It has been a busy Winter season! We appreciate your patience and understanding as we try to accommodate families with ill children. We also appreciate your patience as we continue to adapt to our new electronic health record.

The Swine Flu, (now called H1N1 Flu), has been in the news lately. The AAP has an informative page on their website. Please click on the following link for more information: http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/may09swineflu.htm

Over the past 1-2 years there has been a shortage of the Hib vaccine. Some children did not receive the 6 month dose. If your child did not get the 6 month dose and is less than 12 months old, please call our office to schedule an appointment.

Presently we are only accepting the following new patients: newborns, siblings of existing patients, and families that have recently moved to Rhode Island. We hope this is a temporary situation and we apologize if this has caused any misunderstanding or inconvenience.

In the next few months, we hope to implement some routine developmental screening tools into your child’s regular office visit. These tools do not diagnose, but simply help us to assess your child’s development. These tools will help us to find children who might benefit from a more detailed evaluation. If there is a concern elicited, we can make an earlier referral for your children to begin receiving services through agencies such as Early Intervention. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have about these tools as we begin to use them in the office.

Finally, read to your child! We cannot stress how important this is for your child. Reading in the first 1-6 years of life is especially critical. We will have more to say about this in a future article.