Services
I can work with you to augment the care of your child by helping with:
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ADHD
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Eczema
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Asthma
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Allergies
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POTS
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Ehlers Danlos
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Anxiety
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Depression
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Constipation
Ask me! If I’m not the right person to care for your child, I can work to point you in the right direction.
For children with medical complexity and chronic critical illness, I can work with you to give you a chronic care plan and discuss your goals for your child’s life that you can take with you to share with other care providers.
About
Meet the Dr.
I am a pediatrician and a mother of three boys and stepmother to a daughter. I have been on a journey through medicine and my personal life to discover the best way to provide optimal health for our children. I am fellowship trained, and triple board certified in general pediatrics, pediatric critical care medicine, and hospice and palliative care. Through that journey, I have discovered that we all tend to treat the “symptoms” of disease rather than treat the root cause. This approach has led to the increase in chronic disease in our children in the US.
I have literally been trained to care for your child in critical disease and health, from near birth to death. I understand how to use many of the strongest medications that modern medicine has, and I believe that the best way to health is through small changes in diet and lifestyle, using medications or other modalities if needed. I have been trained by the Kresser Institute of Functional Medicine, and I am a member of MAPS, A4M, and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. I also continue to be a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the AAP.
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Photo: Duane Furlong Studios
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The Journey
I initially had plans to become a general pediatrician in Wyoming. During residency, I spent more time in the Pediatric ICU (PICU) to be more prepared for the acute illnesses that I would care for in a rural setting. I was invited to do more training in pediatric critical care. At that point, I didn’t have children and didn’t feel that I could give the best advice to families without having my own experience. I also enjoy the “controlled chaos” of the ICU. However, in that acute setting, I didn’t feel that we prepared families for the long-term effects after a critical illness, so I pursued palliative care. In that time, I started having my own children. As I navigated medicine from the point of view of a patient, both for myself and for my children, I started to see how shortsighted some aspects of traditional medicine can be as well as the long-term implications of the care. This led me to pursue functional medicine. And here we are… I see more and more, even in the ICU, how lifestyle, nutritional deficiencies, and chronic stress are leading to chronic illness in children.
Insurance Coverage
Insurance
With the constraints of insurance reimbursement, unfortunately I do not currently take insurance, as it inflates the cost to you, the patient. I would need to hire additional staff to handle billing, in addition to contracting individually with each insurance company to be "in network." This uses time that I could spend working with you. Insurance companies do not see Functional Medicine, Integrative Medicine, or Telemedicine as baseline care and will not reimburse me consistently, thus requiring me to increase my costs. Many insurance companies only completely pay for "well visits" and charge you for additional "sick visits." My care would be seen as a sick visit that you would have to pay for, but at an inflated rate to meet the extra costs of billing insurance.
I do take FSA/ HSA funds; this can help you use funds that you have already budgeted to give this extra care to your child. I offer packages, but I can also break them up and offer traditional fee-for-service care.
I hate to see the cost of important healthcare as a roadblock to achieving your child's optimal health. We can talk some cost effective ways to make this care as affordable as possible. I can also give you the paperwork that you can submit to your insurance.
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation, and we can talk about the different price options.