When Your Child Really Needs an Antibiotic
Neither Mom nor I remember exactly what age I was when these fevers started, but we think it was first grade and that it happened about four or five times over a two-year period.
What You Need to Know about Preventing and Treating the Flu
In the winter of 2011, Sandra brought two of her four children to my private practice in Charlotte, North Carolina. It had been a difficult flu season for everyone in the family except her son Hasan, who hadn’t shown any signs of illness. Sandra’s daughter had tested positive for flu and after checking on her […]
Can you Stop a Child’s Recurring Ear Infections?
Ear infections are the bane of modern parenthood, and Americans spend $4 billion each year treating them. Yet, despite their prevalence, these common infections are poorly understood and often over-treated. During medical school and residency, I learned to treat ear infections with antibiotics but once I began practicing integrative medicine and incorporating nutritional recommendations into […]
Swimmer’s Ear: Reduce the Risk
Swimmer’s ear (medical term otitis externa) is very different from the run-of-the-mill inner ear infection (otitis media). Swimmer’s ear is an infection along the ear canal, when the ear canal remains moist (think swimming) and creates an ideal environment for bacteria to grow and create an infection. In North America, 98 percent of cases of […]
Chronic Constipation: Is it Something in the Diet?
Between 5-30% of children are constipated. Here’s how to address this condition
Inflammation and Recurrent Illness: A Parent’s Guide
Inflammation is an intricate, complex response by the whole body to what it perceives as a threat.
Recurrent Illness: Stress and Illness
When we adults live in a fight-or-flight state every day, this makes it more likely that our kids will also be in a fight-or-flight state, which can wreck havoc with their minds, bodies, and spirits.
Eczema: Much More than a Skin Condition
As an integrative pediatrician I have learned that eczema is a complex interplay between our genetics, immune system, skin integrity, and the microbiomes of the skin and the gut. Learning how to treat illness using the best of both conventional and integrative medicine has absolutely transformed the way I am able to help kids with eczema.
Reflux: Common, but Not Normal
In 2006, when I was a year out of residency, I prided myself on the fact that I could manage my pediatric patients’ symptoms—whatever they were—with medications. I did what I had been trained in medical school and wrote prescriptions for laxatives, antihistamines, antibiotics, antacids, and steroids (topical, inhaled, oral, or even sprayed into the […]
Your Easter Candy Strategy Session
As I sat down to write this blog, I could feel the collective motherly stress rising, knowing kids will soon face all the yummy, colorful, and sugary candy that accompanies most holidays, especially Easter. The parents who worry the most during the sugar holidays are the ones whose children turn into a different child when they get their hands on the candy.
