Frequently Asked Questions

We require that all our children and young adults receive all of the recommended vaccines according to the schedule published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Any required vaccines missed during a check-up must be made up at the next check-up. To read our full policy, click here.

A fever is a temperature over 100.4 F. If your child is less than 2 months old, please call us right away. If your child is 2 to 6 months old and is otherwise acting okay, you may give an age specific dose of Tylenol (NO MOTRIN) and call our office as soon as possible for an appointment. If your child is 6 months or older, you may give Tylenol or Motrin. Fever is a sign of illness and accompanies many types of illness. It is not an indicator of how sick your child is. In fact, with many cold viruses, fever may persist for several days. If you have any concerns, call us at any time; otherwise, if a fever subsides with medication and your child is acting okay you can wait to call till your child has had fever for more than 24 hours.

Typically, time and rest will be the best treatment. Colds will usually worsen over the first 2-3 days. Decongestants are not typically recommended for children and infants. They may be tried for adolescents. For infants, the use of a nasal suction and humidifier can be very helpful in helping clear the nose as well as an elevated position for sleep. For a child over the age of 1 year, you may continue use of a humidifier and suction if they will let you. You may use Vicks to help open the nasal passages. If your child has a cough, especially at night, raise the head of the bed and you may give honey as it has been shown to be more helpful in alleviating cough than a cough medicine in children. Remember to never use honey for a child less than 1 year old. Although it is normal for a cold to last a week, please call us if symptoms are not improving after 3 days, if there has been fever for more than 24 hours, or if your child complains of ear pain.

Evidence-based medicine/guidelines are clinical guidelines that help our providers provide quality care. Evidence-based means the treatment we are preparing to use has been tested and the outcomes have been documented and tested again and again! The goal of evidence-based guidelines is to reduce provider/practice variation in treating a patient. We follow guidelines endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Center for Disease Control.

If your child is not breathing, is bleeding severely, or has any other life threatening emergency, call 911. Otherwise, call us as we can help you avoid many ER visits. Even if we do feel you need to go to the ER, we like to know what is going on with our patients so that we may continue to give you the best care for your child.

Yes, but we ask that you call earlier in the day to ensure that we can fit you into the schedule. At this time we are closed on Sundays but please call – if the doctor is available she can advise you about care options for Sunday.

YES. In the US, vaccines are very well studied, safe, and strictly regulated by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There are many false statements on the internet linking certain vaccines to specific diseases. Vaccines prevent severe diseases. In fact, there have been recent large outbreaks of measles and whooping cough in unvaccinated populations.

We get asked this questions a lot and it is a great question. There are many good reasons why not to divide the waiting rooms. See this blog post here for info: Why Separate Waiting Areas Don’t Work.

Stool frequency does not define constipation – consistency does. After the first month of life an exclusively breast-fed baby can go 5-6 days without a bowel movement, and a formula fed baby can go 3 days. If the stools are fine then do nothing. If your child is having hard stools you will want to give them 1-2 ounces per day of apple, pear, or prune juice. If your child continues to have hard stools, call our office.