Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
EP 40: Dr. Steven Goudy, pediatric ENT behind Dr. Nozebest joins the chat
1.7k Plays2 years ago
In today’s episode, the moms interview Dr. Steven Goudy, the pediatric ENT behind the beloved product The Nozebot.
You will hear all about how Dr. Goudy founded Dr. Noze Best to provide wellness solutions for children and peace of mind for their parents. Learn about some of the most common (and anxiety inducing) issues that he sees in his line of work. From RSV to ear infections to foreign objects in your nose…we discuss how to navigate sickness and advocate for your child through these tough times.
You can shop Dr. Nozebot at the following retailers:
Follow Dr. Goudy and Dr. Nozebest:
Join the official Mom Group Chat Facebook group: Mom Group Chat | Facebook
Keep up with the Moms and join the conversation on our socials:
Instagram: @momgroupchat
TikTok: @momgroupchat
Questions/comments/need to vent? Email us at momgroupchat@gmail.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Guest
00:00:07
Speaker
There's no right way to do it.
Stress in Parenting
00:00:12
Speaker
Oh, we're going to get into it. What up moms? My name is Candice and I'm here with my best friend Whitney and a very, very special guest today. We are here with Dr. Steven Gowdy, the pediatric anti behind Dr. Knows Best. So we're so, so excited to have him join the chat today and welcome Dr. Gowdy. I'm excited to be here.
00:00:35
Speaker
We have covered a lot of topics here in mom group chat so far. We've covered all sorts of things, but one thing we really haven't talked a lot about is sickness and dealing with sickness. As moms, and I know this is a huge point of anxiety for moms, especially new moms, dealing with your first sickness with your child is very stressful.
Dr. Gowdy’s Background
00:00:57
Speaker
It affects everything. It affects their sleep and eating and can really ruin a day. So excited to have an expert on
00:01:05
Speaker
to really dive into that and you know what we can do as moms i can't wait to hear all about you so let's start it off by you just telling us a little bit about yourself and your background your family grades i'm a pediatric otolaryngologist or ent doctor so what i tell people is i focus on boogers and your wax and all the.
00:01:27
Speaker
Stuff that your kids have I grew up Kentucky did some training in Iowa lived in Nashville for 10 years and I've been in Atlanta for nine and so I
00:01:40
Speaker
focus only on children. And I love children. They don't create their own problems. They just want to get better and move on about their day. And certainly, as you mentioned, there's a lot of illness that your kids will have, particularly if they're in daycare and trying to figure out as a new parent, even as
00:01:59
Speaker
Even as a physician, it's hard, you know, it's scary. It's hard to know what to do and when to be concerned. I do have three children. They're older now, 22, 20, and 15.
The Nose Bot Inception
00:02:12
Speaker
But I remember those days of them being sick and, you know, trying to race to daycare to pick them up, you know, all the things. So happy to give you my perspective on any of that.
00:02:25
Speaker
You are the doctor behind Dr. Knows Best, which is kind of like the umbrella brand of probably one of the most like beloved products, I think. I mean, I cannot tell you how many because we're in a lot of mom groups. I mean, this podcast is called Mom Group Chat.
00:02:45
Speaker
and it is stemmed from being a part of these like mom group chats. Having other moms recommend products and I feel like one of the most recommended products to us has been the nose bot. So tell us about what inspired you to start Dr. Nose Best and launch the nose bot into the world. Kind of talk us through that. It's really born out of experience and frustration.
00:03:08
Speaker
for taking care of your child. I mean, particularly your first child, like you've never been through this before and you got the most complicated device that you're ever going to try to work, has no instructions, you're sleep deprived, all of those things. And when that device goes haywire and can't breathe, can't eat, can't sleep,
00:03:30
Speaker
You're sitting there wondering, do I go to the ER? What's normal? And just experiencing that on my own. A lot of people don't realize that babies have to breathe through their nose for the first year of life. So when they get a bad cold, they can't breathe, they can't eat, they can't sleep. And I'm a pediatric ENT doctor. And my wife likes to take credit for the business and the invention because she's like, look,
00:03:56
Speaker
You are an academic, you know, you teach, you do all these things. And why are we still using these antiquated, you know, 1940s technology to take care of our most prized possession? So that was, you know, happy to go into the evolution of it. But it was really that like, hey, this just isn't good enough.
Development & Inspiration
00:04:18
Speaker
And, and I would say there was a certain patient interaction that I had with somebody who was hospitalized that really kind of cemented in my, my mind that it absolutely has to get done. So happy to go into any of that. With my, my first child, uh, that's two and a half, you know, the only option I really knew about or had was the nose Frida, which is great, but you have to personally suck to get the boogers out of the nose. And I would always end up sick myself.
