childrensmercypediatriccarenorth

Flu Vaccines are Here!

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 21:31:23 GMT

2026 Flu Clinics

Our flu clinic schedule has been opened for the season! A flu shot is quick, easy and covered by most insurance plans. Our office offers a few options to get your family vaccinated:

Drive Thru Flu Clinics - available September 12, September 26, and October 17; 1:30pm - 4:00pm ( by appointment, please self-schedule through the Patient Portal or call the office ).
Your Child's Yearly Well Exam - no additional appointment needed! Let your nurse know you would like your child to receive the flu vaccine during their scheduled appointment with your provider.
In-Office Vaccine Clinics - available on select evenings and Saturdays ( by appointment, please self-schedule through the Patient Portal or call the office ).

Schedule your flu vaccine today!

Vaccination is the best protection:

The flu vaccine is safe and effective. It reduces the risk of your child catching the flu and their risk of suffering serious complications. Children younger than 5 and those with certain chronic conditions may be at increased risk for complications.

Clearing up misconceptions:

The flu shot doesn’t give your child the flu. The shot can cause similar symptoms, but these are simply signs the immune system is working to build protection against the virus.
The flu is not the same as a cold. The flu can cause serious issues, like pneumonia, difficulty breathing and/or dehydration. In rare cases, the flu can be deadly.
Children 6 months to 8 years old receiving a flu vaccine for the first time should consult with their provider to determine if 1 or 2 doses are appropriate.

Additional Information:

AAP - Recommendations for Prevention and Control of Influenza in Children, 2025–2026: Policy Statement

HealthyChildren.org - The Flu: What Parents Need to Know

AAP - Protect Your Child from the Flu | American Academy of Pediatrics (Video)

Dr. Melissa Beard's Retirement Letter

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:08:22 GMT

If you’d like to share a note, memory, or well-wish, we invite you to sign her digital card here:
�� Dr. Beard's Retirement E-Card

Refill Requests Update

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 23:06:53 GMT

A Small Update to How We Handle Medication Refills

As a practice, we’re always looking for ways to make care more efficient, accurate, and convenient for the families we serve. With that goal in mind, we’d like to share an upcoming change to how medication refill requests are handled.

Beginning February 13, 2026, we will no longer take medication refill requests through our voicemail line.

Instead, we kindly ask families to request medication refills in one of the following ways:

Through the patient portal
Calling the office and speaking to a member of the team, or
By contacting your pharmacy, who can send the refill request directly to our office on your behalf

Why are we making this change?

Voicemail refill requests can sometimes be incomplete or difficult to process quickly, which may lead to delays. Using the patient portal or pharmacy requests allows our clinical team to receive clear, organized information right away — helping us review and process refills more efficiently and safely.

This change also helps us:

Reduce delays caused by missed or unclear voicemail messages
Ensure requests reach the correct care team member
Improve turnaround time and reduce duplicate requests

How to request a refill moving forward

Patient Portal: The patient portal is the fastest way to submit a refill request. You can send your request at any time, include helpful details, and securely communicate with our team.
Call Us: Give us a call during business hours and our team will take all of the necessary information for your refill request.
Pharmacy Requests: You may also contact your pharmacy directly. Pharmacies are able to send refill requests straight to our office, which helps streamline the process.

We’re here to help

We understand that changes to routine processes can take some getting used to, and we truly appreciate your patience as we make this transition. Our team is always happy to help if you have questions about using the patient portal or requesting a refill.

Thank you for your understanding and for partnering with us in your child’s care. Small changes like this help us continue providing the best possible service to our families!

Dr. Laurie Riddell's Retirement Letter

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 20:49:16 GMT

Safe Screen Time for Kids

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 18:53:15 GMT

Safe Screen Time for Kids

Author: Dr. Susan Storm, MD

As we get back into the swing of school, a lot of big questions come up:

Should my child have a phone? What if they are participating in after school practice and need to call that practice is canceled or ended early?
What devices are best for what age?
Are these safe for their developing brains and how does this affect their social skills?
What kind of communication should they have?
How connected to the internet should they be?

