Blog - Boston Children's Answers

Helping your child understand puberty

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Emily Rizzitano | Health and Parenting

Tags: primary care, primary care alliance, sex education

We all remember the changes — and awkwardness — of puberty. But helping your child navigate puberty is a whole different matter. For answers, we turned to Boston Children’s Primary Care Alliance physician Caitlyn Hark, MD, at Framingham Pediatrics, and Frances Grimstad, MD, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist in the Division of Gynecology at Boston ... Read More

Tagged: primary care, primary care alliance, sex education

Pirate puzzles and peekaboo: Beckett’s brachial plexus birth injury story

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Joanne Barker | Patient Stories

Tags: brachial plexus, hand and upper extremity, nerve injury, orthopedics, surgery

Beckett Stone-Lyman is an adorable, fun 2-year-old who loves to run, sprint, and climb. If he’s not charging around the playground, he’s probably doing a pirate puzzle. Or maybe he’s staring at his fingers as he wiggles them, amazed that his right hand can now do many of the same things as his left. Thanks ... Read More

Tagged: brachial plexus, hand and upper extremity, nerve injury, orthopedics, surgery

A fall from a swing uncovers a rare cervical spine condition: Charlotte’s story

Posted on March 6, 2025 by Joanne Barker | Patient Stories

Tags: complex cervical spine, neurosurgery, orthopedics, spinal fusion surgery, spine division

If it were any other year, Charlotte Gillis would have celebrated her 10th birthday in mid-July with a big party. But in June 2024, a fall from a swing had left her temporarily paralyzed. Though her mobility returned within a few hours, she was still in a neck brace, still wobbly on her feet, and ... Read More

Tagged: complex cervical spine, neurosurgery, orthopedics, spinal fusion surgery, spine division

Modeling urinary tract disorders on a chip: Zohreh Izadifar

Posted on March 5, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | Basic/Translational, Research

Tags: bioengineering, biomaterials and drug delivery, organoids, research rising stars, tissue engineering, urinary tract infection, urology

When a new tissue sample arrives from the Department of Urology, the Boston Children’s Hospital lab of Zohreh Izadifar, PhD springs into action. The tissue, from a child with urinary tract pathology, is whisked into the tissue culture room. Under a hood, lab members Dasvit Shetty, PhD, and Gretchen Carpenter, MSc, carefully isolate the cells ... Read More

Tagged: bioengineering, biomaterials and drug delivery, organoids, research rising stars, tissue engineering, urinary tract infection, urology

A surprising link between Crohn’s disease and the Epstein-Barr virus

Posted on March 4, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | Clinical, Research

Tags: crohn's disease, immunology, infectious diseases, inflammatory bowel disease

Crohn’s disease, a debilitating inflammatory bowel disease, has many known contributing factors, including bacterial changes in the microbiome that foster an inflammatory environment. Now, for the first time, Crohn’s disease been tied to a virus — specifically, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), best known for causing infectious mononucleosis (mono). Researchers had already observed increased levels of EBV ... Read More

Tagged: crohn's disease, immunology, infectious diseases, inflammatory bowel disease

Addressing food insecurity and nutrition challenges in pediatric type 1 diabetes care

Posted on February 26, 2025 by Linsey Covino-Deaso | Research

Tags: diabetes, endocrinology, nutrition, research

Managing type 1 diabetes can be overwhelming for children and families. As children learn to live with the disease, many cut back on visits to their nutritionists. Others face barriers like food insecurity that make it difficult to maintain a balanced diet. And without the proper professional support and access to healthy foods, children’s overall ... Read More

Tagged: diabetes, endocrinology, nutrition, research

The surprising energy demands of marathon training

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Joanne Barker | Health and Parenting

Tags: female athletes, orthopedics, running injury, sports injury, sports medicine

Training for a marathon? Are you eating enough to help your body recover from one long training run and gear up for the next one? A surprising number of marathon runners don’t. In a study of athletes training for the Boston Marathon, more than two in five women and almost one in five men regularly ... Read More

Tagged: female athletes, orthopedics, running injury, sports injury, sports medicine

Could peripheral neuropathy be stopped before it starts?

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | Basic/Translational, Research

Tags: diabetes, immunology, neurology, neuroscience

An increase in high-fat, high-fructose foods in people’s diets has contributed to a dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes. This, in turn, has led to an increase in peripheral neuropathy — nerve damage, typically in the hands and feet — that causes weakness, loss of sensation and, in some, a stabbing, burning, or tingling pain. ... Read More

Tagged: diabetes, immunology, neurology, neuroscience

Every heart has a story. See how we care for them all.

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Albert McKeon | Patient Stories

Tags: aortic valve, av canal, biventricular repair, cardiac surgery, cardiology, cardiomyopathy, heart, heart patient, heterotaxy syndrome, hlhs

It’s easy to think of the heart as a common denominator — everyone has one — but no two hearts are alike. Every heart is different. Every heart has a story. For many children and adults, that story includes coming to Boston Children’s for specialized heart care. Some were born with complex congenital heart defects, while ... Read More

Tagged: aortic valve, av canal, biventricular repair, cardiac surgery, cardiology, cardiomyopathy, heart, heart patient, heterotaxy syndrome, hlhs

It’s all in the PV loops: New analytical model could improve circulation assessments before heart surgery

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Albert McKeon | Clinical, Research

Tags: blood, cardiac research, cardiac surgery, cardiology, complex biventricular repair, congenital heart defect, heart, heart center, research

The double-switch operation corrects the congenital reversal of the heart’s ventricles and its two main arteries. It’s a practical way of putting the ventricles into the position they belong so that children with congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CC-TGA) can benefit from enhanced circulation. Surgery, though, doesn’t come without risks. Some children’s left ventricles — ... Read More

Tagged: blood, cardiac research, cardiac surgery, cardiology, complex biventricular repair, congenital heart defect, heart, heart center, research

Modifying macrophages in the lung could head off pulmonary hypertension

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Nancy Fliesler | Basic/Translational, Research

Tags: bronchopulmonary dysplasia, lung disease, newborn medicine, pulmonary hypertension

In the 1980s, when Stella Kourembanas, MD, began her career in neonatology, she cared for newborns with pulmonary hypertension, a disease that results in abnormally high blood pressure in the lung arteries and can lead to heart failure. Since then, treatments like inhaled nitric oxide, new vasodilators, new modalities of mechanical ventilation, and extracorporeal membrane ... Read More

Tagged: bronchopulmonary dysplasia, lung disease, newborn medicine, pulmonary hypertension