Holistic Pediatricians

Dr. Chheda – 🏥 What is the difference between DPC, direct primary care, and concierge medicine? They both offer stronger relationships with patients. You can communicate with your physician a lot more. But the main difference is that with concierge practices, they still bill insurance. You still have to pay co-pays, you still have to meet your deductibles. There might be a larger staff, and there’s usually a higher price tag – insurance plus a fee.

💚 DPC, Direct Primary Care – you still get the physician, you’re still able to communicate with the physician, but it’s a much leaner staff. You don’t have co-pays, you don’t have to meet a deductible. You have a direct relationship with the physician, and it’s usually at a much lower price point than concierge.

📱 Harmony Pediatrics is a direct primary care practice. We don’t bill insurance. Don’t think of us as concierge with higher price points. We actually have much, much lower price points. You can still text, you can still FaceTime. You don’t have to bring your child in every single time.

Keep that in mind when you’re looking for a wonderful relationship with a physician, one-on-one. Harmony Pediatrics is right here in Alpharetta, Georgia.

“Hey, you got time for lunch today?” “Yeah sure, what time?” “About 1:15-ish.” “Well I have a doctor’s appointment for my daughter at 1.” “Oh, sounds perfect – you said one, so push it to 1:30?” “It’s gonna be pretty hard. Our doctor actually spends a full hour with us.”

“An hour WITH your doctor or waiting FOR your doctor?” “No, an hour WITH the doctor. Really.” “What? Are you guys related or something?” “No, we go to a DPC practice.”

“What’s DPC?” “Direct primary care – kind of like concierge medicine where we are the doctor’s priority. It’s not about how many patients you see a day, but how long you spend with each patient, caring for that patient.”

“Wow, that’s interesting. I’ll have to get her information.” “Absolutely! Give us a call: 770-475-9924.”

Dr. Chheda – 🥝 If there is one fruit that is an excellent source of nutrition, that would be kiwis. Kiwis have a lot of vitamin C, they have vitamin A as well, vitamin E, lots of fiber, potassium. They are nutrient dense.

💚 If there is one fruit that you should eat, try to incorporate into your diet, it should be a kiwi every day. A kiwi is much healthier than an apple, and an apple a day keeps the doctor away, so what do you think a kiwi will do?

💉 Oh, when the COVID vaccine first came out, I was telling my patients to eat a kiwi a day for the two days leading up to the COVID vaccine, and none of my patients had a reaction to the COVID vaccine. The vitamin A in the kiwi can actually help with vaccine reactions.

So just eat a kiwi every day and it’ll keep you as healthy as you can be.

Dr. Chheda – Okay, for all you moms who have girls – all the girl moms – if you were, you know, in your late 20s, early 30s when you had your girl, and now 12 years later, your girl is starting to go through puberty, she’s starting to menstruate, her moods are all over the place, she’s going a little wacky, she’s a little crazy. But guess what, moms? You are now in your late 40s and you are going through perimenopause.

Your hormones are also cycling. Your daughter’s hormones are cycling up, but your hormones are cycling down. And guess what? You’re moody and cranky, and now you put the two of you together – no wonder you guys are headbutting each other.

So just realize some of this is natural, but it might be time for you as a mom to get your hormones checked. Hormone replacement therapy, menopause – talk to your physician.

Dr. Chheda – The other day I saw a mom and her toddler bike riding on the sidewalk, and it’s great. I’m glad that parents are going out with your kids. I’m glad kids are active. However, what bothered me – and I’m not sure if it bothered me because I’m a mom or because I’m a pediatrician – but the child was on the curb edge of the sidewalk while the mom was on the inner side.

Now I prefer the parent to be on the outside, on the curb side, and the child to be on the inside of the sidewalk. You never know what’s gonna happen – the child loses balance, a car veers off the wrong way. You never want the child to be the first one to be hurt.

Please, if you’re walking with your toddler, if you’re bike riding, scooter riding, whatever – please have your toddler on the inside of the sidewalk and you be on the curb of the sidewalk. Thank you.

Dr. Chheda – Hey, whatever happened to Billy after the game last night when he fell? Oh, we were able to FaceTime with his doctor last night, so now he’s fine. We were able to FaceTime with the doctor. Yeah, we were able to FaceTime with the doctor last night. She had an appointment set up with Ortho this morning, so he barely missed any school. He was seen, treated, and cast, and only missed about 30 minutes of school, and that was with me getting them breakfast before I dropped them off.

That’s amazing! So you were able to be seen by Ortho within 24 hours? Yeah, you know, we go to a DPC practice. So we were able to FaceTime with our doctor. We get our cell phone number, so we’re able to FaceTime with our doctor. She knows like so many doctors in the area because she’s been in practice for so long. She’s got great relationships, so it fast-tracked everything, and we’re all back to normal.

Well, I guess I gotta look into DPC now. Absolutely. And if you’re interested in looking into the benefits of DPC, give us a call at Harmony Pediatrics: 770-475-9924. Talk to you soon!

Dr. Chheda – Now there’s lots of us that pick – we pick our nails, we pick our skin, maybe we pick our hair. And picking, you know, when you’re bored, when you’re trying to focus, it’s one thing. But some kids pick all the time to the point where they’re actually causing scabs and infections, and they’re just picking. And it’s a manifestation of their anxiety.

There is something called NAC, N-acetylcysteine, which can help prevent a lot of the picking. NAC is just an amino acid, and it is over the counter. But given enough, it can help stop the anxiety-ridden picking so that you don’t have to worry about lots of picking on the skin, lots of infections, lots of issues with the picking.

So if you’re worried about that, please come visit us at Harmony Peds. HarmonyPeds.com – we’re located in Alpharetta, Georgia, and we can help you not only with picking but with lots of other things that might be affecting you and your child.

Dr. Chheda – 🍽️ Food is fuel for the body, but mealtimes are a source of connection to language of love. Every bite is an invitation – feed, breathe, trust, and repeat.

Dr. Chheda – What is the best dose for a stimulant medication for your child who has ADD? Well, believe it or not, stimulant medications are not based on age or weight. They are based on whatever it takes to help your child focus.

Now I have got kindergarteners on the highest dose. I’ve got high school seniors on the lowest dose. It is not based on age or weight. It is based on whatever it takes to help your child focus.

But when we start stimulant medications, we always start low, and then we work our way up to the optimal dose. Yes, it might seem like a little trial and error, but that’s the only way we know. There is no blood test that tells me what is the optimal dose.

So you always want to start low and work your way up. And just remember, it is not based on age or weight. It is just based on whatever it takes to help your child focus.

It’s never too young to be a project manager. Absolutely. My girls just became Eagle Scouts, and they are the first in their troop. And one of the things about being an Eagle Scout is supervisory, delegatory leadership. Absolutely. How to lead a team of scouts or friends, as well as leaders, personalities, as well as adults, different challenges. Yep. How to lead them effectively to come up with a project.

Okay, there are several grants out there too that are provided by the state to high schoolers and college students that work with kind of this model where they’re trying to have the kids lead and come up with different sustainable projects or conservation projects. So it’s really important to be a good leader. Absolutely.