Smart Parents Don’t Bring Kids to ER for Non-Urgent Conditions

Children tend to get sick in the evenings or on the weekends as we parents all know too well. Before heading to an ER or urgent care, please speak to your primary care pediatrician on-call to get the best advice. In many cases the advice will be to bring your child for a sick visit next morning, instead of going to the ER or urgent care straight away. Emergency rooms are intended to save lives and provide care for life-threatening medical conditions. Using ER for non-urgent cases is simply wasteful: not only it wastes your own time and money, it also contributes to inefficiencies, overcrowding and adverse effects in an already taxed healthcare system. West Bloomfield Pediatrics [Continue reading…]

Not All Urgent Care Clinics Are Good for Your Child

Children can not be cared for as “small adults”. The best specialist to take care of your child’s sickness is a Pediatrician: a doctor who, upon completion of a Medical School, spent three more years at a rigorous Pediatric Residency training program, learning about caring for infants, children and adolescents. Unfortunately, very few urgent care clinics in our area have an American Board of Pediatrics-certified Pediatrician on staff. What can you do?

Have a plan. Research the local urgent care clinics well in advance and identify the one that you are comfortable with, the one that specializes in pediatric care and has certified Pediatricians on board. Before heading to an ER or urgent care, call your primary pediatrician to [Continue reading…]

“Send it to CVS” (a Flu Season Story)

Young parents brought their son to my clinic on Saturday. The boy’s test for influenza came out positive. How the dad reacts is priceless. [Continue reading…]

When to Suspect Pneumonia

Over the past two weeks I have noticed unusually frequent cases of pneumonia among children coming to my practice. Pneumonia has to be promptly treated with antibiotics: a recent study showed that in critically ill children with pneumonia, delays of even a few hours to treatment with the correct antibiotic increase risk for severe complications [1].

What is pneumonia and when should you suspect it? Pneumonia is an infection in the lung (or both lungs). It usually starts acutely with high fever and cough. Children with pneumonia look sick, they have decreased energy and appetite, they may vomit from cough and their breathing is fast and labored. Also pneumonia happens more often in kids who have history of asthma, since their [Continue reading…]

When You Call the Doctor

It is stressful enough to be a parent of a healthy baby. It is many times more stressful to make decisions when your child is sick. What medicine to use, and whether to use any medicine at all? Take the child to the hospital now, or wait till morning and then call the office for an appointment? What food or liquid give to the baby? These questions must be answered promptly. That is why we pediatricians are available 24/7: just call our answering service and be connected to a doctor on call.

When to call?

We are here to help you, and do not mind at all midnight calls about urgent problems. Some examples include: fever in a baby younger than [Continue reading…]

Parent, Heal Your Child

Parents play a crucial role in healing their children. As a doctor, I can make a correct diagnosis and prescribe the necessary medicine, but it is the parent who does most of the work while treating the child at home. I am very grateful to those parents of my little patients who are doing their part consistently and following the plan that we decided upon during their visits.

I know obtaining and giving the prescribed medicine can be difficult – I have kids, too – but it is an essential part of the treatment. Are you concerned about the possibility of a side effect? Or maybe a friend or family member advised you against a particular medicine? In case of doubts [Continue reading…]