Will Masks Impact Child Development?
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
- Category: Health
Some reassuring news from a pediatrician.
In the current climate of unknowns, sending kids back to the classrooms wearing masks is not only necessary for health reasons, it’s the best way we can make sure that they can have as normal a school year as possible. That is the most important thing to focus on right now when it comes to a child’s development – particularly younger children in preschool or who may be entering kindergarten and grade school for the first time.
Many parents have been expressing concerns over the social repercussions of a return mask mandate. Will masks hinder my child’s ability to participate in class? Will my child have difficulty talking to and making friends? What about language development?
These are legitimate concerns and worth discussing with your pediatrician based on your individual child, especially if they have special needs. For those parents, it may also be worth a conversation with your child’s school (for instance, to assure teachers will be wearing clear masks, providing necessary mask breaks etc…).
But generally speaking, parents need not be too concerned about the impact of masks on long-term learning or social skills. Kids are naturally social and will find a way to adapt to most situations. Still, there are a few ways you can help them at home:
Help them to read eyes. Younger children naturally take visual cues based on a person’s mouth and how that translates to overall emotion and mood. With everyone in masks, you can help your child shift from reading mouths to reading eyes – in fact, this is something they will begin to do naturally without any intervention. You can practice this at home while wearing your mask and playing a game – can you guess if I am smiling? Frowning? Laughing based on my eyes alone?
Calibrate their hearing. It is sometimes hard to hear what others are saying underneath their masks, especially if they are naturally soft spoken. It’s important for you to understand what volume of voice your children can hear clearly. You can model the teacher’s speaking voice to determine if normal level is understandable, or whether a few notches louder may be optimal. Then you can mention this concern to your school and the child’s teacher.
Schedule lots of outdoor playdates. Take as many opportunities as you can to arrange get-togethers with other children and relatives outside so they can benefit from as much full facial visualization as possible when they are not in school.
Finally,
Don’t worry. There are different opinions about masks in school. I have found that some parents tend to be more concerned than the kids themselves. It’s important to remember that young children are extremely resilient and adaptable. Anything they miss they will eventually catch up to later on – and this is especially true the younger the child is. Over the past two years, I have yet to see a pediatric patient who has experienced any significant delays due to mask-wearing.
If you have specific concerns related to a young child and mask wearing, you should initiate a discussion with your pediatrician. White Plains Hospital sees pediatric patients at Medical & Wellness in Armonk and at Scarsdale Medical Group in Harrison.
Dr. Samantha Lowe is a pediatrician with White Plains Hospital Physician Associates, with offices in our Armonk location. To make an appointment, call 914-849-7900.
Breakthroughs to Benefit your Bladder
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
- Category: Health
This article was written by Dr. Nicole Fleischmann From White Plains Hospital
Concentrating at work, relaxing at leisure, or even getting a good night’s sleep isn’t easy when the urge to urinate intrudes, as many women seeking help can confirm. And you don’t have to suffer from accidents to benefit from treatment. The broader problem is really urinary issues: not just incontinence but frequency or always running to the bathroom. These issues, which are not often talked about, affect probably one-third to one-half of women in their lifetimes.
It’s important to draw a distinction between urge incontinence and stress incontinence. Both are rooted in the weakening of the bladder muscles, but stress incontinence results from pressure on the bladder, whereas urge incontinence results from spasms in the bladder itself:
Urge Incontinence
The frequent and persistent feeling of having to urinate is also known as “overactive bladder.” The most typical cause is aging, though some women have spastic pelvic floor muscles or neurological issues that underlie the condition. The first approach women should take is to modify their diets and try exercises such as Kegels. The next option to try is medication. For women who might not tolerate medicine, there are a few other innovative options:
• Nerve stimulation, or InterStim. Like a pacemaker for the bladder, this technology is implanted under the skin to control the bladder’s nerve impulses and function, “normalizing” the signals between bladder and brain.
• Botox. A short-term solution, Botox is injected directly into the bladder through a small tube called a cystoscope to control bladder spasms for six to nine months.
