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  • Webinar on "Sudden Cardiac Arrest: what every parent should know" with Dr. Schwartz

    Sudden cardiac arrest. Those are three frightening words. And they are even scarier when they apply to children.

  • Healthy skin habits: Dr. Davis explains why it's important to teach kids at an early age

    With our recent cold snap finally over, summer and warmer temperatures are just around the corner. As we spend more time outdoors in short sleeves and shorts, we need to remember how important it is to protect our skin! Although everyone loves “a tan” for the summer, this is actually a sign of skin damage. Protecting our skin by using sunscreen and other forms of sun block is the first (and most important step) in keeping our skin healthy and preventing the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma. Did you know that most of our sun exposure and skin damage from the sun happens before the age of 18? Developing healthy skin habits as children and maintaining these habits through adulthood is essential to keeping our skin healthy over our lifetime!

    How does the sun damage our skin?

    The sun produces invisible ultraviolet (UV) rays as part of the light it radiates to earth. These are the rays that are damaging to our skin and eyes. There are three different kinds of UV rays:  UVA, UVB, and UVC rays. UVA rays are responsible for skin aging, wrinkling and causing melanoma. These rays make up the majority of our daily sun exposure. UVB rays are responsible for causing sunburns and cataracts of the eyes. They also contribute to melanoma as this form of skin cancer is most common in adults who had several severe sunburns as children. What is concerning about melanoma is that we are seeing it in an increasing number of young adults and even teenagers. Both UVA and UVB rays pass easily through the earth’s protective ozone layer. UVC rays on the other hand are thought to be the most dangerous types of UV rays but are blocked by the ozone layer and never reach the earth’s surface.

    What about melanin in our skin?

    Melanin is a chemical in the skin that absorbs UV rays and causes our skin to tan. Everyone has a different level of melanin in their skin. Fair-skinned people have less melanin while darker complexions have higher concentrations of melanin. A common misconception is that darker skinned people do not “burn” or get skin cancer. Regardless of the concentration of melanin in the skin, anyone can get a sunburn or develop melanoma. Any amount of tan is damage to the skin whether you are fair skinned or not.

    So how do we protect our skin from the sun?

    Kids can get a sunburn just from playing in the backyard on a sunny day- not just during a day at the beach!  First and most importantly, all children (and adults) 6 months and older should always wear an SPF 30 before going outside for any length of time. SPF stands for sun protection factor and the number indicates the amount of time you can spend in the sun before getting a sunburn. For example, if you start to burn in 10 minutes without sunscreen, applying SPF 30 will allow you to stay in the sun 30x longer before starting to burn (ie-300 minutes). Other ingredients such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide offer the greatest protection against the entire spectrum of UV rays. Sunscreen should be applied 15 minutes before going outside to allow for adequate absorption into the skin. For most kids, two ounces (a shot glass full) of lotion should be enough to cover the entire body. Spray-type sunscreen should still be rubbed in after applied to the skin to ensure there are no missed spots.  Don’t forget to apply to commonly neglected areas such as the scalp, lips, ears, back of neck, and tops of feet! Sunscreen should be reapplied every two hours while outside, especially if swimming or sweating.  Remember, there is no such thing as waterproof sunscreen! This means you may go through nearly an entire bottle of sunscreen during a full day at the beach. Children under 6 months of age have more delicate skin and underdeveloped levels of melanin. They should not have sunscreen applied to their skin at all. Keeping young babies out of the sun altogether is best. However, if this is not possible keep them completely covered up with clothing and under a covered stroller or tent while out in the sun.

  • Talking with your teen about obesity: it's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it

    In my years as a mental health counselor for Teen Xpress, I have worked with many teenagers that are battling weight problems. Obesity often leads to low self esteem, anger problems and depression. Often, we see obese teens that also have obese parents and other family members. Obesity can be caused by medical issues, but when it comes to teens, it is frequently due to unhealthy behaviors and coping skills. I have known many teens that report coping with feelings of sadness and loneliness by overeating. The overeating leads to weight gain, which leads to further feelings of isolation and depression. Teens quickly find themselves in a vicious cycle of unhealthy habits and emotional discord.

  • Do you know the difference between a cold and the flu?

    Have your kids been sick lately?

  • Get to know Dr. Jeffery Johnson, pediatric nephrologist at the Hewell Kids’ Kidney Center

    The Hewell Kids' Kidney Center at Arnold Palmer Hospital oftentimes becomes a home-away-from-home for many children needing outpatient dialysis treatment in Central Florida. The Hewell Kids' Kidney Center cares for children who have been diagnosed with with kidney-related disease such as end-stage kidney disease and obesity-related kidney disorders, as well as those who have undergone a kidney transplant. The team consists of several pediatric nephrologists, nurse practitioners, renal nurses, nutritionists, and social workers. The team recently welcomed it's newest member, Dr. Jeffery Johnson, pediatric nephrologist, in June of this year. Get to know Dr. Johnson in the Q & A below!

    Where did you grow up?

