Next FB Chat: Keep Your Child Well During RSV, Cold & Flu Season

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Mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 23, 2013 for Hand to Hold’s next Facebook chat from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm CT on Hand to Hold’s Facebook wall. Neonatologist Dr. Mitchell Goldstein and RSV parent advocate Kristen Padavic will answer your questions about RSV, colds and flu and provide their best advice to help families make informed decisions to keep their child and family healthy during RSV, cold, and flu season.  Learn about precautions you can take that are proven to reduce exposure to these illnesses and reduce your child’s chances of contracting a severe form of the illness.  Find out why doctors advise quarantine and how to cope with the social isolation that brings from a parent who has been there.  Ask a parent whose children caught RSV twice what she knows now that she wished she knew when her children were small. And if your child is heading into a second or third RSV season, find out what a neonatologist advises about how to stay healthy in the long term.

If you have  specific questions concerning this topic or are unable to attend, email your questions in advance to Jennifer Beatty, or private message us on the Hand to Hold FB Wall.

About Mitchell Goldstein, MD, FAAP: Dr. Mitchell Goldstein is Medical Director Emeritus and Fellowship Coordinator of the Neonatal ICU in the Family Birth & Newborn Center at Citrus Valley Medical Center in West Covina, California. He completed his undergraduate and medical school in the University of Miami’s six-year Honors Medical Program on the Dean’s List and Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his Pediatrics residency at UCLA and Neonatology fellowship at UC Irvine. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Perinatology. He is past president of the Perinatal Advisory Council: Leadership, Advocacy & Consultation (PAC-LAC), is the editor of PAC-LAC’s Guidelines of Care, and is PAC-LAC’s CME Research Chairman. He is past president of the National Perinatal Association. He is on the board of the American Academy of Pediatrics Perinatal Section. He is an Associate Professor in Pediatrics at Loma Linda University Medical Center. He is Board Certified in both Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is fluent in Spanish.

About Kristen Padavic:  Kristen Padavic is the mother of identical twin daughters, Grace and Eva, born at 30 weeks, who spent four and five weeks in the NICU.  She spent a month on bedrest while fighting off preterm labor, culminating in pre-eclampsia which forced her early delivery. During that first year, her daughters contracted RSV twice, which quickly opened their eyes to how different their parenting journey was from the other families around them. In her quest to connect with other NICU families, she signed on to lead the Family Advisory Committee at the NICU where her girls were born outside of Chicago, was involved in a national media campaign to raise awareness of RSV, and is currently a board member for Hand to Hold. Kristen has a Masters of Architecture from Harvard University and is a licensed architect in Texas and Illinois.