Focus on Preventative Pediatric Care
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Community Health System is committed to making sure that preventive pediatric care is easy to access here in the valley, this is why they have devoted pediatricians like Dr. Alicia Sheen answering questions and treating the youngest of patients every day.
A critical component of pediatrics is looking at all the phases of growth and development in children to ensure they have a long healthy life and if issues do arise, they are caught early enough to begin treatment as soon as possible.
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“So I really think of it as twofold, just kind of preventing illnesses and diseases and what can we do to help them thrive and be their best selves,” said Dr. Sheen. “So at these well-child visits, we look at growth. So in the first two years of life, we look at head circumference in addition to their length or height as well as their weight.”
During these visits, Dr. Sheen monitors growth and development and communicates with parents the importance for these phases to be analyzed early for various reasons.
“And so the reason why we look at these things is because we know that if there is a slight delay or a big delay or slight delay, then we can intervene early on,” she said.
Early intervention is important to help connect families to the right resources.
“The other really important preventative care thing that we do for children is immunization,” she said. “That’s a really big part of pediatrics. It’s so, so important because in pediatrics we have seen terrible illnesses, disease, morbidity, mortality due to vaccine-preventable illnesses.”
The first five years are important milestones in children’s lives.
For more information on Community’s Pediatric Care Center visit the Community Health Partners website.
