Dr Heidi Ackermann

04/03/2025

A vaccine that prevents cancer??? Heck yes!

In 2014, the South African government introduced free vaccinations against HPV to girls in public schools through the Integrated School Health Programme.

Health officials from the Department of Health visit government schools to carry out the HPV vaccination campaign.

For a child to receive their vaccination, and be protected against cervical cancer and measles, parents or caregivers need to fill in and sign the consent forms which they will receive from their child’s school. No girl will be vaccinated without parental consent.

For more information contact your school or your health care provider, or the National Health Hotline 0800 029 999

01/02/2025

You do hard stuff everyday.

It is hard to say “nope…we don’t do that” when the rest of the world is giving in…but the outcomes speak for themselves.

Social 👏 media 👏 is 👏 hugely 👏 toxic 👏 to 👏 our 👏 children 👏 and 👏 teens.

There is way to argue for a net benefit when the negatives are so high.

No one will watch out for your child’s physical, emotional, mental, social and self-image safety if you do not.

Good parenting takes practice (and it’s HARD!)

06/04/2024

23/04/2022

COVID-19 can make some children very sick. A new MMWR report finds that among nearly 400 children ages 5–11 years hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first few months of Omicron:
• 9 in 10 were unvaccinated
• 7 in 10 had COVID-19 as the main reason for hospitalization
• 3 in 10 had no underlying conditions
• 2 in 10 were admitted to the ICU

Staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines is the best way to protect all children from COVID-19. Learn more: bit.ly/MMWR7116.

27/02/2022

We are very proud to introduce you to Retha Turvey, the Speech and Language therapist at our premises:

I am Retha Turvey. I studied Speech-Language Therapy at the University of Pretoria. I have spent most of my career providing services to children with a variety of communication difficulties. These include speech production difficulties, language delays and disorders, fluency disorders, hearing loss and auditory processing disorders. I support communication through direct therapy or by means of assistive/ alternative communication, where verbal communication is not attainable. I also completed my Stark Griffin training, to be able to diagnose and assist individuals struggling with Dyslexia.

12/01/2022

COMPLETE LIST of baby food rules...

1. No honey until 12 months

THAT'S IT.

Since I still have a lot of characters left...

COMPLETE LIST OF BABY FEEDING MYTHS [refutations]

- must start with veggies, or fruits, or yellows, or rice cereal [nope no science behind this nor any impact on pickiness]

- must wait 2/3/4/5 days before trying next food [nope..no need to anticipate a reaction will happen]

- no peanuts or eggs until 1/2/3 years [nope and waiting DEF raises risk of food allergy]

- single isolates only [nope...makes no sense evolutionarily to expect a human child to only get one type of food for a period of time- think of how a cavebaby would have survived]

09/01/2022

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a rare but severe condition associated with COVID-19 in which different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, skin, eyes, or other organs. Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 91% effective in preventing MIS-C, a new CDC study found. Vaccinating your child is the best way to prevent MIS-C. Learn more: bit.ly/MMWR7102e1.

04/01/2022

You don't have to feed your baby rice cereal first, fourth, or at all.

Although many may guilt/shame/browbeat you to feed this or that first "or else!"...they are simply wrong.

There's no magic or science to the first food your baby eats. (Actually, the science supports that you can do it in ANY order and end up with a great eater).

Pick something you like or think he'd enjoy and start with that.

Peaches, green beans, avocados, bananas, turnips...THE ORDER DOESN'T MATTER!!

(also...you can switch it up as often as you like...no need to wait a certain number of days to try something new - who would want to eat three flippin' days of pureed squash anyway!? 😂🤭 )

What was your baby's first food?

09/10/2021

21/09/2021

A new CDC study found that COVID-19-related hospitalizations among children and adolescents are rising, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.

Vaccination is more urgent than ever. Everyone 12 and older should get vaccinated as soon as possible: www.vaccines.gov.