Stress Incontinence
This condition occurs when activity like coughing, sneezing, laughing, or heavy lifting places enough stress on the bladder to cause leakage. The leading risk factor for this condition is childbirth, but previous pelvic surgeries, or tissue that’s genetically weak, can also contribute. There are several treatment methods:
• Mid-urethral sling. This traditional therapy requires a minor outpatient surgery in which a mesh implant is placed under the urethra to strengthen it.
• Bulking. An injection is used to tighten and cushion the opening of the bladder. A permanent water gel called Bulkamid, a mainstream procedure in Europe for over a decade, is the first bulking agent that does not dissolve over time—and helps to seal off bladder leaks. At White Plains Hospital, this non-invasive procedure has helped a significant number of patients who were struggling with stress incontinence, but existing treatments were proving to be too invasive to effectively fix the issue. It takes just five minutes to inject it into the urethra, has no downtime, and has proven 80 % effective at eradicating stress incontinence completely.
• Beta adrenergics. The newer medicines have a very low side-effect profile and do not cause the dry mouth and constipation of traditional treatment medicines.
How to Prevent Incontinence?
• Drink eight glasses of water over the course of the day.
• Limit coffee and soda intake.
• Keep your pelvic floor muscles in shape with exercises such as Kegels.
• Pick a physical activity you enjoy in order to maintain a healthy body weight.
• Treat UTIs immediately.
Although incontinence can be difficult to discuss, your doctor can likely help address the problem and improve your quality of life. Remember, it is more common than you realize, and the good news is we can usually make it better.
Dr. Nicole Fleischmann is a urologist and urologic surgeon, seeing patients at the WPH Center for Advanced Medicine & Surgery at 122 Longview Avenue in White Plains. To make an appointment, please call 914-949-7556.
Tips to Keep your Feet Healthy During the Summer
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- Written by Dr. Michelle Castiello, Podiatrist
- Category: Health
Summer is here and so is the urge to toss our cooler weather shoes and boots to the curb! Shoes protect our feet in more ways than you might think. Sandal weather may feel freeing, but it actually opens up our feet to the risk of infections and other avoidable conditions.
Follow these simple podiatrist-approved tips, and your feet will thank you!
Limit walking barefoot. Venturing out with feet al fresco exposes you to sunburn, plantar warts, athlete's foot, and other infections, not to mention injury. Going barefoot is especially dangerous for those with diabetes, as nerve damage can make it difficult to detect an injury. 
Wear shoes or flip-flops around the pool, to the beach, in the locker room and in your hotel room to prevent injuries and limit the likelihood of contracting any infections. (Exposure is high in the summer, when everyone else is walking around without shoes too.)
Rinse your feet with clean water after pool or beach activities to prevent bacterial infections.
Wear the right socks. Did you know that your feet have 250,000 different sweat glands? Acrylic and synthetic blend socks work best to wick away perspiration that can lead to fungal infections. If you take part in summer activities that cause your shoes and socks to get wet, they should be dried out completely before your next wearing to prevent bacteria or fungus from growing.
Remember to apply sunscreen all over your feet and ankles – an often-overlooked area! Don't forget to reapply after you've been in the water. Up to 15% of melanomas, the most serious type of skin cancer, develop on the feet.
Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water throughout the day to minimize any foot swelling caused by the heat. Keep blood flowing with periodic ankle flexes, toe wiggles, and calf stretches.
Remove nail polish periodically to give the nail bed some oxygen, allow them to replenish moisture, and keep them healthy.
It’s important to step into summer with some strategies to keep your feet healthy and problem free. If 
Dr. Michelle Castiello DPMyou are concerned about conditions of the feet and toenails, an injury or are experiencing foot pain, making an appointment with a podiatrist is a great first step.
Dr. Michelle Castiello is board-certified in primary care in Podiatric Medicine. To make an appointment at Scarsdale Medical Group, please call 914-723-8100.
