Children’s health

1,495 articles · Since 2011

Articles, page 67

What parents can do to support teen drivers

May 31, 2013May 31, 20134

I’m going to sound very middle-aged in this post. Whenever I talk about texting and driving I tend to show my age. I don’t know how it happened or when it was that I truly became a grown-up, but when…

Unfortunately, teens are particularly vulnerable in the car. Motor vehicle accidents are the number one killer of teens …

Conditions and diseases

Migraine is very much a childhood disorder

Roy Benaroch, MD

May 29, 2013May 29, 201321

“My wife gets migraines—really bad ones—and now my daughter seems to be getting them too. She’s only 7! Is she just copying what her mom does? Can a child really start getting migraines?” Oh, yes they can. Migraine is very…

“My wife gets migraines—really bad ones—and now my daughter seems to be getting them too. She’s only 7! Is she just copying what her mom does? Can a child really start getting migraines?”

Oh, yes they can. Migraine is very much a childhood disorder. About 5% of adults have migraines, and half of them started having their migraines as kids.

As in adults, migraines in children can be severe and debilitating. However, …

Physician voices

Inspired after seeing my 5-year-old patient

BirdStrike, MD

May 26, 2013May 26, 20136

Off I go to work a few shifts at a desperately understaffed rural hospital in a state far away. The rental car GPS leads me to the ED address and it’s not there. All that is there is what looks…

Off I go to work a few shifts at a desperately understaffed rural hospital in a state far away. The rental car GPS leads me to the ED address and it’s not there. All that is there is what looks like a small supermarket with a funeral home next door. I see a security guard in the parking lot. He has a lump in his cheek and a badge that says “Sam.” …

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Physician voices

Do Lego Friends promote stereotypic gender roles?

Natasha Burgert, MD

May 26, 2013May 26, 20136

She spends hours with them. Literally hours. And, apparently she is not alone. Lego Friends have captured the heart of my daughter, as well as thousands of other school-aged girls across the country. In fact, the Lego Friends series has…

She spends hours with them. Literally hours. And, apparently she is not alone.

Lego Friends have captured the heart of my daughter, as well as thousands of other school-aged girls across the country. In fact, the Lego Friends series has been a financial boom to the Lego corporation in just a few months.

The Friends series is essentially pastel colored building sets, ultimately creating items …

Conditions and diseases

There is little nutritional advantage to organic food

Natasha Burgert, MD

May 17, 2013May 17, 201358

In many of our local supermarkets, there is a section of organic produce in addition to produce that is traditionally farmed. For those of us selecting and preparing food for our families, we often wonder what items, if any, we…

When I shop, I typically choose traditionally farmed foods for my family’s meals. There are certain items …

Drugs and prescribing

We want teens to know about emergency contraception

Wendy Sue Swanson, MD

May 16, 2013May 16, 201314

The FDA announced recently that it is approving Plan B for all girls age 15 and up without a prescription. This is good news for girls in the US of A. The easier the access to contraception, the less likely…

The FDA announced recently that it is approving Plan B for all girls age 15 and up without a prescription.

This is good news for girls in the US of A. The easier the access to contraception, the less likely girls will have an unintended pregnancy.

As many as 80% of pregnancies in teen girls in the United States are unintended. Most pregnancies are …

Physician voices

Giving a gun as a gift: How young is too young?

Dominic A. Carone, PhD

May 12, 2013May 12, 201346

When I first heard of the tragic accidental shooting death of a 2-year old girl by her 5-year old brother, at first I thought it was because some adult left their gun out and was not supervising the children properly.…

Not too many things surprise me anymore, but this time I was surprised when I found out that poor supervision was only part of the issue and that the 5-year-old was …

Physician voices

Is this Fisher Price sleeper safe for infants?

Roy Benaroch, MD

May 12, 2013May 12, 20135

You might think a thing sold by a huge manufacturer of children’s toys and furniture as a “sleeper” would a safe, appropriate place for a baby to sleep. It is, after all, called a “sleeper.” But it is not a…

The Fisher Price Newborn Rock ‘n Play Sleeper is a sling-shaped baby holder sort of gizmo, …

Drugs and prescribing

Prescribing antibiotics: It’s time to draw a hard line

Wesley Nickens, MD

May 11, 2013May 11, 20139

This is a call to arms to my fellow providers to protect our patients from themselves and our willingness to comply with their requests. We live and practice in a society filled with fear of medications and their side effects. People will not take blood pressure, cholesterol, or diabetic medication because of the side effects they have heard or read about.

However, these same patients will take antibiotics every day of …

Conditions and diseases

How to know if your toddler has autism

Julie Kardos, MD & Naline Lai, MD

May 11, 2013May 11, 2013

About half of all children in the United States with an autistic spectrum disorder are diagnosed at age five or older, according to a May 2012 NCHS (National Center for Health Statistics) data brief. However, many parents are suspicious much sooner. As part of autism awareness month, we bring you clues into toddler development that can alert you to a potential issue.