00:04:46
Speaker
just from, I don't know if it's just breathing in, whatever he was putting out. And so whenever I learned of this really word of mouth through other moms, it, like I said, we were talking earlier before this started, it changed my life. Yeah. I would love to hear more about the inspiration behind it. Yeah. So again, it was really like those moments of I would, you know, I'm the ENT doctor. So whenever my kids would get sick, my wife's like, okay, you got to do the booger cleaning, you know, and
00:05:16
Speaker
They would scream and how like that was even before any kind of mouth nasal
Silent Parental Struggles
00:05:22
Speaker
aspirator thing. It was like the blue bulb and there was a technique, but it just wasn't great. And so I'm not an engineer. I'm an ENT surgeon. So, you know, I was playing around with some things and we were, you know, I used to work up in Nashville. Now I'm in Atlanta and kind of in that transition. I had a discussion with a family and the family.
00:05:44
Speaker
their child who has Down syndrome was hospitalized and patients that have Down syndrome do have a host of issues, including that their nasal passages are a little bit smaller. And this baby had a bad cold, you know, RSV, which, you know, is scary in the best of circumstances. Certainly to this family, they had a host of other things. And the mom looks at me and she looks at me and she says, you know, I don't need you, right? I just need the suction that's on the wall so I can go home. And I'm like,
00:06:14
Speaker
Those are facts. That's just a fact. And I'm like, okay, we have to solve this problem. We have to really innovate. And, you know, doctor knows best, you know, from a very high level, is an organization or a company focused on providing health and wellness information in the upper respiratory space to families and then to some who find the need differentiated product and solutions that meet those needs, right? I mean,
00:06:44
Speaker
I read an article that described these moments that we all face as parents, as silent suffering moments. Why I was using the blue bulb, why you were using the mouth aspirate or whatever is like, okay, well, why are we not talking about it? And that's what I love about your all's podcast. You are talking about it and you are like,
00:07:02
Speaker
socializing this information. And so we as a company are very focused on listening to parents. I mean, that's how we develop the nodes bot. I mean, I knew that from my personal experience. This mom told me, I don't need you. I just need better suction. And we're like, OK.
Philanthropy & Community
00:07:21
Speaker
And that's how we're going to continue to kind of develop additional products and solutions for families is based on parents. And a lot of those parents are mothers.
00:07:32
Speaker
And the only one other thing I'd add is that because of the why of our company, we do support the Down syndrome community and a portion of our profits go to support them because that's very important to me, to us, to the families and certainly, you know, to the patient population who really struggle
00:07:52
Speaker
with a lot of different things. And so we are 100% supportive and behind that community. I love that so much. I do too. That is amazing. I love what you said about kind of like the silent suffering moment. I think there are a good bit of those moments in motherhood where you're kind of
00:08:08
Speaker
in the middle of the night and you're like, oh my gosh, I feel so helpless and alone in this very moment. And I'm with you. I'm blessed in that my child has not had to go to daycare in that sense. My mom takes care of them. So we haven't had a ton of sicknesses, but I told you before this call, we have a six week old and she did catch a little bit of a cold when she was literally a week old.
00:08:34
Speaker
And I didn't even have the mouth aspirate or anything. I was using the bulb that they give you at the hospital and she was screaming and I was just like, my gosh. And they're so young and little at that point that I'm up in the middle of the night looking over her bassinet like, are you a lie?
00:08:54
Speaker
Are you breathing? There's so many of those in motherhood and I love that your whole brand is listening to parents and we're going to keep talking about it because you guys have already helped so many moms and parents.
Nose Bot Usage Guide
00:09:10
Speaker
I love that you guys are just focused on listening to us and hearing what we need.
00:09:16
Speaker
I love that. I know you mentioned other products that Dr. Nozbeth offers. Tell us about some other things you guys offer other than the Nozbot. Tell us about some of those. Yeah. Well, I mean, so the Nozbot has some pieces and parts, and part of the... When we're listening to families, and particularly moms, it's like, okay, well, it's designed to meet
00:09:41
Speaker
different needs. You can actually hold the baby's face and suction the nose simultaneously. Because in listening to parents, and again, you all probably may have not done this, but literally parents would sit on their children to suction out their nose. They would pin both the arms down and then squeeze the head between their knees and get in there and get after it. The design, we're
00:10:07
Speaker
We're iterating or making improvements on the nosebot or the nasal suction device itself to meet, listening to families, listening to moms, adjusting the diameter of the piece that suctions the nose. As you said, your baby was one week old when they got a cold.
00:10:26
Speaker
And so designing a piece that's specific to that, but also one that can address, you know, your two year old. And so there's, there's iterations around that. We just came out with a travel version, uh, double A batteries. So that's, you know, you guys are the first to know this is the first public declaration of that. So that will also be available on our website so that, you know, that if grandma or grandpa want to have one at their house, they can, you know,
00:10:56
Speaker
It doesn't have three speeds and all the other things, but it's kind of a throw it in the bag and go thing. And because we are an upper respiratory health and wellness company, we have something else that's coming out. Our CEO, she said that I can't divulge that now, but it probably is something that sits in the nursery and is very relevant to upper respiratory health and wellness. So I'll let your mind wander.
