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Specialty: Pediatrics
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston
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Total 42 results found since Jan 2013.
Kelsey’s transformation: From stroke survivor to motivational speaker
“When I woke up after my stroke, all I wanted was to be normal again,” recalls Kelsey Tainsh. Normal — as in a healthy teen athlete who could brush her teeth and shower on her own, who wasn’t wheelchair-bound, who wasn’t compelled to hide her paralyzed right hand in her pocket everywhere she went, one who hadn’t lost all of her high school friends except for her two triplet sisters.
Now, this world-champion athlete not only learned to walk and talk again but also to embrace her differences. “Our hardest obstacles can be our biggest opportunities,” she says.
Kelsey’s first taste of being different came at ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - March 16, 2016 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Lisa Fratt Tags: Our Patients’ Stories Brain tumor Mark Rockoff R. Michael Scott stroke Source Type: news
5 tips to help teens stay heart healthy
As parents, we want our kids to stay healthy throughout their lives. The teen years are an important time to build healthy cardiovascular habits.
In 2010, the American Heart Association set the bold goal of improving the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20 percent. In setting this goal, they created a paradigm shift from the treatment of cardiovascular disease to the promotion of cardiovascular health. Their recommendation was based on more than a decade of data showing adults who reach middle age without any major cardiovascular disease risk factors have a high chance of staying healthy well into old age. They do...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - February 8, 2016 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Holly Gooding Tags: Health & Wellness Research Teen Health heart health Holly Gooding Source Type: news
From Bermuda to Boston for surgery to protect the brain of a boy with sickle cell disease
Calvin Steede, who lives in Bermuda, will never forget the day in 2011 when he saw the movie “Winnie the Pooh” with his mother and sister. The film ended, and suddenly the boy who likes to draw and play soccer couldn’t put on his backpack. His arms had stopped working. He couldn’t stand, and soon he couldn’t talk.
Calvin, now 11, had suffered a minor stroke, a complication of sickle cell disease and the first step of a journey that would take him to Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center for minimally invasive surgery to protect his brain from future strokes.
Sickle cell disease
Sickle ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - June 19, 2015 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Irene Sege Tags: Diseases & conditions Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center moyamoya sickle cell disease Source Type: news
Idaho mom goes the distance to help teen with scoliosis
“You want a hospital with the best technology and the best nurses and doctors in the country. You expect that, and you expect it to be clean. Boston Children’s has all of that,” says Lisa Findlay, a mom from Hayden, Idaho.
“What made the difference was how much everyone loves these kids. Everyone who walked into Aaron’s room, from the surgeons to nurses’ aides to janitors and child life specialists, was on a mission to help Aaron.”
From the time he was born, Aaron encountered one medical challenge after another.
He was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a serious congenital heart defect. By...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - April 2, 2015 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Lisa Fratt Tags: Orthopedics Our patients’ stories Source Type: news
Ella’s story: Two rare diseases and the NICU roller coaster ride
“Everyone tells you that the NICU is a roller coaster ride. What they don’t tell you is that it’s a customized roller coaster ride just for you. You never know what’s coming at you next,” says Carrie Shea, whose daughter Ella spent her first three months of life in Boston Children’s Hospital NICU.
Today, Ella is a “remarkably normal little girl,” says Carrie. It’s quite a feat for the three-year-old who was born with GACI (generalized arterial calcification of infancy), an extremely rare condition with an 85 percent mortality rate, and diagnosed with PKU (phenylketonuria), a second rare genetic disorder, ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - March 5, 2015 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Lisa Fratt Tags: Our patients’ stories Source Type: news
Twin surgeries bring this family a stroke of luck
Ryan Earle is outgoing and upbeat, goofing around in his neurosurgeon’s office. He’s had two strokes, but he’s recovering steadily, a testament to the resilience of children’s brains. His twin brother Tyler, with him at the visit, has avoided a likely stroke altogether.
Both Ryan and Tyler, 8, have a rare brain disorder called moyamoya disease, in which the internal carotid arteries become narrowed, slowing the flow of blood to their brains. Without surgery, moyamoya poses a five-year stroke risk of 60 to 90 percent.
The boys’ moyamoya symptoms were subtle: “They would have a mild headache, then they’d throw ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - December 29, 2014 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Lisa Fratt Source Type: news
Make Halloween healthy: If you dare!
