February 2022 Community Courier

February Community Courier

Practice News

Happy 30th Anniversary to Pediatric Associates, Dr. Chris Cunha and Marianne Overberg !

Time really flies around here. Thirty years ago, Chris Cunha, our founding physician and Marianne Overberg, our original Office Manager and current and long-standing Credit Manager, opened the doors to Pediatric Associates. It was their courage, know-how and foresight that launched Pediatric Associates. We all owe them a debt of gratitude for starting this practice and for elevating pediatric primary care in greater Cincinnati.

Montee Bates Work Ethic Award Winners: Elise Seibt and Mandy Tackett

Montee Bates was our wonderful friend and colleague. Montee tirelessly served the office and our patients in her role as office nurse and care coordinator for our patients with special healthcare needs. We miss Montee every day. In her honor, we created the Montee Bates Work Ethic Award to celebrate our staff who embody her dedication and hard work. We have two winners of this award to recognize, Elise Seibt, RN and Mandy Tackett.

Elise has been with Pediatric Associates since 2007. She dispenses an immeasurable amount of medical advice, tracks down and interprets lab values from coast to coast and provides lactation support to our mothers and families. She also has the best singing voice in Pediatric Associates history!

Mandy is the face of Pediatric Associates. Mandy has been greeting patients, answering insurance questions and scheduling appointments as a Patient Services Representative at Pediatric Associates since 2002. Through pandemics, life squad runs, flu clinics and countless other challenges, Mandy keeps our office flying!

Thanks Elise and Mandy for all you do and congratulations on winning Pediatric Associates’ most valued honor!

We Have COVID Boosters and Vaccinations for Our 5 to 11 year old patients!

We are thrilled to offer the Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to our patients aged 5 to 11years. We strongly endorse you giving your child this thoroughly-tested, safe and effective vaccine. Never hesitate to ask any of us in the office about this important medical advance that helps reduce illness in both kids and adults. We are giving the vaccine at all three offices, but by appointment only due to limited supplies. We continue to give the vaccine to our older patients as well. Call us today to schedule!

Here are some helpful FAQs and Resources .

Whats Going Around

Want to know what illnesses we are seeing in the office? Check out the " What's Going Around " section of our website.

Are You Signed up on the Patient Portal?

Please sign up for our Patient Portal . It is an easy way to get your child's test results (like COVID or strep). These results are available as soon as they are put in the medical record in our office and you will be notified they are on the portal. Of course you will also have access to their growth charts, medications, allergies, immunization records and more.

Other News

Breaking News: Similac, Elecare and Alimentum Formula Recall

If you use Similac, Elecare or Alimentum formulas, please check out this link . These formulas are being recalled due to bacterial contamination. We will temporarily no longer have Similac products in our office for dispensing as samples. We continue to have Enfamil and Good Start brands as alternatives.

COVID Update: Omicron Retreating, Vaccine for Younger Kids Delayed

Need some good news? The Omicron COVID variant continues to go down in prevalence. While deaths from COVID are taking a little longer to come down, prevalence rates are falling precipitously. What does this mean going forward? We are hopeful. We will continue to follow guidance from local, state and federal health authorities, and we expect careful relaxation of control measures. Stay tuned and keep praying for a return to a more normal life.

The FDA and CDC have been very cautious with the COVID vaccine, making sure that costs and benefits of the vaccine make sense. Consistent with that approach, the FDA has hit the pause button on approving the vaccine for children under age five years. Safety data looks great, but efficacy of a two-shot regimen has not yet been sufficiently proven. Not surprisingly, the FDA and CDC are waiting for more data from a three-shot regimen before authorization. We will keep you informed whenever the vaccine is cleared for use in our younger patients and when we have it available.

PANK Blog: Parenting a Child With ADHD

The recommended treatment for ADHD is commonly a combination of medication and counseling for skill building. But parents can help out at home. Here are some suggestions to help create an environment at home to foster your child’s success with ADHD:

Keep it positive: ADHD can be frustrating for the child, parents, and siblings. When you are calm and focused, it is much easier to help your child be calm and focused.
Routine, routine, routine: Children and adults with ADHD benefit from knowing the time and place for everything. Using clocks and timers can help them manage their time. Visual aids like a chore list or checklist are helpful in to establish routines and as a reminder for daily activities.
Set the ground rules: Make sure to set clear expectations and rules.
Positive praise is a great tool to help reinforce positive behaviors. Immediate rewards and praise can work better than a promise of a future reward.
Get active – Keeping a child with ADHD busy is important. Whether it is an after school activity, a sport or a recreational activity with the family. Keeping active fosters improved social skills, improved self-control and helps grow self-confidence.
Most of all, be patient with your child and yourself and keep things in perspective.

