Our Announcements

COVID19 vaccines for children under 5 years old, finally!

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The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 12-0 to recommend Moderna AND Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months to less than 5 years.

Vaccine administration

The Moderna vaccine is now available to children ages 6 months to less than 5 years as a primary series of two, 25-microgram (µg) doses administered four to eight weeks apart.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is now available to children ages 6 months to less than 5 years as a primary series of three, 3-µg doses. Dose 1 and dose 2 should be administered three to eight weeks apart, while the third dose should be given at least eight weeks after the second dose. 

Among children, a Covid vaccine induces a broader immune response when compared with the immune response from infection. In contrast with Covid infection, children vaccinated against Covid demonstrated a better immune response against alpha, beta, gamma, delta and omicron variants. The data shows the importance of vaccinating children who have already had a covid infection to prevent both severe disease and future infections.

Vaccine rollout

Legacy Pediatrics has received the Covid vaccines and are currently scheduling vaccination appointments.  Please call and ask to speak with a nurse, to make that appointment. 

Legacy Pediatrics will follow the recommendation that the same mRNA vaccine product should be used for all primary series doses. We are frequently asked if a child should receive other vaccines along with the Covid vaccine. The CDC recommends routine administration of all age-appropriate vaccines at the same time as the Covid vaccine.  If families would like to separate them, we will administer their scheduled well visit vaccinations, and have families return at a later date to start the COVID vaccine series.

Clinical trials

These recommendations to vaccinate children less than 5 years of age are based on clinical trial data. Moderna’s clinical trial was conducted from December 2021 through February 2022 (during the omicron surge) and involved 6,400 children. Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine clinical trial included 3,000 children and was conducted from June 2021 through April 2022 (while both the delta, beta and omicron variants were circulating). Both vaccines induced a strong antibody response and were well tolerated with minor side effects.

Lastly, why COVID-19 vaccines should be given to children

Between March 1, 2020, and April 30, 2022, 269 children younger than 1 year and 134 children ages 1-4 years died because of COVID-19.

More than 2 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported among children ages 6 months to 5 years. Children in this age group are at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and more than half of all hospitalized children with covid infection ages 6 months to 5 years were previously healthy with no underlying medical conditions.

As always, reach out to us if you’d like to discuss vaccination in more detail. 

Legacy Pediatrics Summer 2021 Update

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Greetings everyone! The past 16 months have demonstrated that mask wearing really does decrease illness transmission! So many families have commented on the health of their children and the whole family. Well, the honeymoon seems to be ending, as everyone is getting out more and around more people sharing germs.

We are expecting a tsunami of illness with camps back in the swing and especially in the fall when school gets underway. We are seeing a good amount of fever, vomiting and diarrhea in the kids in daycare and plenty of typical colds in all ages. Kids have not been sick for well over a year!  Everyone is going to be experiencing plenty of “immune building experiences”, as I used to say when my kids would come home from daycare with their 1000th cold.

We do not know yet what the policies for illness and return to school and daycare will be in the fall, but if needed, we now can do rapid Covid-19 PCR testing in our office with a turnaround time of less than an hour.

Visit our website, www.legacypediatrics.com, and look under the Parent Guide for information on common childhood illnesses and conditions that will help you manage your child’s illnesses. As always, we are here to help and happy to see your child when ill.

~Dr. Janet Casey

Coronavirus update from Legacy Pediatrics

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by Dr. Janet Casey

Family Talk

We know you are inundated with news and information about Coronavirus, but we felt it important to let you know some basic information and how Legacy Pediatrics is going to approach patient care during this time.

First, some information about the symptoms of COVID-19 to help you possibly recognize it if you or a family member becomes ill with the virus. Following exposure, symptom onset is between 2-9 days with a median of 5 days. The virus is spread through droplets expelled from coughing and sneezing. Unlike influenza’s sudden onset of symptoms, infection with COVID-19 starts a bit slower with some body aches, decreased energy, low grade fever and cough. There is minimal if any runny nose or congestion and about 80% of people have only these symptoms and the infection resolves in 14 days. Progression to more severe symptoms occurs in the second week of illness. It is an average of 8 days to the development of shortness of breath and on average 9 days to pneumonia.

As you may have heard, children are faring well with this illness with most children having mild symptoms and very few children progressing to more severe illness. There are a number of theories as to why this is occurring but nothing definite has been established. The elderly and those with chronic cardiac or respiratory problems are at greatest risk for developing severe illness and requiring medical attention and admission to the hospital.

