Hello! Welcome to my blog, Kommon Kiditions! My name is Robert Sphar. I am a, 24 year old, sophomore at Illinois State University. I have been in the Illinois Army National Guard since 2009, serving as a medic. I was deployed to Balad, Iraq in January 2011, where I spent most of my year there treating patients in a clinical setting. There I had a great opportunity to experience many different medical cases and helped provide treatment for the diagnosis. Halfway through my deployment I was sent home to see the birth of my son, Eli, who is now three years old. I have seen him grow up fast in the last three and a half years. Though my experiences as a medic have been great, I have never worked with kids. Although adults and kids are similar they aren't identical. There are many differences. Through the years, Eli has had his fair share of rashes, coughs, colds and fevers. Every time there was something wrong I panicked. When it came to my own son I had no idea what to do for him so I took him to the hospital for everything.

I want to help. My goal for this blog is to educate myself and fellow parents about some common conditions and diseases that generally occur in infants and children. Through the use of this blog I want parents to be able to better identify warning signs and symptoms of the things parents worry about most and with your help I will determine what exactly you, as parents, are really worried about. At the bottom of this initial blog post is a link to an anonymous survey I've created to identify those worries. Please complete the survey and each week, I will pick one of the conditions, you have identified as wanting more information about, research, and write about that topic. If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to leave a comment or email me at robertsphar23@gmail.com and I will respond to you as quickly as I can. I look forward to learning alongside all of you!

 

Link to survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LWNCHJM

Remember! This survey is anonymous and helps me to identify what parents worry about the most!