00:11:26
Speaker
but I've been sworn to secrecy and I don't want to lose my job. Understood. Understood. We'll report back. So keep an eye on our Instagram and Dr. Knows Best Instagram. I'm sure you guys will announce it there whenever it's time. Right. Well, and we're on TikTok too and YouTube. Don't forget.
00:11:48
Speaker
Lots of ways that you can get the information. No, I love, I love, love, love your TikTok content. I literally watched every single one of your videos when I was nursing the other night in bed. I was like, it was so helpful. You're a star. You're a TikTok star.
00:12:08
Speaker
I loved your response to so many moms who are posting for help on TikTok or even just sharing a moment. I love all of those videos. I do have a question about using the nose bot, which I feel like is a question a lot of our... We've seen it in our Facebook group. We have a Facebook group of, I think, 800 moms now.
00:12:32
Speaker
Um, and it's kind of like a resource for that. Everyone goes to, to ask questions and all of those things. Um, and one question we've seen a lot in there is, can you use the nose bot like too often? Is there such thing as like suctioning too much? Like what's the standard procedure as far as like how often you should
Parental Advocacy
00:12:52
Speaker
use it? So that's a great question. And something as a pediatric CNT, I talked to a lot of families about.
00:13:00
Speaker
I think it really depends on the situation. If you think you're suctioning too much, there may be something else going on and you need to talk to your pediatrician or healthcare provider, whoever you're seeing to identify that in general. So if your child has a cold, it depends on their age. If they're two or three and they're just running around with mucus running down their face, just do it.
00:13:25
Speaker
to keep that running down their face, I think, most of the time. But if it's a little baby, less than a year, you really want to do it enough that their respiratory system is doing okay, certainly before feeding, right? Because babies breathe and eat at the same time.
00:13:43
Speaker
you know, being aware of kind of getting back to those helpless moments in the middle of the night, like having that discussion with your pediatric provider about like, what are the respiratory signs that they want to be notified about, right? Is it like, you know, when you're having trouble breathing, sometimes the skin over your chest will kind of pull in, sometimes the skin under your ribs will pull in, sometimes your nose starts flaring. So those are,
00:14:11
Speaker
in general, things to look out for as far as respiratory rate. But as far as suctioning goes, the nosebot nasal piece is designed not to go way deep in the nose because you don't need to do that. So as long as you're not over pushing it into the nose, you're not going to cause trauma. I think if people point it towards the inside of the nose, then that can be irritating. But if you're pointing it straight in, I don't think you can overdo it.
00:14:41
Speaker
Uh, I, but, but the caveat is there's certain upper airway sounds that children make that make them sound congested, but you're not getting anything out and that you just need to talk to somebody else about what's going on.
00:14:53
Speaker
I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned now that I just had my second in dealing with, after going through two years of life with my first child, I've learned to kind of be an advocate for my child and to follow my mom gut a
Personal Experiences
00:15:11
Speaker
little bit. I know Whitney is so good at that. Whitney, do you want to give a little rundown? I know we've talked...
00:15:18
Speaker
in the past on here about Graydon and his experience, but talk us through a little bit about everything Graydon's gone through.
00:15:27
Speaker
I know I have so many questions and this is actually where I was going to try and pivot a little maybe towards more ear related symptoms. Um, my son started daycare and it was, you know, six months of ear infections. Um, and I was curious, why is it, or maybe it's just this way here that six ear infections is, you know, the magic number for tubes.
00:15:54
Speaker
Well, so I'm going to broaden it out and then I'll get very specific. So if your child is in daycare, they're going to get sick a lot. And this is kind of like the conversation I have with a lot of families. If it's your first child, you're like, what's going on? My kid is always sick. And I'm like, your kid is going to be sick a lot. So a normal child that's healthy, otherwise well, that's not in daycare will get sick six to 10 times a year.
00:16:20
Speaker
And if you're in daycare, you're gonna get sick more than that. So it may be literally every month, you're just like, obviously, and again, it's one of those silent suffering moments. It's almost like your parent walking into the ocean, you just keep getting hit by waves. You get knocked down, you get back up like, okay, I'm gonna get out there. It really just leaves waves of illness. So again, that's the backdrop, runny nose, congestion, what have you. 10% of the time, those are gonna turn into ear infections or some sort of other
00:16:51
Speaker
infection, but there are children who may get lots of them. In those children like your son, if they're getting lots of ear infections, then you decide about tubes. One caveat I would say is if your child is healthy and well and so on,
00:17:12
Speaker
an ear infection may not require antibiotics because the virus is in your nose. You may also have a viral ear infection, so understanding that is important. Then lastly, the indications for ear tubes by our national guidelines are three infections in six months or four infections in a year. It's not really six. It just happened to be six for me. Good to know. I know. We went down the tube route at about 14 months of age and then
00:17:41
Speaker
they were still occurring, so we had to do the adenoid removal at that point. And I will say since then, he has barely been sick. And I don't know if it's just because being in daycare for over a year and a half now, the sicknesses have ran their course and his immune system is great, or if it was because of all the surgery and the
Runny Nose Advice
00:18:03
Speaker
tubes. So hard to tell, but...