The most effective way to avoid infection is to wash your hands often with anti-bacterial soap for at least 20 seconds and to not touch your face. Use good cough/sneeze techniques by coughing into your elbow and using tissues to cover your face with sneezing. If your child or you are feeling ill, stay home until your symptoms resolve.

Legacy Pediatrics will be following the CDC’s guidelines for the identification and care of patients with suspected or confirmed infection with COVID-19. If you have questions please visit the CDC’s website at www.cdc.gov for the most up to date information on COVID-19. The CDC is recommending that patients with possible symptoms and an exposure history to an area with widespread infections to stay home and call your health care provider. Do not go to the ER or the office!

Our specific protocol for handling possible infections in our patients:

  1. If you suspect infection with COVID-19 and your child has the above symptoms, please call the office. DO NOT come to walk-ins and DO NOT make an appointment. We will set up a telemedicine visit for that day to assess your child’s symptoms and determine appropriate level of care.
  • If you do come to the office, we ask that you return to your car and call the office so that we can determine the best course of action.
  • All testing for COVID-19 is being done through the Monroe County Health Department. Legacy Pediatrics will not have the ability to test for the infection.

Legacy Pediatrics’ goal during this time is to keep our patients, their families, and our staff safe, and to avoid exposures. We have a very limited number of surgical masks and will not be able to mask a potentially infected person before they enter our office so it is imperative that the needed visits occur via telemedicine visits.

We will update this information as this situation changes. Thank you so much for your teamwork as we move through this difficult and challenging time.

It’s flu shot time!

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Fight the Flu

The CDC recommends ALL people ages 6 months and older get the flu shot every season. The flu shot not only protects you and your family but the weakest in our community (babies, elderly, sickly). So do your part! NYS only had a 40% vaccination rate last year, and the goal is 70% to significantly reduce flu hospitalizations and deaths during the season.

Call our office to set up an appointment (585-568-8330) for your child/children and we can vaccinate parents as well! We will have some evening flu clinics as listed below, but also can vaccinate during our normal business hours. These are not walk in appointments, so please call for the date and time you would like so we can keep things running smoothly.

We are hosting evening flu clinics on:
-Monday, 10/7
-Tuesday, 10/8
-Tuesday, 10/15
-Monday, 10/21
-Thursday 10/24

We are also trying to get kids in to get flu shots during their October school break – Friday 10/11 and Columbus Day, Monday 10/14 during normal business hours.

Thank you all!!

Holiday Charity Raffle

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JLR Diaper Bank

We are back at it again this year with our Holiday charity raffle, partnering with the local charity, Junior League of Rochester Diaper Bank, to help bring diapers to low-income families who can’t afford diapers. We will be collecting diapers in a large bin in our waiting room for people to come and donate diapers (any type – disposable, cloth, opened packs, leftovers), diaper cream, wipes, any type of diaper related item. People who donate will get a raffle ticket which will enter you into one of our raffle drawings.

Raffles prizes include 4 Knighthawk tickets, 2 Bills tickets to the Detroit Lions vs Buffalo home game (12/16), restaurant gift cards (Nosh, Edibles, Bernard’s Grove) Wegmans gift cards, and more!  We have more potential “surprise” prizes that may pop up during the month of December, so stay tuned!!  We will raffle them off in December and announce them on our Facebook page and also contact the winners.  Help us wrap up little babies bottoms this holiday season and win some awesome prizes!!

Rochester Diaper Needs 

Diaper Bank Flyer

Legacy Partners with Rochester Clinical Research to Advance Pediatric Medicine

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Rochester Clinical Research (RCR), the area’s premier clinical research facility, has inked one of its first pediatric site affiliations with Legacy Pediatrics. This new partnership will help deliver additional care options to Rochester families while advancing new medical treatments and improving the quality of life for children everywhere.

Until this year the majority of clinical studies carried out at RCR looked at new treatments for adult ailments such as migraines, joint pain, and obesity. Unlike studies that seek patients diagnosed with certain medical ailments, RCR also participates in a number of “healthy volunteer” trials to study the efficacy of vaccines.

Dr. Janet Casey, the managing physician at Legacy Pediatrics, has always had a strong desire to advance the body of knowledge on best practices in pediatric populations. Dr. Casey spent a number of years as a pediatric oncologist practicing at Duke University. Upon landing in Rochester she entered the general pediatrics field and continued her interest in research that was borne out of her work treating childhood cancer. Over the past ten years Legacy has taken part in many pediatric research studies including vaccine development and the diagnosis and treatment of acute otitis media – ear infections.

