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There are steps you can take to avoid the flu coming into your house. While there’s no guaranteed way — including being vaccinated — to have 100% protection from the flu, there are things you and your family can do to make spreading the flu less likely: Wash your hands well and often with soap, especially after using the bathroom, after coughing or sneezing, and before eating or preparing food. Never pick up used tissues. Don’t share cups and eating utensils. Stay home from work or school when you’re sick with the flu. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then put it in the trash. If a tissue isn’t available, cough or sneeze into your upper arm, not into your hands. But what if your child does catch the flu? When should you switch from R&R to the ER? Nemours pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Chris Makris, […]

Contributed by Darcy Galnor, whose daughter is a patient of Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, Jacksonville. The morning our daughter was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease started like any other. We woke up as just a regular young(ish) couple with two kids, jobs and life’s typical stressors. (I guess maybe not entirely typical, unless taking our 5-year-old daughter for a colonoscopy is considered an everyday event). We’d been chasing the cause of her diarrhea for months, maybe even years. Dairy? Nope. Gluten? Nope. Strawberries (her favorite food)? Nope. As we sat in the waiting room, anxiously watching for the doctor to tell us the results, we attempted to distract ourselves with work. Both of us had tablets rested on our thighs, cell phones on the arms of our chaisr. My husband downing coffee. Me biting my nails. Then, the doctor appeared. “She has inflammation throughout most of her GI tract. We’ll wait […]

When one-year-old Piper’s body began to swell one afternoon, her parents thought she was having an allergic reaction. They had no idea that they were about to embark on a journey of rare illness, complex treatments, and advocacy for children’s health. Piper’s parents, Erin and Chris Lee, took their daughter to her pediatrician, expecting a quick diagnosis and an easy solution. But Piper wasn’t allergic to anything. Instead, they learned her kidneys were failing; Piper would have to be admitted to Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children immediately. There, pediatric nephrologists proposed genetic testing for Piper. That’s because, although it was clear that Piper’s kidney function was declining, the cause of her decline wasn’t so obvious. In order to proceed with the best treatment for Piper, her doctors needed to know just what kind of kidney disease they were dealing with. They needed the help of precision medicine, a newer […]

When Jill’s third child, Emmy, was born with a hole in her heart, Jill wasn’t too worried. Her two older sons also had the condition—called Atrial Septal Defect (ASD)—and theirs had cleared up over time. In children with ASD, blood recirculates inside the heart, and doesn’t reach the rest of the body as well as it should. Dr. Mary Mehta, Pediatric Cardiologist at Nemours Children’s Specialty Care, Pensacola, worked with the family to track Emmy’s condition. It didn’t improve, and it soon became clear that Emmy would need complex and invasive surgery to repair the hole in her heart. When Emmy was just three years old, the right side of her heart began to enlarge, presenting more risks: asthma-like symptoms and other coronary issues.  It was time to prepare for open heart surgery. Emmy’s family met with Dr. Peter Wearden, Cardiothoracic Surgeon at the Nemours Cardiac Center at Nemours Children’s Hospital […]

For the past year, Dr. Peter Gabos, pediatric spine surgeon at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., has been traveling to Belize City, Belize, with Spine Overseas. This nonprofit organization brings together healthcare, education, and technology in order to provide contemporary spine surgery and care in places where this care doesn’t currently exist. Through the generous support of multiple medical device and equipment companies, Spine Overseas has been able to bring state-of-the-art technology to Central America. “I joined Spine Overseas when adult spine surgeon [and Spine Overseas cofounder] Dr. John Williams told me they needed a pediatric surgeon to help kids with severe spinal deformities in Belize City,” says Dr. Gabos. “When I read their mission statement, I jumped at the opportunity.” Meeting a Friend for Life One child Dr. Gabos recently helped is 8-year-old Alex, who was previously diagnosed with asthma due to significant difficulty breathing. But […]

Did you know that every three seconds, someone in the United States needs a blood donation? Even though nine out of 10 people will need blood products in their lifetime, less than 10 percent of the eligible population opts to donate blood. The thing is, regular blood donations by healthy people ensure that safe blood will be available whenever and wherever it’s needed — for children and adults alike. And there’s a constant need for blood supply because blood can only be stored for a limited time before use. How Does It Help? A decision to donate your blood can save a life — or even several lives — if blood is separated into its components (red blood cells, platelets, and plasma), which can be used individually for patients with specific conditions. Red Blood Cells Red blood cells, made in bone marrow, contain hemoglobin and carry oxygen to the body. So who […]