The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have cleared the way for children under 5 years old to get the COVID-19 vaccine.Distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines for the youngest age gr...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster shot for children ages 5 to 11. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to share ...

Moderna submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration Thursday to authorize its COVID vaccine for children from 6 months old to 6 years old. If the FDA approves, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices with the Centers for Disease Contr...

By Carmen OchoaSpring is officially here! Along with the start of spring, allergies are starting back up again as well. However, at Cook Children’s there has been an increase in flu cases at CCHCS this past month and the cold season isn’t over just y...

A new national “report card” gives Texas mixed grades statewide for school policies that support the mental health of students and teachers.Texas schools received a top score for efforts to promote engagement with families and community partners. The...

Sonji Gentry rarely leaves home with her 9-year-old twin boys, Hayden and Morgan. And that was true even before the pandemic. The risk of exposing Morgan, who is medically fragile, to viruses and illnesses circulating within the community is too grea...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated recommendations this week for the spacing of COVID vaccines for people 12 and up and for people who are immunocompromised. The CDC recommends a longer interval between the first and second dose f...

UPDATEThe Food and Drug Administration now says it will wait for Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, to release data on how well three doses of the vaccine works for children under 5.The reversal by federal regulators was announced Friday, Feb. 11, aft...

COVID-19 in babies and young children can sometimes mimic the characteristic symptoms of the upper-respiratory infection known as croup: Barky cough and whistly breathing sound.  That’s why your pediatrician might be recommending that patients with c...

You might notice something new from Cook Children's on local TV.  We've launched several PSAs regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and children ages 5-11. Cook Children's physicians and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker tell us why they support COVID-19 vacci...

The number of children being treated at Cook Children’s Medical Center for COVID-19 is at an all-time high. Today, 69 pediatric COVID-19 patients are in the hospital. Nine of those are currently waiting in the Emergency Department for an available be...

It started with a sore throat, then she lost her voice. Three days later test results confirmed Haylee Richard, 16, a Denison High School junior, had Covid-19.Her mom, Hillary Richard, was concerned, but not overly. She kept an eye on her eldest daug...

By Bianka Soria-Olmos, D.O.Mixed emotions including frustration, worry and anxiousness (to name a few) fill my being yet again on the eve of the day my kids return back to school. It is no longer a new experience for me or the many other parents who ...

Pediatric COVID-19 cases skyrocketed this past week, with Cook Children’s Medical Center reporting one-in-three children tested turning up positive—all less than a month after the first omicron case was reported in North Texas.Positive cases now acco...

North Texas now has its first case of the omicron variant of COVID-19, according to the Dallas Morning News. Ayass Bioscience, a testing lab in Frisco, confirmed two cases of the new variant Wednesday night involving a 35 and 40-year-old. Neither has...

Now that children as young as 5 can get the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine, parents might be wondering how to make the shot as smooth and painless as possible.It’s not uncommon for kids to be nervous about needles. So the experts at Cook Children’s offer...

Marc Mazade, M.D. gets a lot questions of the COVID-19 vaccine, especially now that it's available for children ages 5 to 11. As medical director of Infection Control and Prevention at Cook Children’s Medical Center, he wanted to provide answers to s...

Now that the CDC has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine for kids ages 5-11, here are my predictions as to what will happen:One-third of you will RUN, not walk, to get it.One-third of you will absolutely refuse it, for varying reasons.One-thir...

The first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11 has arrived at Cook Children’s Medical Center. This morning, the health care system received enough doses to vaccinate more than 3,000 children. Cook Children's will so...

By Ashley Pagenkopf, MS, CCLSA little over 18 months ago, I wrote the article “Everyone is Grieving Something.” So much has happened since that time – so much that none of us could have anticipated. That was only a month into the pandemic, and I had ...

Due to the latest surge of COVID-19, Cook Children’s Medical Center is rescheduling all elective surgeries that require inpatient admission to Oct. 11 or later. We’re taking this extraordinary step to utilize Cook Children’s perioperative RNs in othe...

By Diane Arnaout, M.D. Let’s imagine a scenario that no parent wants to think about.Let’s say your child starts acting weird over the past few weeks. She seems tired. She’s sleeping more, and laying around all the time.She starts to drink more water....

It’s alarming but not uncommon these days in health care settings to see children and teens who gained a significant amount of weight in the past year … 20, 30, 40 or even 50 pounds.What played a role? In some cases, junk food and lack of exercise as...

This photo series documents the week of Aug. 30, 2021 at Cook Children's Medical Center. ...

By Diane Arnaout, M.D.Hey friends. Our phone lines are blowing up with exposure and quarantine questions. I love that you guys are calling – it’s the right thing to do! And we are here for ya.But just wanted to spell out some common scenarios so that...

By Diane Arnaout, M.D.I am a doctor.As a doctor, I enjoy talking with my doctor friends.I text with other doctors, am in Facebook groups with other doctors, and enjoy sharing a nice meal or drink with them pretty often.I am a lucky doctor. I have man...

Due to a record number of patients, the Urgent Care Centers at Cook Children’s are making changes to accommodate our patient families and to ensure that their staff can continue providing excellent care.Beginning today, the following changes will tak...

What does the FDA approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine mean?Today’s announcement means the public can be very confident that this vaccine is safe, effective and meets the highest standards for manufacturing quality. Since becoming avail...

Shanna Combs, M.D., pediatric gynecologist, answers your questions.As parents, we want to make the best decisions for our baby. We’ve been asked a lot lately if it’s safe for pregnant women, or women planning on becoming pregnant, to get the COVID-19...

The Cook Children’s Emergency Department (ED) has seen a big influx of parents bringing in children who have been exposed to COVID-19 but show no symptoms. Children who aren’t critically-injured or ill should go instead to their pediatrician or a COV...