Healthy Lifestyles Clinic
This clinic is for children and adolescents who are working towards achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. A nurse practitioner manages the clinic in conjunction with pediatric endocrinology, pediatric gastroenterology, and nutritionists to evaluate patients and screen them for complications related to obesity. Subsequent treatment goals focus on developing healthy lifestyle habits, including learning to make sound nutritional choices and increasing the level of activity. Your child’s primary care provider can refer you to this clinic via a consult to Pediatric Endocrinology (“Healthy Lifestyles Clinic” should be specified in the consult).
High Risk Infant Clinic
This clinic screens babies with increased risk for developmental delay, typically starting at 4 months of age. Enrollment is done via a consult to our Developmental Pediatrician from your child's primary care provider. After the consult is requested, you should be contacted within 2 weeks to schedule an appointment. Please call your child’s primary care provider to check on the status of the referral if you have not received a call within that timeframe. Eligibility criteria for the HRIF clinic are:
- Any baby born at <32 weeks gestation
- Any baby with a complicated newborn period (NICU stay for more than 48 hours, surgery, heart disease, etc)
- Concern by you and your child’s pediatrician that development is not normal
The visit usually takes 60-90 minutes. It is a generally a fun visit, using toys and play activities to elicit your child’s maximum developmental skills. The 5 areas we look at are:
- Social skills (how baby interacts with their environment/people)
- Self Help skills (how baby ‘copes’ or does things for themselves)
- Gross Motor skills (big muscles)
- Fine Motor skills (how baby uses their hands, mouth)
- Language/Communication skills
NICU Graduate Clinic
The NICU Graduate Clinic is designed to ensure that medical needs are met for recent NICU patients until they have established care with an outpatient primary care provider. All infants discharged from our NICU are automatically enrolled. Newborns who are recent NICU graduates or infants < 6 months old with complex medical needs are also eligible if they are transferring into our system from other hospitals or regions. This may be a one-time appointment or we may follow your baby until we can ensure followup with your baby’s new primary care provider. An appointment date/time will be included with discharge instructions for babies leaving our NICU. Parents of eligible babies transferring into our system may call (619) 532-8266 to request more information.
The first appointment is similar to a general pediatrics appointment, however with more time spent answering questions and focusing on the NICU graduate’s specific needs. The visit will include a physical exam, close weight/growth followup, review of medications and feedings, labwork as needed, assignment of a primary care provider if not already done, and referrals to specialists or home health agencies if needed. The clinic’s goal is to help parents transition from the NICU environment, and ensure that the plan of care for infants with additional medical needs stays on track as they transition to a primary care provider.
Synagis Clinic
Synagis (palivizumab) is a medication given by injection to reduce the likelihood of severe Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection in high risk infants. RSV infections are typically fairly mild and consist of runny nose and cough. Primary prevention includes good hand-washing, as well as keeping infants away from people who are sick. However, certain infants have a higher likelihood of developing severe illness and should receive Synagis as additional protection against this virus (it is for prevention only, not treatment of infections). We administer Synagis to high risk infants during San Diego’s RSV season which runs approximately November to April. The medication only stays in the body for 4 weeks so repeat doses are required; it is important to keep all scheduled appointments to avoid inadequate protection. Criteria for high risk infants requiring Synagis are somewhat complex, but include age at the start of the RSV season, prematurity, certain cardiac defects, neuromuscular disease, and chronic lung disease. Enrollment is through your child’s primary care provider.