Compassionate Care for Health and Wellness

Our board-certified pediatricians at Skagit Regional Health offer personalized care and patient-centered education to keep children and adolescents healthy. We have the expertise and experience to help parents understand how to be proactive and help their children stay safe and well throughout their lives.

Preventive Tips to Keep Your Kids Safe

Newborns do not come with a how-to handbook. But our trained pediatricians can provide you with many preventive tips to keep your child safe and healthy during their active growing years:

• Use Car Seats: Always use a car seat when transporting your infant, toddler and small child. Select a seat with a label that states that it meets or exceeds Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213. Place the seat in the car’s back seat and be sure the seat is installed properly. Children must remain in the back seat wearing seat belts until age 12.
• Make Sure Your Child Can Swim: Never leave a child unattended in a pool or body of water, even if your child can swim. Use a swim aid or vest, making sure it fits properly, on a younger child and stay by the child’s side at all times.
• Buy a Properly Fitting Helmet: Proper use of bicycle helmets can eliminate 65-88 percent of bicycle-related brain injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You can help prevent bicycle-related injuries or death by making sure your child wears a helmet at all times when biking. In addition, helmets should be used when skateboarding, skiing, skating or snowboarding.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Adolescence

Children and adolescents can engage in many behaviors that increase their risk for injury such as not wearing seat belts, drinking while driving and engaging in physical fights. In fact, most adolescent illness and death is related to personal behavior and is preventable. As children enter puberty, it’s more important than ever to keep strong parental boundaries to prevent accidents or injury.

Our pediatricians can talk openly to you and your child about the following:

• Coping with bullying
• How communicating openly with parents can keep you healthy
• How to say “no” to persuasive friends
• How wearing seat belts can save lives
• The importance of curfews
• The warning signs of depression, eating disorders and other emotional issues
• Reproductive health issues and how to avoid unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
• Understanding the dangers of smoking, alcohol and recreational drugs
• Weight management and dietary choices to avoid obesity and type 2 diabetes

Keeping Abreast of the Latest Safety Information

Staying current on safety issues that may affect your child or adolescent is important to their health and well-being. We provide helpful information on immunizations, water safety and marijuana safety to keep parents up-to-date on how to protect their children.

For More Information About Health and Wellness

For more information about how to help your family stay healthy, contact one of our team members at Skagit Regional Health’s pediatric services. We help families learn about childhood health and wellness to grow well and thrive.