At Colorado ENT & Allergy, we offer the full range of pediatric ENT, Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology testing and treatments. If you suspect your child has an issue, be sure to contact our office to schedule an appointment to see one of our board-certified otolaryngologists or allergists.
Pediatric Allergy, Asthma & Immunology
Both Dr. Caplan and Dr. Hanson trained in Pediatrics prior to their fellowship in Allergy, Asthma & Immunology so they have a special interest in caring for children! Morgan Dahms, PA-C also enjoys and has experience with pediatric patients.
Asthma
Asthma is the most common chronic health condition in children. Asthma can lead to coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness. This can limit important activities like sleep and physical activity. Asthma cannot be cured but it can be well controlled for the vast majority of patients with the right combination of medications. Our providers will work with you and your child to make an accurate diagnosis of asthma, educate you about this condition and find a safe and effective medication regimen. The goals of good asthma control are sleeping through the night without asthma symptoms, fully participating in physical activity, rarely missing school due to asthma and infrequently needing oral steroid courses, ER or Urgent Care visits (0-1 time per year).
Allergies
Allergies to pollen, mold, animals, etc. are very common in childhood. Although allergies may seem like a relatively minor health problem, they can actually be extremely disruptive to daily life. Many children with allergies have sleep disturbance and a hard time focusing at school. They may also have to limit being outdoors at certain times of year or avoid animal exposure. Our team is highly skilled at allergy skin testing, which identifies the specific allergens your child is sensitive to. Once the specific allergens are known, our providers will work with you and your child to develop a treatment plan that may include avoidance, medications and/or allergy immunotherapy (shots or drops).
Food Allergies
Food allergies have unfortunately become more common over time, with most school classrooms having at least 1 child with a potentially dangerous food allergy. The most common food allergens are milk, egg, wheat, soy, peanut, tree nuts, fish, shellfish and sesame. With this type of allergy, reactions typically start quickly after eating a food and can involve skin findings like hives and itching, but also swelling, coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing, vomiting. In severe reactions, children may have low blood pressure and feel dizzy, lightheaded or even pass out. Because these reactions are potentially life threatening, it is critical to get an accurate diagnosis so the food (or foods) can be avoided appropriately.
There are many nuances to food allergy testing, so a diagnosis of this type of food allergy is best made by an allergy specialist. It is also very important to have ongoing follow up with an allergist to be sure the allergy is tracked over time, because some food allergies can be outgrown. Our allergy providers and staff are very experienced with making a diagnosis of food allergy, educating families how to read labels, when and how to use epinephrine auto-injectors, etc. We would welcome the opportunity to work with your family if you have concerns about a food allergy or have existing food allergy
Food intolerances or sensitivities
Some children will experience bloating, gas, stomach pain, constipation, diarrhea, rashes, etc. with ingestion of certain foods. Food allergy testing may or may not be appropriate for these types of reactions. Sometimes food allergy testing might lead to unnecessary avoidance of foods, if results are not carefully interpreted by an allergy specialist. Our providers will talk with you in detail about your child’s symptoms to determine whether food allergy testing makes sense, or if there are other approaches that would be more effective in identifying food triggers.
Eczema
Eczema is a recurrent skin rash that is extremely itchy and bothersome. It can be triggered by many things, including allergens, weather changes, infections, fragrances, etc. Eczema can improve significantly with a good skin care regimen but sometimes, topical medications are also needed. Many parents wonder if their child’s eczema might be related to allergies and allergy testing can be helpful in determining this. Our providers have a lot of experience with the treatment of eczema and also identifying and treating allergic triggers.
Penicillin Allergy
It is not uncommon for children to have rashes with antibiotics, most commonly amoxicillin. This does not necessarily indicate a true penicillin allergy that requires long-term avoidance. Frequently, children will have a rash as a side effect of amoxicillin or the infection they have will cause a rash. Our allergy providers are skilled at safely evaluating children for true penicillin allergy vs. these other types of reactions and can help “clear” the allergy in most cases. This is always a relief to parents and their primary care providers because amoxicillin is the best choice for many childhood infections like strep throat, ear infections, sinus infections and pneumonia.
