Once you find out you’re pregnant it seems like everything shifts focus to how you are going to take care of yourself and your unborn child. Furthermore, you start making decisions about how to care for your baby once it enters the world. One of the most important aspects is choosing a pediatrician that your child can turn to from birth until adulthood for medical care. Choosing a doctor that you like and can trust is important not just for parents but also children.

Having the same doctor means that children are also more likely to get the proper care, tests, and vaccines they need to keep them healthy. Having a continuous, trustworthy relationship with your children’s doctor will ensure that your child gets the care and treatment they need through all aspects of their developing life.

Looking for a Pediatrician

So, when is the best time to start looking for a pediatrician? Usually a good time to start searching is between 28 and 34 weeks. This will give you enough time to do your homework and not feel rushed to find a doctor that you feel you truly can trust. You can ask your friends, colleagues, and family members for personal recommendations and referrals. Once you determine which doctors sound good it’s time to setup a one-on-one meeting to learn more about their training, practice and services.

This is also a time to determine whether the pediatrician is a good fit for your family and that you feel a good, positive connection with them. Prepare questions ahead of time so that you get the most out of your consultation.

Newborn Care

Once your child is born they will usually see a pediatrician for the first time within the first week of birth. After that, your newborn will come into the office regularly for monitoring, vaccines, screenings, and checkups. These routine checkups are crucial, as they allow your pediatrician to monitor everything from their hearing and vision to certain health problems and developmental delays. By bringing your child in for their regularly scheduled appointments your pediatrician will be able to catch problems and provide early interventions to reduce the risk for complications and long-term issues.

When your baby arrives it’s natural to have a lot of questions. Your pediatrician isn’t just here to provide your child with comprehensive health care; they can also provide you with answers to everything from breastfeeding and bathing to diet and sleep schedules.

Your pediatrician can educate parents, especially new parents, on the dos and don’t of caring for their newborn.

If you are currently pregnant it’s never too soon to find the right pediatrician for your budding family.

One moment your child is born and the next moment they are sitting up, saying their first word and taking their first steps. It’s amazing just how many milestones your child will reach in just the first few years of their life, and in order to ensure that your child reaches all of these milestones it’s important to visit their pediatrician regularly for routine wellness visits.

Seeing the doctor isn’t just for moments when your child has a fever or the sniffles, it’s also important that they visit the doctor often for well-child checkups. The benefits of these regular visits include,

• Vaccinating your child and preventing a variety of serious and potentially life-threatening diseases
• Screening them for certain health problems
• Checking their vision and hearing
• Reducing your child’s risk of getting sick
• Monitoring and treating preexisting conditions
• Detecting health problems early on and treat them quickly
• Improving your child’s health and their quality of life

There are many things that go into a well-child visit. When your child visits the pediatrician here are some things to expect,

• Monitoring of vital signs, which includes taking their temperature, heart rate and blood pressure
• Recording their height and weight
• Asking questions about your child’s current health status, physical activity level, diet, sleeping patterns, etc.
• A comprehensive physical examination
• Administering immunizations

Additional screenings, vaccines and other elements may also be included in certain well-child checkups depending on their age. For example, most children will start getting a hearing and vision screening at around three years old.

These checkups won’t just detect physical health problems but also developmental disabilities such as ADHD and learning disorders. Bringing your child in for regular wellness checkups allows your child’s pediatrician to continue to monitor their speech to pinpoint early signs that there could be a developmental delay or disability present. All children should be screened for developmental delays by the time they are 9 months old, and again at 24 and 30 months.

Bringing your child in regularly will also get them comfortable with the doctor’s office. Your child’s first visit should happen just a few days after they are born. From there, your newborn will continue to visit the pediatrician at 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months.

Once they reach their first birthday, they will come into our office at 15 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months and 3 years. From 4 to 21 years old, children and teens should visit their pediatrician once a year for a checkup.

When was the last time your child saw the doctor? Keeping them healthy means keeping up with these routine checkups. Schedule your child’s next wellness visit today.

Bedwetting is a common childhood problem. Many children who master toilet training during the day, usually between the ages of two and four, continue to experience episodes of bedwetting through the night. In many cases, the nighttime bedwetting incidents will gradually decrease until they have completely ceased around the age of five or six.

So, when should parents worry about their child’s bedwetting behaviors? Most pediatricians agree that it’s quite normal for children to experience occasional “accidents” and that most children will outgrow it on their own.

