Keeping Your Kids Healthy: Summer Well-Child Visits

In this episode of the Community Check-In, Dr. Lorna Fitzpatrick, vice president of medical affairs for safety net programs at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield joins us to discuss the significance of summer well-child visits. From infancy to young adulthood, these visits play a crucial role in monitoring your child's growth, development, and overall well-being. Dr. Fitzpatrick highlights the importance of building a trusting relationship with your child's provider and the significance of these visits in empowering children to advocate for their own health as they grow older.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to excel Us Blue Cross BlueShields Community check In. Each week we
cover a specific topic featuring Excellis BlueCross Blue Shield experts. You'll get to
know our team as we discuss thelatest in healthcare, health education, and
community health. Find us at excelUs BCBS dot com and follow on Instagram

(00:26):
and Facebook. I'm Jelomonica. Welcometo the check in and back with us.
Today we have doctor Laurna Fitzpatrick,who is the vice president of Medical
Affairs for Safety Net Programs and thesenior medical director at excel Us Blue Cross
Blue Shield and we're here to talkabout your kiddos this week, specifically about
well child visits. It is nevertoo early to arrange the medical and dental

(00:47):
visits that children will need over theirsummer break from school, so doctor Fitzpatrick
here with us to navigate what annualvisits are essential for kids and when they
should be scheduled. Doctor Fitzpatrick,welcome back to the check in. It's
good to have you great, thanksfor having me back. Just to refresh
your memory. Doctor Fitzpatrick join ExcelisBlue Cross Blue Shield in twenty nineteen after
practicing academic medicine in Buffalo for overtwo decades. She's board certified in pediatrics

(01:11):
and pediatric hematology oncology. She gother medical degree at Jacob's School of Medicine
and continued to residency in pediatrics atthe Saint Louis Children's Hospital, Washington University,
Saint Louis, and then completed afellowship in Pediatric Hematology oncology at Johns
Hopkins University, and she spent twentyyears focusing on caring for pediatric patients with
brain tumors. We're going to expandyour view to talk about all kids today.

(01:36):
So when parents are new parents andthey have new borns, they want
to take the kids into the doctor'soffice to get checkups, make sure that
they're progressing, and just to youknow, kind of check in with their
doctors because it's brand new for them. Every kid is a brand new adventure.
So what we want to talk abouttoday is start off really with a
broader understanding of why these well childis it's are so essential through many stages

(02:02):
of a child's night, not justinfancy. Correct, They're valuable all the
way through. I just took mygoing off to college son out for his
physical and had that done you know, it's so important. You know,
I spent a lot of time trainingpedietricians to play fifteen or sixteen years,
and I think what we train pedietriciansto do is be observers. So unlike

(02:22):
other providers or doctors, who can, you know, ask their patients you
know what's going on? What isit for so much? Or pediatrics we
can't do that. The children can'tspeak, they're they're too young to speak.
So we're really trained to observe everything. So you really want to take
your child to a pediatrician, youryour provider, whoever it may be,
to really have a look at yourchild. Mostly it's going to be you

(02:43):
know, immunizations we always talk about. You want to make sure your immunizations
are on track. Your provider willbe an expert and that will help guide
you through that growth and development soso critical, you know, from early
newborn stages when we worry about thingslike growth and development and hearing m Pedietricians
and providers are really trained to lookfor all of that kind of stuff,
eating and sleeping behaviors, especially ifyou're a new parent. I'm the mom

(03:06):
of four each four times it wasdifferent, doesn't matter go to your doctor
and ask them, you know,sleeping right or eating right, or what's
normal or not. You have areally trusted resource there. Family dynamics are
important. Things like child safety areimportant. We talk about those in preventative
healthcare for children to each and everytime we have your child in our office.
So please make the time, youknow, establish your relationship with your

(03:30):
provider, hopefully before your child's evenborn, as the ideal time to really
find a doctor that you trust totake care of your child from birth on.
I suppose it's just good to havethat benchmark. You know, you
really do need to watch this younglife, especially when they don't have the
ability to speak for themselves or toanswer simple questions about how they're feeling or
what's going on. For a physicianto have those benchmarks and compare them over