00:18:06
Speaker
He's doing much better now. He does have a constant runny nose, but I blame that on the Tennessee weather and allergies. Most of the time I do have PTSD a little bit and I'll take them in every few weeks just to make sure it's not a near infection. But he's always got a constant runny nose. He's that good. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a couple of things to unpack there. One, if he has ear tubes,
00:18:32
Speaker
If he gets an ear infection, it should drain out. So you should see pus coming out of the ear. It'll look like snot or it'll smell like a wet dog. And then you can put ear drops in if the tubes are working. So in general, you should be able to tell that as far as the runny nose, I mean, that's another thing, you know, we could spend hours talking about it. Is it a virus? Is it allergies? Is it both? I mean, this time of year,
00:18:57
Speaker
It's probably going to be some allergy component. However, he hasn't been exposed to multiple cycles of pollen because he's only been alive for a couple of years. It may be a little bit pollen, but indoor allergens like mold, dust mites, cockroaches, all that kind of stuff.
00:19:18
Speaker
can cause allergies, like even in two-year-olds, but your immune system is still developing, so I don't really focus on allergies until kids are three or four, unless it's like formula or some other thing.
Allergy Testing Insights
00:19:35
Speaker
That's kind of my general rule, but if he's got a lot of runny nose, you can try Flonase or nasal steroids or something that's over the counter and see if it helps.
00:19:46
Speaker
That's so true. Wow. I didn't know you could be allergic to cockroaches. Is that a thing? I'm sorry. That was shocking. You live in Tampa, so sadly, there's a lot of that around and they are very allergic. If you go to get allergy testing, they test you for all kinds of seasonal allergens like tree pollen, whatever, but the non-seasonal of the perennial are mold, dust mite,
00:20:16
Speaker
cockroach, you know, and probably I'm not an allergist, but that's just kind of my perspective. And so they're going to test for all that. Right. So that's the other thing is like, as a parent, you're like, Oh, my kid's got all these issues. I want to go to the, you know, get and see the allergist. But if you go to the allergist, you're going to get allergy testing and you're going to get allergy shots. Right. So that's what I tell people. Like, as long as you're committed down this road and you're willing to do the allergy shots, great. Go do it. But, you know, my daughter just had allergy testing.
00:20:46
Speaker
And it was not cheap. So it's like, it's crazy expensive. So don't waste your time and money. If you're like, there's no way I'm ever going to give my kid allergy shots.
RSV Season & Vaccination
00:20:57
Speaker
I don't know how it helps you to do the allergy testing, you know, and put them through that. Maybe hit your deductible first and then that's your chance. Right. Well, but again, if you're not going to give them the shots, right? What's the point? Correct. Correct. Yeah.
00:21:13
Speaker
Yeah. I have another pivot question since RSV season. Is it, is it over yet or is it almost past? Uh, it should be like, it should be tailing down. Um,
00:21:26
Speaker
I haven't seen the most light, most recent data, but yes, in general, it should be reducing. I mean, we had a very bad RSV season this year. I was going to ask if you saw a difference with the new RSV antibody vaccine that came out, if there was a trend down this year. I don't, I guess I don't have access to those data, like what it would have been if we hadn't had it, right? I mean, there's like lots of options now. There used to be only one option.
00:21:56
Speaker
that we would have to give kids monthly who are at high risk, like, you know, after delivery, like prematurity, heart disease, whatever, immune problems.
00:22:06
Speaker
And that was monthly. And now there's something you can give them. I think that's just like, like one shot or, you know, maybe two shots a year that protect them. And there's also the, the, the vaccine that the mom can get like before, you know, at 32 weeks or 30 points. So there's, which is great, but we still got clobbered with RSV
Parenting & Social Media
00:22:25
Speaker
this year. Our ICUs were full. Everybody was sick. It was wrong. So I, you know, it could have even been worse.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think the first year of life that is probably what I am most scared of just because or I have been just because my child was in daycare and knowing that my daughter had an older brother in daycare and was bringing home germs.
00:22:47
Speaker
And she was born in August and I went through sixties and I was, I was a little scared, but she was eligible for the vaccination or antibody, um, in October since she was younger than eight months old. So we jumped on that Vanderbilt, um, was offering it out. So we made the appointment and I was like, I'm obviously jumping on board just because I'm scared. I've seen my friends in the hospital with their, their kids. So.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and I would just say, number one, that's good. There were some supply issues. So the fact that you jumped on it was great. The good news is a lot of kids can get RSV and they'll have a problem. And certainly the nose bot, we get comments like, hey, this really helped out. Exactly.
00:23:38
Speaker
either avoided the hospital or we were able to go home sooner or whatever just because we're able to clean out the nose. I mean, a lot of times ours be kids land in the hospital because they get dehydrated and they're breathing fast because they can't eat because they can't breathe through their nose because it's all stuffed up.
00:23:56
Speaker
Yeah. And that's I guess what most people say is if you can keep their nose clear, which is why your device is amazing. I mean, and help so many families. If they were saying you just had a better chance of avoiding the hospital if you were able to use something like that. So I know it's very appreciated amongst like all of our friends and followers that it was invented. I know I am.
