Tonight at 8 pm, HBO will debut a four-part documentary series, The Weight of the Nation, an unflinching look at the severity of the obesity crisis in America, and its crippling effect on our nation’s health and economy.
HBO and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences have joined forces to bring together the nation’s foremost experts on weight and weight loss for a frank and educational look at obesity in America. The series explains how weight became such an issue in this country and provides answers for how we can get to a healthy weight by overcoming the forces that drive us to eat too much and move too little. Full story »
Feeling "a little" pinch is a small price to pay for good healthcare. But we can do more to reduce the discomfort. (UNICEF Sverige/Flickr)
I remember distinctly both of my boys’ 4-month-old well visits. Mostly because of the shots: all four of them.
Neither boy was particularly happy about being poked that much (though the shiny Band-Aids afterward did help a little).
My wife and I would have loved to help ease the pain of the shots, but we didn’t have any idea how. Frankly, I don’t know that, in the moment, it crossed our minds that there was something we could do, and it wasn’t something we thought to ask our pediatrician about. I mean, it was just a little bit of pain, right?
The problem, though, is that those little bits of pain add up. “Millions of injections are given to children around the world every year,” says Neil Schechter, MD, a pain specialist in Boston Children’s Hospital’s Anesthesia Department. Schechter recently published an article in Pediatrics where he commented that while we’ve come a long way in the last 50 years in understanding and addressing pain in children—especially after surgery or due to chronic illness—pain in the pediatric office hasn’t received the same level of attention.
“The pain from shots and other minor procedures in a pediatrician’s office doesn’t have the same poignancy as pain in an inpatient setting,” he says, “but it is still pain. And if we want to encourage patients’ and families’ cooperation and participation in routine healthcare, we want to keep pain to a minimum.” Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Children’s Hospital Boston. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
My latest (by no means the first, and certainly not the last) embarrassing parenthood moment happened two weeks ago.
It was the evening of the district-wide art show. This is a semi-big deal in our town; the art teachers pick their favorite projects from the school year, from all the grades, and put them on display for everyone to see. There is an opening reception when all the families and friends come to look at all the wonderful art, eat hors d’oeuvres, and do all the appropriate oohing and aahing. Full story »
We’re not the only ones who enjoyed the record-setting mild winter—ticks and mosquitoes have too. While normal winters produce hard freezes that kill off these pests or make them dormant, unseasonably warm temperatures allowed adult mosquitoes and ticks to live through it, creating early arrival and a potential population boom for some types of bugs.
So how can you prepare your family for the early onslaught of ticks and mosquitoes?
“Prevention is key,” says Catherine Lachenauer, MD, director of Infectious Diseases Outpatient Practice at Boston Children’s Hospital. “Avoid areas at the edge of the woods with long grasses. Also, wearing long, light-colored clothing helps keep ticks from getting on the skin and makes it easier to recognize one on your body.” Full story »
Taylor West was suffering from terrible headaches, but they came and went so fast neither she nor her parents were too worried at first. But as the headaches got worse, doctors became worried. A CT scan revealed a large tumor in Taylor’s brain, and less than 10 days later she was undergoing surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital and waiting to find out if the tumor was cancerous.
When Taylor West of Tecumseh, Oklahoma, started complaining of headaches, her mother Lori’s first thought was that she was trying to get out of school: The headaches were worst early in the morning, but by noon Taylor would be up and running around.
“People thought the headaches were just because of stress, but I knew they weren’t,” says Taylor, age 10. “It felt kind of like an electric shock.”
When Taylor began getting sick to her stomach and throwing up, Lori thought perhaps she had a flu bug that was going around. But as weeks and then months went by, she became concerned, and so did the doctors. A neurologist sent Taylor for a head CT scan.
“That evening we got a call saying, ‘get her to the hospital tonight,’” Lori said. Full story »
It was 7 in the morning, and the lights were still low in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The babies were stirring, and it was time for the handoff, the first of the day’s rituals.
Walking from crib to crib, the tired-looking doctors from the previous night’s shift were bringing the daytime team up to speed on each child, summarizing from handwritten notes a dozen-plus variables about each baby into a single picture: This is how ill, or well, the child before you is at the moment.
I cover research in Boston Children’s Hospital’s Division of Newborn Medicine, which runs the NICU. I spend more time in laboratories than in clinics. To better understand the questions that the doctors and nurses I work with are trying to answer, I wanted to see what they see every day as they care for some of our littlest patients.
The division’s Donna Brezinski, MD, kindly offered to let me tag along with her for a day “on service,” giving me a chance to take part in the rituals of communication and care, like the handoff, that underlie the NICU’s work. Full story »
Dr. Claire McCarthy is a primary care physician and the Medical Communications Editor at Children’s Hospital Boston. Along with her blogs here on Thriving, you can find her at the Huffington Post and Boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @drClaire.
A child with autism is more likely to do well if his mother is white and educated.
This is the message of a study just released in the journal Pediatrics, and it’s something we need to pay attention to—now. Full story »
Mattel Inc., maker of Barbie dolls, last week announced that it would create a bald version of the popular fashion doll to support people battling cancer.
The announcement came a few months after Beautiful and Bald Barbie, a Facebook group that petitioned Mattel to make a hairless version of the doll, gained mass support online. Their mission was simple:
We would like to see a Beautiful and Bald Barbie made to help young girls who suffer from hair loss due to cancer treatments, alopecia or trichotillomania. Also, for young girls who are having trouble coping with their mother’s hair loss from chemo. Many children have some difficulty accepting their mother, sister, aunt, grandparent or friend going from longhaired to bald. Full story »
Do you have a Children's Hospital Boston story you'd like heard? By sharing your Children's story you can be a great source of inspiration and encouragement to families who are going through similar situations. And it’s a great way to find support by connecting with others. Share your story today »
We’re not the only ones who enjoyed the record-setting mild winter—ticks and mosquitoes have too. While normal winters produce hard freezes that kill off these pests or make them dormant, unseasonably warm temperatures allowed adult mosquitoes and ticks to live through it, creating early arrival and a potential population boom for some types of bugs.
“That evening we got a call saying, ‘get her to the hospital tonight,’” Lori said. 
Walking from crib to crib, the tired-looking doctors from the previous night’s shift were bringing the daytime team up to speed on each child, summarizing from handwritten notes a dozen-plus variables about each baby into a single picture: This is how ill, or well, the child before you is at the moment.
Mattel Inc., maker of Barbie dolls, last week announced that it would create a bald version of the popular fashion doll to support people battling cancer.