(03:54):
time to make sure that things arekind of progressing on track. Certainly,
every child and every person is different, but you do want to be able
to look back and say, well, here's where we were, here's where
we are, where do we thinkwe might be going from here? Correct
and you'll be surprised. I mean, pediatricians, I mean I'm speaking for
myself, but I think for allof my colleagues, we are so invested

(04:15):
in your child's growth and development andeverything that we can do, and we
really do get to know your childas they as they develop, so we
do know them. Lots of questionsthat come up, we take note of
all of that. We listen hard, we try to answer them and try
to reassure and look for those landmarksthat might happen that the different stages of
each child's development so very important thatwe follow that along with you so we

(04:38):
can answer your questions and then makesure your child is progressing all the way
through. How important for you asa physician was it to get to know
the family and to really understand thedynamics of the home and of the child's
life past what you could see atthat office. Visit absolutely everything, not
just from the physical things such asgenetic and hereditary things that might be there,

(04:59):
but just getting to know, youknow, how someone parents, not
just for themselves, but also sometimesit's something to bring to other parents to
help. But really we invest alot of time in really getting to know
our patients, and not just thepatient, but everyone is part of a
family hopefully has that dynamic around them. How does that feed into their system?
How can we help with things thatmight come up? What are some

(05:20):
of the barriers a family might have, how can we help with that.
We're very invested in the pediatric worldon that, and certainly so you can
know what sort of support the familywill have, because if a family is
going to look different in a lotof ways, they may need some supports
and you can be able to bringthose to bear. One of the things
you mentioned, I want to Iwant to circle back to you. Know,
you've got four kiddouts and your oldestis now going off to college.

(05:42):
But you said, I took mybaby in for a physical. So when
we talk about well child visits,and that's a broader term, but the
age range that we're really looking atis well into early adult stages. That's
still part of the whole medical process. And what we're going to talk about
here is that it goes until they'reeighteen, nineteen twenty, and maybe even

(06:04):
him twenty one or so. Absolutely, and pediatricians tend to follow. To
each one is different, but totwenty one somebody, maybe even to twenty
four. If you use a familypractice as you as your primary provider,
they will follow all the way throughlife, from firth to to later in
life. So tends who your provideris. But you want to make sure

(06:25):
that all the way through, evenwhen your kids look as robust and healthy
as mine, do you want totake him in and for me also,
what's that important dynamic. I didn'tgo into the room with my son when
he had his visit. You know, he went out there. He wanted
me out there to give the insuranceinformation. But beyond that, he went
in and he has in a relationshipwith his provider and there's questions in there
that are being asked that may notbe comfortable for him to ask with me,

(06:46):
But he trusts his doctor to askthose questions too, and I trust
his doctors. That's that's a dynamicthat I don't want to interfere with.
And it's really has been a greatopportunity for him to be able to speak
his mind, be comfortable in thatenvironment, and advocate for himself. That's
I think in very importance. Youcan build that level of trust with a
care provider and makes a person asthey age feel maybe more comfortable and confident

(07:12):
in speaking up when things they're notunsure about. They don't feel right,
or just to be able to havea conversation to say okay, and I
can put my mind at ease aboutwhat's happening with me. And I'm experiencing
as a younger person for the veryfirst time. I want to make sure
that this is quote unquote normal,this is something I should be experiencing absolutely,

(07:33):
And I think that when we modeltalking to pediatricians or providers with our
children in the room, we canmodel that for how they would ask questions
going forward. I don't know anydoctor or pediatrician or family practition or anyone
who who really doesn't want to listenand hear. So if something's going on,
like you said, it's important forus to speak up as the parents,
but also important for them to developthat skill as they get older to

(07:55):
be able to do that and carrythat skill on through life. This is
doctor Laurna Fitzpatrick. She is withExcellis Blue Cross Blue Shield. She is
the vice president of Medical Affairs fortheir Safety Net programs and the senior medical
director for Excellis Blue Cross Blue Shield. We're talking about well visits for your
kiddos. We're getting into the summermonths. This is when a lot of
parents try to pack a lot intoa very small window of time in between

