Photo Provided
Dr. Newman interacts
with a patient.

Early in your career, many doctors
What has been most fulf illing for
preferred to work with adults over
you in your career?
children. Why?
I feel most fulfilled when I’ve taken
care of a child and they come back
five, 10 or 20 years later and I see
that they’ve grown up and overcome
these odds.

It takes a special commitment to
care for children and families. It’s
way more complicated because the
discussions are more involved. You’re
thinking about the children, growth,
development and family dynamic.

As science and focus began to be
applied to children, there was
a greater understanding among
doctors. It’s evolved in the last 50
or 60 years. When I first started,
there may not have been a universal
understanding, but now I think
hospitals and doctors have come to
understand. Now there are specialists
for children like orthopedics,
anesthesia and psychiatry. They
are the ones that understand the
resilience. 12 February 2018 washingtonFAMILY.com
Where would you like to
see pediatric medicine go in
the future?
The frontier of pediatric medicine
is so exciting. All technological and
scientific advancements coming to
the forefront will have an impact
on eliminating diseases. It is
possible that a genetic illness caught
during infancy or prenatally can be
corrected. This early detection could
avoid something like diabetes or
heart disease or even Alzheimer’s.

I think that is not far away.

We need to do more like with
mental illness in children. Twenty
percent of children have mental or
behavioral illness. We can do better
by intervening early.

I think the future is really, really
bright for what science and
technology can bring. But the
responsibility is on us to make those
investments because it’s not going to
happen if we don’t make our
children a priority.

In the back of the book, Dr. Newman
offers eight tips on how parents can
get the best medical care for their
children. “Healing Children” is
available both online and in stores.

Beth Roessner is a D.C.-based writer and
health coach.