Pediatrics | Mount Sinai Today

Enhancing Early Brain Development in Children

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Pediatrics

Kenneth L. Davis, MD, left, with Jackie and Mike Bezos of the Bezos Family Foundation.

A partnership between Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital and the Bezos Family Foundation aims to transform pediatric health care through an innovative program that provides science-based tips, tools, and activities to enhance a child’s early brain development during the critical years from birth to age five. The effort, a collaboration with the Mount Sinai Parenting Center, is based on a core premise—that everyday interactions between a child and a parent, caregiver, or health care providers can be turned into an opportunity to build cognition and language skills, and help form strong interpersonal relationships. It is the cornerstone of an early learning program, known as Vroom, that was developed by the Bezos Family Foundation.

“In a child’s early years, the brain makes more than 1 million neural connections on average each second, which means every moment you spend with a child is an opportunity for brain-building activities,” says Carrie Quinn, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Executive Director of the Mount Sinai Parenting Center. “The health care environment offers a unique opportunity to reach parents during these formative years.”

The Parenting Center has saturated hallways, elevators, and exam rooms—in the prenatal, labor and delivery, postpartum, and neonatal intensive care units; and in the pediatric emergency department and the pediatric clinic—with easy-to-read signs that serve as canvases to convey more than 500 messages about parenting. “This prompts everyone to think about how they can make each interaction more meaningful, whether you are a parent in a waiting room, a pediatrician doing a consultation, or a security guard who is the first to greet families and typically the last person to say goodbye,” says Aliza Pressman, PhD, the Parenting Center’s Co-Founding Director and Director of Clinical Programming, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

“From using a sing-song voice called ‘Parentese’ while changing a diaper, to modeling backand- forth conversations with toddlers, each moment becomes an opportunity to promote healthy brain development,” adds Blair Hammond, MD, Co-Founding Director and Director of Medical Education for the Parenting Center, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

“The science we have funded for more than a decade clearly shows that children’s early development is dependent on parents and other caring adults in their lives,” says Mike Bezos, Vice President and Co-Founder of the Bezos Family Foundation. “Health care professionals like those at the Mount Sinai Parenting Center are natural partners.”

Adds Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, “Mount Sinai has long recognized that the health of any child goes well beyond the immediate concerns that families present with and that we must always be holistic in our approach to facilitate their development and put them on a path of lifelong well-being.”

The initiative also offers a training component that includes video, e-learning, and in-person classroom support for all staff in the designated units to ensure they are well-equipped to apply the fundamentals of brain development science in their interactions with children and parents. More than 1,000 faculty and staff will be trained in clinical disciplines, such as Nursing and Social Work, an effort that also includes staff in nonclinical areas, such as Housekeeping, Patient Transport, and Security. The potential to influence thousands of children and their families is great. Each year, there are more than 50,000 primary care and emergency room visits, and more than 8,000 babies born at Kravis Children’s Hospital.

This initiative is the latest innovative effort by the Parenting Center. In 2018, it launched a pilot program with eight hospitals, including The Mount Sinai Hospital, to offer a free online curriculum for residents that integrates the science of early childhood development with pediatric training, teaching residents how to better inform, encourage, and interact with parents during well-child visits. Developed in partnership with Mind in the Making, a program of the Bezos Family Foundation, 76 hospitals around the nation have offered the curriculum to date, and an estimated 1,900 residents have enrolled.

A Celebratory Reunion for Pediatric Patients

Mar 19, 2019 | Community, Patient Stories, Pediatrics

Pediatric cardiology patients enjoyed popcorn, cotton candy, and face-painting at the 33rd Annual Valentine’s Reunion Party held on Wednesday, February 13, in the Annenberg West Lobby.

The carnival-themed event brought children and their families together with the doctors, nurses, and medical staff who previously administered vital care.

Organized by the Children’s Heart Center—located within Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital and part of an alliance with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia—the festivities were also supported by the nonprofit organizations Project Sunshine, Harboring Hearts, and the Congenital Heart Defect Coalition.

“It is amazing to see the kids we take care of outside the clinical setting,” said Peter Pastuszko, MD, Co-Director of the Children’s Heart Center, and Chief of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Director of Pediatric Cardiovascular Services for the Mount Sinai Health System. “We may see some patients only once or twice after they are discharged. Parties like this are the best chance to see the results of our care and what we have been able to give them. It is incredibly rewarding.”

Meriel Simpson, PA-C, Senior Physician Assistant, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, The Mount Sinai Hospital, with Olivia Malpica.

Peter Pastuszko, MD, with Miriam Pugo and her son Joel Vivar.

Children created their own slime at the event.

Helping Young Athletes With Crohn’s Disease

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Digestive Diseases, Pediatrics

After being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital in 2015, Noah Weber, now 15, reached out to NBA basketball star Larry Nance Jr., who also had been diagnosed with the illness at a young age. Noah, an avid sports fan, became friends with Mr. Nance. Two years later, they formed the nonprofit Athletes vs Crohn’s and Colitis, whose mission is to raise awareness about the condition among adolescents and help young athletes with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) reach their potential.