(08:16):
when school ends and school begins.What do physicians typically wind up checking with
these well child visits? And Iimagine it changes as the child ages.
Yeah, absolutely, So it startsout, you know, it starts out
as a newborn. You know,we get lucky to see the babies in
the hospital, and we also getlucky to see those babies within just a
few days of them being born.So those initial after birth when we're checking

(08:37):
for things like has the baby feeding? You know, is there any jaundice,
is there developmental anything that doesn't lookright with the baby. And it's
such an important time to connect andfeel comfortable at asking questions about your baby.
As you go through one month andtwo months, four months, six
months, nine months, through thefirst year of life, there'll be a
lot of vaccines in there. Butalso we talk about a lot of safety
things. You know, what's asafe way to have your baby go to

(08:58):
sleep, you know, things likeputting your baby on the back to sleep,
what's normal for eating? Big questionsalways, what's normal for pooping?
All of these things are so criticalfor us to follow up with you and
see then as the toddler age comesin, you know, it's your fifteen
months, eighteen months, two years. You know, again we have some
vaccines in there, but we're doinga ton of developmental testing and checking during
those times too. Lots of questionsabout language development, social relationships, and

(09:24):
things that we can talk about.Their safety, you know at summer season,
you know, pools in the backyard, how to keep your child safe
with the gun, safety in thehouse, things like that we talk about
as you get through the preschool age, same things. Developmental, developmental,
developmental, all the way. Wehave a whole series of developmental tests.
We do it every single time iShall comes in to visit us, and

(09:45):
you might not even know it's beingdone, but it's being done by your
pedutrition as they develop. And thenthrough the school years, you know,
you go through again it's development,but it's also looking for things. If
your child has a chronic health conditionlike asthma, you want to make sure
that they're being tested for that,that they're being fun allow, that you
are a plan in place for it. There's so many things that can be
diagnosed in children. We want tomake sure that we're following through and have
a whole plan for that as weget into the teenage years. I think

(10:09):
it's so critical to remember not justteenage years and even before though, you
know, things like depression screening,social screenings, risk factor screening, social
media, all of those things.We do all of that in the office,
and sometimes it's just concerning to haveyour pediatrician under doctors say mom,
dad out, I'm going to talkwith your child by yourself. But there's
so much important screening that goes onbehind the scenes. There scoliosa, some

(10:31):
physical things, just so much thatwe're trained to do all the way through
young adulthood. How has the mentalhealth component changed, how some of these
well child visits progress, especially whenyou get into that middle school or high
school age. Has that added awhole new aspect to what well child visits
are for that particular age groups.Yeah, we've always done it. I

(10:54):
think with the pandemic, I thinkwith the COVID nineteen pandemic and social isolation
brought it out even more, lotsof anxiety and things. But we do
do screening for depression, We doscreening for you know, make sure that
the children are interacting with peers.If there's normal social development. See if
there's any right flanks out there forus to be able to talk with them

(11:16):
about. We do usually ask forpermission from them to talk to their parents,
who want to establish that trust andcommunication. But if there's any biguous
factors out there, were sure sureto out the parents. Now let's go
down that COVID roof for just asecond. We'll skip ahead a little bit.
How has it knocked some families completelyoff their routines? About how they
have been able to access care?In some cases, doctors haven't been able

(11:39):
to see patients, they haven't beenable to get people into offices, and
some families have had to kind ofbackburner a lot of this stuff because they've
had other pressing issues within the familyway too close to be able to think
about preventative medicine. Right, Yeah, it's so important. Again, I
can't I can't stress the importance ofgetting back to your pediatrician. We know,
you know the pandemic was hardened fromwriters too. You know, office

(12:01):
is shut down, businesses shut down, and how did we address that.
We tried to do as much aswe could over the phone, but it's
just not the same. So Iwould recommend that anyone get back into the
doctor's office and have the doctor takea really good look at your child.
Things like vaccines. We have makeupvaccine schedules in there, so you don't
need to worry about it if youmiss some. We have a whole structured
way of giving vaccines and when youneed to redo it, when you know