Pediatric ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat)
At Colorado ENT & Allergy we take pride in taking care of our large population of pediatric patients. Our ENT providers are trained specifically in pediatric ENT care and have extensive experience treating a full spectrum of pediatric ENT conditions.
Many children develop ear conditions that warrant ENT care throughout their life. Among the most common ear issues we treat at Colorado ENT & Allergy are ear infections, specifically recurrent or chronic ear infections, chronic otitis media, chronic serous otitis media, tympanic membrane perforations, hearing loss and cholesteatoma. Many young children have underdeveloped eustachian tubes and chronic eustachian tube dysfunction. Undeveloped eustachian tubes lead to poor ventilation of the ear and ultimately to chronic ear infections. Our providers offer a wide range of treatment options for chronic ear infections in children, most commonly ear tube placement which dramatically decreases the frequency of ear infections in children and allows us to avoid ongoing needed courses of oral antibiotics and to simply treat ear infections with eardrops. Some children throughout their life may develop chronic eardrum perforations related to a history of ear infections or chronic eustachian tube dysfunction. Our surgeons are experts in performing pediatric tympanoplasty surgery to repair eardrum perforations. More rarely, children can develop chronic ear cysts or neck cysts called branchial cleft cysts which may ultimately require surgery, and again, our surgeons are frequently consulted to address these issues in children. Finally, many parents have concerns about their child’s hearing, ability to hear, and speech development. Upon evaluating these patients in our office, we are able to perform comprehensive hearing testing on these children to ensure they have normal hearing.
Many children we see are referred for chronic nasal congestion, snoring, tonsillitis, tonsil hypertrophy and sleep apnea. After a child has been on allergy medication, nasal sprays and continues to experience chronic nasal congestion, perhaps snoring, and maybe even sleep apnea, we are often consulted to intervene at this point. Many children develop large tonsils and adenoids early on in life and tonsils/adenoids cause airway resistance and obstruction. This ultimately leads to loud snoring, chronic nasal congestion, and sleep apnea. At Colorado ENT, our surgeons are well versed in the comprehensive management of these patients offering both nonsurgical and surgical options, most commonly tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Many children wake up from this surgery with complete resolution of their nasal congestion, snoring and sleep apnea. We work closely with pediatric sleep specialists in town to ensure our pediatric patients have the best possible sleep at night and ensure we ultimately cure any underlying sleep apnea.
Along with removing tonsils and adenoids for nasal congestion and sleep apnea, many children, especially school-aged children will develop problems with chronic tonsillitis and chronic strep throat infections. Once a child has met a certain frequency of these infections, have been on multiple rounds of antibiotics, and continue to be diagnosed with recurrent tonsillitis or strep throat, our surgeons will offer tonsillectomy which typically cures this issue and leads to significant improvement in quality of life, less antibiotic usage and less missed days at school.
Chronic sinus problems are also sometimes seen in children. We are able to perform comprehensive nasal and sinus evaluations in our office on children including nasal scopes and CT scans of the sinuses and nose. We may diagnose anatomical abnormalities such as enlarged nasal turbinates, deviated nasal septum, chronic sinus infection. We have both nonsurgical and surgical treatment options which we offer to parents to ensure that children continue to breathe adequately through their noses. When a child is thought to have allergies, our pediatric allergists are right down the hall to perform allergy testing and commence appropriate allergy treatments.
In addition to the aforementioned diagnoses and treatments, we also perform a comprehensive exam on every pediatric patient that comes into our clinic. We treat children for a whole host of other pediatric ears, nose, and throat conditions as well. Many parents prefer our clinic for their child’s ENT care because we are typically able to see and treat children in a timely fashion without significant delays as we understand the importance of keeping children in their best health as they continue to develop throughout life. We treat our pediatric patients in our offices, surgery centers and at the Children’s Hospital in town if needed. If your child has an ear, nose, or throat issue, please reach out to us for a consultation and we will ensure your child is provided top-notch care in a timely fashion.