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1st
appeared 20 May 1999
Children's Health Fair this Saturday at UCSF
Olympic gold medal-winning figure skater Brian Boitano will appear at the Lucile Packard
Children's Health Fair at UC San Francisco on Saturday, May 22.
Sponsored by Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at UCSF, the health fair will be open from
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free of charge to parents and children 12 and under, it will be held at
the Millberry Conference Center on the UCSF campus. More than 30 booths will offer fun and
educational activities to engage children while helping them and their parents learn more
about protecting kids' health.
Boitano, a San Francisco resident, was a gold medallist in the 1988 Olympics and now is a
top-ranked professional figure skater. He'll join kids as they try some of these
learning-and-fun exhibits: touch a "Jell-O brain" and play games to learn how
memory works; see germs glow and learn why it's so important to wash hands; dress up in
real doctors' and nurses' "scrubs;" win prizes in a "supermarket healthy
foods" game.
Meanwhile, parents can learn about tummy troubles and skin troubles, hyperactivity and
violence prevention in schools. In the City Lights Room of the Millberry Conference
Center, UCSF faculty and staff members will talk with parents about some of their concerns
for their children's health and well-being. Presentations include:
12:15 - 12:45 p.m.: "Violence Prevention in Schools." Dionne
Carter, Community Health Educator with the UCSF/Mount Zion Violence Prevention Program,
will offer suggestions about what parents can do and what communities can do, to work with
youth to prevent violence.
1:15 - 1:45 p.m.: "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Would
Tom Sawyer be on Ritalin Today?" Larry Diller, MD, assistant clinical professor of
pediatrics at UCSF and author of Running on Ritalin: A Physician Reflects on Children,
Society and Performance in a Pill (Bantam, '98) says that drugs like Ritalin do help
relieve suffering from ADHD. However, the sharp rise in the drugs' use also tells
something about increasing demands on children in an era when support for families and
schools has decreased. "Parents need to be reassured," Diller says. "They
need to know that not every square peg fits in a round hole."
2:15 -2:45 p.m.: "Lice, Poison Oak and Sun Protection." Ilona
Frieden, MD clinical professor of dermatology at UCSF and a dermatologist with Lucile
Packard Children's Hospital at UCSF, will tell parents how to manage these spoilers of
summer vacation -- how to prevent skin irritation and potential long-term skin damage.
3:15 - 3:45 p.m.: "Tummy Troubles." When is a tummyache just a
tummyache? When is it a sign that parents should worry? Melvyn Heyman, MD, chief of
pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at UCSF and pediatric gastroenterologist with
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at UCSF, is author of a forthcoming book on children's
nutrition. He will offer a commonsense guide to tummyaches and other questions - including
when to worry, and when not to fret, about what your child eats.
For more information, contact Ellen Corman, Director of Community Outreach, Lucile Packard
Children's Hospitals, 650/497-8163.
Links:
UCSF Stanford Health Care |