(12:22):
when you can't do it, Sowe take care of all of that for
you and we'll walk through that whatthe new schedule will be for that.
It's just so critical to have itdone. Developmental screening. We won't do
old stuff obviously the child's too well, but we'll do the critical developmental screening
for the child as they come into see us. And it just couldn't
be more important. We might pickup on something that hadn't been there before.
You know, someone's not growing quiteright, you know what can we

(12:45):
do about it. You know you'vedeveloping scoliosis as you're getting into teenage years,
you know, asthma's developing, whateverit may be. We're there to
answer your questions and take a lookat your child. So get back in
as soon as you can. Man, it's good to know that you can
make up for lost time. It'snot something that's one and done. You
can get back and get those criticalthings taken care of. And what would

(13:07):
you tell a parent about vaccines.That's a conversation to have with your doctor,
and you know there's no one else. Providers like pediatricians and family practitioners
who are trained to take care ofkids. We know vaccines inside and out.
We can answer your questions about them, make you feel safe about them.
Answer questions like should I get theCOVID nineteen vaccine and other vaccines at
the same time, should I separatethem? We have not just our own

(13:30):
gut feelings, but really scientific answersabout that that will help walk you through
it to make you feel comfortable withthe vaccines. That's really important. You
know, when a parent might befaced with how many shots do we have
to have today? Is that goingto be too much? Because to the
lay person that might seem like thisis unsafe, we should not be doing
this, But just having the conversationand talking through it with a provider can

(13:52):
often be the best part. Evenif you do stagger them out and have
to make a few more office visitsthan you would normally have, you can
get yourself on track and feel confidentand comfortable with that process. Yeah.
Absolutely, even you know, Iknow logically, you know my son can
get many shots in one day andbe safe. You know as a mom
he who got shot in both armsand he was out of commission feeling sore
for a couple days. It makesyou feel bad, but you know we

(14:13):
do. We're trained in the scienceand I think that that's so important.
And vaccines have been the really thebackbone of pediatric care for so long,
and you know, as pediatricians,we promote them, we believe in them.
They've certainly been helpful for so manychildhood illnesses. So go and talk
to your pediatrician. They'll give youthe science, the data and the information.
And you know, I'd like tothink pedietricians are are compassionate family practitioners.

(14:37):
Compassionate we are, and we're herefor the love of it. We're
here for the love of children andto take care of them with you.
Doctor Laurena Fitzpatrick, vice president ofmedical Affairs for Safety Net Programs and the
senior medical director it excels Blue CrossBlue Shield is our guest. More of
our talk on well child visits rightafter this. Everyone deserves to be cared
for and to live well, andit Excels Blue Cross Blue Shield. That's

(15:00):
why we're here. Through affordable planoptions, community investments, partnerships, and
education, we're working to address iniquitiesthat made care feel out of reach for
too many people for far too long. Because when we build up communities and
breakdown health barriers, everybody benefits.Learn more at Excelis bcbs dot com.

(15:22):
This is your community check in anddoctor Laurna Fitzpatrick is our guest today from
Excellis Blue Cross Blue Shield. She'sthe vice president of medical Affairs for Safety
Net Programs and their senior medical director. And we are talking about well visits
for your kiddos. And this isthe time of year when a lot of
parents are trying to get a lotdone. They may be trying to get
back in front of a doctor,maybe for the first time in a couple

(15:43):
of years, or just keeping upwith the regular schedule. Not only of
seeing the pediatrition, we got toroll dental into this as well. This
is something that can often again bepushed to the back burners. Sometimes you
don't go see a dentist until something'swrong. There's a pain, there's a
cavity, something needs to be done. But having those developmental milestones marked by

(16:03):
a dentist as well is also verycrucial when it comes to having that complete
medical picture. Absolutely, dentists there'sso much a partner with pedieutricians and providers
for children. You know, theyspecialize in it, they know what they're
doing, They get the kids innumber one, it's so critical to get
to establish that relationship. You know, no one likes I don't like going

