Pediatric Pelvic Health Summit
Event Details:
Date: November 8th, 2025 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM (EST)
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Location: Live Online via Zoom
Conference Schedule
Morning
10:00am EST
Welcome-Quiara and Dawn
10:05-11:05am
Carolyn Creager: Is There a Zebra in Your Room?: Recognizing and Identifying Incontinence Issues in the Pediatric Population with Joint Hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS)?
11:15-12:15 pm
Jean Anne Zollars: Managing constipation or colic in infants and toddlers
12:25-1:25 pm
Lucy Charles- Relational and Coaching Approaches to Bladder and Bowel Care: Hearing the Child, Holding the Family
1:25-1:45 pm
15 min Regional Break Out Rooms
Lunch Break
1:45-2:05 pm EST 30 min
Lunch Break and continued Break Out Rooms
2:05-2:55 pm
Dr. Steve Hodges: Demystifying M.O.P
3:05 - 3:55 pm
Dr. Payam Saadai: Pediatric Bowel Management
4:05-4:55 pm
Dr. Maheen Hassan: Anorectal Manometry: Utility in Diagnosis and Therapy
5:00- 5:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Dr. Payam Saadai, Dr. Hodges, Dr. Hassan
5:30- 5:40 pm
Quiara and Dawn Closing remarks/adjourn
PEDIATRIC PELVIC HEALTH VIRTUAL SUMMIT
Hello everyone! I am so looking forward to this Summit again this year!
My name is Haylie Lashta, I have been practicing Pediatric Pelvic Health since 2017 and I have a very diverse caseload. I enjoy seeing children and their families and filling the gap here in Saskatchewan Canada where we have one Pediatric GI and are short on pediatricians.
I am excited for every presentation, but am particularly looking forward to the panel discussion that is on the agenda!
Hi Haylie, I’m so excited you will be joining us again this year! I am really looking forward to the panel discussion as well!
Hello everyone!
My name is Francesco Callipo and I’m Italian.
I’m a PFPT and have been practicing pediatric rehabilitation for 7 years.
I’m looking forward to attending the summit and hope that in the future there will be opportunities to build something interesting and grow together.
A big hug.
Ciao Francesco, I’m so excited you will be joining us for the summit this year! Where are you practicing? Big hug back to you!
Hello,
Excited to learn! My focus has been adults regarding pelvic PT over the last 12 years. However, a lot of our patients have constipated children. Looking forward to learning more tools.
Hi Christine, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year! Yay for more learning and growth opportunities!
Hello and a warm welcome to all our incredible attendees! We are thrilled to have you join the 3rd Annual Pediatric Pelvic Health Virtual Summit in a few days!
Before the summit and on the day of the event, you’ll have the opportunity to connect, learn, and collaborate with colleagues, experts, and like-minded peers from around the world using this unique communication page.
We encourage you to engage actively in this discussion board to network. We’re so glad you’re here, and we can’t wait to embark on this journey of discovery and growth together.
Thank you for being part of the 3rd Annual Pediatric Pelvic Health Virtual Summit – let’s make this an unforgettable experience!
Yours in pediatric pelvic health,
Quiara and Dawn
Please share about you!
Hello and a warm welcome to all our incredible attendees! We are thrilled to have you join the 3rd Annual Pediatric Pelvic Health Virtual Summit in a few days!
Before the summit and on the day of the event, you’ll have the opportunity to connect, learn, and collaborate with colleagues, experts, and like-minded peers from around the world using this unique communication page.
We encourage you to engage actively in this discussion board to network. We’re so glad you’re here, and we can’t wait to embark on this journey of discovery and growth together.
Thank you for being part of the 3rd Annual Pediatric Pelvic Health Virtual Summit – let’s make this an unforgettable experience!
Yours in pediatric pelvic health,
Quiara and Dawn
Please share about you!
Hello and a warm welcome to all our incredible attendees! We are thrilled to have you join the 3rd Annual Pediatric Pelvic Health Virtual Summit in a few days!
Before the summit and on the day of the event, you’ll have the opportunity to connect, learn, and collaborate with colleagues, experts, and like-minded peers from around the world using this unique communication page.
We encourage you to engage actively in this discussion board to network. We’re so glad you’re here, and we can’t wait to embark on this journey of discovery and growth together.
Thank you for being part of the 3rd Annual Pediatric Pelvic Health Virtual Summit – let’s make this an unforgettable experience!
Yours in pediatric pelvic health,
Quiara and Dawn
Please share about you!
