Bio
Who is “Grandma Shark MD”?
It all started around here when I was first a working mother in a pediatric residency learning how to juggle a pediatric residency with every third or fourth night call and no close relatives nearby other than my working spouse to help out.
I hired help, at first nannies, then daycare, then a series of au pairs. I read parenting books mostly written by my older male pediatrician colleagues who had stay-at-home wives. I suffered great guilt that I wasn’t home for every first word or first step. Breastfeeding and pumping breast milk at work to bring home to my baby was barely supported, even in a pediatric residency. As a result, I made compromises to what I wanted for my baby, and with it came more guilt.
But guess what? My baby thrived. He slept well, walked early, talked early, and was always self-confident. The love and attachment he formed for his nanny was not at the expense of the love and attachment he formed for me or his daddy. He only breastfed for three months, but he was the healthiest of all my children despite this.
Why am I telling you this story? Because I want you to understand what I’ve learned over 33 years of being a parent, 30-plus years of being a practicing pediatric emergency physician, and expert in the evaluation of trauma, neglect, and abuse in children that there is no one “perfect” way to be a parent or caregiver.
Just by wanting to be the best caregiver you can be for your child you are. By wanting to be a great parent (or caregiver), it means you will seek answers, solutions, and help.
That is where I can help but not in the paternalistic “my way or the highway” way that many professionals do. I want to help you navigate parenthood in a wholistic way that aligns with your values. I want to help you to feel confident and relaxed that you are parenting the “right way” for you and your family so that all members of your household, village, or tribe are thriving.
So much misinformation is out there on the internet about pediatric health care, pediatric psychological care, and attachment theory that we risk “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
What does that mean? It means that pediatric medicine, parenting practices, and child education are changing rapidly. Much of what we’ve learned over the past 100 years has changed 180 degrees, and some things have changed 180 degrees and then back again in the time I’ve been a mom and a physician. Take for instance food allergies. I was trained in the late 1980s to tell parents not to introduce eggs, peanut butter, oranges, or tomatoes to a baby’s diet until they were one year old. I was taught it was bad to have pets such as cats or dogs in the home of an infant for fear of them developing asthma and allergies. What have we learned since? The exact opposite is true, so much so that you can buy products that start introducing these proteins to your baby’s diet as early as four months.
The treatment of a condition called bronchiolitis (usually caused by RSV—respiratory syncytial virus) in infants and toddlers has gone from just using a mist tent to steroids, to bronchodilators, and now back to just mist.
But some changes have been hugely lifesaving, and I’ve had the privilege of seeing these new medications and new immunizations save countless lives. This is that baby that we don’t want to throw out with the bathwater.
I am also a student of and open to “complementary” medicine techniques, such as Reiki, massage, herbal medicines, supplements, and healing through prayer and other positive energy that can help to improve and restore well-being. But I will caution you that any “alternative” therapy that makes you or your child the “victim” of a disease or mental health condition that can “only be tested for in their lab” and can only be treated for with “their therapies” are likely designed to disempower you rather than empower you toward better health. Critical thinking skills are imperative to good parenting and to knowing whom to trust to find the answers on your own. Hint, as an empowered parent, you will have these skills.
Many of you have learned that you must proactively take your health into your own hands, especially here in the USA where sadly our health-care system focuses largely on “sick care” and prolonging end of life rather than improving the quality of our health proactively. You want to do this for your child as well but again are flooded with information and don’t know who or what to trust.
Here I am on paper:
Medical Degree: May 1985 Medical College of Wisconsin
General Surgery Internship: Maricopa Medical Center 1985-1986
Urgent Care and Non-Critical Emergency Physician 1986-1987
Pediatric Residency: Morristown Memorial Hospital 1987-1990
Founding Pediatric ER Physician of Pediatric ER at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Paterson, NJ 1990-1993.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Seton Hall University School of Graduate Studies.
Founding Pediatric ER Physician of Pediatric ER at Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring, MD 1993-1995.
Founding Pediatric ER Physician of Pediatric ER at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Rockville, MD 1995-2006 and Founding Partner of MEP, LLC, an Emergency Medicine Group, which is now merged with Acute Care Solutions, LLC.
Medical Director of the Sexual Abuse and Assault Center for evaluation, treatment, and advocacy for victims of sexual abuse and physical abuse, a public/private partnership with Montgomery County Maryland 1997-2003.
Attending Pediatric Emergency Physician Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC 2006-2019.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics George Washington School of Medicine
Locums (Travel Physician) part-time: 2013-2020 at multiple hospitals in Florida, USVI, Massachusetts, and Maryland.
JAI-Certified Parenting Coach 2020.
Volunteer Physician on Medical Missions in Honduras, Trinidad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo 2006, 2008, and 2009.
Global Sailor/ Navigator: 2013-Present: Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Coast, and Intercoastal Waterway USA, Gulf Coast and Waterway USA, Chesapeake to Bermuda, Bermuda to Charleston, Mediterranean Cruising: Italy, Elba, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, and Greece 2015-present.