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Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby

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Yup, we are going there. A subject that makes a lot of parents (and their teenagers, too!) squirm. But, it’s a fact of life, and you should be talking to them about it. Because like it or not, there’s information everywhere. Good AND bad. And just like we talked to them about staying away from strangers, it’s our job as parents, to give them the right information so they can make the right decisions when it comes to sex. So, let’s delve into it.

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Norovirus Infection – The Stomach Flu

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Norovirus

What is Norovirus?

Norovirus is the name for a group of viruses which cause acute gastroenteritis, aka “The Stomach Flu”. According to the CDC, Norovirus causes between 19-21 MILLION cases of the illness each year in the US and is the #1 cause of vomiting and diarrheal illness in the US. Anyone can contract the illness and unfortunately a person can become ill with the same virus more than once and up to 5 times in a lifetime. Cooler months are the peak time for Norovirus infections. Norovirus is not Influenza; influenza is a respiratory illness and Norovirus is a stomach and intestinal illness. The flu vaccine does not prevent this illness.

Symptoms:

The illness typically begins with acute onset of nausea and vomiting with diarrhea following soon afterward. The vomiting phase of the illness typically lasts 12-24 hours with frequent, up to every 20-30 minutes, of vomiting. Some people can have just diarrhea, while others will be hit with many symptoms. Below is a table of common symptoms of Norovirus infections:

Contagion

Norovirus is HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS!!! A sick individual can shed BILLIONS of viral particles while ill. Unfortunately, it can take as little as 18 viral particles to infect someone!!!

Someone ill with Norovirus is contagious from the moment they start to feel ill up to 3 days following the onset of illness. Some people can shed the virus for up to 2 weeks following the illness but it is not clear if they remain contagious the entire time.

The virus is found in vomit and stool and spreads very easily from hand to mouth. You can contract the illness from:

  • Eating contaminated food
  • Touching surfaces or objects with the virus on them
  • Direct contact with a sick person.

The time from exposure to onset of illness, incubation period, is 12-48 hours!

Treatment

There are no vaccines or medications to treat the illness so treatment is supportive while your immune system fights off the illness.

While ill, it is important to drink small quantities, about 1/2 oz, of clear fluid like Pedialyte, low calorie sports drink, oral rehydration fluid or clear juice frequently. Popsicles are an easy way to take in small amounts of fluid over time. Keep drinking small amounts even though the vomiting continues as there is absorption of the fluids which will prevent dehydration. Once the vomiting has resolved, slow advancement of the diet to soft foods is ok.

What not to do while still vomiting:

  • Drink a lot of fluid at once
  • Stop drinking
  • Eat food
  • Leave the house

When to bring your child to the doctor

Bring your child to the doctor if your child has been vomiting for more than 24 hours and is refusing to drink liquids, is too listless to drink or has not urinated at least twice in 24 hours. Please do not bring your child to the doctor when the vomiting starts as the virus can easily spread to many others. Call us if you have questions – our nurses would be happy to talk with you to see if it is appropriate to come into the office or stay home.

Prevention

Preventing exposure is critical to both prevention and containment of the illness. The most important preventive measure is GOOD HAND HYGIENE!

Here are some prevention tips:

  • Wash your hands with hot/warm water and soap. Be meticulous with getting all  parts of you hands and fingers.
  • Alcohol based sanitizers are ok if soap and water are not available but they do  not eliminate Norovirus from your hands.
  • Do not prepare food when ill.
  • Clean and disinfect surfaces using a bleach-based cleaner. If you don’t have a bleach cleaner, make your own with 1 1/2 cup bleach in 1 gallon of water.
  • Wash all contaminated clothes and linens immediately. Handle them carefully and use rubber gloves if available. Use the maximum available cycle length and at least hot water cycle if you can.

DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD TO DAYCARE OR SCHOOL FOR AT LEAST 48 HOURS !!!

DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD TO DAYCARE OR SCHOOL IF THEY VOMITED DURING THE NIGHT AND THEY FEEL BETTER IN THE MORNING; HE/SHE IS STILL CONTAGIOUS!!!

20/20 Hindsight

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Welcome Spring!  After a long and crazy Rochester winter it is always such a treat to see the flowers bloom and the lilac bushes emerge in Highland Park.  The promise of new life is the happy hallmark of spring.  At Legacy Pediatrics, we have been truly blessed with the birth of many new babies that have joined our Legacy family in the last month or so. Dear families, please know that it is our greatest honor to care for your children and accompany you on this amazing journey that is parenthood.

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