Phone Calls & Prescription Refills Information
Routine questions and medication refill requests should be phoned into the office between 8:00am and 4:00pm Monday through Friday. NO controlled substances or routine prescriptions will be called in after hours. Non-emergency calls will be returned within 24 hours. When calling for a refill please leave the name and birthdate of your child, the medication, and the pharmacy you wish for it to be called in to.
Weekend and after hour phone calls are referred through our answering service and should be limited to EMERGENCY QUESTIONS ONLY. This service is provided to help guide you as to what steps should be taken to help your child. Thank you for waiting until the next business day for all non-emergency calls.
Results on lab tests will usually be available 3 to 5 days after they were done.
Thank you for your cooperation. We look forward to serving you and your child.

Why Immunize your Child?
"Why Should I Immunize My Child?"

Immunization is a true medical success story. Without question, immunizations protect our children from dangerous infections that can cause long-term disease, disability and even death. As a pediatrician who has been in practice for 40 years, I have seen the devastating effects of polio in the 1940s and 1950s, the outbreaks of measles in the 1960s and 1970s, and the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) meningitis outbreaks of the 1980s and 90s. Even though immunization efforts in the United States have been largely successful, we all still need to keep in mind that many of these diseases are only a plane ride away.

The decision to immunize your child is a critical one, because vaccines are the single most effective protection against diseases that continue to threaten our children. If you don’t immunize your child, it’s not only a risk for your child, but for other children in the community as well. We need to build what’s known as “community immunity.” You see, as long as the great majority of children receive their vaccines, we will be able to maintain our current level of disease control. Otherwise, viruses and bacteria travel freely from person to person, from school to school and from community to community, and we will return to the era when deadly epidemics were an accepted part of life. Thank you for being one of the millions of parents who rely on the most important preventive medicine there is: Immunization.

FOR NEW INFORMATION ON VACCINE SAFETY
Click on: MEDICAL LINKS then
Click on: VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER

Dr. Abe

Thomas the Train Toy Recall
Recently the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall on the Wooden Railway Toy train series of Thomas the Train toys due to a lead poison hazzard. Some of the trains in this series may have lead paint on them. Prolonged exposure to lead can be very harmful to children.

IF YOU HAVE THESE TOYS IN YOUR HOME PLEASE REMOVE THEM IMMEDIATELY AND CONTACT OUR OFFICE TO HAVE YOUR CHILD SCREENED FOR LEAD POISONING.

For a complete list of toys being recalled visit www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07212.html or call 866-725-4407 for more information.

Never Leave Your Child Alone
From 1996 - 2001, at least 150 children, most of them three and younger, died from heat stroke after being trapped in a vehicle's passenger compartment. Reasearch conducted by General Motors revealed that these children were left behind in a closed, parked car by parents or cargivers, or they gained access to the car on their own and could not get out.
This is a serious public heath issue, and one that is entirely preventable. Parents may mistakenly think they can safely leave a child in a vehicle for a 'quick' errand. Unfortunately, a delay of just a few minutes can lead to tragedy.
Heat is much more dangerous to children than it is to adults. When left in a hot vehicle, a young child's core body temperature may increase three to five times faster than an adult. This could cause permanent injury or even death!

Here are some tips from the National Safe Kids Campaign/ General Motors to help keep your kids safe:
* Teach children not to play in, on or around cars.
* Never leave a child unattended in a motor vehicle, even with a window slightly open. This applies to pets as well. On a typically sunny, summer day, the temperature inside a vehicle can reach potentially deadly levels within minutes.
* Always lock car doors and trunks - even at home and keep keys out of reach of children.
* Watch children closely around cars, particularly when loading or unloading. Check to ensure that all children leave the vehicle when you reach your destination. Don't overlook sleeping infants.
* Secure children correctly on every ride. Go to www.safekids.org for more information.
* When restraining children in a car that has been parked in the heat, check to make sure seating surfaces and equipment (car seat and seat belt buckles) aren't too hot.

And remember, Never Leave Your Child Alone!
Thank you.

