UVA Health Children's

UVA Health Children's UVA Health Children’s | Virginia’s #1 Children’s Hospital

Providing exceptional right-sized care to all kids in Virginia and beyond.

UVA Health Children’s is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as Virginia’s #1 Children’s Hospital. As an academic hospital, we stay on the cutting edge of treatment, while providing an environment that’s right-sized for children and their families. We have pediatric specialists representing every specialty. Multidisciplinary programs offer an opportunity for collaboration that ensures exceptional care for every child. And while our providers are experienced with rare conditions, they also provide everyday preventative care. We cannot give medical advice on this page. If you are seeking medical advice, please call us at 434.243.5500 to schedule an appointment or call 911 if it is an emergency. This page has been created under the ownership and control of UVA Health Children’s. We welcome and encourage your questions and comments but ask that you keep them on-topic and respectful of the guidelines noted below. All user posts will be reviewed for content and relevancy, and we reserve the right to delete posts. Any posts that threaten the safety of employees, patients or other individuals will be shared with our security team and/or the appropriate police department for further investigation. Guidelines:

Never post any information about an identifiable individual patient. If your Facebook username is your first and last name and you reveal a relationship to a patient (for example, “my mother is a patient at UVA,”) this is information about an identifiable patient. We will delete user comments, photos, videos and other posts that contain information about identifiable patients. Additionally, we reserve the right to delete posts that:
• Are off-topic or unrelated to the purpose of the page
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Kids are rarely good at waiting. This is especially true when they’re waiting for a lifesaving kidney or liver transplan...
04/07/2026

Kids are rarely good at waiting. This is especially true when they’re waiting for a lifesaving kidney or liver transplant. In addition to the concerns that all patients on the waitlist have, for children, the waiting period represents compounding cognitive and growth delays.

UVA Health Children’s living donor program has helped many children during their transplant journey. Our program integrates surgical excellence with robust psychosocial and educational support, ensuring patients and families receive thoughtful guidance before, during, and after transplant.

💚 Learn more about our living donor program at https://bit.ly/4e6POCu

04/06/2026

Thank you to REMAX Advantage Waynesboro Staunton Augusta for joining us this weekend to bring Easter joy to our patients at University Medical Center! 🩷🐰💜

It’s only been in recent diet culture that fiber has become a bad word. As people focus on protein – sometimes exclusive...
03/26/2026

It’s only been in recent diet culture that fiber has become a bad word. As people focus on protein – sometimes exclusively! – our intestinal broom has gotten swept up in the madness. But fiber has a lot of benefits. And most kids aren’t getting nearly enough.

🥗 Check out this easily-digestible guide on everything you need to know about fiber and more at https://bit.ly/41u44xA

"Anna embodies everything the DAISY Award represents: compassion, excellence, and thoughtfulness for her patients and th...
03/22/2026

"Anna embodies everything the DAISY Award represents: compassion, excellence, and thoughtfulness for her patients and their families. We are so grateful for the care and the comfort she brought to our family during such a vulnerable time. She truly made a lasting impact on our lives, and we believe she deserves to be recognized for her extraordinary kindness and dedication."

UVA Health's DAISY Foundation Award is a nursing-specific award created to honor extraordinary care. 🌼 We're twice as proud as usual to honor Anna Failes, BSN, RN, who was nominated by the twin patients' mother for being "everything we could have asked for and more in an advocate and caregiver for our babies" during their stay in the University Medical Center NICU.

Today, Mailinh Nguyen is a typical high schooler in Virginia. But not long ago, she was very ill from lupus.With lupus, ...
03/19/2026

Today, Mailinh Nguyen is a typical high schooler in Virginia. But not long ago, she was very ill from lupus.

With lupus, your immune system mistakenly attacks your body’s own healthy cells. “I had a flare up, which caused multiorgan system failure in my body,” remembers Mailinh. “And it mainly impacted my lungs. Which is why I was put on ECMO, to help support my lung function.”

Mailinh needed to stay in the hospital at UVA Health to treat her lupus. Her condition was so severe, her care team brought in ECMO, which stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, to support for her heart and lungs. With ECMO, Mailinh was able to get the treatment she needed for her lupus, putting her on the road back to normal.

🩵 Learn more about ECMO life-support treatment and Mailinh's experience at https://bit.ly/41hAWcO

"To say we were blessed by Julia would be an understatement! Her thoughtfulness, creativity, and compassion made a lasti...
03/16/2026

"To say we were blessed by Julia would be an understatement! Her thoughtfulness, creativity, and compassion made a lasting difference. I wanted to be sure to express just how deeply thankful we are for her."