Hello, this will be my first summit and I’m really looking for to more education and knowledge to help my patients, as I am a fresh in my attempts to help children. I am especially excited to learn more about constipation management. I am a physical therapist from South Dakota.
Hi Bridget, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year for your first Pediatric Pelvic Health Virtual Summit! Yay for more learning and growing in serving your clients/patients in South Dakota!
Kia Ora I am looking forward to joining you from New Zealand for an exciting and inspiring Summit. I am an Occupational Therapist and work with a very talented team of OT and PT colleagues, who have been journeying alongside families and children with bladder and bowel needs, with Dawn for several years. Coaching is embedded in our practice as are the F-Words from CanChild and the F-Words Life Wheel. I am looking forward to meeting everyone and learning together.
So excited to learn from you Lucy and your amazing wealth of knowledge! We are so lucky to have you as one of our esteemed speakers this year at the 3rd annual pediatric pelvic health virtual summit!
Hi everyone! My name is Christine Gaiden, and I am a peds PT practicing in Vernon Hills, IL. I’ve taken Dawn’s Level 1 and 2 courses, as well as a few other virtual seminars, and have a number of pelvic floor kiddos on my schedule. I’m excited for the summit as I am always hoping to expand my knowledge base to help my kiddos and their families be successful!
Hi Christine, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year! Yay for more learning and growth opportunities!
Hello, I am tuning in from Detroit, Michigan. I have been a pediatric PT for 25 years, and in the past 8 years, I have also included pediatric pelvic health cases to my mix.
I am most interested in the MOP updates
Hi Janelle, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year! I am also looking forward to the lecture by Dr. Hodges on the M.O.P updates/protocol!
📣 Updated Zoom Link for Tomorrow’s Meeting
Good evening everyone! We are so excited for our amazing event happening in a few short hours. We also wanted to let you know that we have new Zoom link for the live event. Please use the new Zoom link below to join our session tomorrow when the zoom meeting room opens at 9:30am EST. The summit will begin at 10am EST :
🔗 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82950700268?pwd=rtPTLWyukBMXfR9uInxaqlIK1BGsMF.1
We can’t wait to see you there!
Best,
Quiara and Dawn
Hi Kathryn, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year! Yay for more learning and growth opportunities!
Hi everyone! I’m excited to join again this year. I am a pediatric OT practicing in the outpatient private practice setting. I’m excited to learn more about infants and toddlers on this topic!
Hi Julie, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year! I am also looking forward to learning more about infants and toddlers and how to support them!
I am excited to participate in this event again this year. I have been a pediatric PT for 24 years in Iowa and in the past 6 years have added in pediatric pelvic floor patients.
Hi Jamie, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year! Amazing 24 years of practice!
So excited for this years Summit! We love your questions and comments so share and connect!!
HI, My name is Cheri Knight from MItchell, South Dakota. I have been practicing Pelvic health for since 2013. I gradually pickup pediatrics out of necessity and enjoy working with the kids. I wish I knew this when my boys were having issues many years ago. Looking to know more about new strategies for my patients
Hi Cheri, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year! Working with kids is soooo enjoyable!
Good Morning, friends!
My name is Kali MacGregor and I run a pediatric pelvic floor physical therapy private practice in St Petersburg Florida. I have loved attending this summit every year since its inception and am very excited to learn and connect with you all today!
Hi Kali, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year as at the PPH Virtual Summit! Thank you for your love and support of this wonderful event!
HI everyone. My name is Amy Friedman. Ive been practicing Pelvic Floor since 2006 ( adults and children). Im excited to learn new things!
Hi Amy, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year as an PPH Virtual Summit and learning new things!
Hi everyone! My name is Amy O’Malley, and I am a developmental peds therapist x 26 years. I started seeing bowel and bladder challenges about 10 years ago and now run a full time program in Falls Church, VA. I also TA for some of Dawn’s courses and feel like I continue to learn with each new experience. I would also love to connect with anyone in Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, and WV!!
Hi Amy, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year PPH Virtual Summit!
Hi Amy, Thanks for offering to connect in the breakout room earlier today about your clinic’s use of short term OT to work on interoception. My email is christine@ccstherapy4kids.com, if you don’t mind shooting me an email! Thanks!
Hi everyone! My name is Kaleigh Mathis, I have been practicing pediatric and women’s pelvic health since 2023 with a diverse caseload. I live in treat in Charleston, SC. I am most excited to learn about hypermobility and connect with others!
Hi Kaleigh, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year PPH Virtual Summit!
