Archive for the 'illness' Category

My Head Hurts

Published on July 30, 2010 in Prevention, Uncategorized and illness. 1 Comment Tags: .

Children are no different than us grown-ups when it comes to getting headaches. By that I mean that some children get them often and it is nothing to worry about. Most of the time when I see a child for headaches in clinic, the parents underlying fear is that their child has a brain tumor so I put that on the table for discussion right away. I have seen children complain of headaches as early as they can verbalize and localize symptoms, but during the teen years, headaches are much more common.

The way I explain headaches in clinic is that it is often a spectrum with tension headaches on one end and a full blown migraine on the other. It is a continuum where sometimes you have more symptoms than others.

Headaches in general can be triggered by a variety of things including Continue reading ‘My Head Hurts’

Obesity and Gastric Reflux

Published on July 14, 2010 in Uncategorized and illness. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I came across an interesting article today regarding yet another health concern that today’s overweight children are facing, gastroesophogeal reflux disease or GERD. Most of us are aware of the more obvious health issues such as diabetes or high blood pressure, but as one would expect there are others as well. Let’s face it, being overweight as a child is associated with some serious health concerns that were once thought to be only adult related diseases.

GERD  is quite common in babies and typically goes away. The problem is that for older children, a recent study from Kaiser Permanente found that overweight children and teens were 30 percent more likely to have GERD than those at a normal weight. The problem with having GERD for many  years is that the constant reflux puts those at a higher risk of developing esophageal cancer. This is just another health issue that can have some more long term health implications as children get into adulthood.

The growing list of health related issues related obese children all the more illustrates the importance of helping overweight children lose it and the need to better educate families so that we can prevent obesity in the first place.

If your child is already overweight then it is time to take a serious look and make some changes. Part of it involves modeling good exercise and eating habits. Often this is much easier said than done but well worth the effort. Limiting screen time is a good place to start. a recent study published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that teens with more than 2 hours of screen time a day had twice the risk of higher insulin levels suggesting insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is associated with diabetes.

My Tummy Hurts

Published on June 8, 2010 in Prevention, Uncategorized and illness. 0 Comments Tags: , .

These last few weeks I have seen quite a few children with a stomach bug otherwise known as gastroenteritis. This may surprise many parents because one would think we are just getting out of cold and flu season and it should be smooth sailing form here, right? This is not the case.

Late spring and summer is a common time for some of the viruses that cause intestinal symptoms. The symptoms typically consist of vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, and sometimes rashes.

It is never fun to see your child throw up. I recall one such episode last year when my daughter proceeded to burst into our room at 2 a.m. to declare she just threw up. When I went to investigate, I quickly realized that she must have been running down the hallway with her mouth open as there was quite a bit of cleaning that needed to get done after we took care of her.

Gastroenteritis is generally self-limiting, meaning that it will go away on its own without treatment or medication, but the symptoms can range from a few days to longer sometimes, especially if we are talking about resolution of the diarrhea.  It is also very infectious, as most of the viral causes can live on surfaces for quite a long time. Good hygiene is critical.

Foodborne illnesses are a different entity that can cause similar symptoms. Most are also self-limiting. As a general rule with foodborne illnesses, many people tend to get sick in a very short time period after ingesting something. The symptoms are often quick to resolve as well.

The treatment for both tends to be supportive care, which means keeping your child hydrated. Us pediatricians always tend to recommend Pedialyte but it seems that many children just won’t drink it, so half strength Gatorade or other sports drink can serve as a substitute. Slow and steady is a good guiding principle as putting too much into the stomach at once can lead to not so pleasant results. As your child feels better it is reasonable to have them try to eat some solids.

Historically we use to recommend the BRAT diet to help with diarrhea (consisting of bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) but evidence based medicine does not support this as it is unnecessarily restrictive.

The new recommendation is for the child’s usual age appropriate diet realizing that giving lots of fruits or fruit juice may exacerbate the problem. Giving lactobacillus can also be helpful to help speed up the resolution of  diarrhea as this is the good bacteria that lives inside of our intestinal tract. By all means, if something does not seem right with your child or they are not urinating at a reasonable interval, something is wrong and they need to be seen.

What’s that noise?

Published on February 16, 2010 in Parenting and illness. 0 Comments Tags: , .

teddybearI thought I would share a recent event in our household.  Many would think that by me being a pediatrician, I can solve everything medical at home. Although it does have its perks, sometimes a problem arises that is bigger than one I can solve, at least at home that is.

Did you hear something?
About a week ago, my wife and I heard noise coming from our son’s room.  Since his sister had been sick with vomiting a few days earlier, I went upstairs assuming that was the case. What I found was a frightened child with a seal-like barking cough who was unable to breath comfortably from stridor.

Knowing he had croup, I  took him outside and attempted to calm him down in the cool nighttime air. I told my wife to hold him while I got the car keys to take him in to the urgent care. Fortunately when he calmed down, he quit blocking off his airway but we still made the journey to get some medicine to prevent him from getting worse.

This is certainly an example knowing what is going on but being unable to address the issue at home. There is something different when it involves your own child. It can skew your decision making process in a not so good way. I often get asked if I am the pediatrician for my own children and the answer is no. At home I want to be a dad.