COPC - Step by Step Pediatrics

12/17/2025

12/16/2025

The Holidays, despite all of the positives, often leads to stress and anxiety in adults and children. However, children demonstrate stress differently. Holiday stress in children shows up as tantrums, clinginess, sleep/eating changes, or physical complaints (headaches, stomach aches) due to disrupted routines, overstimulation, new people, and high expectations, but parents can help by maintaining routines, ensuring rest/activity, prepping for changes, and creating quiet , calm moments for decompression and allowing emotional release with free play time. It is also important for parents to manage their own stress as children pick up on parental anxiety.

The holidays can be magical times for children, but they can provoke stress, which can manifest in different ways than in adults.

12/15/2025

Planning on traveling for the holidays? Make sure your vaccinations are up to date.
The US reported 74 new cases of measles over the past week, an increase from the 35 cases last week. The increase was driven by the outbreaks in Arizona (+21), South Carolina (+35), and Utah (+10). The outbreaks in Arizona and Utah are linked and are spreading in the border counties of the two states. The US total is now 1,909 for 2025, the most cases the US has had since 1992.
Pertussis cases (whooping cough) continue to rise across the US. Several states are experiencing elevated case counts surpassing their own previous records. States such as Arkansas have reached a 20-year high for recorded pertussis cases, and Texas has nearly quadrupled the number of reported cases from last year alone. Combining CDC reports and state publicly available data, Texas (3,500), Washington (2,049), California (1,915), Oregon (1,446), and Florida (1,436) shoulder the largest burden of pertussis.

12/12/2025

COVID vaccination rates have been falling significantly with conflicting information on their benefits. We have been offering them, but by no means pushing them. However, new data shows we should be more strongly encouraging COVID vaccination. New data released by the CDC on Thursday show that “Covid vaccines administered last fall sharply decreased the risk of emergency department and urgent care visits in children.” The findings, published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, “showed that Covid shots cut the risk of needing medical care in the first six months after vaccination by 76 percent in children under 4, and 56 percent in children 5 to 17

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12/10/2025

The office will be closing early tomorrow for our annual Holiday party. Last appointments will be at 12:30pm.

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12/09/2025

Federal vaccine advisers voted Friday to withdraw the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, a decision the American Academy of Pediatrics said will harm children. Under the new recommendation, infants whose mothers test negative for Hepatitis B would not be explicitly recommended for vaccination but could get vaccinated if their parents chose to do so. “This irresponsible and purposely misleading guidance will lead to more hepatitis B infections in infants and children,” AAP President Susan J. Kressly, M.D., FAAP, said in a statement. “I want to reassure parents and clinicians that there is no new or concerning information about the hepatitis B vaccine that is prompting this change, nor has children’s risk of contracting hepatitis B changed."

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12/04/2025

Congratulations to our incredible office manager Shelley, who is retiring today. We wish her all the best of luck in the next chapter of her life.

11/27/2025

HOLIDAY CLOSURE:
In recognition of Thanksgiving, all COPC practices and services will be closed on Thursday, November 27.

Step by Step will be open on Friday (by appointment only) from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm for only acute ill visits.

11/26/2025

Surveillance data from Nationwide Children's Hospital is seeing an uptick in both Influenza A and RSV. If you have not gotten your Flu shot yet there is still time before the season really hits. Also, infants under 8 months old qualify for Beyfortus the injection for RSV protection. If moms were not given an RSV vaccine during their pregnancy and if their infants have not had the Beyfortus injection at the office, we highly recommend getting that shot as soon as possible.

11/25/2025

New CDC data show that over 25,000 cases of whooping cough have been recorded in the U.S. so far this year. This marks the second consecutive year with higher than usual cases. Here at Step By Step we have had several positive cases this month.
Whooping cough is caused by the bacteria Bordetella Pertussis. It is highly contagious and is a vaccine preventable illness. It is often called the 100 day cough, because once the coughing starts it lingers for weeks, even with treatment. Whooping cough is especially dangerous to babies under a year where it can cause them to stop breathing (apnea) and can require hospitalization. The pertussis bacteria is so contagious that we treat household contacts with antibiotics to prevent further spread.

11/24/2025

This Friday is Black Friday and before you start scrambling to buy the latest and greatest AI infused electronic device for your young child, let me say . . . . . please don't. Kids are being bombarded with electronic toys that demand attention and limit children's creative play. Let me make a pitch for old school wooden, durable toys that foster creativity and learning without inducing sensory overload. I loved Melissa and Doug products for my kids, but they are not the only place to get quality toys. Lakeshore Learning, and Beyond Play are also great places to shop.

Explore our collection of best selling learning games and toys for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers available at Melissa & Doug. Shop today!

11/21/2025