From an interview with
Lisa Woodberry, FNP
McLeod Pediatric and Adult Endocrinology

Children are not just small adults. As growing individuals, they have special needs related to growth and development. In addition, their psychological needs are different from those of adults, according to Lisa Woodberry, a nurse practitioner at McLeod Pediatric and Adult Endocrinology.

If your child has problems with growth, puberty, diabetes, or other disorders related to the hormones and the glands that produce them, you may be referred to a pediatric endocrinologist for your child’s treatment. Here’s more from Lisa:

I am a family nurse practitioner. I graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1998. Believe it or not, I was a summer career student when I was a senior in high school. I went to nursing school and came back to work at McCloud. 

My background has always been in pediatrics. So when I did family practice, I knew I wanted to specialize. I did want to do pediatrics, and this opportunity just fell in my lap 17 years ago; it’s been my love ever since.

Endocrinology is just the study of the endocrine system, which involves a lot of the hormones in our body. So as far as pediatric endocrinology, it’s still that same thing. It’s just, we deal with children, generally under age 21, for the most part.

So here in the pediatric endocrinology office, we see type one diabetes and type two diabetes. A big focus in the last several years has been obesity coupled with insulin resistance or prediabetes. We see kids with growth disorders. So really anything to do with any of those hormones.

Once patients are diagnosed with type one or type two diabetes, we know that there are complications that arise from those conditions. Doing the right things to care for their disease is what prevents them from having the complications from the disease. Diet changes, exercise changes, lifestyle changes in general, and just how you care for yourself when you have a chronic condition like that really maps out your road ahead.

We focus a lot on education. We have to spend a lot of time with patients because we’re trying to empower them to treat themselves right. So that down the road, they won’t have these problems.

To learn more, speak with a pediatrician near you.