Having blood drawn can be a very anxious thing for a child with autism. Ellen Hanson and her colleagues have developed an educational kit that they hope will make blood draws easier on kids, parents, and their doctors.
Raising a child with autism is challenging, to be sure, but some situations can be more challenging than others. Take trips to the doctor, for instance – especially if the child has to get shots or have blood drawn. “Anything with a needle can be a real stumbling block for families,” says Ellen Hanson, a researcher in Children’s divisions of developmental medicine and genetics. “It’s completely out of the routine, and children may have had a bad experience in the past or general anxiety about going to the doctor that make it really difficult.
“At the same time,” she continued, “these things are part of good medical care.” Blood draws are also essential for the genetic studies that researchers like Hanson are conducting into the root causes of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). “Some of the families that we’ve reached out to for our studies have been reluctant because of concerns about how their child will react to the blood draw.”
So how can we make this easier on everyone: doctors, researchers, families, and, most importantly, the children? Recognizing that there was little guidance in the literature about making blood draws easier for children with ASDs, Hanson and her colleagues sat down to create what they call a blood draw intervention program – essentially, a method and kit for helping parents and doctors prepare children for blood draws so that the actual event is as painless as possible. 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.
Every day, there is another medical study in the news. There’s another newspaper or TV story telling us that X can cure depression or make you thinner or cause autism or whatever. And since it’s a medical study, we usually think that it’s true. Why wouldn’t it be?
But what most people don’t realize, let alone really think about, is that there might be other studies that show that X does none of those things—and that some of those studies might never have been published. Full story »
Sarah Pastore was born with bright blue eyes, a beautiful smile and a single, failing kidney. She fared well in her first few months, but by the time she approached her first birthday her prognosis was clear: without a kidney transplant the little girl from North Reading, Mass., was sure to die.
Her parents, Nancy and Robert, were screened to see if they could be potential donors, but neither was a good match. Because Sarah’s brother John Paul is under 18, he wasn’t eligible to donate. It looked like the next stop was the organ donor list.
But before her name could be submitted to the list, her uncle, Anthony Pastore, was tested to see if he and his niece would be compatible for transplant. As luck would have it, they were, and the 32-year-old Woburn man quickly offered one of his kidneys to save her.
With the live donor identified, Sarah was well on her way to better health. But how exactly do doctors fit an adult kidney in a toddler’s body? Full story »
TheBoston Globe featured a study last week associating frequent dental X-rays with benign brain tumors called meningiomas. Despite the findings, says Man Wai Ng, DDS, MPH, Boston Children’s chief of Dentistry, you should still focus more on your child’s teeth than his or her brain when they’re in the dentist’s chair.
That’s because it’s unlikely that most children will have dental X-rays frequently enough to raise their tumor risk. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), the American Dental Association and the Food and Drug Administration all offer recommendations and guidelines for dental X-rays in children, with a big focus on minimizing X-ray exposure. 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 »
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 couple of months ago, we sat down as a family to watch the five o’clock news. We never do this, but my 11-year-old had been interviewed and we wanted to watch it together. We were told it would be on in the five o’clock hour, but of course it didn’t come on until 5:55. In those 55 minutes, my 6-year-old watched news about:
A shooting at a school
A suicide bomb in Afghanistan that killed civilians
A policeman shooting another policeman and then shooting himself
A video of teen girls fighting in a high school
A man who escaped from a mental hospital, prompting the community to tell all children to stay inside
A child molester on the loose, including a picture of him
A trial of two men accused of killing four people, including a toddler. Full story »
If your child—young or old—aspires to be a runner, the Runner’s Program at Boston Children’s can help them get off on the right foot. The Sports Medicine experts that will help your child also deliver the same world-class care to world-class athletes at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
We all know that running is a great way for kids to get exercise and have fun, but since 35 to 75 percent of runners each year need medical treatment for running-related injuries, running safely is important. Pierre d’Hemecourt, MD of Boston Children’s Division of Sports is presenting at the Runners’ Seminar Series for the Boston Marathon, and talks to us about Children’s Running Program, which helps runners of all ages run as safely as possible.
The Running Program mainly focuses on best practices and injury prevention tools for kids, high school and college athletes, as well as adults.
“We want to encourage running,” says d’Hemecourt, “but in doing so, we want to show runners how they can prevent injuries and stay healthy.” The program’s plan does just that, and when a patient comes in for an appointment, they go through four 15-minute stations of clinical help. Full story »
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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. 
If your child—young or old—aspires to be a runner, the Runner’s Program at Boston Children’s can help them get off on the right foot. The Sports Medicine experts that will help your child also deliver the same world-class care to world-class athletes at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
