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Make Food Your Strength, Not Your Weakness. As parents and caregivers, we want the very best for our children. But there is a rising number of children who are overweight or obese in North Carolina, and that number has been growing steadily since 2012. The latest data shows that 19.8% of youth ages 10 to […]
READ MORE »North Carolina is known for many things: basketball, bbq, great beaches, beautiful mountains, and, well, allergies. Historically, the treatment of choice for allergies was to take over-the-counter or prescription allergy medication. If you were particularly proactive, allergy shots were another option. But they are shots, and many kids were resistant – despite their parent’s good […]
READ MORE »We want our kids to be healthy and strong. However, some are prone to stomach issues. While almost every child will get a stomachache, constipation, or diarrhea, kids with irritable bowel syndrome, also known as IBS get it more often. What is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)? IBS is a digestive disorder that can happen in […]
READ MORE »When it comes to feeding your baby, it’s essential to make sure you’re giving them healthy food that will help them grow. Throughout recent years, we’ve learned that many leading brands of prepackaged baby food contain high levels of heavy metals—including arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury. This isn’t what you want for your baby. As […]
READ MORE »When babies are first born, it’s essential to perform various tests and procedural exams to ensure they are healthy. Many of these tests are intuitive, such as weighing and measuring your baby, checking their vital signs, and counting their fingers and toes. But some newborn procedures might seem less intuitive–like giving your baby a vitamin […]
READ MORE »It’s natural to want to have a healthy pregnancy. It’s National Birth Defects Awareness Month, a time when we work together to increase understanding and prevention of birth defects. This issue is an important one, as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 1 in every 33 babies in the United States is born […]
READ MORE »With the COVID pandemic so prevalent in our minds, it can be easy to forget about other commonly transmitted illnesses. Despite mask-wearing and hand-washing, there are still viruses out there that parents should be concerned about. The human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of those very common viruses that spread easily and can infect 80 percent […]
READ MORE »After two years of managing our lives around the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been easy to forget that other viruses like RSV and the flu can still get passed around. While social distancing and mask-wearing have decreased the transmission of these other viruses, we are now starting to see a resurgence as restrictions continue to […]
READ MORE »With the start of the New Year, U.S. regulators issued a new expansion of the Covid-19 vaccine to include a booster shot for children ages 12-15. This news comes amidst the current spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant, with approval from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) for an additional shot of the Pfizer vaccine. […]
READ MORE »The Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus is making many headlines these days and causing many parents to ask very valid questions. While the virus is new and not currently detected in North Carolina, we expect it is only a matter of time before it is here. So, families need to know how they can […]
READ MORE »When your child is sick, anxiety is usually a given. And depending on the severity of symptoms, time of day, and day of the week, parents often wonder if it is appropriate to take their child to urgent care or the pediatrician. The walk-in clinic model of urgent care centers can be an attractive option […]
READ MORE »COVID-19 vaccine approval for children ages 5-11 has been much anticipated. And now that it is here, parents are scrambling to get their children vaccinated. But some have very valid questions that we felt important to address. As of last week, there was approximately 107,000 new child COVID-19-19 cases reported. This number is up from […]
READ MORE »When COVID-19 entered our lives in March of 2020, it changed us forever. The stress and trauma from all that has happened over the past 19 months can have lasting effects on children and teens’ mental health. That’s why it is more important than ever to regularly check in with your child to see how […]
READ MORE »As you probably know by now, COVID-19 is a highly contagious respiratory illness that can cause severe illness and even death in children (and adults)…just like influenza (flu). And now that school is back in session and children are returning to some semblance of normalcy, it is critically important that parents and caregivers do everything […]
READ MORE »School is back in session, which means kids, both vaccinated and not are in close quarters. As one would expect, and quite frankly feared, COVID-19 cases have risen nearly 240% since July. Thankfully, despite the high number of COVID cases, children continue to make up a very small percentage (1.6% to 4%) of hospitalized patients. […]
READ MORE »We are all on heightened alert amid the outbreak of the delta variant of COVID-19. Cases are on the rise, and while those who have been vaccinated are less likely to result in severe illness and hospitalization, parents are more cautious – and wisely so—especially parents of children not yet able to receive the vaccine. […]
READ MORE »If you’re reading this, you are probably a new mom, expecting, or are just curious. Depending on where you are in this, you may have heard that breastfeeding is good for the baby. But breastfeeding isn’t just good for the infant; it is good for the mother too. In honor of National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, […]
READ MORE »Sickle cell disease is one of those unfortunate disorders that not only causes the potential for a variety of lifelong complications but which also disproportionately affects certain minority groups who live in the United States. And, while the signs and symptoms of the disease usually appear around 5 months of age, its treatment and management […]
READ MORE »Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, one of the few silver linings was news that children were less likely than adults to develop life-threatening complications from the virus. Yes, kids and teens could develop serious complications, and yes, we’re still learning about many of the long-term effects the virus can have on people’s health. But, the […]
READ MORE »Believe it or not, we’re already almost halfway through the summer. It won’t be long before parents of school-aged kids begin to prepare for the next year – hopefully a year of more traditional, in-person learning than we’ve seen during the COVID pandemic. It is getting close to the back-to-school season. There is a lot […]
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