One of the greatest joys in life is becoming a parent. Babies bring vibrant life and wonder to the world around us and instantly reveal a much deeper capacity for love than we thought possible. Yet no matter how great our effort to help them grow and...

An epilepsy treatment derived from the cannabis plant took a major step toward approval from the Food and Drug Administration today. Epidiolex, an oil-based purified cannabidiol (CBD), has been studied specifically in two rare epilepsy syndromes - Le...

In a little over a month, five children have been rushed to Cook Children’s after being left alone in a bathtub,with one incident resulting in death. The first drowning happened on March 14, 2018 and the latest occurred last week. The experts at C...

When Katie and Chas Shira walked into Cook Children’s Medical Center on a warm December night in 2015, they had nothing but a name, a code and an empty car seat. They had driven three hours from their home in the tiny town of O’Brien, Texas with the ...

From the American Academy of Pediatrics: More effective. Early vaccination prevents substantially more pre-cancer than late vaccination. Long lasting. Current evidence shows that the HPV vaccination does not wear off. Low risk of exposure. HPV...

Expectant moms sometimes call our clinic and ask when they should schedule an appointment to interview their future pediatrician. I say it’s something you can’t do soon enough. If you deliver early, you may miss the chance to sit down and meet the pe...

Today’s students have greater demands than ever before, with homework and a greater emphasis on scoring high on standardized tests like the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). Parents can help by making sure that children pla...

An interesting study came out in the JAMA Pediatrics journal this week. It’s caused a lot of worrisome headlines. I read the paper during my lunch hour this week. It seems to be a decent study (sometimes studies aren’t that good. Remember that the...

Ok let's figure it out - Is it allergies or is it a cold? Both allergies and colds share a lot of similar symptoms: Sore throat Runny nose  Sneezing  Coughing  Feeling tired  Feeling achy Honestly, it can be hard even for us to tell...

"My child has a fever, what could it be?" Just a quick reminder of my big fever rules. Click the links to learn more: 1. You don’t always have to rush off to the ER for a fever. No matter how high. 2. In a well-appearing child, it’s OK to wa...

The new government spending package includes money to pay for GPS tracking devices for families affected by autism. Kevin & Avonte’s Law will give $2 million annually until 2022 for grants to local law enforcement and nonprofit agencies. The money...

A new study shows that health providers are less likely to offer the Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to boys, placing them at risk of cancer when they get older. The research was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Onc...

Spring is already proving deadly for children in water. In less than two weeks, three children have died after being rushed to Cook Children’s for drowning, while another three were admitted to the medical center for their injuries. Their a...

Is Juuling the health problem of the decade? That's the question CNN recently asked, based on a question from a substance abuse counselor.  Research from Truth Initiative shows that 25 percent of 15- to 24-year-old JUUL users refer to their beh...

Kids itch their bottoms. On a recent interview with the Joel McHale Show, Kristen Bell described an episode in her family that highlights one common cause: pinworms. If you haven’t seen the video, I highly recommend you watch it because, it’s a...

If you see a blue light shining outside of a home or business this week, there may be a story behind it. Cook Children’s marks its 100th birthday on March 21 and to celebrate, some are choosing to shine a blue light. For many, the gesture means somet...

You may be surprised to see a child life specialist in one of the rooms at Cook Children’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). After all, this is an area devoted to babies. But spend some time in one of those rooms and you will see a big part of t...

When Nancy Cychol came to Cook Children’s as a nurse in 1984, she intended to stay for three years. No longer. More than three decades later, she's still here serving as the chief of hospital services, and her passion for creating a fun environment f...

The Texas Department of State Health Services has issued a letter warning parents and cheerleaders from 39 states and nine counties that they may have been exposed to mumps at a cheerleading competition last month in Dallas.  The Dallas Morning Ne...

Over time, various concerns about vaccines have been brought up. Basically the way it happens is like this … someone comes up with a theory as to why vaccines might be a cause of autism. The scientific community starts to complete studies to determin...

Two new studies emphasize the dangers of teens using e-cigarettes. The studies published in Pediatrics magazine showed teens who only vape have the highest level of cancer causing chemicals in their bodies and the e-cigarettes are associated with ...

So your child has decided to become a vegetarian. Click to read my introductory companion piece to this blog . For those of you who may have more questions – particularly about the nitty-gritty nutritional realities of this choice – article is for yo...

On March 1, 2018, your Cook Children’s pediatrician’s offices, specialist clinics, urgent care centers, ER and medical center will be using a new computer system called Epic. We are getting rid of the old medical records system and replacing it with ...

By Kelly Wooley When Patti Wilson was pregnant with her daughter Melanie in 1980, health care and technology looked a whole lot different than it does today. Routine sonograms did not exist and there was no way for expectant mothers to know whe...

DeMar DeRozan seems to have it all. He was the ninth player taken in the 2009 NBA draft, he’s been an All-Star for three straight seasons and his Toronto Raptors has the third best record in the league. He’s also wealthy, famous and receives supports...

SCN2A is a gene found on chromosome 2 position 24.3 and thus 2/24 is celebrated as SNC2A Awareness Day worldwide. A rare cause of epilepsy, SCN2A mutations have also been discovered as a cause for intellectual disability and autism. To raise awarenes...

Commonly recommended ways to prevent constipation are to drink water, exercise, and eat fruits, vegetables and fiber-rich foods. Yet even when we use these techniques, our children still sometimes get constipated. Whether its contributing to stomach ...

Did you hear early in the season how the flu vaccine was worthless and only going to have about 10 percent effectiveness? You probably did, but hopefully that didn't prevent you from getting your child's flu vaccine. New data from the CDC sugge...

As if there weren’t enough choices for formula in the newborn period…now we have to decide if our toddler needs formula too? Most pediatricians recommend breastfeeding as the primary source of fluid intake for up to one year of age (even longer is...

Every year in the United States, about 31,000 women and men are diagnosed with a cancer caused by HPV infection. According to the CDC, HPV vaccination can prevent most of the cancers (about 28,000) from occurring. So why aren’t more people getting...