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Common Illnesses

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

As your kiddo’s sniffling and sneezing like crazy, it can be hard to decipher whether it’s just a common cold (or other upper respiratory virus) that will soon pass, or if it’s the product of seasonal allergies (sometimes called “hay fever” or “seasonal allergic rhinitis”) that may need treatment. Seasonal allergies can start at almost any time (although kids usually develop them by 10 years old and experience the worst symptoms in their early 20s, with symptoms often going away later in adulthood). But even kids who’ve never had seasonal allergies before can suddenly develop them out of the blue. So here are some clues to help you and your child’s doctor figure out what’s going on. The symptoms Symptoms for both allergies and the common cold can include a runny or stuffy nose, sneezing, fatigue and coughing, so it’s easy to confuse the two. In addition to those other […]

For most parents and kids, spring means sunny warm weather, outdoor sports and more outside playtime. For many others, spring also means more asthma flare-ups – more time outside means more exposure to asthma triggers, and more sports means more exercise-induced asthma. Although childhood asthma is common, many people really don’t know much about it. So we thought we’d answer some common questions about what asthma is and how it’s treated. 1. What is asthma, exactly? Asthma is a chronic disease that affects the airways in the lungs, called “breathing tubes” (or “bronchial tubes”). It’s actually the most common long-term childhood disease – the No. 1 reason kids chronically miss school. And flare-ups are the most common cause of pediatric emergency department visits due to a chronic illness. Those affected by asthma typically have swollen airways (which means that they swell and produce lots of thick mucus) most of the […]