Awhile back, I started adding a talk about consent to all my well child visits. We talk about boundaries. We talk about being in control of our own bodies & that no one has the right to take that away. We talk about “yes” and “no.” We also talk about the flip side: respecting other people’s boundaries and their bodily autonomy. Respecting their “yes” and “no.”

The talk looks different at different ages, but around age 11 I explicitly use the word “consent.”

I got pregnant with my son during MS4 year, started intern year when he was 3 months, had my daughter 2 years later as a PGY2. Now I’m a PGY3 with a toddler and a baby who don’t sleep and all I want is to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight

Losing weight is HARD I have access to essentially every resource—healthy food, clean water, a safe neighborhood, gym membership—except TIME.

It’s so easy for us to dole out advice—just eat less, move more!—but without the time to devote to self care, packing lunches, etc, it is so much harder

Alright, folks. With all the talk of measles lately, the MMR has been covered pretty well recently, but I’ve noticed a lot of misinformation circulating about Hepatitis B. Let’s talk about the Hep B vaccine and why we recommend it for newborns and babies. Hepatitis B is a virus, and an extremely hardy one. Although many people think of it as a disease transmitted sexually or through contaminated needles, it can be transmitted through many bodily fluids and can persist on surfaces—outside the human body!—for up to seven days.

I want to talk a little bit about this idea that physicians (specifically pediatricians) don't focus enough on nutrition, exercise, and non-drug interventions, or that we somehow benefit from pushing pharmaceuticals upon healthy kids and families. 90% of my job in clinic is reassuring families that everything is OK. Almost every infant visit is a discussion of normal behaviors and good nutrition. The vast majority of my sick visits involve recommending AGAINST the use of OTC cold and flu medications.