    I grew up all over since my dad was in the Air Force. We finally settled in Ohio when I was in high school and then I moved to California in my adult years. I had lived in Los Angeles, CA for the past 14 years before moving to Orlando.

    Where did you go to school?

    For my undergraduate I went to Washington University in St. Louis, MO and then attended Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH for medical school.

    What did you want to be when you were a little kid?

    I wanted to be a soccer player, even though I was horrible! I didn’t know I wanted to go into the field of medicine until halfway through college. I thought I wanted to do medical research, but after I started doing it I realized it wasn’t for me. With medicine, there is something new every day, which keeps me going.

    What was your first job?

    I worked in a games department at a local amusement park. It was a lot of fun. I worked there in high school and through my first year of college.

    What are your hobbies?

    I run a lot – almost every day. Today I’ll be running eight miles. I like to scuba dive and travel. Bali was probably my most favorite place I’ve traveled to so far.

    What is your favorite sports team?

    The Cincinnati Bengals even they break my heart every year!

    How did you get into pediatric nephrology?

    It was when I did a pediatric nephrology rotation as part of my medical training that I knew that was what I wanted to do – it was very interesting to me.

    How did you know you wanted to work with kids?

    It was probably after my second or third month of working in the adult emergency room that I felt called to work in pediatrics. My mom and sister are both elementary school teachers, so I’ve spent most of my life being around and working with kids.

    When did you start at Arnold Palmer Hospital and what is it like working at the Hewell Kids’ Kidney Center?

    I moved to Orlando for this job and have been here since June 2014. One of the things I love about working here is the team that I am a part of. Everyone is fun and easy to work with. We usually all eat lunch together. It’s like a family here, which is evident in how we care for our patients. We take a team approach in being able to provide comprehensive care to our patients, and everyone is usually on the same page as far as what the protocol should be and what the treatment plan should look like.

    What is it like working with the whole family and not just the patient?

    It’s a fine balance, because I always try to acknowledge and engage the child while also working with the parents and families. But it’s something that I really enjoy. It might not always be an easy day at work, but being able to care for kids and knowing that I am helping them is a great feeling.

    What is one piece of advice that you always communicate to families and patients?

    I think one of the most important things in our patient population is for them to be taking their medicine. In our transplant population, most of them are on an immunosuppressant, and if they don’t take their medication for a few days, they could end up losing their kidney or having recurrent kidney disease. It’s important for me that they understand the importance of taking their medicine and that the family ensures that they will follow through with the treatment plan at home.

    What would you say has been your greatest accomplishment?

    I would say it was when I took over the dialysis unit at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. I had to basically redo the unit and start over from scratch, building it from the ground up.

    What is one thing that patients and families wouldn’t otherwise know about you?

    I want families to know that I am honest with them, whether I have good or bad news to share. I would want my physician to be honest with me, so I try and do the same for our families.

    Click here to learn more about the Kids’ Kidney Center at Arnold Palmer Hospital

  • Cutting and self-injury: what to do if someone you know is hurting themselves

    “Is it weird that I cut myself on purpose?”

  • What you must do to prevent medication errors in your home

    Every 8 minutes, a child experiences a medication error.

  • Get to know Dr. Karen Bender, pediatric anesthesiologist at Arnold Palmer Hospital

    Knowing that your child needs surgery can be difficult for any parent. One of the most frightening aspects for parents is knowing that your child will be under anesthesia. How will my child respond to the anesthesia? Will he or she recover well? Will you keep my child safe? These are just a few of the many questions that parents have as they prepare their child for surgery.

  • Webinar with Dr. Mehta and Nneka Ricketts-Cameron from the Center for Digestive Health & Nutrition

    Do you have Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis?

  • Dr. Judith Simms-Cendan disproves common myths about the use of birth control pills

    As an adolescent gynecologist, I prescribe birth control pills (BCPs) for a variety of reasons often unrelated to sexual activity, such as treatment of irregular, heavy or painful menses. I try to be very diligent about counseling about possible side effects such as headaches and nausea, or breakthrough bleeding, especially if they are not taken correctly. Also, some patients have real medical reasons why they should not take BCPs, usually because they have a reason why they cannot take estrogen. I routinely discuss the risks and benefits of taking any medication with my patients, but there is probably no medication that is surrounded by as many pre-conceived ideas as the birth control pill. In this blog, I’m going to address two of the most common fears of taking BCPs, and the good evidence that we have after 50 years of their use. Right up front, you should know that I receive no money, lunches, pens or any other form of incentive from any pharmaceutical company, and I am not invested in any pharmaceutical company, so there is no conflict of interest here.

    Myth 1: I have a high risk of a blood clot if I take birth control pills.

    For years we have known that taking BCPs increases the risk of blood clots, but that increase is relatively very small. To have a better understanding, it is important to understand our risks from other activities; for example 1 in 5,000 of us will die from a car accident each year. In the United States the risk of dying in pregnancy is 1 in 8,700 pregnant women each year. Meanwhile the risk of death from BCPs in a non-smoker under the age of 35 is 1 in 1,667,000 (ibuprofen, acetaminophen are much riskier).