Dr. Joel N. Robinson, D.O.

Yes, most family practice offices see children down to the level of very young infants and giving routine vaccinations is common. Unless your doctor very specifically does not see children, there should be no issue (some family doctors choose to restrict the scope of their practices for various reasons - no women's health, no kids, no hospital, etc). It can vary.

Most family doctors see children - it's rare that they don't - and if this doctor does then that clinic will stock the necessary vaccines and can give the shots with no problem.

This should be printed on the bottle - always read your medications! Tylenol dosage is every 4 hours and you should not exceed a total of 4000mg in any given 24-hour period. The maximum may be lower if you have any medical problems that affect your liver.

There are many possibilities here. You may have a severe abrasion or a deep laceration. You may need stitches to help bring the wound edges together. Your wound may have gotten infected. There's just too much that could be going on to really gauge. Please go see someone about this.

What do you mean by 'deviations'? Your heart rate won't remain at an exact number of beats per minute at all times, and even when resting doing nothing you'll have a certain amount of variability just from breathing.

If you're having very disruptive feelings, you may be having a condition called palpitations. If you have a family history of heart disease or if these deviations worry you, you should follow up with your primary care doctor who will most likely get an EKG and may set you up with something called an event monitor to check your heart rhythm at the exact moment these deviations happen.

In most cases, it's not a big deal, but until the workup is done it's hard to say for sure.

If you haven't already done so, I would strongly recommend seeing a behavioral health specialist such as a therapist as they can be really helpful for chronic insomnia cases. They'll likely start wit relaxation techniques and a set of principles known as sleep hygiene.

If you've already tried all of that and you're still having issues, then there may be a role for prescription medication - however, I don't recommend nightly use of such medication unless nothing else has worked as risks of dependence are significant.

Honey. Assuming your child doesn't have an allergy (for very young children, introduce small amounts of honey as you would any other new food before trying this), locally sourced honey is comparable to most available cough syrups and over-the-counter formulations and is generally well tolerated.

Actually yoga and other positional-based exercise can be greatly beneficial to help with the aches and pains that are commonplace in second and third trimester pregnancy. Aside from the obvious issues with laying on your stomach late in the pregnancy, there isn't much you need to watch out for, just take it slow.

Excess perspiration and flushes/hot flashes are both signs of overactive sympathetic tone (you may also see fast heart rate or anxiety). Are you noticing the excess perspiration also only around your period or all the time? You may need to change the prescription on your birth control. There are many, many formulations available for birth control and it can sometimes be challenging to find the right one for a given patient.

Alternatively, if the excess perspiration is a daily thing, it could be a separate common condition called hyperhidrosis, which is easily treatable with prescription antiperspirants in most cases.

Yes, elevated blood pressure after any strenuous activity such as exercise is what's known as a physiologic elevation and is entirely normal. You should see a faster heart rate and a higher blood pressure if you've recently been active.

As a general rule, you want to take readings for your blood pressure after being seated for at least 15 minutes in a relaxed posture, ideally taken on your left arm (assuming you don't have a contraindication to this such as a left mastectomy - if you don't know what that is, you don't have it) and with your arm resting at about heart-level such as on the arm of an armchair.

Over time, regular exercise should cause both your resting heart rate and your blood pressure to decrease. This is both a direct effect of improved cardiovascular fitness and an indirect effect caused by weight loss.

Food poisoning is a broad category and there are no go-to medications as causative agents can range from toxins to bacteria to parasites. Prevention is always your best bet when it comes to food poisoning. Onset of food poisoning is generally rapid, less than 24 hours after ingestion of the bad food. In most cases it's also quick to resolve, but in the meantime you can get dangerously dehydrated between vomiting, diarrhea and an inability to keep down fluids.

Bacterial food poisoning is by far the most common type, and while most people will recover without the need for antibiotics, it is a good idea to carry something to treat nausea/vomiting so that you can maintain hydration. Most of these agents are prescription-only, but I do recommend some doxylamine (sold commercially as Unisom) and pyridoxine (Vitamin B6). Give a 10mg dose of each one at the same time, about every 4-6 hours for nausea. It's likely to make you drowsy so don't drive after use. This is a common alternative given to women with morning sickness if they can't take certain prescriptions.

If you are reasonably sure you know the source of the food poisoning and that source is a restaurant or other food vendor, then you are likely the victim of bacterial gastroenteritis. If you can keep down fluids, your best bet is to wait out the illness for 1-2 days and seek care from the nearest urgent care center or emergency room if it doesn't clear after that. GO IMMEDIATELY IF HAVING SEVERE ABDOMINAL PAINS OR IF UNABLE TO KEEP DOWN ANY FLUIDS. If an infant or small child is affected, likewise don't wait as they can get dehydrated faster and may not cooperate with your attempts to hydrate them, and so might need an IV to get their fluids back up.

If you believe the source is something you prepared yourself, especially if it may be from plants or animals you obtained from the wild such as fish or wild game, then you run a risk of more serious illness and should go see a doctor for testing. Most hunters and fishermen know how to properly prepare their meals of this type, but it bears mentioning just the same.

As I said before, prevention is the best policy. If you've correctly cooked and prepared your food or watched someone else do the same then you should be safe. If in doubt, don't eat it.

Fish oils (specifically Omega-3 fatty acids) should help lower triglycerides. It's not a cure-all, but it does help. There are also several prescription medications which can help lower your levels which your doctor can discuss with you.

Aside from that, the main thing you can do is make dietary modifications and maintain a healthy active lifestyle with a healthy weight. In particular, try to moderate your use of alcoholic beverages, sodas and fruit juices. Some people also see a significant improvement but reducing gluten products, but this is a substantial dietary commitment as avoiding gluten is far from easy.

I recommend going to see your doctor when you are actively having one of these sores (if you haven't already) so that they can be identified. If the doctor isn't sure of the diagnosis just by visual inspection, they may have you visit an otolaryngologist (Ear-Nose-Throat doctor) to take a biopsy.

By your description it sounds like it might be cold sores, but there are several other possibilities so it's hard to recommend treatment without first knowing what the problem is. If it is in fact cold sores, then they are preventable with medication.

Complex question. There are many possible causes for edema. Restricting salt intake can be helpful for maintenance (to keep it from coming back) but oftentimes the fluid moves out of circulation and into the tissues, so reducing salt is unlikely to help with water retention happening right now.

The most common reasons for edema are (broadly speaking) heart problems, liver problems, kidney problems and malnutrition. Assuming it's not the last one, you need specialized medications and regular checkups for heart problems. For liver and kidney issues you need very careful monitoring and strict avoidance of anything that irritates or damages the affected system.

In short - while a low salt diet may play a role, there's too many possible reasons why your mother might be retaining water to say for sure.

Supplements are a mixed bag and aren't subject to the same strict regulations in this country that medications have to follow, so there's a certain amount of risk involved. Generally speaking using protein bulking is unlikely to cause harm but you should be careful of any hormonal products and always use in moderation. Also, if you have to cut back your workouts for any reason (traveling, get sick, etc) then cut back your supplements too, otherwise you'll put on fat.