Healthy Activities Save Kids ’ Lives. Why Are They So Hard to Find?

It was a quiet Saturday morning, and as a pediatrician who had a busy week, that meant it was the perfect time to cozy up with a large mug of coffee at my kitchen table and make my way through the many lab results that had come into the electronic health record inbox since the previous day. I may not be setting a great example of work-life balance. But clinic days are filled with seeing patients, teaching trainees, and answering questions from our care team. Saturdays are the only time I’m able to give patients and their families undivided attention and no-rush answers.   [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Most of the labs I was preparing to share with families were related to screening tests that we send for children if their body mass index (BMI), the imperfect but helpful measure of weight for height and age, is elevated to a point that it may be causing problems with blood sugar, cholesterol levels, or liver function. Discussing weight in pediatrician’s offices is complicated and should be undertaken with care, but with more than one in four Medicaid-insured children 10-17 years old meeting criteria for obesity, our role is to help inform families and to advocate for their health.   Next on my list of families to call was the mother of a bright and bubbly ten-year-old girl who I’ll call Mindy. When we were in the office earlier in the week, after listening to her lungs, I showed her mother the slight darkening of the ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Source Type: news