On behalf of the organization, Noah and his father, Kaare Weber, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor, Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, recently presented Marla C. Dubinsky, MD, Professor, Pediatrics, and Medicine (Gastroenterology), with a $25,000 check to support research at the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center at Mount Sinai, where she is Co-Director. “Athletes vs Crohn’s and Colitis inspires and gives hope to young people suffering from IBD,” says Dr. Dubinsky.

From left: Kaare Weber, MD; Marla C. Dubinsky, MD; and Noah Weber.

Holiday Fun for Pediatric Patients

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Pediatrics

Patient Nylannie Arzu was greeted by event sponsor Andy Pesky and Santa.

More than 200 Mount Sinai Beth Israel pediatric patients, joined by patients affiliated with the Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation, enjoyed live entertainment from a musician, magician, and face painters at a carnival-style holiday party on Sunday, December 9, in the atrium of Mount Sinai Union Square.

The event was sponsored by Andy and Elaine Pesky of the global travel agency Protravel International, who brought 100 volunteers from the organization to help oversee the festivities. Throughout the day, children played at game booths, created holiday-themed arts and crafts, and stopped by a popcorn machine and hot dog cart for snacks. The highlight of the event was a special visit from Santa Claus and the delivery of gifts.

Athletes Lift the Spirits of Patients At Kravis Children’s Hospital

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Pediatrics

Two Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes, Gian Villante and Aljamain Sterling, made an exciting visit to the Child Life Zone at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital on Thursday, November 1, where they appeared on a live KidZone TV show that was broadcast throughout the hospital.

The two mixed martial arts fighters answered questions from the pediatric viewing audience and later visited children at their bedsides, where they chatted, handed out action figures, and posed for keepsake photos.

“They brought such joy and truly lifted the spirits of our pediatric patients and families through their in-person and on-air interactions,” says Diane Rode, Director, Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy, Mount Sinai Kravis Children’ s Hospital.

Mr. Sterling said he was happy to visit the hospital and serve briefly as a role model. “For the kids, I related it all to life: You lose sometimes. There are ups and down; there are obstacles, but you always have to get back up and keep pushing forward.”

From left: Aljamain Sterling, patient Andres Mendoza, and Gian Villante.

$7.6 Million Grant Awarded for Multifaceted Study of Peanut Allergy

Sep 25, 2018 | Featured, Pediatrics, Research

From left: principal investigators Cecilia Berin, PhD; and Scott Sicherer, MD; with Supinda Bunyavanich, MD, MPH, leader of the genomic and data-science arm of the project.

When patients are diagnosed with peanut allergy, they often ask two questions: “How much peanut can I eat before I get sick, and how severe will the reaction be?” says Scott Sicherer, MD, Director, Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. And physicians have another question, he says: “If I recommend a therapy, is it going to work for this patient?” These questions are at the center of research funded by a five-year, $7.6 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that was recently awarded to a multidisciplinary team at the Icahn School of Medicine.

The research is divided into three projects, which reflect Mount Sinai’s unique strengths in clinical allergy treatment, basic science, and data-driven medicine. Cecilia Berin, PhD, Deputy Director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, and Professor of Pediatrics, and Dr. Sicherer are principal investigators of the National Institutes of Health grant.

The central project is a clinical trial that will focus on a seldom-studied group—people with “high-threshold” peanut allergy, meaning they react only to larger amounts of peanut. This trial of a dietary allergy immunotherapy will be led by Dr. Sicherer, the Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Professor of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, and Chief of Pediatric Allergy; and Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics. “Most studies right now are looking at people who are exquisitely allergic—people who react to a fraction as small as a 50th of a peanut,” Dr. Sicherer says. “But a majority of people with peanut allergy do not react to these tiny amounts, and the treatments so far have not really been directed to them. This study is trying to identify those people and then see if an immunotherapy would help them, possibly to a cure.”

Researchers will conduct “food challenges” of about 200 children ages 4 to 14, giving them small doses of peanut. They plan to identify 98 high-threshold children, who will be divided into two groups. One group will simply avoid peanut, and the other will eat small amounts of peanut butter—carefully measured by parents—starting with about 1/8 teaspoon and progressing to larger servings. The aim is to reduce, or even eliminate, their sensitivity to peanut.

Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, MD, PhD, gave patient Gabriella Evans a small dose of peanut, a therapy that will be further studied in an upcoming clinical trial.

The other two projects will analyze blood samples from all 200 children. “We have developed advanced tools for studying many parameters of the allergic response to peanut using small amounts of blood,” says Dr. Berin. “In my project, the idea is understanding the immune pathways that affect peanut allergy overall and the immune basis of outgrowing peanut allergy in response to allergen immunotherapy.”

The third project will take a genomic and data-science approach, using Mount Sinai’s high-performance computing resources. It is led by Supinda Bunyavanich, MD, MPH, Associate Director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, and Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, and Pediatrics. “We will sequence blood samples from the children participating in this trial and use data science to identify novel biomarkers for peanut-allergy management,” Dr. Bunyavanich says. “Our goal is to find biomarkers that predict reaction threshold and desensitization potential in peanut-allergic individuals. The project will also further our mechanistic understanding of peanut allergy severity.”

Overall, the objective is to develop more effective, personalized immunotherapies for peanut allergy and to determine which patients are the best candidates before any treatment starts. “Peanut allergy is a very common food allergy—it affects about 2 percent of kids,” Dr. Sicherer says, “and this research will have a big impact on how we treat these patients.”