The Healing Power of Oxygen
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
- Category: Health
3 Facts You Did Not Know About this Incredible Medical Therapy
Oxygen is an abundant chemical within our atmosphere that is essential for most living things. Everyone associates oxygen with breathing and the lungs, but the process goes far beyond. All cells in the body need oxygen to create energy to live. Inadequate oxygen delivery to the cells can lead to dysfunction of the cells, contributing to many disease states, and in severe cases may lead to cell death.
For something we can’t see or hold, oxygen is pretty powerful medicine. Here are three other facts about oxygen that you probably didn’t know:
1. Oxygen is an enemy of bacteria. Many infection producing bacteria need no- or low-oxygen conditions to grow and survive. These are called anaerobes. Anaerobic bacteria can cause serious infections, and at times life threatening. They are extremely sensitive to high concentrations of oxygen and can be eliminated with direct exposure. Other more common bacteria, such as Staphylococcus, E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria, require oxygen to grow and multiply, but when oxygen revs up our immune system, these germs stand less of a chance.
2. Oxygen is considered a “drug” by the FDA. It has specific biochemical and physiologic actions,a distinct range of effective doses, and well-defined adverse effects at high doses. Oxygen is commonly prescribed by medical providers to treat a broad range of conditions and to relieve or prevent tissue hypoxia (lack of oxygen).
3. Oxygen has healing powers. In hyperbaric medicine therapy, patients recline in a special chamber and breath 100% oxygen (the air we breathe normally is 21% oxygen). The chamber is then pressurized to two to two-and-a-half times greater than atmospheric pressure. This supplies high concentrations of this gas throughout body to cure infections that are resistant to antibiotics and boost healthy tissue growth. This therapy not only targets trouble areas, but provides benefits to the entire body, including the heart, kidneys and even the brain.
White Plains Hospital has two state-of-the-art hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers, part of its Limb Preservation Program, to treat many conditions, including diabetic foot wounds and tissue damage from radiation and reconstructive surgery. The program features specialized physicians and ancillary staff dedicated to preventing and reducing the risk of amputations in patients with peripheral artery related diseases, complications of diabetes, serious infections and problem chronic wounds.
Dr. Joseph P. CavorsiWhen used correctly, this powerful therapy can restore health and change lives.
For more information, visit our Limb Preservation Program webpage.
Posted by Dr. Joseph P. Cavorsi, Medical Director of the Carl Weber M.D. Wound Care Center and Hyperbaric Medicine Program at White Plains Hospital.
National Prescription Drug Take Back Takes in 118 Pounds
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
- Category: Health
Scarsdale residents participated in the nationwide Prescription Drug Take Back Day this spring, turning in more than 118 pounds of unused, unwanted and expired medication at the drive-thru site coordinated by the Scarsdale Drug and Alcohol Task for and Scarsdale Police Department.
“We know having unused prescriptions in the medicine cabinets at homes is a risk, which is why Drug Take Back Days and our ongoing collection efforts are so important,” said Wendy Gendel, Chairperson of Scarsdale DATF. “We greatly appreciate the support of the Scarsdale Police Department in this event and all the Scarsdale residents who contributed to this successful collection day – it will make a difference in our prevention work.”
Data shows misused prescription drugs were most often obtained through family and friends with unused prescriptions. Medications that are not properly stored can pose a risk to the health of children and pets who might accidentally ingest them. Flushing medications, or tossing them in the trash, can also endanger our waterways and wildlife.
The Take Back Day was organized in partnership with the Scarsdale Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). This event provides a safe, convenient and responsible way to dispose of prescription and over-the-counter medications, while educating about the potential for medication misuse, accidental ingestion and overdose. All collected medications were securely transported and incinerated.
If you missed Take Back Day, a disposal unit is available 24/7 to the community year-round at the Scarsdale Police Department. If you would like more information about safe medication disposal, or on how to become involved with the Scarsdale Drug and Alcohol Task Force, please visit www.ScarsdaleDATF.org or contact Lisa Tomeny at DATFScarsdale@gmail.com.