Meaghan O’Keeffe, RN, BSN, is a mother, writer and nurse. She worked at Boston Children’s Hospital for nearly a decade, in both the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and the Pre-op Clinic. She is a regular contributor to Thriving.
Happy Halloween! This is a festive time of year when kids get excited to dress up in fantastical costumes and enjoy some light-hearted scares. But let’s be honest. Most kids dream about one thing and one thing only: the enormous bounty of candy that awaits them. Didn’t you?
Besides tasting great, sugar intake heightens the pleasure and reward centers of the brain. Feel-good hormones like dopa...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - October 21, 2014 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Meaghan O'Keeffe Tags: All posts Source Type: news
Four steps to help kids avoid heat stroke in cars
A total of eight children have died this year from heat stroke after being left alone in a car.
Unfortunately, this is not an alarming new trend. Since 1998, at least 600 children across the United States have died when they were left unattended in a vehicle. A majority of these children were left accidently in the backseat by a distracted parent or caregiver, only to discover the child hours later, after it was too late. Other times the child found her way into a parked car and couldn’t get out on her own. As many as 18 percent of these deaths occurred after a parent knowingly left a child in a car.
But this isnR...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - June 17, 2014 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tripp Underwood Tags: All posts child safety heat exposure Source Type: news
Subconcussive blows and soccer: what’s the headache?
As the fall sports ramps up, teen athletes across the country are donning shin guards and cleats, prepping to return to their beloved sport—soccer. A handful, however, are foregoing the ritual. One child sitting on the sidelines is the 13-year old daughter of Ken Reed, sports policy director of the League of Fans. Reed and his wife decided the risk of short- and long-term brain damage from subconcussive blows to the head outweighed the benefits of the sport. They pulled their daughter from the field, a decision Reed shared on this recent Huffington Post blog.
Thriving checked with William Meehan, MD, director of Boston C...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - September 25, 2013 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Lisa Fratt Tags: All posts Concussions Orthopedics Sports & exercise athlete and concussion Bill Meehan soccer injuries Sports Concussion Clinic Source Type: news
As preschool obesity rates dip, Boston Children’s expert suggests feds step to the plate
The scales may not be tipping quite so precipitously for some low-income preschoolers. So says a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nineteen states saw small decreases in obesity rates among preschoolers between 2008 and 2011, while rates held steady in another 20 states. Is this cause for celebration, cautious optimism or concern?
Perhaps all of the above, says David Ludwig, MD, PhD, director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center Boston Children’s Hospital. “The report is a small, but encouraging, sign after nearly half a century of bad news.” The latest data...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - September 11, 2013 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Lisa Fratt Tags: All posts Childhood obesity Children's in the news Health & wellness Healthful eating Research David Ludwig New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center Source Type: news
Freedom in waiting: A ventricular assist device gives Aidan’s family independence
Aidan
When Aidan was just 8 months old, his parents Patrick and Tavina received shocking news—their son had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a rare but serious disease that affects the muscle of the heart. Given his young age and severity of his condition, the early prognosis was bleak.
“Things didn’t look good at first,” remembers Patrick. “We were steeling ourselves for the real possibility that Aidan wouldn’t make it to see his first birthday.”
But, heart condition or not, little Aidan was a fighter, and with minimal medical management his condition stabilized. Over the years, he grew ...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - July 3, 2013 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tripp Underwood Tags: All posts Heart conditions Our patients’ stories Christina VanderPluym Heart Center heart transplant hypertrophic cardiomyopathy MD VAD ventricular assist device Source Type: news
Six Ways to Give Your Child a Healthy Heart for Life
February is heart month—a great time to think about heart health. While we tend to think of heart disease as a problem of adults, it can start in childhood—and the health habits of childhood have everything to do with heart health in adulthood.
So as we finish up February, here are six things that parents can do to give their children the best chance of a healthy heart for life:
Keep your child at a healthy weight. Being overweight increases the risk of heart disease. We are seeing some of the early changes of heart disease in overweight children—and being overweight as a child increases the likelihood of being overw...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - February 26, 2013 Category: Pediatrics Authors: Claire McCarthy Tags: Childhood obesity Claire McCarthy, MD Exercise Health & wellness Healthful eating Parenting heart disease heart health heart month preventing heart disease Source Type: news
