The American Academy of Pediatrics recently doubled their recommended daily amount of vitamin D for our kids – and many kids weren’t getting enough even before this change. The more closely we look at vitamin D, the more we learn about how important...
We love to spend the holidays together, but this year we'll be a little scattered. On Thanksgiving Day I'll be curled up in a quiet house with a draft of my upcoming book and a steaming bowl of organic jambalaya. Cheryl will drive in from her...
What should we do? Since 2002, chronic prescription medication use in children 5 to 19 years old has skyrocketed, according to a study in the November 2008 Pediatrics. Leading the way, prescriptions for type 2 diabetes in kids have more than doubled...
I have wonderful news about toys!
The exciting, groundbreaking CPSC reform act, overwhelmingly approved by both the Senate and the House this summer, starts the countdown toward safer toys for your children. This act bans lead and toxic phthalates...
With all of the news about finding lead in toys, one possible lead source that hasn't gotten much attention is the lead found in strands of holiday lights. Throughout the year, many of us keep our festive lights in a box, waiting for the holiday...
Most parents of multiples agree that each year with twins become exponentially easier. I can personally attest to that fact now that my twins are two years old.
I once met a mother of twins who was an anomaly. She told me that things only get harder...
There’s no question about it—caring for twins is hard work. In addition to the physical demands, there are unique challenges that you simply don’t encounter with singletons, like how to identify similar-looking twins, how to feed...
Faith and Hope were born at 33 weeks and both initially required care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Ironically Hope, the smaller twin that we worried about throughout the pregnancy, turned out to have no major problems. She stayed in...
No two pregnancies are alike. This is especially true for pregnancy with twins.
During my pregnancy with Faith and Hope, I experienced a number of pregnancy complications. I had vaginal bleeding and pregnancy-associated diabetes. In my third...
Throughout history, twins have always attracted a certain degree of attention and curiosity. Recently, high profile Hollywood mothers of multiples, like Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lopez, have catapulted public interest in twins to a whole new level.
In a perfect world, we'd all have time to grow our own organic vegetable garden. But if you're like me, and you've got picky eaters, no time and a limited budget, here are a few suggestions that I recently discussed on Good Morning America. Feel...
As the population gets sicker, including our kids, the laundry list of chronic conditions grows - diabetes, asthma, allergies and ADHD. On top of that, the cost of health care continues to climb.
Since 2001, the health premiums for a family of four...
Today, 1 in 3 American children has autism, allergies, ADHD or asthma.
What is driving these childhood epidemics? Ten years ago, we didn't have this problem. Today, however, some pediatric specialists view our children as "canaries in the...
I was raised on capitalism and the Wall Street Journal. And I trusted that the political values that my family had instilled in me would serve me well. I believed in the system.
And then one of my children got sick with a blood condition that no one...
Since when did it get so hard to be a mom? Ten years ago, we didn't worry about sending a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into school with our children; we didn't medicate our eight year olds to get them through the school day; and the movie, Rain...
You will undoubtedly experience times during the progression of trying stuff in which you realize you love something, or equally important that you hate something. Continuing to pursue endeavors that you enjoy will lead you down a path of self-...
Although you may not be able to involve yourself in hands on medical care (actually treating patients), you can easily involve yourself in hands on healthcare (improving the limitless socio-economic factors that affect a person’s health). A...
While doing fun stuff is an important component to your med school app, relevant stuff is equally important. You’re going to need experience, paid or unpaid, in the field of medicine. This can be done either, or better both, through research...
Having a varied list of things in which you were involved will allow you at a later date to use this activity bank you’ve created to determine and explain a situation in which you were a leader, you problem solved, you interacted with diverse...
You’re pre-med. You’ve made the decision to include the 8-9 prerequisite courses in your undergraduate education thereby unofficially taking the first step towards becoming a medical professional. But you still have to get into medical...
One of the beauties of being a physician is that not only does your world encompasses the clinical aspects of health, but also involves many other disciplines as well. Often people assume that a doctor’s influence ends at the clinic or...
This is a question that I'm often asked when talking to future physicians or people in general. Medicine has gone through some impressive, dynamic changes in the last ten to twenty years, even more since I started down this road. I truly believe...
When people have asked me what it takes to be a physician, I usually tell them that there are three things that every doctor must have. And no, being scared of blood is not a deal breaker. Three out of the six people who did their surgery rotation...
Every doctor has a story of how they ended up in medicine. Mine goes like this. My parents instilled two things that looking back now were probably the reason I was drawn to become a physician. From my father I inherited the love of problem solving...
First of all you might be wondering what a pediatric hospitalist does. Prior to about 10 years ago, when a child became ill enough to require hospital admission, their pediatrician would place them in a hospital and then manage their inpatient care...
The best way to avoid bee stings is prevention. Effective prevention means not attracting bees and not frightening them if they are present. Click here for Dr. Greene’s tips on avoiding bees.