Book Bag Syndrome
Overloaded Backpacks Are Giving
Children Adult-Like Back Pain

THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY is weighing in on the debate about the amount of homework students are asked to do. The diagnosis: The problem isn't how much homework kids have, but how much they are carrying.
Doctors say they are seeing a growing number of children suffering serious back pain as the result of carrying around overloaded backpacks. Because children's spines are still growing, many fear the heavy packs and tilted gait they cause could lead to long-term back problems.
Injuries associated with backpacks have more than doubled during the past five years. More than 6,000 children are treated in hospital emergency rooms each year for injuries related to lugging heavy backpacks -- and most are under 14 years of age.
The phenomenon even prompted the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations to declare April national backpack safety month.
A study by Akron General Medical Center weighed the backpacks of more than 400 fourth and fifth graders. The average pack weighed about 14 pounds. More significantly, the fourth graders were carrying about 15% of their body weight, while the fifth graders were carrying, on average, 17%.
Many kids, however, carried far heavier bags. The study found that nearly a quarter of the children carried a backpack weighing more than 20% of their body weight. The equivalent would be a 180-pound man carrying nearly 40 pounds on his back, several times a day, five days a week.
"This is too much weight for kids to be carrying around," says Heidi Frasure, hospital research coordinator and one of the study's authors.
The trend is particularly troubling because children are now complaining of aches and pains that historically haven't shown up until people hit their 30s or 40s.
"Unfortunately children are carrying backpacks that are 25, 30 and 40% of their body weight," says New York City chiropractor John Vilkelis. "As the backpack gets heavier, they alter their posture more, they lean forward to support the weight, and it can cause all kinds of different injuries to their back and neck."
Andrew B. Marsh, physical therapist at the University of Michigan spine program, says he has seen kids as young as five or six complaining of back pain.
The problem, he says, is one of repetitive strain. Overloaded backpacks are carried by kids on their way to the bus stop, from the bus to the school, between classes, and on the way home -- every day, five days a week.
Mr. Marsh is conducting a study comparing regular backpacks and those fitted with a device called the Kelty Back Balancer (www.outdoormedicalresearch.com).
The study, sponsored by the device maker, asks 20 ninth and 10th graders to carry backpacks weighting 10% and 20% of their body weight. The kids walk on a treadmill for four, five-minute intervals. The study includes regular checks of heart rate and blood pressure, as well as photographs of the child's posture.
"Ninety percent of the kids who come through the study say the weight they're carrying at the 20% mark isn't nearly as heavy as the books they carry every day," Mr. Marsh says.
The Back Balancer, which costs about $30, is reminiscent of the wide belts weight lifters use. It consists of a plate that fits on the waist belt of a back pack. The plate pushes against the stomach, causing the abdomen to contract and bear more of the burden, taking the load off the spine and shoulders, says co-inventor Ed Kois, a physician at the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua, N.H.
Doctors suggest a child's backpack shouldn't exceed 5% to 10% of the child's body weight. The worst pain is caused by one-strap backpacks that have become trendy among teenagers. Backpacks should always have two padded straps and at the very least an abdominal belt. Rolling backpacks are one solution, but some schools have banned the packs because they cause tripping in the halls and block aisles in classrooms.
H.B. Dumeer, principal of Cromwell Middle School in Cromwell, Conn., has started his own battle against the backpack. He has the school nurse randomly stop children in the hall to weigh their backpacks. If they weigh too much, the nurse helps the students figure out what they don't really need to carry.
He also invited parents in to meet with a chiropractor to discuss the damage heavy backpacks do to children's spines. He has forbidden backpacks to be carried in halls and into classrooms -- not only because kids were carrying too much weight all day, but because they also were bumping into each other and falling in the halls.
He has finally come up with a partial solution to the problem. He is spending $15,000 to buy math and science textbooks that will stay permanently in classrooms, so kids can keep their own copy at home for homework. It's expensive, but Mr. Dumeer thinks the school may save money because it will mean less wear and tear on books.
"Just drive by any school as they're dismissing," Mr. Dumeer says. "You'll just be amazed at how heavy these book bags are. You can just see the weight they're carrying."