ARTICLES RELATED TO:
Safety & Prevention

The FDA has updated its guidelines for the use of two ingredients found in cough and pain medicines. These new warnings and contraindications target codeine and tramadol in children and teenagers. What are the ingredients? Codeine and tramadol are a type of narcotic medicine called an opioid. Providers may prescribe codeine to treat mild to moderate pain and to reduce coughing. Tramadol is a prescription medicine approved only for use in adults to treat pain. However, data show it is being used in children and adolescents, even though it is not approved for use in these patients. While these medications are effective, they carry serious health risks children younger than 12 years old. Risks include slowed or difficult breathing, and even death. What’s changing? The FDA will require warning labels on prescription drugs that contain codeine and tramadol, advising that children under 12 not take the drugs. The warning extends to women who […]

It seems like everyone has a story that involves a child, a small object, and an orifice: a bean in a nostril, a pebble in an ear—maybe even a swallowed Barbie shoe or penny. It’s no wonder these instances are so common. Kids are naturally curious, and their worlds contain so many things that fit just so in the body parts they’re learning to explore. So what do you do when your child becomes one of these stories? It all depends on two things: what’s the object, and which opening is it stuck in? First things first: If you know or suspect that your child has swallowed a button battery, get to the emergency department immediately. Swallowed batteries can cause esophageal perforation (a hole in the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach), and other life-threatening injuries—sometimes within hours. It’s also time to head to the ER […]

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 […]

As Halloween approaches, many families are preparing to have a safe trick-or-treating experience. For families dealing with food allergies, though, trick-or-treating can cause a great deal of anxiety. Until recently, food allergy has not been an issue that many families have experienced personally. Today, however, 1 in 13 families has a child with food allergies. For those children, eating the wrong treat can cause severe reactions, and in some cases a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis. As an allergist and parent of a 4-year-old with a peanut allergy, my wife and I have found ourselves fighting a constant battle to ensure that our son doesn’t come into contact with products that may contain peanuts while he’s at school or eating in public places. Halloween is especially challenging for us. We want our son to have fun and not feel different from his friends just because he can’t enjoy certain types of candy. […]

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 […]

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 […]