As part of our patient resources, Chapel Hill Pediatrics and Adolescents have provided health education and medical information on this page. The information on these pages covers some common children’s health concerns, including:
Our care coordinators can provide additional resources, pamphlets, and information to our patients as well. Our advice nurses are also great resources to our patients and are available to help with health concerns and questions our patients may have.
Please contact us with your questions and we will do our best to answer them and provide you with the information you need! With two pediatric center locations in Chapel Hill and Durham, NC, we see many patients from surrounding cities, including Mebane, Raleigh, Butner, Hillsborough, Carrboro, Creedmoor, Pittsboro, Leesville, Wake Forest and beyond.
When the warm weather arrives, we all head outdoors to enjoy the sunshine! While the warmth of the sun is enticing after a long winter, take precautions to protect your child’s skin. Following the guidelines below will let you and your children safely enjoy North Carolina’s sunny days.
Infants under 6 months have skin that is more sensitive to the sun. Limit their exposure to sunlight. When out in the sun:
While tick bites are of great concern for most parents, it’s important to also remember that most tick bites are harmless. Understanding ticks, where they live, how to prevent tick bites, and how to remove a tick if a bite occurs will equip parents to comfortably care for their children during the outdoor months.
Ticks come in two different sizes, the small pinhead-sized deer tick and the larger dog tick, which may be the size of an eraser-head. Tick bites are painless, therefore they may go unnoticed for several hours or even days. Most tick bites are harmless.
The spread of disease by a tick is rare. An infected deer tick may transmit Lyme disease, an infected dog tick may transmit Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Ticks may be carriers of other diseases as well. An infected tick can only transmit Lyme disease after it has been attached to a person 12 to 24 hours, therefore nightly checks during high tick seasons are a must!
To prevent tick bites, use these precautions when you are outdoors in suitable tick areas:
If you find a tick on your child, remove the tick by following these steps:
Are you planning international travel with your family in the near future? Will your child be studying abroad? Make the most of your trip by pre-planning for your health needs. Make an appointment with your NC pediatrician at Chapel Hill Pediatrics and Adolescents for a travel consultation as soon as you know your travel destination.
Some travel healthcare preparations require four to six months; at minimum, make an appointment two to three weeks before your trip. Your Chapel Hill or Durham pediatrician will be happy to consult with you to help make your trip as healthy and safe as possible.
Please check the health insurance policy prior to the appointment to ascertain coverage of appointments and children’s travel immunizations.
Concerns have been circulating through social media regarding the safety of Propylene Glycol 3350 (brand names MiraLAX and Glycolax among others). The current medical literature (which includes studies and case reports) currently does not contain any evidence of serious side effects, besides bloating, abdominal pain, and diarrhea (which are side-effects of most all laxatives), which is impressive given that MiraLAX has been used in children for many years. The longest study we found was 39 children maintained on MiraLAX for 1 year who only experienced common laxative side effects (though there was 1 allergic reaction to MiraLAX). As some children are on MiraLAX for years, the FDA is sponsoring a large multi-year study to evaluate the safety of MiraLAX. The “new” news is that this study has been ongoing at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
You may have also read that in 2015, the FDA revealed that some batches of polyethylene glycol 3350 contained trace amounts of ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, which are both found in antifreeze. This had resulted from the manufacturing process, and the amounts were below recognized safety standards, but this is part of the reason the FDA launched the new study.
As a group of physicians, we still feel comfortable using MiraLAX as a laxative, but we also feel it is reasonable to try a different laxative. To try another laxative, see the information below for other options or schedule a visit with your pediatrician if you would like help switching. If you switch, just be warned that each child responds to each laxative in his/her own way—most children can switch laxatives just fine, while others will become constipated or have explosive diarrhea. If MiraLAX has been the only laxative that has successfully treated your child’s stooling difficulties, again we feel very comfortable that he/she continue MiraLAX.
How does MiraLAX work? MiraLAX, like the other “osmotic” laxatives, is not absorbed by the body and attract or keep water in the stool to make the stool softer. Osmotic laxatives do not act on the muscles or nerves of the gut, so they do not create dependence.