You Decide: Over-the-Counter Drops for Ear Pain

My last post looked at the utility of prescription drops for ear pain.  However, some people have asked… “Can I just use the drops that you can buy over-the-counter (OTC) at my local pharmacy without a prescription?”  This very question was asked by a group of pediatricians.  They studied it and published their results in a 2003 issue of the journal Pediatrics. Read more

You Decide: Prescription Drops for Ear Pain?

A few weeks ago, I delivered a lecture to the pediatric residents at our hospital on Ear Pain.  I think one of the studies I presented will be of particular interest to Smart Parents. Read more

You Decide: Antibiotics for Ear Pain?

To Treat or Not to Treat

When or if to treat an ear infection has always been controversial. However, in today’s medical environment, antibiotic prescriptions for ear infections are handed out like vitamins.  This practice is more a consequence of doctors giving into parental anxiety, than the practice of good and responsible medicine. Read more

Food Allergies

When is it OK to give my child eggs? What happens if I give them peanuts? Does cow’s milk cause allergies? What about asthma?

These are all common questions and it is hard to separate fact from fiction as a parent. The problem stems from so many conflicting sources. I will attempt to clarify the confusion with this post. Read more

Myths & Facts: Nasal Congestion

The Cold and Flu Season is right around the corner. Both of these minor illnesses are generally accompanied by nasal congestion. Nasal congestion in the setting of a cold or flu, while sometimes uncomfortable, is the body’s way of protecting & healing itself.  However, nasal congestion Read more

Myths & Facts: Ear Pain

Do ear infections cause hearing loss? What happens if I don’t start antibiotics right away?

There are many myths and facts that surround ear pain and ear infection. What makes things worse is that there is often a great deal of variation in the way different doctors treat ear pain and ear infection. So I am starting a new series aimed at helping Smart Parent get the facts they need to make intelligent decisions about how best to treat (or not treat) ear pain and ear infection. Read more

On Becoming Babywise: The Stanford Marshmallow Study

Every heard of a guy named Walter Mischel? If you are like me, you probably never heard of him. Well, he is a somewhat famous psychologist who currently works at the University of Columbia. Earlier in his career though he worked at Stanford, and this is where he first made a name for himself – at least in the world of academic psychology.

He designed a simple little test, which subsequently became know as the Marshmallow Test and it went something like this… Read more

Fever: The Great Temperature Menace

Is a high fever dangerous? Will it cause my child to have a seizure? What about brain damage?

These are the common questions that I see parents asking when they come into the ER. Along with these questions, parents generally also bring in all kinds of myths and misconceptions surrounding fever. Fever Read more

On Becoming Babywise: The 8-week mark

We are almost eight weeks into the PDF approach and I feel like we have learned a great deal. Actually I would say this is one of the steepest learning curves I have been on, maybe since medical school. Over the last eight weeks there have been ups and downs, successes and failures. We have found, though, that drawing on the experience of others throughout this process was essential to our successes and helped so much with our failures. Read more