The office will be closing at 7:00 pm on Tuesday July 5th.

We apologize for any inconvenience and will be open for our normal hours on Wednesday July 6th.

Click here for more information on After Hour Pediatrics.

Pediatric Wellness Group will be closed on Monday July 4th in observance of Independence Day.

We will resume normal office hours on Tuesday July 5th.

Click here for more information on After Hour Pediatrics for urgent care needs.

Our office will be closed on Monday May 30th in observance of Memorial Day. We will re-open on Tuesday May 31st with our normal hours.  Click here for information on After Hour Pediatrics.

Dr. Josh Parker shared an interesting article about breastfeeding from the Washington Post…important reading for all moms! The bottom line? Breastfeeding is hard, we need to acknowledge that and support moms [and dads] in making the best choices they can for the health of their baby.

From the Writer’s Almanac:

The first large field trial of Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine began on this date in 1954.

Outbreaks of poliomyelitis were first recorded more than a thousand years ago. The incurable disease is caused by a virus that attacks nerve cells and sometimes even the central nervous system itself; it causes muscle weakness and wasting, paralysis, and sometimes death. It didn’t kill as many people as other viruses like influenza, but it was highly contagious and it was difficult to determine how it was transmitted. Children were most often affected. The first major polio outbreak in the United States struck in 1894, near Rutland, Vermont; the virus claimed its most famous victim in 1921, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted it after a swim. His legs were completely paralyzed. Roosevelt helped found an organization – originally called the National Foundation on Infantile Paralysis, but later the March of Dimes – to research and combat the disease.

Dr. Jonas Salk was leading the Virus Research Lab at the University of Pittsburgh when the March of Dimes approached him in 1947. They asked him to lead efforts to research and develop an effective vaccine. He discovered there were about 125 different strains of the polio virus; these could be grouped into three basic types. A vaccine needed to provide immunity to all three types to be considered effective. Salk gathered many different strains of the virus and “killed” or deactivated them by pouring formaldehyde on them. The dead but intact virus was then injected into a subject, whose body would begin to produce antibodies against the virus; the antibodies would enable the body to fight off any future infections. Salk tested the vaccine on monkeys first, and then began the first human trials in 1952. His chief competitor, Albert Sabin, was working on a live-virus form of the vaccine; Sabin claimed Salk’s vaccine wasn’t strong enough and called him “a mere kitchen chemist.” But Sabin’s vaccine took a long time to develop, and was still unstable, so the March of Dimes backed Salk’s method instead. Salk was so confident in the safety of his vaccine that he used himself and his children as early test subjects. All of them, including several other adult volunteers, produced antibodies to the virus without contracting polio.

By this time, there was tremendous pressure to find an effective way to control the disease: 1952 saw the worst outbreak in America’s history, with nearly 60,000 cases reported; more than 3,000 people died and more than 21,000 were left disabled. Salk knew that he needed to begin testing his vaccine on a large scale, and quickly. He set up a makeshift lab in the gymnasium of Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, and personally administered his vaccine to 137 schoolkids. A month later, he announced that the first trial was a success, and he soon expanded his efforts across the country. By the time the vaccine was announced to be safe and effective in 1955, 1.8 million schoolchildren had received the vaccine. Results showed that about 65 percent of test subjects became immune to poliovirus type 1, 90 percent to type 2, and 94 percent to type 3. It marked the beginning of the end of widespread polio outbreaks. The development and approval of Sabin’s competing oral vaccine, which was cheaper and easier to administer, advanced the cause even further.

Soon after the 1954 trials began, the New York Times reported, “This could mean that within the next three to five years polio, crippler of young and old alike, will join diphtheria, smallpox, typhoid and other formerly dreaded infectious diseases as plagues finally tamed and conquered by man.” In 1952, 60,000 people contracted polio in the United States alone; 60 years later, in 2012, polio cases numbered only 223 in the entire world.

Pediatric Wellness Group will be closed on Monday February 15th in observance of President’s Day.
We will resume normal hours on Tuesday February 16th.

Click here for more information on After Hour Pediatrics

Have a safe and healthy Holiday.

We’ve been getting quite a few questions about Zika virus, and wanted to share some important facts with you:

1. Right now Zika virus infections are very rare in the US. The most common symptoms of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes.
2. In most cases, the illness is mild with symptoms lasting less than a week, severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon and deaths are rare.
3. There’s no vaccine or specific treatment for the disease. Treatment instead focuses on relieving symptoms and includes rest, rehydration, and medications for fever and pain.
4. The virus is transmitted when an Aedes mosquito bites a person with an active infection and then spreads the virus by biting others.
5. In January 2016, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued travel guidance on affected countries which include Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname, Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela. The travel warning included the use of enhanced precautions, and guidelines for pregnant women including considering postponing travel.
6. The CDC is concerned because there may be a connection between the virus and microcephaly, a neurological disorder that results in babies being born with abnormally small heads. This causes severe developmental issues and sometimes death.
7. Because there is no vaccine or medication to treat this infection, the only protection against Zika is to avoid travel to areas with an active infestation. If you do travel to a country where Zika is present, the CDC advises strict adherence to mosquito protection measures: Use an EPA-approved repellent over sunscreen, wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts thick enough to block a mosquito bite, and sleep in air-conditioned, screened rooms, among others.
8. There are some excellent resouces for more information including the CDC’s Zika website and the AAP’s Healthy Children Zika virus website.

We hope this helps, and encourage you to call and speak with your child’s pediatrician if you have any other questions or concerns. For those of you with portal access feel free to email us with questions.

With all this rain we’ve been getting more questions about how to keep children safe in cars. We’ve also been getting lots of questions about the new car seat laws that were recently signed into law by Governor Brown. From the California Highway Patrol website:

• ​Children under the age of 8 must be secured in a car seat or booster seat in the back seat.
• Children who are 8 years of age OR have reached 4′ 9″ in height may be secured by a safety belt in the back seat.
• Passengers who are 16 years of age and over are subject to California’s Mandatory Seat Belt law.
• Effective January 1, 2017 – Children under 2 years of age shall ride in a rear-facing car seat unless the child weighs 40 or more pounds OR is 40 or more inches tall.  The child shall be secured in a manner that complies with the height and weight limits specified by the manufacturer of the car seat.

Let’s all stay safe out there!

We currently only have the injectable vaccine for children under 3 years of age, and will continue to have our drop in flu clinics.   This clinic is for established patients of PWG only.  We will  continue to keep you posted with updates on supplies and clinic times via our website and facebook page.

Here’s what you need to know about our drop in hours:

Every Wednesday afternoon from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

and

Every Friday morning from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

Here’s what you need to know about our flu vaccine supply:

All our injectable vaccines are quadrivalent [enhanced protection by including more strains], and they are all preservative free.

We have the injectable vaccine for children under 3 years of age only.

We will not be receiving any more vaccine this season for children over 3.

If you are not sure if your child can receive the flu vaccine,  feel free to contact our office for assistance. For those of you with patient portal access feel free to send us a secure email via our patient portal on our website.   You can also call our office at 650.216.7794 for help with those questions.  Let’s all stay healthy this flu season!