Category: Safety
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Vaccines at the Pharmacy : A Flu Shot, Three Extras, and Zero Clue About You
Pharmacy vaccines are convenient, but convenience is not the same as continuity of care. A pediatrician’s sarcastic take on vaccine clinics, medical history, reactions, and missing records. My spouse went to the pharmacy tonight, to pick up regular medications. A perfectly ordinary errand: grab the prescription, maybe a pack of gum, leave before someone tries…
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Essential Baby Proofing Tips for Your Home
The Unfiltered Pediatrician’s case for treating your living room like a crime scene waiting to happen. Your baby cannot walk, cannot talk, and cannot be reasoned with, and yet somehow they will locate the one uncapped outlet, the one unlatched cabinet, and the one loose coin under the couch with the precision of a heat-seeking…
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Congratulations, Your Baby Floated for 11 Seconds: A Pediatrician Ruins Your Pool Party
Every summer, right on schedule, my inbox fills with the same triumphant subject line: “She’s basically a lifeguard now!!” Attached is a video of a six-month-old in a swim diaper flipping onto her back after face-planting into a backyard pool, looking, frankly, like a very small, very damp Roomba recalculating its route. The caption always…
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That Crib Bumper Isn’t a Safety Feature. It’s a Step Stool
The Unfiltered Pediatrician’s case against decorating the crib like a Pinterest board. Every new parent has stood in the nursery aisle, stroking a beautiful little crib bumper set, wondering why the pediatrician is being such a killjoy about it. The official reason you’ll hear is suffocation risk, and for the newborn stage, that’s absolutely true…
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Childhood Sunburns: The Gift That Keeps on Giving, Melanoma Edition
A pediatrician’s mildly aggressive PSA on the most underrated item in your diaper bag. Every summer, without fail, I have some version of this conversation in my office:“Doc, it wasn’t even sunny out.”“Doc, it was basically overcast.”“Doc, we were only outside for twenty minutes.”And every summer, I get to deliver the same joyful news: the…
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It’s Just Anesthesia Is a Lie We Tell Nervous Parents
A pediatrician’s unbothered case for treating general anesthesia like the big deal it actually is. Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately, because I can already feel the comments: yes, some surgeries are absolutely necessary, urgent, and life-changing in the best way, and if your child needs one, please, for the love of…