These are all questions that are coming up daily in our world. Parents struggle with these decisions every day, and as a pediatrician I struggle to help. This is the first generation of parents that are having to navigate digital exposure to their children from day 1 of their lives. In fact, this has become such an issue that the surgeon general has discussed placing health warnings on all smartphones.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not giving your child a smartphone until 8th grade, or 13 years of age. Although this sounds like an easy enough goal, how do you combat peer pressure when your elementary child comes home and states that “everyone has one”?

Finding like-minded parents can help with this. There is a movement called the “Wait until 8th grade” where thousands of parents have signed this pledge to hold off on getting their kids a phone until 8th grade. It is difficult to say “no” in a world of evolving technology, but slightly easier if you know you aren’t the only one saying setting limits.

That being said, just saying no is not an easy answer or choice. As a parent, you may feel like all you can do is keep saying no all day long to screens and phones. It can be overwhelming trying to set boundaries to the internet and phones. On the pediatrician side, I find myself frustrated trying to give advice when hackers and child predators are getting smarter everyday. On top of that, kids are often more savvy with technology than their parents! Just saying no to all technology is not an end-all solution. Phones, screens, and technology are here to stay.

To better navigate this new parental challenge that older generations did not face, we need to proceed with guidance. Where do we get this guidance? One such place we have found is the nonprofit organization Screen Sanity. Screen Sanity was created by three moms out of Kansas City in 2018 who recognized the challenges they were facing and wanted to make a change. It’s a non-profit that began in the middle of America and now is reaching across the globe. Their mission is to create a world where kids are captivated by life and not screens. Their website is a wealth of information and resources, in an easy to navigate format. This organization champions the Drivers Ed analogy “Ride, Practice, Drive” in reference to device introduction. They use the analogy that teaching your kid to drive a device is like teaching your kid to drive a car, it is done intentionally and incrementally.

Using Screen Sanity’s smartphone roadmap and First Phone Comparison chart, which is available for free on their website, they recommend a step up approach to devices. Getting basic phones or watches made by companies like Gizmo, Gabb, and Light phone without the bells and whistles of a smartphone. A paired-down smartphone could be an option as well. Your child has the ability to call home without surfing the internet. Or if they do have access to the internet, use of parental controls for internet use can help control what children see.

We at Pediatric Care North feel so passionate and hopeful about this nonprofit program. We have posters from the program in every room of our practice. You can find more information about the program at www.screensanity.org

In addition to Screen Sanity, the American Academy of Pediatrics has published guidelines about phone/internet use as well:

Talk about having a phone agreement. Parents should have the ability to access the passwords and check texts.
Remind kids that getting a cell phone does not mean that they should have social media.
Set expectations about phone use in the house, at dinner time and and during homework time. Parents as well as the kids should stay off the phone at dinner time- let’s engage with each other at dinner time! Let's talk about our day!
Set privacy, content contact, download, and downtime settings- Explain to your children why it is important to avoid running into inappropriate content. Without protections, the average age of a child accidentally running into porn is 9 years old!
Check in with your kids on how it’s going using the phone. Is the phone interrupting their school time? Are they getting too much texting and calls? Is it overwhelming?
Help your kids solve issues with the phone or other devices.

I would like to close out with a few paraphrased remarks from former AAP President Colleen Kraft, M.D., FAAP: She stated that we need to get back to the times when we allow our children to be bored, and not continuously stimulated by screens. Our society now tends to continually want entertainment, and this is not good for creativity. Boredom leads to creativity, personal growth and development. Children as well as adults need downtime and boredom to recharge the mind. More green time and less screen time is needed.

Technology is here to stay, but that doesn’t mean we can’t approach it with education, training, and preparation.