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  • What you need to know about your crying baby

    All new parents expect a wonderful, smiling, responsive baby. Being confronted with a screaming, inconsolable baby, who appears to be crying for no reason and does not respond to your attempts to stop the crying, is one of the most disappointing and frustrating experiences of a new parent.

  • You can help make miracles happen, too

    A few months ago, I had the privilege of attending a Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ ceremony honoring children who have suffered illness or injury. During this exuberant celebration, children of all shapes, sizes, and abilities danced down the aisle with their favorite Disney characters to celebrate. Their smiles simply radiated joy. As I grinned and clapped along with them, though, I couldn’t help but think about the life and death struggles that many of these children have faced. With their bald heads from chemotherapy, their scars a reminder of past surgeries, or their IV medications disguised in a Mickey Mouse backpack, the battle was evident. And yet, they kept smiling.

  • For Down Syndrome Awareness Month, help us beat the myths and prejudice

    In honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month, please welcome our guest contributor, Eliana Tardio. Eliana is the mother of two children with Down syndrome. Her advocacy work has been nationally and internationally highlighted. She works as a Family Specialist for the Early Steps program of the State of Florida, and she spreads the word about the benefits of inclusion in several well-known web platforms in both English and Spanish. This article is part of her October Awareness carnival for Down syndrome featured on her personal blog www.elianatardio.com.

  • It’s flu season! Here’s what you need to know.

    This post was written by Dr. Tom Ruffin, pedatric resident at Arnold Palmer Hospital

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

    Every 8 minutes, a child experiences a medication error.

  • My journey through postpartum depression: Jenn's story

    Written by Jenn Stagg

  • What is a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM)?

    If you’ve ever felt a little confused about what exactly midwives do, or how they’re different than other healthcare professionals, don’t worry! Between physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and certified nurse-midwives, there’s a lot to keep straight.

  • 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).

  • Is CrossFit safe when you’re pregnant?

    Over the past several years, ultra-intense exercise programs have become increasingly popular. From P90X to INSANITY to High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), it seems there’s no shortage of fitness gurus promoting the benefits of fast, high-intensity workouts designed to push your body to the limit.  Arguably, one program stands out among the rest as the most popular and most intense of the bunch: CrossFit. Once an underground fitness movement mostly practiced by elite military units and die-hard fitness fanatics, CrossFit is now a mainstream phenomenon that’s attracted hundreds of thousands of followers, from Hollywood A-listers to everyday working professionals. Increasingly, CrossFit has also become a trendy way for expecting women to stay in shape during their pregnancies. Unsurprisingly, it’s led many people to wonder if CrossFit and programs like it are safe for moms-to-be.

  • Does your child have abdominal pain?

    As a young child growing up just outside of New York City, I complained of stomachaches every Wednesday afternoon before going to ballet class. I vividly remember those days. Initially, my mother was very concerned because I had repeatedly begged to enroll in ballet school and was clearly very excited about the opportunity. Little did I realize what I was getting into! This particular Manhattan-based ballet school was bent on creating professional ballerinas. As a shy, cherubic, roly-poly newbie to the dance scene, I was not prepared for the intensity of the class. My mother quickly picked up on the pattern and realized that I was having a physical reaction to the stress from the rigorous dance class. Fast forward many, many years later, and here I am, a pediatric gastroenterologist, taking care of hundreds of children each year with chronic abdominal pain.