I once heard a tape of an old-time radio broadcast where Costello was telling Abbot that “I once had the seven-year-itch.” Abbot asked, “Well, what did you do?” to which Costello replied, “I scratched real fast and got rid of it in four years.”
The seven-year itch was given its nick-name not because it lasts for seven years but because it occurs in epidemics nearly every seventh year.
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Ok, lets see how astute you are about summer medical problems in children.
You are the doctor and an adolescent comes into your office with swollen eyes and a rash over his face and arms with blisters which itch terribly.
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[This article on power mower injuries in children was originally published in the spring]
I’ve had some information from the American Academy of Pediatric meeting in Chicago about a favorite past-time of summer which I have been saving until this spring to pass on.
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Would all of you who have had “growing pains” please raise your hands.
Just as I thought, most of you have. You should know however, that even though many doctors use that as a “talking with parents” diagnosis, most of us realize there should really be no such thing as (more…)
Children face a number of medical issues when they leave the relative ease of summer in favor of the more crowded environment of school each year. Here is part two of a list of common illnesses and issues facing us at “back to school” time.
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Ask any medical student, intern or resident: “where is the place where you get sick most often” and you’ll be told “the hospital.”
The problem is that the relationship also holds for “adults” with “work” and “children” with “school.” That’s because (more…)
A child’s “Job,” if you will, is school. Lot’s of time spent in school. Lot’s of fairly intimate exposures to other kids, some of whom possibly are “carrying.” (Viruses and bacteria – what did you think I meant?)
So, how does a parent prepare for Back to School? Are there any things you need to watch out for? The ol’ “Praemonitus, praemunitus” motto – “forewarned is forearmed” sort of thing. Get comfortable, this may take a bit.
One afternoon next week you are aroused from the kitchen table, where you are sitting paying your bills, by some banging on your front room door. It is the neighbor boy who has come to tell you that your five-year-old son was just hit in the head with a rock and is crying.
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If other pediatricians are like I am, one of the most common topics they discuss on the phone is fever.
Callers sometimes simply state, “My baby has a fever” or “John has a fever of 103” or “Sally has a fever again; she needs some antibiotics,” – as if fever were the disease.
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A residency is basically two to five years in which a physician lives in the hospital.
In the case of a pediatrician, it is three years trying to learn the sum total of the current knowledge about children – and believe me that there’s enough and to spare.
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One of the most common questions I am asked is “can I take such and such medicine while I’m breast feeding?”
The concern, of course, is: does such and such medicine get into the breast milk and effect the baby when I breast feed?
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