(16:23):
to the dentist. Now on likesgoing to the dentist. But when you're
comfortable and confident in your in yourdentist, it's so much easier. And
I think establishing that comfort from areally early level is so good. Plus,
there's so many things that dentists canpick up for us as pedietricians or
as family practician and say, hey, you know, I noticed this.
Can you take a look at itand see And so we work together very

(16:45):
hand in hand with with pediatric dentistsor dentists in general to take look,
take a look at the pediatric patients. They know a lot, they're there
and they must be the most patientpeople on the planet. They have all
those those little ones in their officeat centists, But they do a fantastic
job and they're a critical part ofchildren's healthcare, and it's good to know

(17:06):
that there's communication there, that there'sgoing to be a sharing of data,
a sharing of records, and conversationsbetween dental practitioners and pediatric practitioners because so
much of what I understand about howsome conditions can be diagnosed, it comes
what it comes from someplace you mightthink is far afield. Oh, a
hearing issue can be indicative of someother type of condition. A tooth issue

(17:30):
can be indicative of some other typeof issues. So you really do need
both of these disciplines working together tomake sure that that picture is as clear
as it possibly can be, especiallywhen the patients are very young and can't
often answer for themselves. Yeah.Absolutely, I think that's critical. When
a child is you know, twoor three, and can't can't speak or
let you know exactly what they're feelingor vocalize it, well, it's so

(17:52):
important to have teams working together totalk about them, to know the child,
to know your family, and tomake sure you're taking together in a
comprehensive look at everything what do parentsneed to know and how should they approach
these well visits to make sure thatthey're getting not only the best care for
their kiddos, but also the mostinformation so that they'll know how to proceed

(18:15):
until the next checkup comes along.Yeah, if you're like me and think
I'll remember something forever and then don't, I write everything down, to be
honest with you, And even whenthe babies were little, I would write
things down in it just a littlecheap notebook that I would keep for questions.
And sometimes the questions resolve themselves beforeI got to the doctor's office and
I didn't need to ask them.But oftentimes, you know, I would

(18:37):
just have something. I would lookthrough it and just say, hey,
you know, can you answer thisquestion for me? So I write everything
down. I advise parents to dothat. Just shut it down at night
if you sometimes you wake up inthe middle of night you think, oh
my gosh, I forgot to thinkabout that, or am I going to
forget write it down, have itwith you. It's easy to write it
on your phones these days. Whateverit may be. But take a list,
you know, get an answer.If a grandparent has a question,

(19:00):
you know, anyone who has aquestion, you know, help them out
to their important parts of our children'sdevelopment also and get that question answered.
I write it down. I adviseeveryone to do that. We're just at
the beginning of summer vacation. Let'stalk to parents right now about how they're
going to proactively proceed through the summermonths to make sure that they're not going
to scramble hopefully by the time thekiddos need to go back to school or

(19:22):
they have to have these immunizations doneor other types of checkups, because again
it's a lot to fit in fora family and also for providers to have
to see all their patients within asmall window of time. Yeah. Absolutely,
I know all my pediatrician friends bracefor it, you know as a
summer summertime comes on and it's hardto take a vacation in them when you're

(19:42):
a pediatrician in the summertime. Butthey do it, and they're you know,
work very hard to schedule. Iknow a lot have extra hours and
extra times available during the summer.It's really great to get those, you
know, scheduled as soon as youcan. My recommendation always is every single
time you walk out of the doctor'soffice scheduling a next visit. Just do
it and that way it's there.You might have to change it, and

(20:03):
sometimes if you're like me, you'llget a remind You're like, oh,
I forgot to schedule. But atleast it's scheduled, and it's a reminder
to you when you get that callfrom the doctor's office to go. So
if you can schedule them, asyou walk out of the office for the
next time that you're supposed to bethere, your doctor will tell you when's
the next time I need to seeyour child. So just make sure you
ask that schedule ahead of time.And when it comes to summer work as

(20:25):
far in advanced as you can toget those scheduled. You don't want to
have to change your own vacations andthings like that to do it. And
it's such a critical part for yourchild's development. And even if you've been
off your schedule, some families aretrying to get back on it and other
families have, you know, kindof back Bernard, it's it's not top
of mind anymore. What do youwant to say to those parents, those