00:24:22
Speaker
But we can't make medical claims around that by just sharing you with the stories that have been. But it's super scary.
Consulting Professionals
00:24:31
Speaker
When your baby's really sick, again, it's really scary. So that's why it's important to have those conversations with your pediatrician, nurse practitioner, whoever is taking care of your child. Understand, particularly as a first-time parent,
00:24:48
Speaker
what does abnormal breathing look like? And that's one of the things I like about... I mean, there's lots of things about social media that aren't great, but one of the good things is that if you get to the right people that are giving you evidence-based ideas about what is normal and abnormal and how to think about things, then you're empowered. You're not sitting at home alone, just like, whoa.
00:25:14
Speaker
Right. I always tell my mom, I'm like, what did you do when we were little like 30 years ago? I'm like, because genuinely I use TikTok and Instagram as a resource a lot of the times. I remember when Alice had the hand, foot and mouth or whatever, and I went into TikTok and searched hand, foot and mouth and watched all these videos of other moms. I was like, here's what I did to keep my baby hydrated when they didn't want to eat with the sores.
00:25:41
Speaker
You know what I mean? There is so much good information out there. And of course, there's bad information too. Two sides of the coin. But for the most part, and I think as moms, I know our community here, it's so amazing to be a part of a community of moms that just want to help each other out and share information about what helped us get through something.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah. I always tell my mom, I'm like, I don't know what you did back in the day without Google and social media. It would be a whirlwind. Right. No, I agree. I know we've talked about some
00:26:22
Speaker
of the common issues that toddlers and kids can go through. We've talked a little bit about ear infections and RSV and all of that stuff. What are some of the most common issues that you see come into your office with babies? I would say most of our audiences in the toddler range, but what are the most common issues you see with patients? Yeah. I mean, I think from just after birth, I think
00:26:53
Speaker
One thing, and this may, I don't know if this is controversial or not, but certainly tongue tie and lip tie and all
Shared Decision-Making
00:26:58
Speaker
that stuff. I mean, that's a huge thing that we see a lot of. I think the New York Times just published a pretty complete perspective on it. I think just feeding in general is hard for families, right? Again, you've never done it. They've never done it. Everybody's trying to figure out how to do it. The baby's crying.
00:27:23
Speaker
All that, so it's a very, again, a vulnerable time. You know, moms, you know, post-partum moms are a vulnerable population. I mean, that's a well-described thing in finding some people, both, you know, lactation consultants, speech pathologists, ENTs, dentists, like you all get mixed up in this business. And, you know, so I think it's important to find the right people and use evidence to make decisions
00:27:53
Speaker
If you're going to people that only take cash for what they're doing, and I think that that is a slippery slope, if you will, and families kind of fall into it. I'm not going to try to get into that too much unless you want to, but that's definitely
00:28:10
Speaker
From the very beginning, that's an issue that we deal with a lot. Yeah. I mean, you're preaching to the choir here as someone who has a six week old baby and is kind of, I mean, in our past episodes, I've given a full update of my like breastfeeding journey and it's been tough. Uh, we did end up seeing an occupational therapist to check out
00:28:31
Speaker
lip tie and tongue tie. Everything ended up being fine. She didn't, all of her mechanics were perfect, but it's been a feeding can be a rough and isolating like journey and people don't realize how difficult it can be. And it's not just like as easy as, Oh yeah, I'm just gonna breastfeed my baby. It's so complicated. And there are so many different aspects of breastfeeding that are hard. So.
00:28:59
Speaker
I know I love how you said we're such a vulnerable population. I feel like we've also talked about how mothers just consume information as much as possible to fix issues. And it's great to hear you say fine evidence-based and ratings and all that because we will do whatever it takes to make our baby okay or do what's like a quick fix.
00:29:25
Speaker
having evidence-based stuff. I really rely on word of mouth a lot. If I hear something mentioned a few times, I'm like, all right, I'll give it a try. So yeah, I appreciate saying that. I mean, I would just like to double click on that a little bit. It's just like listening to your gut and your intuition and finding, you know, really finding a good medical home, like people that get you, that understand you, that resonate with you because it can be very scary and isolating, you know,
00:29:56
Speaker
even for me.
Sleep Apnea in Children
00:29:58
Speaker
One of my children was in the neonatal intensive care unit and had issues swallowing. We're really talking about kids that have had pretty straight paths, but if your child can't swallow, can't breathe, their heart isn't normal, those are such hard conversations. Some families are unfortunately burdened with a huge load of things. In finding the right doctors, nurses,
00:30:26
Speaker
whomever is just so invaluable. And Whitney, you mentioned you were down at Vanderbilt. I mean, that is an academic institution. They practice evidence-based medicine. Not everybody has that in their backyard. So it can be really hard, but it's so important. It really is.
