As Dr. Clark McSparren’s youngest daughter, it only seemed right that we welcome Jennifer McSparren Crystle to our provider panel when we heard she was looking to come home!

After a devastating surge in December and January, COVID cases are decreasing. So, what does that mean for our children and teens? A recent Institute for Health Metrics model estimates that around 73% of Americans have some immunity to the Omicron variant. This is good news; however, there is still much to worry about with COVID as this country mourns around 2,000 deaths per day from this virus.

Pediatric health care providers are ready to answer parent questions and to help you protect your child though immunization. We want to be your source for accurate information and answers to questions about vaccines. It is time for us to put aside differences, bias, and false information and protect our kids.

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month and May 7th is National Child Mental Health Day. This month of awareness and education is a great time to do a few things for your own mental health and the wellbeing of others. It is estimated that 1 out of every four of us will deal with a mental health issue. Here are some ideas to turn the trend from mental illness to emotional wellness.

Before we turn the page on the calendar, I think it is important to be mindful of the good things that came out of 2020. Yes, there was the pure joy of births, graduations, and weddings, but there also was a lot of emotional growth. I am not writing this to promote optimism or to wear rose-colored glasses. 2020 may be a year we want to forget, but we would be doing ourselves and our children a great disservice if we did not commit certain things about this year to permanent memory.

The primary care providers of Lancaster understand that this school year is bringing challenges to families unlike any in the past. We know that many of you have felt disappointed by the medical system and its ability to give the concrete, research-based answers to your questions that you rely on us for. The lack of data and research about pediatric COVID-19 and contagiousness has been frustrating.

The 20-21 school year is not going to be easy. Qualities such as flexibility, courage, and pure grit are suddenly paramount to providing an education to our children. Many people are questioning if it is worth it, and whether we should just do online school until the pandemic is over.

Pediatricians across the world have recently started to alert epidemiologists to cases of a new disease preliminarily named Pediatric Multi-Symptom Inflammatory Syndrome (PMIS) which is likely related to the COVID 19 pandemic.

Many adult physicians may be envious of the pediatrician right now. Overall, our patients fare quite well when infected with this virus, in fact, only about 2% of cases reported in the US have been under the age of 18.

Lancaster Pediatric Associates is thinking about your family during this time. As with most every other business in the world right now, our daily operations look a little different today than they did a month ago, but we are still here

Unfortunately, I have no crystal ball to know when and how this current COVID-19 crisis will end. Nor do I have any wisdom beyond what the amazing people at the CDC tell us all. These shortcomings aside, I do know how very difficult this is for all of us, and especially for children and adolescents.