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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 […]

A brave contingent of donors had their heads shaved to raise funds and awareness for childhood cancer at a recent Nemours-sponsored St. Baldrick’s Foundation event, held at Iron Hill Brewery on the Wilmington Riverfront. St. Baldrick’s supports the Nemours Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children by supplying all new patients and their families with a “day pack” filled with bilingual resource materials to help guide them through the overwhelming experience of a childhood cancer diagnosis. Among the “shavees” was Candice Morris, a home health nurse from Magnolia, Del., who was inspired by one of her young patients’ bravery in the face of cancer. About 30 minutes after Candice submitted to the razor, her mother and son went for it, too! Many thanks to the volunteer stylists from Currie of Wilmington, Iron Hill for providing a private room, and event organizers/Nemours oncology nurses Nicole Roselli and […]

What can inspire more than 100 people to gather at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children on a beautiful Saturday morning in June? “The opportunity to share common concerns [and] feelings with other families.” That was the overwhelming response from participants of the 3rd Annual Patient and Parent Mentoring Event, hosted by the Nemours Spine and Scoliosis Center. This event was open to families with children who have adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, the most common form. Three people out of 100 have scoliosis, a condition that causes the spine to curve from side to side, like an “S” or a “C.” For some, no treatment is necessary, just periodic monitoring of the curve by a doctor. For others, the curve of the spine is large enough that treatment is required, which can include bracing to halt or slow down the progression of the curve and/or surgery to correct the curve. The […]

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 […]

On the heels of the Childhood Cancer Action Days, May 16th and 17th in Washington, D.C., we thought this would be a great opportunity to share our pediatric cancer infographic from the Nemours Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. Learn More About… Nemours Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders Giving to Nemours