00:30:47
Speaker
Yeah, right. I mean, I feel like even our pediatrician works through Vanderbilt. I didn't just give birth there. We're all connected through the network. But we I think my daughter has a slight tongue tie and I was like, should we get it clipped? And he was just like, hold off. Like, it's not as easy as just like doing something like that. He wanted us to hold off. She's had some other issues and he's so calm and he's like, let's wait it out. So I really appreciate him.
00:31:16
Speaker
not jumping the gun on it because he said he thinks it can be overdone a bit. Yeah. And that's the delicate balance that families face, right? Is like they get one specialist and they say one thing and then there's another specialist that says another thing. And then you're like, well, what as a parent do I do? Right. Because I want this fix. I want my baby to eat and sleep and be normal and happy and not suffer.
00:31:44
Speaker
And it's sometimes it's hard to know, right? And so that really, that's another like thing we don't talk enough about is like shared, we call it shared decision making. Like you would sit down and I would tell you like, hey, this is my perspective. What's your perspective and how do we share that, you know, joint decision together, which I think is important. Other than lip tie, tongue tie things, what other like common issues do we see with babies and toddlers?
00:32:13
Speaker
Yeah, so we talked about the mucus and the runny nose stuff. I think snoring is a thing. Snoring in babies is one thing where snoring in toddlers is another thing.
00:32:29
Speaker
And then really understanding how sleep apnea can cause issues. I mean, it's not typically infants per se, but it's more two, three, four year olds snoring, gasping, choking, pausing, sweating at night, wetting the bed, all of those things are signs of sleep disturbance. And all of us, I mean,
00:32:53
Speaker
Maybe not YouTube because you have small children at home, but when you have a good night's sleep, you feel better. You're able to pay attention. You're able to interact. If your child is not sleeping well, their mood, their behavior, their attention span, their engagement at school or home or whatever is going to be different.
Adult Sleep Apnea Risks
00:33:13
Speaker
That's another topic that we spend a lot of time talking about.
00:33:18
Speaker
Amazing. I didn't even realize I, I obviously know about sleep apnea. My brother has sleep apnea. So he wears like a machine thing at night, but, um, I didn't realize that that was a thing toddlers could have as well. That was a question I got asked all the time was, it was great and snoring, um, to see if that was like an issue with the tonsils or adenoids. Um, but he doesn't snore and he was sleeping through the night. So he's once again, stumping everybody.
00:33:48
Speaker
But, lucky me, right? Yeah. Well, so I would just say snoring is not normal for anybody, right? So if your child is snoring, regardless of their age, you need to investigate that. And what I'll tell families kind of the cheat code to seeing how bad it is, is to go in at 4 or 5 a.m. in the morning when they're in REM sleep, kind of the deepest stage of sleep, and that's when they're most likely to have the biggest issues.
00:34:16
Speaker
So for your son, he may be in his room all night sleeping fine, but if he's gasping and choking, he's not going to wake up and tell you he's having issues. He's actually just going to fall asleep easily and be hard to wake up and all that kind of stuff. True. Interesting. What about husband sparring? I'm just kidding. That's not normal either. I mean, it's legit. If he has sleep apnea, he's got to get treated because it's
00:34:45
Speaker
In children, it's not associated with heart issues as much. But every time you're blocking off your breathing, your heart works harder. But in adults, it's independently linked to high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, and neurocognitive functioning.
Tissue Regeneration & Missions
00:35:02
Speaker
Um, you know, maybe not put the pillow on his head at night, because that's really going to make it worse. You know, that's most the time, which is crazy. Um, my husband's like the most in shape person ever, but he snores. So I'm like, what's happening here? But we don't have to dive into that. That's so funny. Well, we want to hear also a little bit about.
00:35:26
Speaker
your research and philanthropy work. We talked a little bit about your advocacy for Down syndrome and all of that, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about your research and philanthropy work. Sure. I have an active research lab that studies tissue regeneration. Again, trying to
00:35:51
Speaker
reduce or mitigate some of the issues that children have, particularly the surgeries that I perform, cleft lip, cleft palate, other kind of removal of tumors of the head and neck and trying to regenerate or grow back new tissue versus borrowing it from different places just to make it easier on their recovery. So we have
00:36:17
Speaker
models of the human diseases and then we either use drug delivery or control the microbiome, which is the bacteria that we all have to aid in the regeneration or the kind of recreation of tissues with the hope of one day being able to get that in the operating room where we are just to make it easier for kids to recover. I would just say one of the things that I'm passionate about is it's
00:36:46
Speaker
pediatric innovation. If you think about it, like, you know, the parent space is kind of, again, the silent suffering like, yeah, nobody cares. Nobody's innovating. We're making, you know, more drugs, you know, neededly to address older people problems or, you know, new solutions for older people problems. But the children are kind of left, left behind. And so I'm hopeful that, you know, not just myself, there's a whole host of
00:37:16
Speaker
people around the country and the world doing this, that we can actually focus on what's good for children as a primary goal. And then the philanthropic part, you know, that kind of fills my bucket too, is that I get to go to the Philippines every year and participate in a surgical mission trip where we're doing cleft lip and palate surgeries on children and young adults. I mean, some of these folks are, you know, 14, 15, 18 years old before they're getting their
00:37:46
Speaker
cleft lip or cleft palate fix, which again, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's great that I can go there and do that, but it also reinforces the fact that, you know, here in the United States, we have access to healthcare, even though it's certainly not perfect. Uh, whereas other folks just don't have those resources. Wow. That is amazing. Yeah, that's amazing and crazy to hear that.