(20:47):
that said, nah, we're notgoing to get back on this. We're
already off schedule. We're too farinto this. We can't do anything else.
What do you want them to knowfrom a pediatric point of view,
to just encourage them to get backin touch with their doctors. Yeah,
first of all, every pediatrician,then I know everyone taking care of children
is so compassionate. We know it, We know how hard it is to

(21:08):
juggle school. COVID has been stressfulfor all of us. Please give our
offices a call, get back into see us. We're here to help
you and get you back on trackwith your children. Don't fear it.
It's hard to kind of get backin the cycle again, but just do
it. Just pick up the phone, make that phone call, make that
appointment, and just get back ontrack when you can. We'll help you
with it. We'll get you there. It might take some time, but

(21:30):
it's really important for us to beable to see your child. And if
you know, if you don't,if your physicians are not seeing them,
there's the potential that possibly treatable ordiagnosable issues with your kids are going to
be missed. Right correct. Mostimportant one I think is sometimes hearing.
Sometimes parents don't pick up with speechand hearing that there might be an issue.

(21:52):
It's really important all those little thingsthat we're looking for. Just get
us back and you don't want tomiss anything if you can, and just
get back in and see us.First of all, I'll be greeted with
a hug and a smile, Iknow that for sure, and with a
lot of compassion. And just getback into see your doctor when you can,
no matter how old your kiddos are, whether they're twenty one and going
off to college, or no matterwhere they are, getting back in there.

(22:14):
It's not that relationship you mentioned andin our last couple of minutes here,
I just want to talk about resourcesthat are available right now. It
can really for some parents be aseasy as a notebook, something that you
keep handy so that when you dohave a question, you write it down.
There are many other types of applicationsand trackers and things like that,
but Excels Blue Cross Blue Shield alsohas a wealth of information that's available online,
both two members and non members thatcan be accessed to just give parents

(22:40):
better tools and a better overview ofthe things that they need to be doing.
Yeah, absolutely, we have informationonline. You can always call also
a few questions about it so loginto that and see American Academy Pediatrics has
excellent information also about vaccines and timingand visits and what we do with those
visits. So if you pair thosetwo together what we have here at excel
Us in our informations that we haveas well as resources, trusted resources like

(23:04):
the American Academy Pediatrics, you'll bein good shape. And really, bottom
line last, you know, lastninety seconds here that we have for the
program today, there is a lotgoing on with families. There's a lot
of information that is out there.There's a lot of good, there's a
lot of bad. Now it's aboutre establishing I think maybe maybe that's the

(23:25):
bottom line and the big takeaway here. It's about re establishing those connections with
your healthcare provider that may have beenbroken or may have been used differently over
the last few years. To getback into those healthy routines because really,
at the end of the day,if we have a healthy routine with our
physicians, then we can have healthyroutines when we're away from the office.
Absolutely, and you know, havingthe pat pedutricians and well child checks are

(23:51):
so much a part of healthy lifestylefor the family. And for the child
themselves. So critical to get backinto the office and have someone take a
look at your child exactly back intoyour dentist office. Use the resources of
Excellis Blue Cross Blue Shield if youneed help finding providers, or if you
just have a question you want tohave somebody maybe take a look at for
you or find some great information youcan get that as well. Doctor Luna
Fitzpatrick from Excellist Blue Cross Blue Shieldis their vice president of Medical Affairs for

(24:15):
Safety Net Programs and a Senior medicaldirector of Excellis Blue Cross Blue Shield.
And she's a mom of four,so she knows what she's talking about.
Analog time pediatrician, Doctor Fitzpatcrick hasbeen great to catch up with you,
and thank you for some wonderful informationthis week that hopefully we'll spur some parents
to flood pediatrician's offices over these sideof the way. Thank you so much
for having me, Thanks for joiningus on Community check In, a presentation

(24:37):
of Excellist Blue Cross Blue Shield atiHeartRadio. Podcasts of Community check In are
available on the iHeartRadio app or whereveryou find your favorite audio content. For
more ways to stay safe, healthy, and educated, visit excellis bcbs dot
com, and follow on Instagram andFacebook.