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Common Illnesses

The Flu–When to Go From R&R to the ER

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, […]

Cold & Flu Season – Does Your Child Need Antibiotics? , Powered by Nemours Children's Health System

Cold & Flu Season – Does Your Child Need Antibiotics?

It’s that time of year – your kids come home from school or their extra-curricular activities and show signs or complain of a sore throat, cough, and/or a runny nose. Are antibiotics in order? The answer may surprise you! Viruses vs. Bacterial Infections To best understand whether your child needs antibiotics, it’s helpful to know the difference between viruses and bacteria, which are the two major types of germs that cause sickness. Although certain bacteria and viruses cause diseases with similar symptoms, the ways these two organisms multiply and spread illness are different. Antibiotics fight bacteria, not viruses. Bacteria are living organisms that exist as single cells. They can live in all types of environments, from extreme cold to extreme heat. They’re everywhere and most don’t cause any harm. In some cases they may actually be helpful, like when they live in your intestines and help digest food. The bacteria that are […]

Vaccines: It Doesn't Have to Hurt, Powered by Nemours Children's Health System

Vaccines: It Doesn’t Have to Hurt

Back-to-school is approaching fast. If you’re like many parents, that means back-to-school physicals and possibly vaccines or blood draws for your kids too. For some families, this topic makes kids and parents alike cringe. We know the critical importance of vaccinations, but it doesn’t make it easier on a child who is frightened of needles, or on parents as they watch their kids squirm, scream, and cry in anticipation of the shot or needle. Thankfully, research doesn’t stop at the safety and efficacy of vaccines. Dr. Christine Chambers and Anna Taddio are well-known pediatric psychologists who study pain and have worked to get the message out publicly that pain management in kids is important and accessible, especially in the case of vaccine! The campaign, “It Doesn’t Have to Hurt” is an excellent resource for parents. Currently, fewer than 5% of kids receive any pain management during vaccines. It’s reassuring to […]

Asthma Flare-Ups and Kids: What They Are, What You Can Do, Powered by Nemours Children's Health System

Asthma Flare-Up and Kids: What They Are, What You Can Do

A recent survey by Nemours Children’s Health System, the Delaware Survey of Children’s Health (DSCH), showed that parents of 88 percent of children with asthma were educated by health professionals on how to recognize early signs or symptoms of asthma episodes in their child. Understanding what an asthma flare-up is and how to recognize the early signs or symptoms are key steps in improving the health of your child. Increasing the percentage of parents who are taught how to recognize their child’s early signs or symptoms of an asthma flare-up (also called an asthma attack) can help reduce the number of asthma-related hospital visits and improve the overall health of their child. What is an Asthma Flare-Up? During an asthma flare-up, the breathing tubes (also called bronchial tubes) in the lungs constrict — like a straw being squeezed — which triggers wheezing, coughing and tightness in the chest. Some kids […]

Is It an Emergency or Just Urgent? by Kate Cronan, MD | Promise, Powered by Nemours Children's Health System

Is It an Emergency or Just Urgent?

It’s a Saturday afternoon, and you’ve just watched your 8-year-old take a terrifying flip over the handlebars of his bicycle. Or, it’s dinner time on a Tuesday night, and your 2-year-old has put his peas into his nose — instead of his mouth — and now they’re stuck. Should you call your child’s regular doctor? Should you pack up and head to the Emergency Department, or seek out your nearest urgent care center? It can be a tough decision, and it doesn’t help when you’re tired, stressed, and concerned for your child’s health. In some cases, you’ll know instantly if your child requires immediate medical attention. But in other cases, it might be hard to determine whether an injury or illness needs the attention of a medical professional or can be treated at home. The first call can always be to your child’s primary care physician. Your doctor — or […]

Vaccines Are Safe and Effective: One Pediatrician's Plea, by Michelle Karten, MD, Powered by Nemours Children's Health System

Vaccines Are Safe and Effective: One Pediatrician’s Plea

We live in a time of information overload. It’s impossible to open your computer or reach for your phone and not be surrounded by mountains of information. And with so much at our fingertips, it can be hard to know what is true and what is false. I understand the confusion that so many conflicting accounts can cause because I see it every day. But as a mother of two children I cherish, and as a pediatrician and champion of wellness, there is one thing that does not confuse me — the fact that vaccines are safe and save lives. When my first child was born, I cradled her in my arms and vowed to keep her safe. Since that time, I have worked hard to sustain her mind, body, and spirit with healthy habits. I’m fortunate to be a pediatrician who reads avidly, and is able to make sense […]

