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  • How I’m teaching my child to treat others with special needs

    I was with my two kids recently at an indoor play place when a teaching moment happened upon us. We saw a little boy there with his mom, and he was sitting in a wheelchair. My 4-year-old looked at him curiously and then asked (in a rather loud voice), “Mom, why is he sitting in that chair instead of walking?”

  • Are we parenting from the rear view mirror?

    Over the past couple of weeks, the back-to-school rush has been in full swing. New schools, new milestones, new sports activities- it’s the beginning of lots of new things for our kiddos and for us as parents. My Facebook feed has been filled with first-day-of-school photos displayed by proud parents (me included). But, along with those proud and joyful moments, there’s often a hint of bittersweet regret. Our kids are growing up too fast. Where did the time go? They aren’t babies anymore. I hear and see those phrases a lot.

  • What we do now may affect our future children’s genetics

    We are all aware that mothers who smoke while they are pregnant run a higher risk of having children who are premature, smaller than they should be, or stillborn. This is likely due to reduced oxygen supply to the baby through mom’s diseased body and to toxins shared by mom with baby. We also know that children who are exposed to second-hand smoke have a higher risk of developing respiratory diseases like asthma, chronic lung disease and even cancer due to direct lung damage from inhaled smoke.

    What you do with your body early in life can affect future generations

    But recent data suggests that a father’s behavior even years prior to conception may affect the health of his children and future generations. For example, early paternal smoking has been associated with increased body mass in children. Paternal alcoholism has been associated with smaller birth weights in babies, and hyperactivity in children. Most recently, smoking even early in life has been found to be associated with an increased risk of certain forms of asthma in a man’s children. A study which was recently presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress looked at 13,000 men and women and found that non-allergic asthma was significantly more common in children whose fathers smoked before the age of 15. In addition, the longer the father smoked, the higher the risk of his child having this kind of asthma. Interestingly, the same link was not found in children whose mothers smoked before they conceived.

  • Get to know Dr. Pinnelas, a pediatric hospitalist

    Over 20 years ago, I began my career in Orlando as a private pediatrician. I was very happy as an office-based pediatrician, and I never dreamed I would have changed my career path. I always enjoyed making hospital rounds before going back to the office for the rest of the day. I also had an opportunity to teach students and residents at the hospital which was intensely rewarding. The hospital approached me over 14 years ago and asked if I would be willing to start something “new” which was to create the Pediatric Hospitalist Service at Arnold Palmer Hospital. Becoming a pediatric hospitalist was a very new specialty in the United States. It had just started to gain some traction in the adult patient population but was rare in pediatrics. I was game, so with my best friend and mentor, Matthew Seibel and two of the best nurses on planet earth, we founded this new venture.

    So what is a pediatric hospitalist?

    A pediatric hospitalist is a physician who only cares for patients in the hospital; most don’t have an outpatient practice. The concept of a pediatric hospitalist makes so much sense for so many reasons and here are just a few.

  • Preschoolers aren’t getting enough active play time

    A new study tells us that preschool-aged children aren’t getting enough active play time at their childcare facility.

  • Some advice to my younger self about being a new mother

    My husband and I are having another baby- a little boy- due in February. Our firstborn son is 10 years old, so our boys will be a decade apart. I often think about going through this for a second time, 10 years older than before. Knowing what I know now, I wish I could tell my younger self a few things.

  • Institutional Review Board (IRB)

    The IRB is an administrative body established to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of the institution with which it is affiliated.

  • Our History

    Sometimes taking the first step to achieve great things starts with a single conversation. That was the case in the late 1970s when three men — Andrew Townes Jr., MD; Ben Guedes, MD; and Colin Condron, MD — began talking about their desire to revolutionize specialty care. They believed they could achieve that goal by opening the only healthcare facility dedicated to women and children in the Southeast.

  • Symptoms

  • Grace George, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC

    Grace George, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, is a pediatric cardiac nurse practitioner with Orlando Health Children's Heart Institute. With a focus on arrythmia, she specializes in electrophysiology or diagnosing and treating the electrical activities of the heart.