Test your flu IQ

By Michelle Barajaz, MD, FAAP
Director, Baylor College of Medicine Residency Program

Most parents would do anything to protect their children from harm. We buckle them into their car seats, make them wear helmets, and teach them to look both ways when they cross the street. However, every year many parents fail to take a simple step that could save them from losing their child to a very real and present, but mostly preventable, danger: influenza. See how much you know about how to protect your child by taking our quick true/false quiz.

Be SMART about children and gun safety

By Dr. Ruchi Kaushik, MPH, FAAP
San Antonio Business Journal’s 2016 Woman of the Year
Director, ComP-CaN (Comprehensive Peds for Complex Needs)
The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio

Here in Texas we take great pride in our freedoms; freedom, however, isn’t necessarily free: We send our sons and daughters into battle to protect our freedoms; we drive around beautiful and historic downtown San Antonio and are required by law to wear seat belts and secure our children in car seats/booster seats; we choose to own a firearm, which may pose a risk to the children who live in or visit our homes. Every year at least 100 children die in an unintentional shooting. Recent events may have sparked you to think, “What can I do to keep my child safe?”

Gabriella’s smile lives on through family’s foundation

By Cecilio Torres, Jr.
Founder, Gabriella’s Smile Foundation

Gabriella’s name means “God is my strength” and that is what was exhibited from the moment she was born and was magnified when she was diagnosed with DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma), an incurable and inoperable brain tumor, which once diagnosed, only provides children with about nine months of life. She was five years old at her diagnosis.

We were unprepared when Gabriella was diagnosed on March 16, 2015, and verified on March 17 after an MRI confirmed ours and our doctor’s worst fear. We sat in a conference room at The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio surrounded by our oncologist, a nurse and social worker who told us, “Your daughter will not survive beyond 2015. She has DIPG.” These four letters, this diagnosis, sent us into a whirlwind of emotional uncertainty, insecurity and fear of losing our beautiful little Gabriella.

Keeping Your Baby Safe: Infant Car Seat Safety

By Jesse Banales, MD
The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio

Congratulations! Your baby has just finished leaving her comfortable, quiet life in the womb, endured a rude awakening through the birth process, and is finally ready to go home. But are you ready? Many parents think they understand the basics of infant car seats but often overlook important details. Below are some common mistakes parents often make when it comes to infant car seats:

Changing the seat to forward-facing too early. In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics started recommending that infants and toddlers be in rear-facing car safety seats until they are two years old or until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by the car seat manufacturer. This is based on studies showing that infants in rear-facing seats were much less likely to have serious injuries following a car crash than those in forward-facing seats. As your baby gets bigger, his feet may touch the seat in front of them and that’s OK! If you worry that your baby is uncomfortable, remember that this is your same child who has the flexibility to put his own feet in his mouth with ease.

There remains no evidence that vaccines cause autism

This blog was prepared by (pictured left to right)
Andrew Martinez, PhD, Co-Director of the Autism Program
Melissa Svoboda, MD, Pediatric Neurology, Director, Autism Program
Jonathan Crews, MD, MS, Pediatric Infectious Diseases
The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio

Although allegations arise from time to time about a link between autism and childhood vaccines, the medical community has spent the last 30 years examining this question numerous times with the same conclusion – there is no link between autism and vaccines. As health care professionals and parents, we want what is best for children – ours and yours. Multiple large studies have been performed by independent researchers from around the world and have included different groups of children. Overwhelmingly, these studies concluded there is no evidence to support an association between vaccines and autism.

These concerns started when Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, published a study in 1998 where he associated the onset of autism symptoms with the timing of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) combination vaccine. Wakefield was later found to have knowingly falsified data and to have financial interests in the study, including a pending application for an alternative measles-only vaccine. Once his fraud was discovered, the journal redacted the study and Wakefield was stripped of his United Kingdom medical license. Unfortunately, he decided to make a documentary on his journey that has stirred up much of this controversy.