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Short bowel syndrome is commonplace to Danielle Stamm, RN, FNP-BCR. As one of the dedicated nurse practitioners in the Center for Advanced Intestinal Rehabilitation (CAIR) at Boston Children’s Hospital, she sees children with this rare but serious condition on a daily basis. But what’s familiar to Stamm and her colleagues is unusual to many other clinicians. …Read More
We typically associate hypertension with older people, but elevated blood pressure isn’t an uncommon finding in children and adolescents. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), pediatric hypertension occurs in 2 to 5 percent of kids and is one of the top five chronic diseases in children.
Despite those numbers, the diagnosis is missed in up to 75 percent of pediatric patients in primary care settings. “We should be checking blood pressure at every routine well-child visit for kids age 3 and older, and more often in kids with cardiometabolic risk factors, such as obesity and diabetes,” says Corinna Rea, MD, MPH, a pediatrician in Boston Children’s Primary Care at Longwood. …Read More
Spitting up is a normal occurrence for young infants — as long as a child is growing well and not developing other problems, such as breathing difficulties, the problem will resolve on its own without treatment. But how can you determine if your patient has gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)? New expert guidelines draw on the latest research findings to help advise specialists and primary care providers on the evaluation and treatment of GERD in infants and children.
Rachel Rosen, MD, MPH, director of the Aerodigestive Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, served as lead author on these international guidelines.
“Over the last 10 years, there has been an explosion of advances not only in our understanding the pathophysiology of reflux, but also in the diagnostic tests to evaluate reflux and problems that masquerade as reflux,” she explains. “In prior guidelines, the focus was on acid-related disease and treatment with acid suppression. We now know that gastroesophageal reflux, particularly in infants and young children, is often non-acidic, so treating patients with acid suppression is ineffective. This is a true paradigm shift.” Here, Rosen shares some highlights that every pediatrician should know.
An infant rests in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), recovering from elective surgery. She’s crying, but is it because the procedure caused pain, because she’s hungry or for some other reason? An inspired research collaboration between the NICU and the Division of Pain Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital is determined to find out. …Read More