …

10 reasons why your kids are picky eaters

Lilli B. Link, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 10, 2013

If only it was as simple as looking into our old Magic 8 Balls® to find out if it is “very doubtful” or “decidedly so” that refusing to stop at the Good Humor® truck on the way home from school will be the right thing to do for our children. It is worries like this, along with the challenge of raising children …

The myth of the difficult patient: Blame the system instead

Heidi Roman, MD

Physician

February 1, 2013

As a pediatrician at a busy county clinic with close proximity to pediatric specialists, I care for a significant number of children with special health care needs. Instead of colds and ear infections (though there are those too), my days are often filled thinking about gastrostomy tubes, tracheostomies, and ventriculo-peritoneal shunts. I sign orders for specialty formulas and nebulizer machines. Many of my patients have thick charts and diagnoses like …

Vaccines: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it

Davis Liu, MD

Medications

January 29, 2013

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Most of us have not had personal experience with illnesses like measles, mumps, German measles, or polio. Thank goodness for that. It is because a generation ago individuals, families, and doctors choose a different path. They witnessed loved ones stricken with these diseases. When the opportunity arose to protect themselves from these …

A sexual predator at a daycare: Do your homework when choosing

Claire McCarthy, MD

Physician

January 23, 2013

Here in the Boston area, we’ve all been shaken by the news that a known sexual offender raped and molested children for years at a daycare just north of the city—even babies. It’s beyond horrible. For those with a child in daycare, this story is especially terrifying. You can’t help thinking: could this happen to my child?

Ultimately, the sad truth is that we can’t always stop these …

Hospitals must keep their doors open to all types of sick children

Jay Berry, MD, MPH

Physician

January 20, 2013

My first encounter with a children’s hospital was as a first grader in 1980, when my 5-year-old cousin was diagnosed with cancer. Although her family was challenged to afford her cancer treatments, St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis welcomed her and treated her cancer into remission. I remember my parents saying, “Everybody in that hospital loves children. No child is turned away.”

In 1997, walking into the Children’s Hospital of Alabama …

The link between early ear infections and inflammatory bowel disease

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions and Diseases

January 19, 2013

Add to the growing list of reasons antibiotics might not be good for you and your children: a recent study showing a statistical link between early ear infections and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Researchers in the UK analyzed data from about a million children, looking specifically at the 750 who developed IBD (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, mostly.) They then compared the kids with IBD to children without that …

Doctors should never treat their families: Easier said than done

Kate Land, MD

Physician

January 17, 2013

My favorite day of the year is December 26th. All work done, house a mess but, who cares – the kids are happy. No dinner to make. There’s enough left-over turkey for the apocalypse. I was sitting by the fire, new book in one hand, glass of Prosecco in the other. I never sit and haven’t read much this year so you’ll forgive me that I did not at first …

The problem of bouncy houses and the injuries they cause

Claire McCarthy, MD

Conditions and Diseases

January 16, 2013

For around four years in a row, starting around 1996, my husband and I rented one of those inflatable bouncy houses for my son’s birthday party every August. We invited a whole bunch of his friends and cousins to bounce in it for a few hours (and let them play in the sprinkler and fed them cake). Nobody got hurt.

Which, in retrospect, …

How to get your kids to listen to you

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions and Diseases

January 9, 2013

We pay a lot of attention to hearing. Newborns get their hearing tested in most states, and periodic hearing screening is part of regular checkups. We know which children cannot hear. So why is it that so many kids don’t listen?

When we’re raising little kids, we know that we’re supposed to talk all the time. We yammer on in the grocery …

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How to get your kids to listen to you