Our Pediatric Endocrinology Services
We bring together experts to deliver family-centered care and excellent outcomes for a range of complex endocrine conditions. We offer advanced inpatient and outpatient medical care to children and adolescents with diabetes and rare endocrine diseases.
Diabetes Care Center: We provide expert diagnosis and management of childhood diabetes. Children who are inpatients at the hospital can be referred to the practice for diabetes management. We bring a multidisciplinary approach to patient care; in addition to pediatric endocrinologists, the department is staffed with nurses, nurse practitioners and dietitians who are also certified diabetic educators, social workers and dietitians. We also conduct four educational sessions on diabetes self-management with patients and families, and two additional advanced education sessions annually.
Endocrine Care: Our board-certified specialists provide physical evaluations, lab testing, nutritional
counseling, advanced medications, educational programs and other treatments for patients diagnosed with various complex and rare endocrine disorders such as:
- Adrenal Gland and Puberty: Symptoms of adrenal dysfunction can vary depending on a child’s age. Our experts treat conditions that may affect early or delayed puberty and gonadal function in children and adolescents.
- Growth Disorder: Growth disorders are problems that prevent children from achieving normal height, weight or sexual maturity. Growth disorders can have many causes including familial short or tall stature, systemic diseases, endocrine diseases, intrauterine growth restriction, or genetic disorders.
- Pituitary Gland Disorders: The pituitary gland is complex and affects many parts of the body with many different hormones. Oversecretion or undersecretion of one or more of those hormones can have a wide variety of health effects.
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: Adolescents with PCOS often have high levels of androgens. This can cause more problems with a girl’s menstrual cycle and it can cause many of the symptoms of PCOS.
- Thyroid Disorders: Too much or too little production of thyroid hormone can cause serious health issues for a child including mental disability, growth delays, irritability, hypo/hyperactivity etc.
- Turner Syndrome: Turner syndrome is a genetic disorder that occurs in girls and causes them to be shorter than others. They also don’t go through normal puberty as they grow into adulthood. A child with Turner syndrome may also have other health problems with her heart or kidneys. Valley Children’s holds an annual Turner Syndrome conference for girls and adult women with the Turner Syndrome Society.
Our team is also involved in ongoing research for diabetes and other rare endocrine disorders such as early puberty and thyroid disorders in newborns. Our patients have many opportunities to participate in our research through clinical trials and other studies.