00:38:10
Speaker
I might have to wait that long. Oh my gosh. Yeah. All right.
Dr. Gowdy’s Personal Stories
00:38:14
Speaker
Well, I figured we'd wrap this up by doing some fun, like more lighthearted rapid fire questions, if that's okay. Sounds good. What is your favorite part of being a dad? Being wrong so often. Oh, I love that. Oh, okay. I like that. That's a good answer. I wasn't expecting that. Yeah. Well, I would say as an adjunct, it's also creating people
00:38:39
Speaker
that you like hanging out with. Like my kids are older now. It's like, they're fun and you know, and they're like, well, what do you think about this? Or what do you think about that? I'm like.
00:38:47
Speaker
I don't know. Tell me what you know about it. Cause I don't know anything about it. Yeah. I think that a lot, you know, I have girl, I only have girls right now, but I think about how close my mom and I are and how she's like truly one of my best friends. And so I always think like, Oh, I'm, you know, they're my kids right now, but I think later in life as they get older, I'm like, you know, creating two of my future best friends, you know, that are going to challenge me. And yeah, I love that.
00:39:20
Speaker
What is the weirdest thing you've ever removed from a nose or an ear? We didn't talk about this, but nasal foreign bodies are something I see pretty frequently because kids like to jam things in different orifices. I know. I feel like we should talk about that a little bit because I feel like toddlers are constantly putting things in holes. If they put it in their ear, it's not a bigger deal. A lot of times,
00:39:44
Speaker
All right. Yeah.
00:39:50
Speaker
We can get it out in clinic, but sometimes you have to put them to sleep to get it out just to be safe. But the nasal form bodies are really kind of funky. If your kid has a runny nose and it's only from one side and it smells like trash or garbage, then there is a form body in there more than likely.
00:40:10
Speaker
I mean, one kid had this terrible odor and everything, and it was like a little car tire off of one of his hot wheels or something, and just jammed it up there. And obviously, they never own up to it. They're like, no, mom, I shouldn't. They're like, no, I don't know what's going on. So we pull it out. I'm like, what is this? I would say a fan favorite. Kids love to get a little squishy foam and just jam it in their nose.
00:40:39
Speaker
So that's hard to get out, but it's also rewarding because then you're like, okay, your nose isn't going to stink anymore. Yeah. Instant gratification. Yeah. I would say with my safety hat on,
00:40:54
Speaker
you know, these little magnet things that people buy, like some kids will stick them on both sides of their nose and they'll kind of make a hole in it. Oh my gosh. And then button batteries, like tell all of your audience, like they need to be so careful with button batteries. Just get rid
Choking Hazards & Safety
00:41:09
Speaker
of them. Don't have them in anything because it, I mean, literally causes a ton of problems and some of them are not fixable.
00:41:18
Speaker
That's like Candace's top fear. Yeah, I was going to say this, button batteries are my top fear. And my mom and I got into a huge fight one day about button batteries. She had, I mean, I'm not going to go into it, but I, my mom watches my daughter full time and she had like literally a pack of like a 25 pack of button batteries sitting on her counter. I'm like, first of all, why do you need that many button batteries? Like, I don't know what these are for, but I just have seen too many traumatic
00:41:48
Speaker
you know, cases about button batteries. So this is like, that's like one of my biggest fears. Yeah. 100%. No, no, but yeah. Yeah. Anything else we should be wary of? Oh man. I mean, I'm a pretty, like my kids will tell you that I'm pretty neurotic about things, but like, you know, no hot dogs, cut up grapes, you know, no, no nuts or popcorn until they have molars, you know, just cause things that, you know,
00:42:16
Speaker
If you can't breathe and then you have a big problem and all of those things, like if go to, if they go down the wrong tube, it's not, it just, it is not an easy fix. And, you know, you're willing to do anything for your child,
Object Insertion in Children
00:42:30
Speaker
right? So don't give your child things that may cause big problems.
00:42:35
Speaker
No, it's a good call. It's things that I know, but it's always a good reminder to have that, especially going into the summer, like hot dogs get passed around or popcorn. So always, yes, such a good call out to wait on that. And I was going to say I was a kid that stuck a sticker up my nose when I was a child. Oh, were you? I was going to ask. I wasn't sure if this was an inappropriate question or not, but I was going to ask if
00:43:01
Speaker
especially with kids who stick things up their nose, is it more common that it's boys than girls? Great.