When to Visit Your Pediatrician

Bedwetting is rarely a serious problem. In fact, wetting up to a year after the child has successfully been toilet trained is normal. Children gain bladder control at different ages, and while most kids quit wetting at night by the age of 6, others may take a little longer. In the majority of cases, wetting does not have a medical cause.

According to the AAP, you should contact your pediatrician if your child continues to have frequent “accidents” or if you notice any of the following signs:

• Wet clothing and bed linens, even when the child uses the toilet frequently
• Unusual straining during urination, a very small or narrow stream of urine, or dribbling after urination
• Cloudy or pink urine
• Abnormal redness or rash in the genital area
• Trying to conceal wetting by hiding clothes or underwear
• Daytime wetting in addition to nighttime accidents

Parents should remember to be sensitive to their child’s wetting behavior so not to cause additional embarrassment or discomfort. Never punish the child for bedwetting. Instead, show support and encouragement by reassuring the child that it is not his or her fault and that the problem will get better.

Remember, even though childhood wetting is frustrating, it is very normal. Talk to your pediatrician if you have concerns about your child’s bedwetting behaviors. 

ADHD, short for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a behavioral disorder that might be affecting about five percent of children according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Psychiatric Association. As a concerned parent, it’s understandable that you might have a number of questions about ADHD. Start with these frequently asked questions and schedule a consultation with a pediatrician at Virginia Pediatric Group, Ltd. in Fairfax, Herndon, Great Falls, and Aldie, VA.

What Should Parents Know About ADHD?
ADHD is caused by an issue related to the child’s brain development and activity. Though there’s no clearly defined reason why some children have ADHD, the disorder could be caused by congenital issues, heredity, environmental factors (such as toxins or pollution), lifestyle factors, or even poor diet. Children who experience a major head injury early in life could be affected. ADHD could also accompany other behavioral, mental, or congenital conditions, such as depression or autism.

What Are the Notable Symptoms of ADHD?
In advance of your appointment with your child’s doctor at Virginia Pediatric Group in Herndon, Great Falls, Aldie, and Fairfax, VA, get familiar with the notable symptoms of ADHD:

- Being impulsive—frequently acting before thinking, even if it could lead to an undesirable situation.
- Inability to sit still, calm down, or be quiet when it’s important to do so (such as in the classroom).
- Poor attention, focus, memory, and challenges when it comes to planning for key tasks.

What Are the Common ADHD Treatments and Therapies?
If you notice symptoms of ADHD and have this condition diagnosed by your child’s pediatrician, there are a number of treatments to consider:

- Behavioral therapy (meeting regularly with a therapist who is familiar with healthy childhood development, which includes fostering healthy social, familial, and educational goals).
- Support and guidance for parents of children who have ADHD.
- If necessary, medication to help the child focus and calm down in public settings.

Consult Your Pediatrician Soon for Help
When you notice possible symptoms of ADHD, you should make an appointment with your pediatrician as soon as possible. You can get help at Virginia Pediatric Group in Herndon, Great Falls, Aldie, and Fairfax, VA. Call (703) 573-2432 today to schedule time with a member of the pediatric team.

Truth is, anyone with an appendix can get appendicitis—even our children. Appendicitis is a painful inflammation of the hollow, finger-shaped organ attached to the end of the large intestine. If left untreated, an inflamed appendix can rupture, leading to a lengthy hospital stay for complications including abdominal infection and bowel obstruction.  

When your child complains of stomach pain, consult your pediatrician for proper diagnosis and to ensure the health of your child. Since appendicitis is potentially life-threatening, it is important to understand the symptoms so that you can spot appendicitis in your child. In order of appearance, the symptoms include:

• Abdominal pain

• Vomiting

• Loss of appetite

• Fever

Unfortunately, symptoms of appendicitis might also be hidden by a viral or bacterial infection that preceded it. Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and fever may appear before the typical pain of appendicitis, which makes the diagnosis much more difficult.

Your child’s discomfort might also disappear, which will persuade you that they are better. However, this disappearance of pain could also mean that the appendix has just broken open or ruptured. The pain might leave for several hours, but this is the moment when appendicitis becomes dangerous, making it more important than ever to visit your pediatrician for immediate care for your child.

Treatment

When your pediatrician diagnoses your child with appendicitis, surgery is usually needed as soon as possible. Surgically removing the appendix is usually the treatment of choice, as it is important to eliminate the inflamed appendix before it bursts.  

While most children with abdominal pain do not have appendicitis, you can never be too safe when it comes to the health of your child. Visit your pediatrician for further diagnosis of this serious problem and to take the next steps toward a healthy child.