From Our Blog

Health and Wellness – Pediatrics

Getting Children in Shape for Every Sport

Whether your children play soccer or football, being in shape prior to the season can help to prevent injuries while maximizing their game. Although it may seem that some sports are safer than others, the most important thing is to get your children prepared. For instance, youth football is often weight and age-matched, which can […]

How to Create an Ergonomic School Space at Home

Make an Ergonomically Friendly School Space The good news is that kids have the same needs as adults, just in smaller sizes. To make an ergonomic school space for your child, you will want to make sure their: Feet are flat on the floor or resting a footrest Wrists and hands don’t rest on sharp […]

EXERCISE IMPROVES LEARNING

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, e-learning platforms have quickly become the new norm. As a result, our kids will experience a sharp jump in their screen time. Screen time refers to how many hours per day your child spends in front of a screen, whether watching TV, playing video games, or using electronic devices. However, […]

Stretching and Strength-training for Safer Soccer

While any athletic activity has an inherent risk of injury, soccer has traditionally been considered less dangerous than, say, American football, hockey and lacrosse. Significant tragic events in soccer usually involve the goalposts; either the player hits the post or a faulty goalpost lands on a player. Fortunately, these events are extremely rare. Still, some […]

Concussions Call for Caution

Concussions result from a blow to the head that causes the brain to be shaken inside the skull. Especially among children and young adults who participate in impact sports, such as football or basketball, concussions can be quite common. However, because concussions are often described as “mild,” we may forget that they are significant brain […]

Does Mono Mean No Exercise?

Mononucleosis—often known simply as “mono”—has an incubation period of one to two months. Once symptoms appear, recovery can take an additional four to six weeks. Until your physician tells you it is safe to resume more strenuous workouts, avoid any but the mildest exercise (e.g., short walks). In many mono patients, the spleen—a large blood-filtering […]

Jump on Treating Osgood-Schlatter Disease

Osgood-Schlatter disease (syndrome), a common cause of knee pain in as many as one in five children and young athletes, especially boys, 10 to 15 years of age, usually occurs after a period of quick growth coupled with intense physical or sporting activity. Children who participate in running and jumping activities experience a greater strain […]

How Safe Is Soccer for Children?

A great sport for building endurance, dexterity, speed, agility, coordination and teamwork, soccer is a game played by both boys and girls. As far as safety is concerned, the injury rate in soccer is estimated to be between one-fifth and one-half that of football, America’s other favorite fall sport. Still, with more than three million […]

Kids: A Pain in the Knee

If your child experiences knee discomfort, it could be due to Osgood-Schlatter disease. Although temporary, this condition can be a source of pain and swelling. Most children suffering from Osgood-Schlatter disease also experience a tender bump just below the kneecap. The pain associated with this condition appears when children, whose bones are growing rapidly, are […]

Helping Your Child Prepare to Pitch for Little League

As your child prepares for the spring baseball season, your first concern should be helping him or her prevent injury. Most injuries to pitchers come from three sources: overuse, poor throwing mechanics and improper conditioning. In fact, Little League baseball has become so concerned about youth pitching injuries that they have developed pitch count regulations […]

A Measured Response to Longer Limbs

The pediatrician seems concerned that your child’s arms and legs seem longer than normal. Will he or she just grow up to be tall? A good pediatrician screens children for signs of syndromes that might not be apparent to parents. Particularly long limbs are possible indicators of at least two: Marfan syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. […]

By Hook or By Crook: Fixing “Student’s Elbow”

The technical name for “student’s elbow” is olecranon bursitis. The olecranon, the bony point of the elbow, is protected by a small sac of fluid called a bursa. Olecranon bursitis develops when an individual repeatedly leans on his or her elbow (as a student or draftsman might do when working at a desk) or when […]

Benign Bone Tumors in Children

Tumor: The word strikes fear in the heart of any parent, but there is a benign tumor that strikes children—most often boys between 10 to 20 years of age—called osteoid osteoma. Although painful, this tumor can sometimes be managed through physical therapy and pain medication, and should have no long-term effects on your child’s life. […]

Nursemaid’s Elbow: Avoid Swinging Your Child

Young children love it when you swing them by the arms. Unfortunately, this act and other seemingly harmless ones can lead to nursemaid’s elbow—a common injury where the elbow slips out of its joint. Often seen in children aged 1 to 4 years, this injury can also occur in babies. Young children are especially susceptible […]

How to Treat Nursemaid’s Elbow

You are walking hand-in-hand with your four-year-old when a skateboarder comes charging around the corner. You yank your child out of harm’s way, but she instantly howls in pain, clutches her arm and seems unable to bend it. She may have incurred “nursemaid’s elbow”, a dislocation of the joint commonly seen in children (more often […]

Perspectives for Patients – Baseball Pitching

Whether you are the pitcher, coach, or concerned parent, the health of the athlete’s throwing arm is very important. Each year nearly 6 out of 10 young pitchers hurt their elbows. These injuries can affect pitchers later in their lives; 15% of college-level pitchers say that troubles in their current performance are based on injuries […]

Batter Up! Prep Your Child for Baseball Season

After a winter of inactivity often occasioned by bad weather, the one- to two-month period before baseball season begins is a great time to get your child in better physical shape. Start with stretching, aerobic exercise and strength-training at least two or three days a week, working up to five days by the time the […]

Elbow Excellence Through Tommy John Surgery

One of the major advancements in sports medicine in the last 35 years, surgical repair of the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) is named for Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tommy John, the first person to successfully undergo the procedure in 1974. John returned to the mound two years later . This procedure, invented and pioneered by […]

Team Sports: How Safe Are They?

The physical benefits of participating in sports are obvious in our increasingly obese society, but team sports also teach cooperation, responsibility to the team, mental preparedness and social development. What about the risk of injury? With the consequences of repeated concussions of football players as a hot topic in the news, it is reasonable to […]

Straightening the Curves of Scoliosis

Scoliosis is a condition in which the spine is curved toward either the right or left side. Thus, the upper back seems to be rounded, the lower back appears to curve inward (swayback), and one shoulder and/or hip looks higher than the other. About 80% of scoliosis cases occur in people 10 to 18 years […]