Arbor Pediatrics provides high-quality, personalized medical care for infants, children, and adolescents in Southlake, TX.

How many safety hazards can your family find in this picture?

Look closely for items that could cause burns, cuts, choking, falls, fires, or furniture tip-overs. Some hazards may be easy to spot, while others may look like ordinary parts of a busy kitchen or holiday gathering.

Let your children join the search and explain why each item could be unsafe. This is an easy way to practice recognizing hazards before they lead to an injury.

Share what you find in the comments, but leave a few for the next family to discover.

The M-CHAT is a questionnaire used during the toddler years to screen for signs that a child may benefit from further developmental evaluation, including concerns related to autism.

The M-CHAT is not a diagnostic test, and a positive screen does not mean a child has autism. It helps the pediatric provider decide whether follow-up questions, closer monitoring, or a developmental referral may be appropriate.

The M-CHAT is one of several validated screening tools that may be used depending on a child’s age and needs. If you have concerns about your child’s communication, play, behavior, or development, bring them up at any visit.

Pertussis, also called whooping cough, was once one of the most common and deadly childhood infections in the United States. Before vaccines became available in the 1940s, more than 200,000 cases were reported each year. Widespread vaccination reduced the incidence by more than 75 percent, but pertussis was not eliminated and outbreaks still occur.

Babies are at the greatest risk for severe illness. Pertussis can cause intense coughing, difficulty feeding, pneumonia, pauses in breathing, seizures, hospitalization, and death. Some young infants may not develop the familiar “whooping” sound.

Because babies are too young to complete their vaccine series during the first vulnerable months, protection begins during pregnancy. Tdap is recommended during every pregnancy, preferably early in weeks 27 through 36, so protective antibodies can pass to the baby before birth. Children then receive the DTaP series beginning in infancy and a Tdap booster during adolescence.

Contact your child’s pediatric provider at Arbor Pediatrics to review your family’s pertussis vaccination status or ask when the next dose is due.

Happy Halloween from all of us at Arbor! 🎃👻

We hope your family has a fun and safe night filled with costumes, laughter, and plenty of treats.

Remember to carry a flashlight, stay on sidewalks when possible, check all candy before eating, and use extra caution while driving through neighborhoods.

Have a safe and happy Halloween! 🧡

Have you heard of testicular torsion?

Testicular torsion occurs when the cord supplying blood to a testicle twists and cuts off its blood flow. It is most common in teens, but it can happen at any age, during activity, after an injury, or even while sleeping.

Symptoms may include sudden severe pain on one side of the scrotum, swelling or redness, a testicle that appears higher than usual, lower abdominal pain, nausea, or vomiting. Pain that suddenly improves or comes and goes still needs emergency evaluation.

Treatment is time-sensitive. When torsion is treated within six hours of the pain beginning, there is a greater than 90 percent chance of saving the testicle. The chance decreases significantly as treatment is delayed.

Go directly to the nearest emergency department for sudden or severe testicular pain.

Do not wait for an office appointment or wait to see if the pain improves. Teens should know that embarrassment should never delay emergency care.

Encouraging reading does not have to mean eliminating screens.

Start by creating predictable screen-free times, such as during meals, in the car, or before bed, and make books easy to find throughout the home.

The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend one universal screen-time limit for every grade-school child.

Instead, families should set consistent limits that prevent recreational screen use from replacing sleep, physical activity, schoolwork, reading, and family time. For many school-aged children, a goal of about one to two hours of entertainment screen time per day may be a reasonable starting point, but the type of content and how it affects the child also matter.

Let your child choose topics and formats that interest them.

Graphic novels, comic books, magazines, audiobooks, joke books, and nonfiction all count as reading. Keep the focus on enjoyment rather than page counts or reading levels.

What book has recently kept your child interested? Share the title in the comments.