Our office is located in LA's
Carthay Circle neighborhood
You are not generic.
Because everyone is different among both children and parents, I find it difficult to give generic advice. Sometimes the situation calls for more intervention, and sometimes it calls for just waiting and letting things take care of themselves. My goal is to take care of your child when he or she is sick, to help you make decisions that will keep your child healthy, and to help you be the best parent that you can be.
My pledge to you is to listen, to be observant, to be thoughtful and to make appropriate use of what is known from real science, in order to provide or arrange for the best possible care for your child.
For more on my approach to pediatrics in general and certain topics in particular, please explore this website. And if you have more questions, I hope to see you in the office soon.
INFORMATION ABOUT INSURANCE
I believe all families deserve access to the very best medical care, and I have been proud throughout my years in practice to subscribe to as many insurance plans and options as possible.
Almost everyone who has pediatric insurance can arrange to use our office. Click here to visit our website's Insurance page.
My practice
My office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. After hours you can reach me through my office telephone number, which will give you the option to page me either urgently – no matter the time of day or night – or non-urgently, which means that if it’s after 10 p.m., I won’t be “beeped” until 8 the next morning.
My practice serves a very diverse slice of our very diverse Southern California community, including patients who come from as far away as Palmdale, Long Beach, Orange County and Pomona. But I don't mean just geographical diversity, but economic and cultural as well.
Really good medicine -- the relationship we hope to create and sustain between patient, parent and physician -- cannot exist outside of the social and cultural context. I aim to be aware of and sensitive to the context from which each of my patients comes. Everyone's an individual and I aspire to treat everyone in a way that respects who they are.
To learn about our office and staff, click here.
The journey of
growing up
Childhood
Most children are well most of the time, and when illness happens, often all that’s needed is a little bit of time for your child to get over whatever problem he or she has. Colds, diarrhea and rashes are all common problems that almost always resolve on their own.
If your child is well, you should come in once a year for a check-up so we can mark his or her progress, catch potential problems early, and explore any questions that you -- or he or she -- may have. Questions especially will get better attention at a check-up than in the shorter time allotted for a sick visit.
Adolescence
When I think about adolescents, I'm reminded of what William Faulkner said on the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize in literature -- that man will not merely endure, he will prevail.
People think adolescence is a challenge, but that's not what makes it different from other stages of parenting. I advise my patients not to let their pre-teens' and teenagers' behavioral changes obscure the tremendous emotional and intellectual growth that is also occurring -- growth that makes a young person more interesting, more capable, and eventually, more mature.
To take advantage of these changes, try to make sure your teenager is getting enough rest -- including rest from their electronic devices, which should be off a full hour before they try to go to sleep. Studies have shown it's natural for teens to stay up late, but that doesn't mean the time has to be spent on a computer. Reading a magazine, doing math homework and even planning tomorrow's outfit will make it easier for your teenager to fall asleep when she tries. And if you can use that last hour for talking between you and him even once or twice a month, you're doing great.
How to find us
My office is located on a mostly residential stretch of San Vicente Boulevard between Wilshire and Olympic, just south and west of LACMA and Miracle Mile, near the southeast border of Beverly Hills.
The address and phone number are at the top of this page.
Our building is just west of the corner of San Vicente and Crescent Heights. There's ample underground parking and we have pretty views from our office, which is down the hallway to the left when you step off the elevator.
Covid-19
We're now in the third year of Covid-19 and we're all tired of it. Fortunately, it is very rarely a serious disease for children and young adults. But our patients have lost grandparents and uncles and aunts. Years of school have been lost. The disease has gone from being an ominous threat to a persisting annoyance. Many uncertainties remain, including how well the vaccine works for children, and including the pretty large unknown of "long Covid."
Meanwhile, life goes on. We try to make the best decisions we can on incomplete information. Here's what I recommend.
Kids 12 and up should get the Pfizer Covid vaccine, as many doses as are recommended and whenever they are approved. Your own child has a very small likelihood of becoming severely ill, but he or she may have a friend or relative who is more vulnerable (or who has a friend or relative who's more vulnerable) and even if the vaccine only lessens symptoms, it may lessen the viral load of his contagion enough to reduce the danger to someone else.
Also, if your school has a policy requiring it, it's important to honor it.
I keep thinking I've been asked every possible question about Covid, but new ones keep coming up. If my child was probably exposed recently, should I get a vaccine? (It might help and it won't hurt.) How can a child be "isolated" from his parents or his siblings when he has Covid? (With difficulty, but it's worth a try if someone's particularly vulnerable or you have a wedding or a trip coming up.) What's the point of doing a Covid test if her siblings are positive? (Nothing, though for data-collecting purposes the County might want to know. Also, you'll need to count days from when she became sick to know when she can go back to school.)
But more broadly, there's no certain answer to most of these questions. What you need is a way to answer them when they arise. You should know that it's very unlikely your own child is going to get very sick, that it's almost as unlikely for the adults you know to get very sick either if they're vaccinated. You should know that our public health community and society as a whole are doing their best to keep the toll of this illness as low as is possible.
Wear a mask when there's a mandate. When there's a big wave of cases in town, be more cautious about indoor gatherings. The CDC and state and local health departments deserve our gratitude and our respect -- even when they don't have all the answers.
It's okay for you to call me, too. I'll try to give a thoughtful answer, based on what I know about Covid and what I know about you.
For more about Covid along with other emerging viruses and their vaccines, please visit our Covid-19 page by clicking here.
For new parents
Congratulations and welcome, or welcome again, to the wonderful world of parenthood! Every baby is special, and even if you've been here before, you'll find that there will be surprises galore along the way.
Hiccups and sneezing are really common, and normal. Babies are supposed to eat more or less all the time, every couple of hours. They pee and poop a lot. We don't call it diarrhea as long as they start gaining weight, but they don't start gaining weight until they're a few days old.
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If you're planning to breast-feed your baby, that's terrific. For sure it's less expensive than buying formula, and it's almost always a little bit better. But you should know that it doesn't always work, even for mothers who are completely committed to making it work. And you should know that formula isn't so bad either – and it's a big improvement over being hungry and underfed if there isn't enough breast milk available.
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Spitting up is normal – every baby does it. That’s why you carry a cloth around protecting your clothes.
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Coughing, on the other hand, isn't really normal. Call if your baby coughs.
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I would not advise taking your baby's temperature unless he or she seems to be really hot or unless he or she is acting sick. And if the temperature is over 100.0 degrees before the baby is three months old, you should call me right away.
Click here for information on bilirubin and jaundice.