🐝 Our BEE (Being Excellent Everyday) Award is an award dedicated to celebrating the team members who work alongside our nurses delivering expert, compassionate care.

Today, we're proud to honor Child Life Specialist Julia Dawson, CCLS, BLS, who was recognized by a patient's family for her ingenuity in turning a action figure into a fun clinical education tool to help the patient understand parts of his post-surgical care: "She turned something clinical into something playful — an empowering model he could use to understand and even practice the process himself. He lit up instantly — playing with it, processing the experience, and gaining confidence!"

Spasticity – including muscle spasms and involuntary limb contractions – can affect a child’s entire body, creating prof...
03/16/2026

Spasticity – including muscle spasms and involuntary limb contractions – can affect a child’s entire body, creating profound impacts on movement, development, and quality of life. UVA Health Children’s commitment to opening a pediatric spasticity program required getting a team of specialists with the right experience.

Treatment options for spasticity include physical therapy, Botox injections, baclofen pumps, tendon releases, and selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR). For all of these options, the team has to consider rehabilitation, follow-up, and helping each family reach their treatment goals.

💛 We spoke to pediatric neurologist Heather Spader, MD and pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist William Ide, MD about how instrumental multidisciplinary care and family engagement is to the treatment process. Read the full interview with both providers at https://bit.ly/4sNCdUU

Approximately 75% of young women with anorexia and up to 60% of female endurance athletes will develop menstrual dysfunc...
03/13/2026

Approximately 75% of young women with anorexia and up to 60% of female endurance athletes will develop menstrual dysfunction during their reproductive years, with significant implications for bone health. It's typically termed functional hypothalamic amenorrhea, or FHA. When providers recognize this red flag early, treatment can help these young women thrive.

💜 We spoke to UVA Health Children's physician-in-chief and endocrinologist Madhusmita Misra, MBBS, MD, MPH, about how menstrual health impacts lifelong "bone bank" supply and fracture risk. Learn more at https://bit.ly/40w2JpF

More therapists at UVA Health Children's and throughout Virginia now have access to an effective form of play-based ther...
03/12/2026

More therapists at UVA Health Children's and throughout Virginia now have access to an effective form of play-based therapy for young children, thanks to efforts by pediatric psychologist Alisa B. Bahl, PhD.

Bahl trained in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) early in her career and has been offering it as part of her practice since she joined UVA Health Children’s 13 years ago. But with the opening of the Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Health Clinic in Charlottesville in 2024, she now has a highly valued commodity: space. With this added space for therapy sessions, more patients can be seen.

And in training more therapists in the art of PCIT and showing its merits, we're helping expand the intervention’s reach — ultimately helping more children achieve better mental health outcomes.

💚 Learn more about PCIT and our growing network of specialty pediatric mental health care at https://bit.ly/3P3T1sb

03/05/2026

Shoes4Hope 👟🎗️ Tonight our coaches and staff are wearing shoes designed by pediatric cancer patients at UVA Children’s. The one of a kind shoes were also signed by the team.

The shoe auction is live, benefiting UVA Children’s and their families.

shoes4hope.betterworld.org/auctions/mbb

Every year, thousands of children are born with neuromuscular conditions like cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spina ...
03/03/2026

Every year, thousands of children are born with neuromuscular conditions like cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, or spinal muscular atrophy. The complications of these conditions can be wide-reaching, ranging from neuromuscular scoliosis, spasticity, developmental delays, and mobility concerns.

Through a variety of specialty programs, doctors at UVA Health Children’s deliver the sophisticated care children with neuromuscular conditions require. Together — fueled by data captured in UVA Health’s Motion Analysis and Motor Performance Lab — they provide accurate diagnoses and create personalized treatment plans that improve each patient’s quality of life.

With about 10% of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients having their first symptoms before the age of 18, it's critical to ge...
03/02/2026

With about 10% of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients having their first symptoms before the age of 18, it's critical to get the right diagnosis, and treatment, early to improve long-term outcomes for kids. That's why advancing research into MS care is so important.

"My passion for research comes from my interactions with these patients," says J. Nicholas Brenton, MD, a pediatric neurologist and pediatric MS researcher at UVA Health. "The majority of treatments in multiple sclerosis have been studied in adults, and there have been few studies in pediatric patients."

At UVA Health Children's, we're trying to change that. Our Multiple Sclerosis Center is recognized by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as a Center for Comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis Care and is a recognized member of The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers. That's in part thanks to the tireless work of researchers like Brenton.

🧠 We spoke to Brenton about his latest research and clinical approach – you can read all of his answers at https://bit.ly/4rH0cF5

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