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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• Contain copyrighted material or material that belongs to someone else

"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

The highly contagious flu virus infects millions of children per year, and unfortunately, can become serious with little...
02/26/2026

The highly contagious flu virus infects millions of children per year, and unfortunately, can become serious with little warning.

🤧 For more details from UVA Health pediatrician Priya Tulsi, MD about flu complications and how you can help your child with their illness, visit: https://bit.ly/4u5frcD

High blood pressure – sometimes referred to as "the silent killer" because it can do serious heart and brain damage befo...
02/22/2026

High blood pressure – sometimes referred to as "the silent killer" because it can do serious heart and brain damage before symptoms appear – is common in adults. But what about children?

Among U.S. children and adolescents, up to 5% have high blood pressure – also known as hypertension – and as many as 18% have elevated blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association.

💜 This , check out what "good" blood pressure means for kids in the graphics below.

Your kids deserve care from Virginia’s top pediatric experts, and we’ve got them! Virginia Business named more than 60 o...
02/20/2026

Your kids deserve care from Virginia’s top pediatric experts, and we’ve got them!

Virginia Business named more than 60 of our pediatric providers to its 2026 “Virginia’s Top Doctors” list.

🏆 From heart care to neurology to everyday pediatrics, check out the full list at https://bit.ly/4cEISf3

🏀 For kids with genetic conditions that affect their heart, traditional advice often leans towards activity restriction,...
02/19/2026

🏀 For kids with genetic conditions that affect their heart, traditional advice often leans towards activity restriction, depriving them of the benefits sports can provide to their growing bodies.

Thanks to advancements in pediatric sports cardiology and growing pediatric-specific heart data, there’s more room for discussion in these gray areas. We spoke to UVA Health pediatric sports cardiologist and Pediatric Exercise Stress Laboratory medical director Peter Dean, MD to learn more.

02/11/2026

You know your child best – so when Gracelin stopped breathing during an outing with her mother, Candice knew time was of the essence to find out what was wrong.

UVA Health's flagship academic teaching hospital is University Medical Center in Charlottesville, which is also the home of UVA Health Children’s. Ranked #1 in Virginia, UVA Health Children’s delivers expert care that can detect rare, life-threatening conditions like ALCAPA before it’s too late.

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1215 Lee Street
Charlottesville, VA
22903

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+14342435500

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