00:43:07
Speaker
Yeah, I don't I don't again, I don't know what the data are. Yeah, I think obviously, obviously we have we know at least one girl now that's done something. I think it's both. But if you if you push me on it, I would say probably more of the boys than girls. But I see both, you
Swimming Season Ear Health
00:43:24
Speaker
know. OK, good to know. You know, I'm a girl mom, so I'm, you know, biased over here, obviously. But now Alice is going to do it this. I know. Now watch. I did say Alice is going to stick something up her nose this week.
00:43:36
Speaker
Okay, summertime is coming up. I know, obviously, living here in Florida, but all over the country, kids are gonna be swimming more and in the water more. Tell us about ear safety with keeping their kids healthy in the summertime when they're in the water more. I feel like I wasn't sure if swimming causes ear infections. Is that a myth? Is that a real thing? Tell us about that.
00:44:03
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, there's multiple types of ear infections, but you can kind of think of it as a swimmer's ear, which is an outer ear infection or a kind of ear infection that happens after a cold, which is behind the eardrum. So if it's like a swimmer's ear, it's like lots of water, the bacteria start changing in there. It's like a hot soupy environment like any other place on your body.
00:44:27
Speaker
if it's hot and soupy long enough, then weird stuff starts happening. So that's a swimmer's ear. So the way to address that is make sure that you can get the ear dry. And really, so Whitney, for your son, if he has ear tubes, you don't want to pour alcohol down in there. In general, you should never pour anything in your kid's ear, but there is
00:44:49
Speaker
stuff you can buy over the counter to dry their ears out. I more suggest just either drying it out with a towel or maybe even a wadded up Kleenex to get the excess water out or a hairdryer on a low setting. Interesting. Or on Amazon, they sell ear dryers, so you can buy an ear dryer on Amazon. Oh, good. Yeah. I feel growing up, you always put hydrogen peroxide in your ear, right? Yeah. I mean, but again, that's really...
00:45:16
Speaker
The reason why your ears get infected is because it's warm and soupy and it doesn't get dried out. More people will put alcohol or something in there that evaporates and then gets the water to come out that way. If you don't know what your eardrum status is or you have tubes, then you could potentially cause a lot of pain and or curing loss if something gets behind your eardrum. You'll know if your kid has swimmers here because they'll have a lot of pain. If you push on this pointy part there and they swing at you,
00:45:46
Speaker
or they cry, then that means that they probably have a swimmer's ear. And sometimes what happens is that your canal starts to swell shut and we actually have to put a piece of paper or, I mean, it's not paper, but something else down in there so that the ear drops can get all the way to the source of infection.
00:46:04
Speaker
This is so good to know. Yeah, this is so good. Even though I feel like my father will swing at me at any time, anytime. I'll keep that in mind. We're both fists. Okay, okay. Oh my gosh. Yeah, but the ear drum, or the infection behind the ear drum is more related to getting summer colds and then kind of, you know, Whitney, what you were going to the doctor to see, but they won't have any drainage or swelling on the outside.
00:46:32
Speaker
Right. If you have a swimmer's ear, it'd be drainage kind of red and it'll hurt like crazy to even touch their ear. Where if it's a behind the ear drum infection, they don't have any of that. Great information. Okay. Yeah. This is so helpful. We like live in the water in the summertime, like in the pool here. So I, it's something I think about a lot. Well, and make sure they have, they know how to swim, right? Oh, yes.
Conclusion & Giveaway
00:46:57
Speaker
Yes.
00:46:57
Speaker
Danger, you know, Mr. Safety here. Yeah. Yeah. I finally signed him up for some lessons yesterday. So I'm so excited. I feel like a weight is off my shoulder. So yeah. Alice has been in swim lessons since she was nine months old, but we live in Florida and are in the water. Like it was necessary. Also my husband, my husband was a collegiate swimmer and you know, his plan for her, she has no idea is to go to the Olympics. So we had to start early.
00:47:26
Speaker
Right. Right. Well, she could be on the swim team here at Emory, right? Yeah. So yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Well, this has been such a fun conversation and so, so helpful. I know so many.
00:47:42
Speaker
of our listeners are going to breathe a huge sigh of relief listening to this. And we're going to do a really amazing and fun giveaway with Dr. Nose Best. So head over to our Instagram to see all of the details about that. We will be giving away a nose bot to one of our listeners. So head over to our Instagram to check out the details of that.
00:48:05
Speaker
And if you check the show notes of this episode, we're going to link all of Dr. Knows Best's Instagram, social media, YouTube, TikTok, all the things, as well as links to where to shop and everything. So make sure to check out the show notes of this episode. And Dr. Gowdy, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing all of your knowledge. And we're so grateful.
00:48:29
Speaker
This was fun. It was really cool to catch up with you all. You're doing amazing things. You're giving a voice to the voiceless. It's important.
00:48:37
Speaker
That is so sweet. Thank you. We love it. All right. Well, um, we will see you moms inside of our Facebook group and on Instagram and talk to you soon. Bye. Thank you so much for being a part of our mom group chat. New episodes drop every Tuesday and don't forget the group chat is blowing up on our Instagram page. So make sure you're following along over there. All right. Got to go. My toddler just put something in her mouth.