At Comprehensive Pediatrics our mission is to provide your children with the best newborn, infant, child and adolescent care available. We are dedicated to provide this care in a timely fashion, 7 days a week.

Our board certified pediatricians, physician assistants and nurses have provided service the children of Brooklyn and Staten Island for over 40 years, helping families with 24-hour access to our medical providers. We are committed to the care of all children.

We demonstrate this by continually expanding our participation in as many health care insurance plans as are available, including the many Medicaid options for children.

Recognizing the changes that have occurred in managed medical care, we are aware of the difficulties that families encounter trying to access pediatric subspecialties services. These include pediatric neurology, cardiology, ear, nose and throat physicians as well as others.

Spring Has Sprung at Comprehensive Pediatrics!

The spring season is well under way at Comprehensive Pediatrics! With the advent of the spring comes a host of medical issues that all of our parents should be aware of.

Allergies

The month of March marks the beginning of the spring allergy season for millions of Americans each year. Allergies do run in families and are found to be more common in patients who suffer from asthma or eczema. For unknown reasons, allergies are becoming more and more common and it is possible to develop allergies at any age. For this reason, all parents should be on the look-out for the signs and symptoms of allergies, including those listed below:

Symptoms

stuffy or runny nose with clear drainage
sneezing
itchy eyes and nose
throat clearing
cough that may be worse at night and in the morning

Signs

allergic shiners

"allergic salute" nasal crease

If you are unsure if your child suffers from allergies, bring him into the office to be evaluated. The doctor will examine your child and look for these and other signs of allergies. If necessary, your child can be referred for blood or skin testing for allergies.

The best treatment for allergic rhinitis is avoidance. For spring allergies this includes keeping the windows closed in the car and at home to avoid exposure to tree pollens (the most common culprit of spring-time allergies), and limiting outdoor activities when pollen counts are at their highest (early morning for tree pollens).

If your child’s allergies are interfering with his schoolwork or other activities, speak to your child’s doctor about which medication might be right for him. Allergy medications include antihistamines, both oral (e.g. Benadryl, Zytrtec, Allegra, Claritin etc.) or intranasal (e.g. Patanase), steroids, also oral and intranasal (e.g. Nasonex, Flonase etc.), and decongestants.

Camp Physicals

Spring is also the time of year when people begin making their summer plans and for many this includes enrolling their children in summer camp. If your child will be attending camp this summer, don’t forget that most camps require the child’s pediatrician to fill out a medical history and physical exam form. Our office is more than happy to help you fill out these forms, provided that your child has had a well visit in our office within the past year. If it has been more than a year since your child’s last physical, call our office immediately to schedule a well visit. This will ensure that all forms can be filled out on time and that there will be no delay in your child starting camp.

When your child comes in for a physical exam, he or she will now have the opportunity to benefit from several new innovative diagnostic machines available in our office including the VEP and OAE.

The VEP exam is a specialized eye-screen too that can be performed on children as young as 6 months of age. This quick, simple and non-invasive test helps detect eye problems such as strabismus, lazy eye and vision problems which can be helped by corrective lenses. It can easily be performed with an infant or child sitting on the mother’s lap. The VEP exam should be performed on a yearly basis. Early detection means better treatment.

The OAE is a specialized hearing test. It measures otoacoustic emissions generated by sound. An earplug-like device with a microphone measures the cochlea’s response to sound, listening for otoacoustic emissions. This test can be performed on children of any age, providing they can remain quiet.

Call one of our offices today to schedule your child’s yearly physical!