I’m Molly Peri, a pediatric OT who has begun to specialize in pelvic health! I am in Northern NJ and just established some space!
Hi Molly, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year PPH Virtual Summit! Congratulations on your journey into PPH!
Hello Everyone!
My name is Dr. Carrie Dendtler, and I am from Canton GA. I have been a pediatric PT for 27 years, an IBCLC for sixteen years, and a pelvic PT for six years. I am especially excited about Dr. Creager’s presentation because I treat a lot of children and adolescents with EDS and connective tissue disorders, and I do a lot of neonatal PT and feeding as an IBCLC so I am excited about all the constipation and colic information.
Hi Carrie, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year PPH Virtual Summit! What a wealth of practice experience you have!
Hi Carrie! I’m an OT and CLC. Would love to connect to be able to network and bounce ideas off you!
Hi everyone, I’m joining from Calgary Alberta and I’m at PT working a combo of orthopedics, pelvic health and pediatric pelvic health!
Hi Susie, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year PPH Virtual Summit from Canada!
Hi! I’m a physical therapist from New Mexico and work in early intervention. We have a diverse group of children we work with and am excited to learn more from this summit!
Hi Dominica, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year PPH Virtual Summit from New Mexico! It’s one of the places to visit on my bucket list!
I’m wondering how we parse joint hypermobility vs. neurological/low tone during assessment
Hi! I’m joining from Kansas City and I’m an OT working in an outpatient pediatric clinic where I specialize in pelvic health!
Hi Kennedy, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year at the 3rd annual PPH Virtual Summit!
I have recently had several patients with difficulty getting full allergy test panels done. This is an area I need to learn more about. Are there common allergies that I should look for in the brief allergy tests?
Hi! I’m joining from Wisconsin. I’m a new grad DPT. I’m working in an outpatient clinic, but seeing mostly pelvic health and starting to branch out into pediatric pelvic floor.
Hi Amber, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year as a new grad for the 3rd annual PPH Virtual Summit!
Do you find there are pain pattern differences in abdominal pain that is vascular related vs psychosomatic (ie anxiety) or perhaps, the vascular component leads into the response of the nervous system to trigger anxiety?
This sounds like a large number of my clients and I have been wondering how to approach this with their primary care docs. The Peds Beighton scale may spur on additional investigation and shorten that length of time to diagnosis.
Would there be any correlation with some of these issues (ie POTS) with children feeling more comfortable sitting on the floor vs sitting in a chair/standing (both associated with sweating as well)?
I just love this summit because when I am getting comfortable with last years information and incorportating that into my practice, I have a pile of new information to turn everything over and update again!
Sorry I compiled a few all together throughout the presentation lol
I also wonder if utilizing naturopathic doctors may be helpful for allergy testing?
Do you see a lot of cross over between EDS and endometriosis?
Can you explain a little more on how mold and toxin exposure can worsen EDS/ hEDS?
Also in adult populations I’ve seen some patients told they wouldn’t be sent to genetic science for confirmation of EDS because it can impact their life insurance/Void insurance policies etc so they did a cardiac work up and left it at that to rule out major vascular concerns. Any thoughts on this?
I find this interesting – I would be very curious about the rationale (especially if they already have life insurance and have completed their medical, they shouldn’t be exempt with changes after the set monitoring period you would think?)
I always inform my patients that being denied life insurance is a possibility if they are diagnosed with EDS. I recommend they get life insurance, if they’re interested in it, before being diagnosed. I would never say don’t get diagnosed. IMHO, it is up to the patient whether they want to move forward with diagnosis. The geneticist who I work with gives the patient the option to be dx’d with hEDS if he suspects it.
Would there be any correlation with some of these issues (ie POTS) with children feeling more comfortable sitting on the floor vs sitting in a chair/standing (both associated with sweating as well)?
Thank you! Yes this kiddo has pain in the ankles that has been getting progressively worse over the last few years. At this point difficulty walking with progressive pain resulting in discontinuation at 10min. Kiddo gets increased burning sensation on the plantar surface of the feet and sweating when he sits in office chairs (not as noticeable in the car) or stands. There is also increased pigmentation of the lower extremity in general (small scars become prominently red/purple in color), and they will begin to sweat within about 2min of standing in particular. Kiddo has tried compression socks but doesn’t like them.
Kiddo ‘didn’t pass’ the POTS test completed by the pediatrician (evaluation moving from sitting to standing was what the parent described, however they didn’t know the specific clinical name), and so they then decided to not refer them to the POTS specialist in the neighboring province (I am in Saskatchewan Canada, and they have a clinic in Edmonton).