6 Common Pneumonia Questions Answered, by Kate Cronan, MD, Powered by Nemours Children's Health System

6 Common Pneumonia Questions Answered

Pneumonia is a very common illness in kids. In fact, an estimated 156 million cases of pneumonia are diagnosed worldwide each year — and that’s just in children younger than 5 years old, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). So here’s what you need to know about this infection that’s all too common around this time of year. 1. What is pneumonia, anyway? Simply put, pneumonia is an infection of the lungs. It causes fever, coughing and sometimes trouble breathing. The good news is that most kids with pneumonia can be treated at home, and they usually get better in 1 to 2 weeks. However, in some cases, babies and children with certain other medical problems can get sicker and may need to be admitted to a hospital while they get better. 2. Is there a pneumonia “season?” Your child may be more likely to get pneumonia after having a […]

Grape Juice to Treat Stomach Flu? by Jordan Smallwood, MD. Promise: Powered by Nemours Children's Health System

Grape Juice to Treat Stomach Flu? Not So Fast.

For generations, parents and families have relied on home cures for everything from colds to tummy aches and sleepless nights. Chicken soup, popsicles and warm milk have proven themselves over decades of use, and now they have company — grape juice. At least, that’s what the internet says. In recent months, tales of grape juice curing stomach flu have cropped up on parenting blogs all over the web. Here’s the idea: If you find yourself (or one of your family members) exposed to the stomach flu, but haven’t experienced symptoms yet, downing three glasses of grape juice will ward off the illness. Multiple sites claim that the grape juice can change the pH in the stomach, making it uninhabitable to stomach viruses. They also claim that the skins of the grapes have anti-viral properties. Is it true? Can grape juice really stop puke in its tracks? Is this the fix […]

Whooping Cough (Pertussis): 10 Things You Need to Know, by Kate Cronan, MD, Promise, Powered by Nemours Children's Health System

Whooping Cough (Pertussis): 10 Things You Need to Know

Around this time of year, there’s coughing practically around every corner. Kids are hacking away at the table next to you in restaurants. Fellow shoppers are barking down the grocery aisles. Most coughs are short-lived and more of a nuisance than anything. Others linger much longer and can be downright exhausting. One type of cough that can be especially concerning for parents is caused by pertussis (also called “whooping cough”). You probably already know that pertussis is a highly contagious bacterial infection of the airways. It spreads like other upper respiratory infections when an infected person coughs or sneezes. But here are 10 important pertussis tidbits you may not know that just might help you and your loved ones be better protected this season. 1. Whooping cough has been making a dangerous comeback in the past decade. In the United States, pertussis used to kill about 9,000 people each year, […]

Mom feeling forehead of daughter with fever

The Top 5 Facts About Fever

As a pediatrician, I know that parents’ panic can set in pretty quickly when it comes to a fever — especially if they have a baby or toddler. Even the calmest of moms and dads can find themselves frantically debating at 1 a.m. whether to give their child medicine and go back to bed, or to call the doctor despite the time. As strange as it may seem, fevers are a good thing. They’re the body’s way of fighting off infections. Often times, a fever left to do its job will go away on its own within a few days. However, it’s still completely normal to be worried when your little one’s temperature starts to climb. To help reduce your worry and prepare you for what to do next time the thermometer reading begins to rise, know these top five facts about fevers. 1. A fever in babies under 3 […]

Girl receiving vaccines

Give Vaccines a Well-Deserved Shot: Immunization FAQs

Vaccines don’t just protect your kids from illnesses — they protect them from passing the germs on to high-risk populations, like the elderly, babies who are too young to get immunized, kids still in need of their booster shots, children whose immune systems aren’t working well (like those with cancer). As a parent, vaccinating your kids is the safest option for them, your family, and your community. How do vaccines work? Getting vaccinated is a way of creating immunity to certain diseases by using small amounts of killed or weakened bacteria (such as pneumococcus) or viruses (like measles) that cause the particular disease. Vaccines cause the immune system to react as if there were a real infection — it fends off the “infection” and remembers the organism so that it can fight it quickly should it enter the body later. What is community immunity? Community immunity, or “herd immunity,” is when […]

Boy getting shot because FluMist not available this year

No More FluMist: Now What?

The flu is usually far from our minds in summertime, but an announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about the nasal spray vaccine FluMist has put influenza back at the forefront. Come this fall, the FluMist nasal spray won’t be offered to anyone — flu shots will be the only option available for the young and old. If you have kids who panic at the mere mention of a needle, here’s what you need to know. The Lowdown on the FluMist News Recently, a CDC committee made up of a panel of immunization experts announced that they were no longer recommending FluMist for the upcoming 2016-2017 flu season. The FluMist nasal spray is the only flu vaccine that comes in a form other than an injection (shot). You may have heard FluMist referred to by the more formal name “live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV).” So why […]

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