Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

When a doctor says your child needs surgery, it can feel overwhelming. Is it safe? Will my child need anesthesia? Will they be scared? In this episode, we pull back the curtain to the operating room to help you get a feel for what to expect if your child needs surgery. We hear from two people who have spent considerable time on both sides of the operating room doors.  The episode opens with Brittn...

Eating disorders are becoming more common in younger kids, and the early signs are often easy to miss. Small changes in eating, routines or behavior can build over time and turn into something more serious. In this episode of Hope and Will , we talk with Dr. Anna Tanner and Ellen Ewing. Ellen shares her daughter’s experience, from noticing that something was off to getting a diagnosis after years...

When the scrubs come off, many of the people who care for kids in our halls go home to care for their own kids. The same men and women who are whizzes at fixing broken bones and calming pre-surgery jitters are the same ones who go home to get slime out of carpet and claw through calculus homework. In this episode, we pull back the curtain to share our staff’s parenting tips, tricks and honest mome...

In this episode of Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, we’re joined by three incredible guests who are raising children with special needs. Together, they help us better understand what life is like for their families and provide insight to help parents harness kids’ natural curiosity and turn it into something positive. They share examples of big and little g...

Type 1 diabetes often shows up without warning, and missed symptoms can put a child at serious risk. Parents, teachers, coaches and caregivers all play a role in noticing the early warning signs, like unusual thirst, fatigue and sudden weight loss. In this episode of Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta , we chat with pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Presley Nichol...

If you have kids, you won’t be surprised to hear that “Is my child getting enough sleep?” and “hours of sleep by age” are top digital search queries. In this episode of Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta , we dive into something that keeps parents up at night—literally. Whether you have a younger child whose nighttime routine somehow morphed from a sprint into...

As technology becomes a bigger part of childhood, parenting in a digital age presents new challenges and risks. From video games and smartphones to social media and AI, digital platforms are giving kids more access than ever while also opening doors for online predators, sextortion and overexposure. In this episode of Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta , we he...

Rural towns across Georgia are home to special, tight-knit communities that fill vital roles in our state economy. Unfortunately, lack of access to high-quality medical care can make it challenging to raise a healthy family in those communities. Together, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Mercer University School of Medicine are on a mission to change that. Access to quality healthcare in rural...

Parents know these panicky moments all too well: a tumble off the couch, a hit on the field, the bonking of heads during a bout of roughhousing. Concussions are more common than many of us realize, and they don’t just happen to athletes. In this episode, we hear from two parents, Casey and Pete, who each faced scary situations when their kids, a toddler and a teen, experienced head injuries. Their...

Teens receive hundreds of phone notifications a day. Those notifications aren’t just a distraction—they’re reshaping how kids learn, engage and feel. In this episode of Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta , Lynn talks with Grant Rivera, Ph. D., Superintendent of Marietta City Schools, and Erin Harlow-Parker from our Strong4Life team about a new policy that requ...

In this episode of Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta , we take a close look at the relentless cycle of flu, RSV and other viruses that have been hitting families hard this season. Kayla Lyons, a mom of two, shares her experience of watching her young daughter battle severe respiratory illness—not once, but twice. She opens up about the warning signs she wishe...

In this eye-opening episode of Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta , we dive into the hidden—yet very serious—dangers of button battery ingestion. Laura Johnson, mom of two, shares the harrowing experience that ensued after her son swallowed a battery that became dislodged from a remote control. We then hear from Dr. Matthew Santore, a pediatric surgeon who ser...

At Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024 was a day nearly a decade in the making. More than 200 Children’s patients—including several on advanced life support—traveled in a carefully planned caravan of 65 ambulances and made history as the first patients at Arthur M. Blank Hospital. And this was all in the wake of Hurricane Helene unleashing its wrath in the hours leading up to...

When kids enter school-age years, you reach a new stage of parenthood. As fun as it can be to shop for the latest school supplies, it’s also the dawn of a new season—one in which your kids will face challenges you won’t be there to see, and perhaps most challengingly, solve. As parents, you want to say and do the right things to set them up for success, so our goal with this episode is to give you...

When a Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta helicopter flies overhead or a Children’s ambulance zooms past you, you know a child is in need of lifesaving care. Most of us are lucky enough to not know what it’s like on the other side of those doors. For those who have experienced being a passenger inside a Children’s transport vehicle, you know it’s a world where time stands still.   If you've ever won...

Remember when hoverboards dominated headlines? The skateboard-like toys quickly became popular around the holidays in 2015 and, just as quickly, started landing kids in hospitals with injuries.   While hoverboards got a lot of attention, there are other ride-on toys—ones that might be in your driveway or garage right now —that regularly land kids in our hospitals and urgent cares, with injuries ra...

Every time an athlete heads out to a practice or a game, there’s risk for injury. As kids play more frequently and advance to more competitive teams, that risk increases. From tee-ball to swimming to varsity football, the good news is that no matter the age of your child or their preferred sport, there are lots of things you can do to help prevent injuries. In this episode, we open with the person...

Arthur M. Blank Hospital will open Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, at the site of our expanded North Druid Hills campus. If you’ve driven on I-85 or North Druid Hills Road in the past few years, you’ve likely caught a glimpse of its rise. This 19-story, 2 million-square-foot facility is generating lots of buzz with its fleet of robots, cutting-edge technology, more than 20 acres of greenspace, and a slew...

Perfectionism. It’s a word that, as a society, we tend to hold in high regard. We associate it with people who are overachievers and have high standards. These individuals appear to have it all together and never seem to make mistakes. All great attributes, right? The challenge is when the standards become unrealistic. Perfectionism is a personality trait in which someone has unreasonably high sta...

This episode explores the No. 1 topic requested by our listeners: screen time. You might know it as the ultimate love-hate relationship of parenting.   No matter what your thoughts were about screens and electronics before you had kids, they’re an inevitable part of our daily lives. From babies to teens, navigating screen time conversations and setting healthy boundaries can be tricky. The episode...

For this episode, we have the honor of being joined by two leaders from Marcus Autism Center who are internationally recognized for thought leadership in the world of autism: Drs. Ami Klin and Warren Jones . They recently published groundbreaking research that stands to change how and when kids are diagnosed with autism by measuring a child's looking behavior. They'll explain what this new technol...

If parenting had a secret menu, these conditions could get top billing: febrile seizures, nursemaid’s elbow, toxic synovitis, pneumonia, impetigo. These conditions often fly under parental radars—until their sudden arrival sends parents into panic mode. Having a general understanding of these conditions can go a long way in making you feel more prepared as a parent. For this eye-opening episode, w...

When newsworthy events happen in the world, kids need help making sense of it all. While you may not have all the answers to their questions (and that’s OK!), there are guiding principles you can follow that help with any type of difficult conversation.  On this episode of Hope and Will: A Parenting Podcast from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, host Lynn Smith chats with licensed mental health th...

Few things are more intimidating to a new parent than buckling a baby into their car seat for the first time. Then you blink and that same child is pressuring you to retire the booster seat—or even sit in the front seat—to be more like their friends. Whether moving from rear-facing to front-facing, graduating from a booster seat to no seat, or moving from the backseat to the front seat, it’s often...

In January 2022, Erin Harlow-Parker and her family were thrust into headlines when her husband, Jeff Parker, died by suicide. At the time, Jeff was the CEO of MARTA, a well-respected businessman, father, partner and friend. He had been married to Erin for more than 30 years. Erin, an advanced practice registered nurse specializing in pediatric mental health and beloved member of the Children’s Str...