Take care of yourself: Modeling behaviors such as healthy eating, exercise, and healthy sleep patterns can help your child learn great life skills and help you stay calm. Taking breaks when you get frustrated and seeking support can help the parent not feel so isolated and frustrated.

Other helpful resources: ADDitude Mag , How to ADHD

Teen Mental Health Support - CREW Cares

Using our natural world as its foundation, CREW Cares is a program of Adventure Crew that provides a unique and powerful outdoor approach to fostering positive mental health for teens. Through thoughtfully and professionally designed clinical recreation and group counseling sessions, Crew Cares empowers young people with new tools to help overcome depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and more. As our 2022 Community Partner, Adventure Crew is offering an exclusive opportunity for our families to participate in Crew Cares, free of charge. Crew Cares is intended to supplement, not replace, your child's current mental health services. Participants must be ages 12 - 18 and referred by our practice by February 28, 2022. Please contact our office for more information.

Local Sports

Congratulations to Beechwood Tigers Football and Rylan Raider’s wrestling team for winning state!

Pediatric Associates
2865 Chancellor Dr.
STE 225
Crestview Hills, Ky. 41017

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February 26 Community Courier

March 7, 2026

Dr. Cindy Spicker is Retiring

March 7, 2026

After 35 years of holding tiny babies, reassuring new parents, and watching generations of children grow, I am stepping away from my pediatric career with a full heart. After much reflection, I will be retiring on July 1, 2026. Being a pediatrician is a calling like no other. To play even a small role in shaping our future has been the honor of a lifetime. I have been especially fortunate to spend most of my career at Pediatric Associates of NKy. Throughout my 31 years here, I have had the privilege of working alongside many intelligent, compassionate and deeply dedicated colleagues. Our office truly feels like a family. We celebrate milestones together, support one another through challenges, and share a common purpose: providing the best possible care for our patients and their families One of the greatest joys of pediatrics is the continuity—caring for patients as they grow from newborns into confident young adults. There is something profoundly special about watching a child you once held in your arms return years later as a parent, trusting you to care for their own newborn. Moments like these are gentle reminders of the deep relationships and lasting connections that make this profession so meaningful. In addition to providing direct patient care, it has been a privilege to help train future medical providers by mentoring young adults early in their journeys. Seeing them grow into compassionate professionals has been incredibly rewarding. I am deeply thankful for my husband and our three children, who supported me unconditionally throughout the years, even when the demands of my work meant time away from home. Their love, patience, and encouragement made this journey possible. As I close this chapter, I do so with immense gratitude—for the families who entrusted me with their children’s care, for the colleagues who became lifelong friends and for a career that has given me more joy and purpose than I ever could have imagined. I will carry your stories and smiles with me always. Fondly, CINDY SPICKER

MYTH OF THE MONTH: "RAW MILK IS BETTER THAN PASTEURIZED MILK"

March 7, 2026

Raw (unpasteurized) milk is sometimes marketed as a more “natural” or more nutritious alternative to pasteurized milk. But the idea that raw milk is healthier doesn’t hold up well when you look at safety and nutrition evidence. What pasteurization means: Pasteurization is a process in which milk is heated to a specific temperature for a specific amount of time and then rapidly cooled in order to kill harmful bacteria and reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Raw (unpasteurized) milk can carry dangerous bacteria. Because it has not been treated to kill harmful microbes, raw milk can lead to infections from Campylobacter, Brucella, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, and E. coli. These infections can be serious even in otherwise healthy people, and raw milk exposure can be particularly harmful to children. Certain types of E. coli can cause life‑threatening kidney disease in children. Even healthy older children can develop severe diarrhea and dehydration from these bacterial infections. Some of these bacteria are especially dangerous during pregnancy. For example, infections such as Listeria monocytogenes can be passed from a pregnant person to the unborn infant and may result in birth defects, miscarriage, stillbirth, or serious infection in the newborn. Key nutrients are mostly unchanged: A common claim is that pasteurization “destroys” the nutritional value of milk. However, multiple studies have shown that pasteurized milk contains essentially equivalent nutrients compared with unpasteurized (raw) milk products. In other words, pasteurization makes milk safer without meaningfully reducing its core nutritional benefits. The nutrients children commonly rely on milk for remain largely intact after pasteurization: -Minerals such as calcium and phosphorus are unchanged, and these are among the most important nutrients milk provides for growing children. -There may be some deactivation (denaturation) of proteins, but the overall difference is small and does not meaningfully reduce milk’s protein value in the diet. -A few vitamins—especially vitamin C and some B vitamins, may decrease somewhat. However, milk is not a primary source of vitamin C or many B vitamins in most diets, so these small reductions generally have little nutritional impact. Risk vs. Benefits: In summary, the potential risk of infection from bacteria in raw or unpasteurized milk outweighs any claimed benefits, and we recommend against the consumption of raw milk.