Excerpt from the New York Times, October 8, 2008

WASHINGTON – Manufacturers of pediatric cough and cold medicines announced Tuesday that they would voluntarily change their products’ labels to say that they should not be used in children under age 4.

In addition, products with certain antihistamines will get new language warning parents not to use them to sedate or make a child sleepy. While many parents believe that getting a sick child to sleep is the best medicine, the use of sedatives is widely discouraged by medical experts, who say they can worsen breathing problems caused by illness…

…Many injuries from pediatric cough and cold medicines occur when young children get their hands on medicine bottles without their parents’ knowledge. But accidental overdoses have also resulted when parents confuse dosing instructions or give their children two products without realizing that those drugs share ingredients.

…Most of the pediatric injuries occurred among children under 4 and …banning the drugs’ use in that age range should therefore solve a vast majority of problems.

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Information on the H1N1 (“Swine Flu”) Virus

There has been much hysteria in the media and the local school systems about the new H1N1 or swine flu virus. Tenafly Pediatrics would like to share the information provided by the Centers for Disease Control on May 28th, 2009.

Influenza in any given season comes in three different varieties: Influenza A H3N2, Influenza A H1N1, and Influenza B. The H3N2 virus tends be more serious and causes higher hospitalization and death rates, while the seasonal H1N1 virus tends to affect people under 25 more frequently, but causes less severe disease. The swine H1N1 flu appears to be mimicking the seasonal variety, as 62% of those patients identified so far have been under 25, and the vast majority of those who have been sick have been only mildly ill.

In general, the chances of contracting the virus is only about 7-10% in any given community. Even if someone in the household has the virus, the risk for other members of that household of contracting the virus is only about 20%. The relatively few deaths that have occurred have generally involved patients who had an underlying medical condition that made them more susceptible to severe influenza, and the overall death rate is around 0.15%.

The basic meaning of all of this information is that right now, the swine H1N1 flu seems to be no more dangerous (and has fewer symptoms) than the flu that circulates every winter. In children, signs that need urgent medical attention include:

• fast breathing or trouble breathing
• bluish or gray skin color
• not drinking enough fluids
• severe, persistent vomiting
• not waking up or not interacting
• being so irritable that the child doesn't want to be held
• flu-like symptoms which improve, but then return later with a fever and a worse cough. Any child with high fever should be seen.

If these symptoms are not present, the child should improve spontaneously after a few days of fever and discomfort. For children over five who do not have any underlying medical problems, treatment with lots of fluids and fever reducers should be sufficient. For younger children or children with significant chronic medical conditions such as moderate to severe asthma, diabetes, seizure disorders, etc. consultation with your pediatrician is warranted if they develop flu-like symptoms.

We hope this information helps you to understand the current situation and to help separate fact from fiction.

Tenafly Pediatrics is very interested in the opinions of our patients and their family members concerning the care received at our practice.  Your feedback is very important to us and will be used to help us improve our service.  We ask that you kindly take a moment to complete this survey, which is voluntary and confidential.  Please fax, deliver or mail the form to your Tenafly location. Thank you.

(Note: This survey is saved as a PDF file. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. To download, click here.)

• Patient Satisfaction Survey. Click here.

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We, at Tenafly Pediatrics, would like to ensure your child's health and well being. In order to do so it is important that we see our patients for regular health maintenance visits. You will notice that these visits are most frequent during the first year of life. This is because your child will change more in the first year than at any other time in his or her life. During these visits we will also administer vaccines and perform bloodwork to further ensure your child's well being as well as any answer any questions you may have about your child.

The schedule for well visits is as follows:

• For vaginal birth – few days after birth
• For C-section – 1 week after birth
• 2 week visit
• 4 week visit
• 2 month visit
• 3 month visit
• 4 month visit
• 6 month visit
• 9 month visit
• 12 month visit
• 15 month visit
• 18 month visit
• 2 year visit
• 2.5 year visit
• 3 year visit
• Annual visits after age 3.

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For your convenience, Tenafly Pediatrics is making important forms available for download! Below we have posted PDF files for our Patient Registration form and our Family History form.

Simply click on the PDF file and print. Once you have filled out the appropriate information, please hand deliver the forms to the appropriate Tenafly location.

(Note: These forms are saved as a PDF file. You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view. To download, click here.)

• Patient Registration Form. Click here.

• Family History Form. Click here.

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Welcome to Tenafly Pediatrics, P.A., where you'll find health care professionals and staff dedicated to providing you with the highest level of quality care... personal, considerate, sensitive, and knowledgeable. Our highest priority is you. Your comfort. Your well-being. Your total health.

We want to bring you the best in health care services. One way we do that is by offering you, our patient, this Web site to get to know us better and access health services and information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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Our pediatricians are board-certified and received their education and training from some of the country's most renowned medical schools and pediatric residency programs. We are very proud of our backgrounds, which are provided for your review in this web site.

We are committed to making each visit as pleasant as possible for you and your family. Our nurses and receptionists share our passion for caring for children. The Tenafly Pediatrics facilities are child-friendly and comfortable, and our offices are established in convenient locations. We are open 365 days a year, and our offices include evening and weekend hours to accommodate working parents. We enjoy listening to our patients and families so that we can improve the care and service we provide to you.

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