I also noticed in standing if you run a reflex hammer along the calf there is blanching of the line, but in laying there is a red response.
Their gastrosoleus complex has tension limiting end of range dorsiflexion.
No other PT in our area (at all in the province) has agreed to see this kiddo so I am doing a lot of reading and listening to lived experiences of the community members with POTS/EDS/dysautonomia, etc to try and put some pieces together that would be outside my usual wheel house.
I greatly appreciate your expertise and value your time presenting to the group!
Hi Haylie-I have POTS, EDS, MCAS and was diagnosed 31 years ago at age 21. So I have a lot of experience with most of the symptoms! Sitting on the floor is always preferred because it is easier on the blood pressure. Not as much gravity to pump against in tailor sit. If the floor is not available, you’ll see me in tailor sit on the chair. Anything to lessen the postural demand. Sweating is a sign my system is working hard, so you can use that as a parameter of how hard the exercises are. Make sure to check out the Dallas Protocols for exercise and the Dysautonomia International website for resources!
I often see a lot of adults with hypermobility that have PFM hypertonicity. Is this a common finding in research?
With pressure garments- how long will you see symptoms when they are worn
Also- how do little ones describe the pelvis heaviness (common words)?
Sorry! Was replying when I meant to create a new thread
What antihistamine do you recommend?
You mentioned that many of your clients identify in the LGBTQ+ community. Have you found resources for working on pelvic health / pelvic pain for children who are experiencing gender dysphoria
thanks
Hello!
My name is a Devin Burson, PT, DPT. I am currently in Memphis, TN and have been working with adults and children as a pelvic floor physical therapist since 2020. I love this niche and working specifically with children with bowel and bladder issues as well as the postpartum population. This is my first time attending the conference and I am truly looking forward to the clinical pearls from all of the lectures, but most so with MOPS, anorectal manometry, and infant/toddler constipation management.
Hi Devin, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year for your first (of many) PPH Virtual Summit!
You mention compression that can cause venous ossues. What are some other causes of the venous insufficiency for the pediatric population. Are there things that are modifiable? And if missed, do they go onto adulthood with risks of ongoing venous issues?
There are many types of vascular compressions, such as MALS (Median Arcuate Ligament Syndrome), Nutcracker Syndrome, SMAS (Superior Messenteric Artery Syndrome), May-Thurner Syndrome — all in the abdominal region, and Vascular Eagle’s Syndrome found in the neck. Positioning is important — many may like being at an incline or upright, avoid compression, limit salt intake; these are a few things that are modifiable.
Such a great presentation, Dr. Creager! I enjoyed this so much! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Agreed ❤️!!!!
Thank you so much!
Hello! My name is Kate and I’m joining from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I’m a pediatric occupational therapist and I’ve been practicing in this area specifically for approximately 10 years. It is my first Summit, and I’m pleased to be here.
Hi Kate, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year for your first (of many) 3rd annual PPH Virtual Summit from Canada!
Hello everyone. My name is Peg Maas. I am a PHPT at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. I treat people of all ages and genders. I have been doing this work for 35 years. I am excited to get some updates today!
Hi Peg, I’m so excited you will be joining us this year for the 3rd annual PPH Virtual Summit! What an amazing milestone of 35 years being a PT!
I cannot see her pointer
I see her regular white arrow on the screen.
I wonder how cell phones and the ability to ‘scroll’ while at home with newborns and infants impacts the infants digestive function. Since the Ventral Vagal is social, if we are drawing our attention that previously would have been focused on the nursing/playing infant that is attempting to engage, onto a device instead.
The visceral/neural manipulation – I know Barral/Upledger have specific courses, but are there other ones that would be recommended specifically for infants? Is there a general ‘order’ that you would run through with visceral or neural manipulation? I imagine it depends on what your exam reveals
I have taken the Visceral with Barral Level 1/2 and Neural Manipulation 1 – would the introductory course in March be appropriate for me?
Hello – are these techniques safe to use in the NICU? Looking and monitoring for stress cues and responses, are there red flags or things to consider?
Re: visceral mobilizations
Can we possibly have access ti this video with sound so we can learn the techniques for the manipulations and verbal cues to teach parents?
I see a lot of infants referred with feeding difficulties, body tension, preferential head positioning. Many also have constipation, some going quite a few days between bowel movements, and their pediatricians are saying that as long as they are going once or twice a week, that’s ok. I usually start with mom’s diet with breastfed babies along with manual treatment. What do you suggest if they are using formula?
I agree!!