Blue and green slime took center stage at Cook Children’s as employees, volunteers, patients and families gathered to give their doctors a messy “thank you.”  Based on votes from peers and patient families, participants braved 37 buckets and more than 10 gallons of slime. The “green-slimed” winners walked to the pully to celebrate being named the “People’s Choice” and received an extra bucket of slime.

More than 25 participants across eight categories - including family support services, doctors, nurses, child life specialists, social workers, advanced practice providers, volunteers, and members of our administrative team - donned their best outfits to find out who would be the “People’s Choice” for a green-slime bath. 

Congratulations to the winners:

Family Support Services:

Katie Campbell, Director of Family Support Services

Nurses:

Aly Anthony MSN, RN, CPN

Advanced Practice Providers:

Dani Harrington, MSN, APRN, CPNP

Administrative Staff:

Matthew Carroll, M.D., Vice President, Associate Chief Quality Officer

Volunteers:

Ted Taylor

Social Workers:

Christina Reed, Director, Neighborhood Health Centers & Out-patient Psychiatry

Wild Card:

Bryan Pyrc, Physical Therapist, DPT

Physicians:

Taha Muntajibuddin, M.D., Cook Children's Hematology and Oncology Center

9th Annual Slime-A-Doc

Ahead of National Doctors' Day on Saturday, March 30, we are celebrating our doctors with some fun! 

On Wednesday, Cook Children's employees, patients and patient families helped us celebrate with some slime in our 9th annual Slime-A-Doc. We had five categories of participants: doctors, nurses, child life specialists, advanced practice providers and members of our administrative team. Watch the Facebook Live here. 

Thank you to everyone who participated! A big shout-out to Martin Aguado and the Facility Appearances team for making this event possible!

We celebrated all of our world-class doctors. From diagnosing a stomach bug to operating on a broken leg to making treatment plans, the work they do every day is making a difference in the lives of children.

8th Annual Slime-A-Doc

On Thursday, Cook Children's employees, patients and patient families also participated in our 8th annual Slime-A-Doc! You can rewatch the Facebook Live here.

This year, we had four categories of participants: physicians, nurses, child life specialists and members of the Cook Children’s Health Care System’s leadership team.

Thank you to everyone who participated! A big shout-out to Martin Aguado and the Facility Appearances team for making this event possible!

We invite you to join us in celebrating all of our world-class doctors. From diagnosing a stomach bug to operating on a broken leg to making treatment plans, the work they do every day is making a difference in the lives of children.

Please consider making a donation to Cook Children’s in honor of your favorite doctor. There’s a place in the donation form for you to leave a note. If you choose to share your story or extend a thank you, we will make sure they get it -- because they would love to hear just what they mean to you and your family.

Slime-A-Doc

After a two-year hiatus, Slime-A-Doc made a comeback! The event will be hosted at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Cook Children's Medical Center on the South Tower Lawn. 

Thank you to all of the participants and congratulations to this year's winners: 

• Child Life: Laura Sonefeld, Sit…Stay…PLAY! coordinator 
• Nurses and APPs: Lauren Mecke, NP, Urology 
• COVID Command Center Leaders: Stan Davis, chief operating officer 
• Physicians: Diane Arnaout, M.D., and Daniel Guzman, M.D. 

Well, this was news to me. But I've had a rude awakening to the Slime Revolution in my office recently.

I've seen two kids this past month with some of the nastiest, meanest looking finger/hand skin rashes I've seen in awhile.

The skin is dry, cracked, red, and sometimes oozing. It looks inflamed and infected. These rashes have been perplexing to me and it's only after lots of questioning that the families mentioned daily "slime" play.

It will likely take months for their poor skin to fully heal.

I've done a little Pinterest-ing and Googling and it looks like slime is made at home via some concoction of glue, baking soda, food coloring, water, and some form of borax.

OR - the recipe will call for "contact solution", which contains sodium borate or boric acid - which is, you named it - Borax.

Borax. Borax Borax Borax. Are you seeing a trend here?

Borax is a mineral. We use it as a mild antiseptic and cleanser. It's used in laundry detergents and household cleaning items. It actually has tons of good uses.

One of those good uses is not slime-making, in my opinion.

Repeated exposure to borax is known to cause skin problems, especially in kids with sensitive skin (like kids with eczema, or kids who have cuts/bug bites on the hand). Rashes can appear. Burns can appear.

I've even seen some news stories of kids with third-degree burns from the stuff, requiring hospitalization!

Some of these recipes even say they're "Borax-Free!" when really they contain contact lens solution...which has sodium borate in it. Read the fine lines, folks.

If your kids really want to make slime at home, avoid the ones with borax or contact lens solution in them. Here is a link to the recipe Cook Childrens' folks used when they annually slime doctors for Slime-A-Doc.

Or, if you must make the borax kind - limit your kiddos' exposure to it. The rashes seem to appear in kids who use it daily. Limit slime time to 1-2 times a week.

Hope this helps!

❤️Dr. Diane

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