This week's guest columnist is Dr. Frank Betanski, a family practice resident at the University Hospital & Clinics here in Lafayette. If you have kids, especially a son, you may know the feeling: waking your child in the…
A lot of my columns are about how to keep your child out of the Pediatric Emergency Department. Possible fractures, though, are one time where coming in is the best move. More on this from our two guest columnists, Dr. Nicole…
I see it almost every day in the Pediatric Emergency Department: a little one running about the unit yelling, throwing toys, crawling under the curtains. The parent says something like "Come back here or you'll get a whipping…
In the past weeks the news has reported on stomach virus epidemics in several states. More than the usual amount of kids and adults have had vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. Though Louisiana wasn't listed, we in the pediatrics…
It happens more than you think: the child clutches his belly, cries, rolls around on the floor, in obvious pain. Mom and Dad get worried- is this appendicitis? Is something terrible happening to our baby? They rush to the…
There has been an unusual number of crib deaths in Acadiana recently. Crib death, or SIDS (for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is a rare but devastating event where baby is found in bed dead for no apparent reason. We in the…
Every day families bring their kids into the Emergency Department with non-emergencies- runny noses, fevers, rashes, diarrhea. Many of those times mom is a little embarrassed, and says "I called my doctor and they were booked,…
Summer is coming. I last wrote about swimming safety, and two more popular summer activities for kids need to be addressed: biking and jumping on trampolines. Bike safety is nothing new to me. I grew up with a Dad who was a…
It is no secret that doctor's offices and Emergency Departments are extremely busy these days. It is the "cold and flu" season, and RSV season, and that makes for a lot of sick kids. In other columns and blog entries, I have…
In the late 1940s and early1950s, families had two big worries. One was of a third world war with the horrible new weapon, the atomic bomb. The second was that children would get polio. Polio was on the rise. Every summer a…
I took care of a teenager this past year who suffered from too many antibiotics. Her doctor originally thought she had a skin infection and put her on the first antibiotic course. The skin did not improve, so he put her on a…
When we bring a new baby home, we want to do everything to make our new family member comfortable. We got a sheepskin as a shower gift- put it under baby! Cover her with an extra blanket- don't want her to get chilly. Put some…
