Dr. Heavener, Pediatrician with Guthrie, Joins to Discuss Pediatric Care

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] Matt Brooks here on X 1 0 1, always classic in for another edition of your care with Guthrie. And with me on the line, it’s Dr. Heavener Cortland, Pia, pediatrics at Guthrie. How’s it going? This, morning doctor.

Dr. Heavener: Very well, thank you.

Matt Brooks: So we have a lot to go over, today. First off, why is it important for parents to bring their child or children to Guthrie Cortland Pediatrics to establish care?

Dr. Heavener: I think pediatric and family medicine, clinicians, doctors, and nurse practitioners, physicians assistants like myself, have. A very specific expertise in, providing excellent care when your child is sick, and also providing, preventive advice and, and good ideas about how to keep your children healthy, especially during, respiratory season and things like that.

Matt Brooks: And, when we’re talking about bringing your children in, how often should, they have physical exams and what are some of the key areas that pediatricians focus on during those exams?

Dr. Heavener: Well, it varies a little bit by how, how old your child is now. Newborns need to be [00:01:00] seen a little bit, more often because they’re growing rapidly and they’re changing and they need to be appropriately immunized and protected from, early childhood diseases.

So in the first. Year of life, there are more health visits or well-child visits than there are as your child gets a little bigger and they, and they tend to be a, a little, a little more protected from, from some of those things. So really, more visits in that first year, a little bit more in the second year.

And then it really slows down by the time your child’s three. The checkups tend to be about once a year, but then sometimes of course, kids need to be seen because they are sick for some reason, and the family’s. Have concerns or questions?

Matt Brooks: Now that’s a great segue because especially with, maybe first time parents and such, distinguishing between normal childhood illnesses and symptoms, to ones that require me immediate medical attention, how can, what’s some advice for parents in that area?

Dr. Heavener: Right. Well, that’s part of what we do at Wel Childcare is, is we do what we call anticipatory [00:02:00] guidance, which is, I think a fancy way of saying, giving you a heads up on what to look for when your child has a fever, or if they develop a cough or a cold, or they’re, sick of their stomach and they’re not keeping things down.

We, we tend to give. Family’s parameters and say, Hey, if your child starts to look like this or you’re uncomfortable in any way, please reach out to us and we can either talk with you about it or, get you in for, for an evaluation to make sure things are okay.

Matt Brooks: No, it sounds like a plan. Now, if someone wants to make an appointment for their child at, Guthrie Pediatrics, how would they go about going doing that?

Dr. Heavener: So you can call the office, and you can reach us at 8 6 6 Guthrie, which is 8 6 6 4 8 8 47 43. You can also, go online to guthrie.org to, make a, make an appointment to establish. Once patients are established with us, they can set up, e Guthrie, which is a, a remote way of communicating with us.

And [00:03:00] also, it’s an easy way to set up appointments. In our, in our electronic medical records. So there’s, there’s a number of different ways to connect with us.

Matt Brooks: And another thing to to note is that, Guthrie Pediatrics also offers, same day Saturday appointments, which is, especially with, when it comes to children, it is very helpful.

Dr. Heavener: Yeah. It’s, it’s nice to have that access.

Matt Brooks: All right. Well, unfortunately we are outta time, but I did wanna thank you, Dr. Heavener for, joining me on, this edition of Your Care with Guthrie.

Dr. Heavener: Very good. I’m happy to help.

Matt Brooks: And this is Matt Brooks on X 1 0 1. Always classic.