Many of us have lost track of a few things over the past year because the pandemic threw our normal routines for a loop. 

Many families are trying to make up for lost time this summer. Besides family vacations and camping trips, hopefully your summer agenda includes signing up your children for fall sports, scheduling dental appointments or haircuts that might have been canceled, downloading lists for school supplies — and scheduling annual child checkups and sports physicals. 

According to a recently released study from the Urban Institute, almost
30 percent of youth ages 19 and younger didn’t get their annual checkups last year due to COVID-19-related concerns. In Mesa County, that means an estimated 11,000 youth didn’t see their doctor last year. 

Annual well child checks allow us, as pediatric providers, to partner with you to make the best health choices for your children. These visits gives us the opportunity to monitor your child’s health and catch preventable conditions before they become problems. Many pediatric diseases and conditions are preventable if caught early. That’s our aim — catching them before they’re a problem. 

Summer is a great time to get back into the routine of scheduling regular checkups for your kids and making sure your kids are up to date on vaccines. Our practice at Western Colorado Pediatric Associates has extended office hours to meet you where you’re at and provide you with plenty of options to make this easier to cross off your to-do list.

Mesa County School District 51 is scheduled to begin in-person learning on Aug. 9. For our kids to remain in school this year, we need everyone to stay healthy. One way to ensure this is to make sure children are fully vaccinated. This will keep our kids playing sports, seeing all of their friends face-to-face rather than on a screen and boosting academic success.

A new strain of COVID called the Delta variant has become the dominant strain in Mesa County. Unfortunately, Mesa County had our first pediatric COVID death from the Delta variant. We’ve come to understand this variant of COVID is more virulent, more contagious and affects children more than previous strains. If you or your children ages 12 and up haven’t yet received the COVID vaccine, we strongly encourage you to consider it when you go in for your back-to-school checkups. 

As your pediatricians, we’re happy to answer your questions and talk through all of your concerns with the COVID vaccine so you can make a choice that’s best for your family’s unique needs.

In addition to the COVID pandemic, children and teens in the United States have experienced a large increase in mental health needs. Jena Hausman, chief executive officer of Children’s Hospital, declared in May a state of emergency for youth as suicide becomes the leading cause of death for children in Colorado.

This trend is also true in Mesa County. Mind Springs Health reported a 40 percent increase in adolescent inpatient admissions in 2020 over 2019. Similarly higher numbers were reported for the first half of 2021.

Although this trend is alarming, we’re responding to provide the best care for your children with our integrated pediatric behavioral health specialists in our clinic. Our behavioral health program allows us to help parents navigate the mental health world and provide the best possible care for their children.

As pediatricians in the Grand Valley, our priority is partnering with local families to keep kids on the Western Slope healthy. Please don’t forget to schedule your back-to-school well child checkups and sports physicals. And please consider adding the youth COVID vaccine to your regular vaccination schedule.

We’re happy to answer your questions, talk through concerns and partner with you to ensure our younger generation grows into happy and healthy adults. 

We’re here for you. 

Dr. Megan Stinar and Dr. Michael Whistler are pediatricians at Western Colorado Pediatric Associates, a division of Primary Care Partners in Grand Junction. For more information, log on to www.westerncoloradopediatricassociates.com  or call 243-5437