Hold Message
While we try to keep our hold times to a minimum unfortunately some wait time is inevitable especially during our busiest times. As part of our commitment to health education we take this opportunity to keep you up to date on the current health topics.
Every child deserves healthcare. Please vote YES on ballot measure 50 which is on the November 6th ballot. Visit healthykids-oregon.org for more information.
We want to introduce you to 2 new CHAOS providers who will be starting in September. Dr. Jenny Hoelter has finished her pediatric residency program in Vermont. She is from eastern Oregon originally. Krisi Kamstra is our new Physician Assistant. She has finished her training program at OHSU. She is from Stayton. We are excited to have them join the team here at CHAOS.
The new school year is here. We want to remind you to make sure that your child is properly vaccinated. It is now officially recommended to give your child 2 doses of the chickenpox vaccine unless your child has had the disease. We are now combining the chickenpox vaccine with the MMR vaccine to reduce the number of injections that your child must get. The hepatitis A vaccine is required for all children over 1 year of age. Sports physicals for school athletics need to be done every 2 years. Please provide enough time to get these done before the required time.
We are excited to announce that we now have the HPV vaccine. This vaccine will be targeted at all girls between the ages of 11 to 19 years. This vaccine is 95% effective in preventing cervical cancer caused by the HPV virus in women. It is a 3 shot series given over 6 months. Most insurance carriers and the Oregon Health Plan cover this new vaccine. Please contact our office if you have a girl between these ages and want her to receive this vaccine. We are very excited to offer this. It becomes the second vaccine given to children to prevent cancer. The first vaccine is the Hepatitis B vaccine which prevents hepatocellular cancer.
Our office has been noticing an increasing problem with overweight children. We want all of our families to begin to do several simple things to combat this problem. Reduce the time your children spend watching TV or using the computer to only 2 hours each day. Encourage your children to get an extra 60 minutes of physical exercise each day. Begin to reduce the number of sugar containing drinks that your children consume. Lastly, try to switch over to low fat or even skim milk for your family. Remember, just lose it!
