Beneficial apps for parents and children. Navigating the new age of technology can be a daunting task, yet the increase of social media usage among young children means it is imperative for parents to monitor their child’s social media viewing and interactions. Children at younger and younger ages learn how to manipulate phones, laptops and TVs, but the content they are ... Continue Reading
Pediatric Cardiology Advances
As the largest pediatric cardiac program in the Southeast and one of the top five largest pediatric heart centers in the nation, the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Heart Center provides advanced, innovative care to infants, children and teens with a variety of heart conditions. Children’s Heart Center is the only pediatric cardiac program in Georgia that cares for all ... Continue Reading
Gun Violence, The #1 cause of Death in Children-It’s Entirely Preventable
By Kiesha Fraser Doh
How physicians can partner with the community to prevent pediatric firearm injuries. In 2021, there were 436 emergency department visits for unintentional shootings involving children and teens in Georgia1. In 2022 thus far, 24 children gained access to a gun and unintentionally shot themselves or someone else.2 The youngest child was two years old when she shot and killed ... Continue Reading
Why is Diagnosing So Hard?
The correct diagnosis is crucial. If we don’t get the right diagnosis, we can’t treat and cure our patients. However, getting to that correct diagnosis can be devilishly difficult. It is a constant struggle for us doctors and requires knowledge, patience, experience, persistence, the help of colleagues, and sometimes, a sixth sense (I call it the spidey-sense). To add to ... Continue Reading
The Surge in Adolescent Eating Disorders
By Laura Doerr, MD, MS, FAAP, and Anna B. Turner, MD, FAAP, FSAHM, CEDS-S
Atlanta is lucky to have many options for the care of adolescents and children with eating disorders. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite has a multidisciplinary team providing medical stabilization for the sickest eating disorder patients. In 2013 staff at Children’s and local affiliated providers developed a clinical algorithm for the emergency room and for ... Continue Reading
Youth Sports Medicine
Keeping kids safe and in the game Youth sports participation is at an all-time high in the United States. From Little League baseball to club soccer, kids are spending more and more time in organized sports. The athletes and their parents invest thousands of hours and dollars in competition, improving skills and hopefully having some fun. There are multiple health and ... Continue Reading
Depression and Anxiety in Teens
By Helen K. Kelley
Clinical depression and anxiety are on the rise among adolescents ages 12-17, as well as instances of self-harm. Here, we offer some insight into the importance of recognizing the signs of depression and anxiety in teens, which are often different from those of adults, as well as some of the differences in diagnosis and treatment. Diagnosing Anxiety and Depression in ... Continue Reading
Childhood Obesity
By Heather Phelps, DO
“One can of soda per day can result in 15 pounds of weight gain in one year,†I distinctly remember my attending saying when I was a pediatric resident. It was applicable then and even more so today as we struggle with a severe and worsening obesity problem among our nation’s children. We are all affected by obesity – either personally or professionally – so ... Continue Reading
Mindfulness and the Physician
By Jennifer Whaley, M.D.
“Mindfulness†seems to be everywhere in the news today. Books, videos, classes and websites are springing up to help us be more “mindful.†Everyone is talking about it, including your patients. But what is it? And how might it help you in your life and clinical practice? Most of the research into mindfulness has been a direct consequence of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s ... Continue Reading
Let’s Talk About Suicide
By Erin Harlow-Parker, APRN, PMHCNS-BC
After 30 years working in child and adolescent behavioral health, I have seen amazing advances in behavioral healthcare. We have identified genetic links to some mental health diagnoses; we have developed medications to better treat mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia; we have more available platforms to talk about mental illness and substance ... Continue Reading
Immunizations
By Helen K. Kelley While some diseases are becoming rare due to vaccinations, it is important to acknowledge that they haven't been completely eradicated. The viruses and bacteria that cause measles, mumps, chicken pox, flu, HPV and other illnesses still exist – and can easily be spread by people who have not been immunized. We recently spoke with two Atlanta-area ... Continue Reading
The Use of Dexmedetomidine in Pediatric Anesthesia
By Lydia Joseph, M.D. For many years, the sight of a screaming, crying child emerging from anesthesia was the hallmark of a successful anesthetic. A cranky child exhibited signs of a clear airway and adequate circulation, leading to discharge from the post anesthesia care unit. Pediatric post-surgical pain had been classically under appreciated and thus undertreated. Over ... Continue Reading
The Importance of Language Nutrition
By Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D., Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health
There is a profound predictor of health and wellbeing that can be determined by three years of age. That predictor is language. Babies need food to sustain them and help them grow healthy and strong. Similarly, language is nutrition for the brain. The brains of very young children, even before they are born, are stimulated by hearing words. Early childhood language exposure ... Continue Reading
Understanding Autism
Simplified diagnostic criteria and more awareness are helping both parents and doctors identify autism at an earlier age By Mark Moncino, M.D. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), previously termed autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and PDD-NOS, is a common, heterogeneous, treatable – and potentially curable – cause of developmental disability. ASD is a spectrum of ... Continue Reading
Pediatric Hospice: Working Aggressively for the Best Quality of Life for a Child
By Laura Waddle, M.D.
“We found a mass in her liver... it looks like metastatic cancer.†As a pediatric resident, I received this call one night from a radiologist regarding a two-year-old patient our team had admitted earlier that day with a limp and refusal to bear weight. It was her second trip to the emergency department in a few days. The first time the plain films of her hips and ... Continue Reading
