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Diabetes can be a confusing condition, even for the children, teenagers and families who live with it every day. Here, we separate some of the myths from the truths about type 1 diabetes and those who have it. Myth: Diabetes comes from eating too much sugar. Fact: The exact causes of diabetes – both type 1 and type 2 – aren’t known. What is clear is that type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which means it results when the body’s immune system destroys its own tissues. In this case, the immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells located in the pancreas. What prompts the immune system to target these cells is unknown, but age, genetics, environment, and other factors all play a part. Overall, to reduce your chances of getting diabetes, you should reduce your sugar intake, eat smarter and perhaps consider looking into unify health reviews and others similar to ensure […]

When Katy’s son’s second-grade teacher called the house one afternoon, neither of them knew they were discussing symptoms of type 1 diabetes. “The teacher contacted us because Brian was falling asleep after lunch. She was concerned that something was happening at home that was keeping him from sleeping.” A little worried, Katy took Brian to his pediatrician, who simply recommended that he get to bed earlier each night. “We started putting him to bed at 7:30 p.m., and he was still sleepy after lunch in school. It continued throughout the school year.” Katy, her son’s teacher, and the family pediatrician would later learn that Brian’s after-lunch fatigue was due to undiagnosed type 1 diabetes. “Over the summer, I noticed him drinking more and more. I eventually googled ‘excessive thirst’ and read about type 1 diabetes. The pediatrician had us come in for a urine test and sent us to the […]

The 2016 Rio Paralympics just came to a close, and the USA is celebrating its most successful Paralympic performance in recent history. A whopping 289 American Paralympic athletes brought home a total of 115 medals, and the USA finished fourth in the medal count. Independent of standings, results, and rankings, the Paralympics and Team USA never fail to remind us of what the body is truly capable of and what impossibilities the spirit can overcome. It’s this motivation and inspiration that was the driving force behind the creation of our Paralympic Boccia program in 2014, with Nemours becoming an official U.S. Paralympic Sports Club in 2015. What Is Boccia? Boccia is a game, similar to backyard Bocce, created especially for the Paralympics in 1984. The object of the game is to score points by propelling your team’s balls closest to the target ball on a long, narrow, indoor playing court. In Boccia, all […]

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 […]

This fall, young athletes will line up on soccer fields with new cleats, uniforms, teammates, and coaches. But for many, fall isn’t the beginning of a season — it’s merely the continuation of playing youth soccer year-round. The sports epidemic of specializing in one sport too early (under the age of 12), has been widely publicized. However, these days it’s more than likely that you and your young athlete spent most of your summer at travel soccer tournaments, team camps, and soccer preseason. I know, I’ve been there with you. I’m a mother of four boys and a travel youth soccer coach for my 10-year-old. And I very often grapple with my reality of raising a soccer family and my professional responsibility as a pediatric sports medicine physical therapist. When I integrate my current daily life with my former life, as a collegiate soccer player, I totally understand the perspective of the […]

For over 100 years, allergists have used a method called “immunotherapy” to safely and successfully treat environmental allergies. Unlike medications, which only treat the symptoms of allergic reactions, immunotherapy actually teaches the immune system to become more tolerant of allergens. For allergic nasal and eye symptoms, asthma, and atopic dermatitis (eczema), immunotherapy is very helpful in the form of allergy shots. An oral form of immunotherapy (“oral immunotherapy,” or “OIT”) is available for certain types of allergies, and has been shown to be effective as well. How Does Oral Immunotherapy Work? The goal of oral immunotherapy is to make the immune system less reactive to a food allergen by eating small, gradually increasing amounts of the food over time. Researchers have been working for decades on a way to apply immunotherapy to the treatment of food allergies, with mixed results. However, a recent study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical […]