Articles tagged with 'trending' | Checkup Newsroom

Last week, 255 kids tested positive for the flu (24 for Flu A, 231 for Flu B) at the medical center. So, I thought now would be a good time to look at some quick facts about the flu. What The Flu Is The flu is a respiratory illness. The flu ...

Your child’s throat is sore, has a headache and a fever. Is it strep or the flu? Maybe, both? Strep and flu are two very different things, although they may have similar symptoms at times. First, let’s distinguish between the two. The flu...

Germs are gross. Kids are gross. Germs and kids are doubly gross. As parents, we know this is true, especially during this time of year. The illness visits are piling up in my office and throughout the Cook Children's system. The days off sc...

For 10 years I’ve been walking into hospital rooms and entering someone else’s story. For 10 years, I’ve made eye contact with the precious kiddo on the bed and told them that I was there to make sure they understood everything that was happening to ...

It’s 3 a.m. and your child wakes up feeling like an oven. Quick! Where’s your thermometer? The preceding message was a drill. A drill that I should practice more often because when the heat is on, I flame out every time. Let’s assume you are...

Sitting outside of a movie theater, Damian Wells hoped he’d embarrassed himself for the last time. Moments earlier, the 15-year-old Weatherford, Texas teen was watching a movie with his younger sisters when all of the sudden, a fit of cursing and ...

Let’s take a moment to appreciate the beautiful process of a fever. Yes, I’m a mega-dork for the functions of the human body ... and yes, I think fever is a great thing in most settings. Fever has been recognized as being around for thousands of y...

I’ve never been a big proponent of giving a baby medication for normal fussiness or spitting up. But when the fussiness symptoms are severe and consistent with reflux or the baby is not gaining weight well, treatment with an acid reduction medicat...

"95% of baby foods contain heavy metals" "Heavy metals in baby foods leading to lower IQs" You might have seen these headlines in the past few weeks as a result of the report, "What's in my baby's food?" from the Healthy Babies, Bright Futures ...

“His cough is sooo croupy!” When parents report a croupy cough, it means different things. Some parents call bad/deep/dry/wet/rattly coughs croupy. When I think of “croupy cough,” I mean “barky” like a dog or a seal. We are seeing quite a bit o...

A mom reached out to us, asking about the way her child stored food in his mouth. The stuffed cheeks reminded us of a chipmunk. And honestly, it sounded kind of cute. Until, we discussed the issue with one of our experts. Alaina Everitt, a license...

By Megan Cole, Emergency Department Nurse, Cook Children's Medical Center I have had the privilege of working in the Emergency Department at Cook Children’s for 10 years, with three of those years as a nurse. I often have people ask me, “How do yo...

By Megan Cole, Cook Children's Emergency Department Nurse Food allergies are a frequently discussed topic among parents and medical professionals. If you are not a parent of a child with food allergies, chances are high that someone you love, or s...

1. When a child has a sore throat, in general, there is a 37 percent chance that it is strep (Group A Strep, aka, Streptococcus pyogenes) 2. Fifteen-20 percent of kids WITH NO SYMPTOMS AT ALL will be POSITIVE FOR STREP if tested. This means 15-20 ...

Along with routine questions about your child’s diet, growth and development, more and more pediatricians are asking children difficult questions about depression and thoughts about suicide. Kristen Pyrc, M.D., co-medical director of Psychiatry at...

It's hard to turn on the news and not see a story about the dangers of e-cigarettes or vaping.  As of Aug. 28, 2019, there have been nearly 200 reported incidents of vaping-related illness in 22 states, resulting in at least one death.  Earlier...

By Dr. Diane Arnaout Earlier this summer, my 17-year-old patient Tryston just wasn’t feeling like himself. “I was tired all the time. My energy was low. I was losing some weight.” Then, things quickly turned downhill. He started having chill...

School’s out for summer! It’s time for playing at the park, swimming and catching lightning bugs. Unfortunately, it’s also the time when I see many office visits related to insect bites and their complications. It seems like no matter how hard I try ...

The last thing Jeff Murray, M.D., wants to do is be interviewed for this story. It’s not about being rude or even shy, it’s just he wants to make darn sure the love is spread around for the people that make up the Neuro-Oncology Program at Cook Ch...

Have you ever noticed a prominent blue vein across your child’s nose? Maybe you thought it was no big deal. Maybe you heard something about it that made you worry. Here are 4 facts about sugar bugs that you should know: 1.Prominent veins are...