Pediatricians often use a questionnaire called the M-CHAT (Modified …

Read more…

How to know if your toddler has autism

Medical education

My first day at the pediatric oncology clinic

Ashish C. Massey, PhD

May 2, 2013May 2, 20135

"Aren't those decorations looking nice?" asks a soft voice beside me. Startled, I turn to find a young woman wearing a red-and-white sari. Her head and face are swathed in the folds of the sari, leaving only the large red…

“Aren’t those decorations looking nice?” asks a soft voice beside me.

Startled, I turn to find a young woman wearing a red-and-white sari. Her head and face are swathed in the folds of the sari, leaving only the large red bindi on her forehead clearly visible.

We’re sitting on a grassy tuft amid a large campus green. All about us stand buildings with signs in both Hindi and English. Atop the central …

Physician voices

Why don’t our patients do what we tell them?

Jennifer Middleton, MD

April 29, 2013Apr 29, 201318

This question was what drove me to graduate school for an MPH degree a few years ago. I was finishing up my family medicine residency at, arguably, one of the top residency programs in the nation. I had been well trained in both medical science and doctor-patient relationship skills. Yet my patients still consistently did not adhere to my advice.

I was not disappointed in my MPH studies. It turns out …

Physician voices

Same-sex couples should be able to marry: Why the AAP got involved

Claire McCarthy, MD

April 29, 2013Apr 29, 201316

Having married parents is good for children. That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) thinks that same-sex couples should be able to marry. In a policy statement, that's exactly what they said. It's going to put the AAP in…

Having married parents is good for children. That’s why the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) thinks that same-sex couples should be able to marry.

In a policy statement, that’s exactly what they said. It’s going to put the AAP in the middle of controversy–but it was the right thing to do for children.

There are currently almost 2 million children being raised by gay and lesbian parents in the United States. And …

Conditions and diseases

The problem of teens texting throughout the night

Natasha Burgert, MD

April 28, 2013Apr 28, 2013

I visited with 5 charming teenagers last week. Four of them had something in common: These teenagers are texting in the middle of the night, nearly every night. Texting in the middle of the night is not a new phenomenon.…

I visited with 5 charming teenagers last week. Four of them had something in common: These teenagers are texting in the middle of the night, nearly every night.

Texting in the middle of the night is not a new phenomenon. Over 2 years ago, reports on teenagers texting at night began to surface. One study concluded the average teenager sends 34 texts after lights out. Simply based on the conversations I …

Drugs and prescribing

It’s time to put the vaccine-autism link behind us

Roy Benaroch, MD

April 27, 2013Apr 27, 201314

First, it was the MMR-autism link—that turned out to be a complete fabrication, a fraud invented by a single “researcher” who made up his data. He was taking money from plaintiff’s lawyers, and he was trying to patent his own,…

Then, the mercury connection. A mercury-containing preservative, thimerosal, …

Physician voices

How to know when to call the doctor

Claire McCarthy, MD

April 16, 2013Apr 16, 20132

Sometimes, when a parent tells me about something that happened with their child, I think (and say, as nicely as I can): Why didn't they call right away? And sometimes, when I'm talking to a parent or seeing their child…

Sometimes, when a parent tells me about something that happened with their child, I think (and say, as nicely as I can): Why didn’t they call right away?

And sometimes, when I’m talking to a parent or seeing their child in the office, I think (but don’t say): Why did they call about this?

It can be really hard to know when to call the doctor.

It’s hard because sometimes you plain old …

Read more…

How to know when to call the doctor

Physician voices

The rise of ultimatums in medicine: Do they work?

Katie Noorbakhsh, MD

April 15, 2013Apr 15, 201330

Has anyone else noticed the growing presence of ultimatums in medicine today? The New England Journal of Medicine published a discussion of the ethics of not hiring smokers. My hospital adopted this policy six months ago, and they are not…

Has anyone else noticed the growing presence of ultimatums in medicine today?

The New England Journal of Medicine published a discussion of the ethics of not hiring smokers. My hospital adopted this policy six months ago, and they are not alone. There is a tobacco blood test that new employees have to pass. If they fail, they can look for a job elsewhere. I do not know the exact details, but …

Physician voices

The co-location of mental health care services in pediatric practices

Claudia M. Gold, MD

April 7, 2013Apr 7, 2013

Patricia Wen's front page story, "Children's Access to Mental Health Care is Growing," in which she describes the "co-location" of mental health care services in pediatric practices, brought me back to the summer of 2011 when I attended a meeting…

Patricia Wen’s front page story, “Children’s Access to Mental Health Care is Growing,” in which she describes the “co-location” of mental health care services in pediatric practices, brought me back to the summer of 2011 when I attended a meeting of a working group of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of  Pediatrics (MCAAP.) The task of this working group, a subgroup of the MCAAP task force on …

Physician voices

Let us signal that we accept and support same-sex marriage

Stephanie D. Yoshimura

March 27, 2013Mar 27, 201314

I enthusiastically shared the news of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)’s same-sex marriage endorsement with my medical school classmates yesterday. I even publicly posted the AAP’s article – the sole public posting on my private Facebook page – because to me, the strong endorsement of equal rights by an organization of 60,000 pediatricians seemed enormously important for my colleagues and for our world.

I was disheartened to read the viral …

Health technology

Why digital health tools need to be rated

Thomas Santo, MD

March 23, 2013Mar 23, 20132

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,…

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

Children’s health

Articles, page 67

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