Meet Padget
I am a farm girl at heart, a wife, and a mother of three beautiful daughters. I am also a type 1 diabetic of more than 35 years, a gluten-free aficionado living with celiac disease, and a proud survivor of an eating disorder. These experiences have gifted me with a real life human perspective that I love to share with all my patients and now all of you.
I deeply value my medical training and the strengths of Western medicine—we are extraordinary at saving lives. Yet during my years as a resident and in the clinic, I often found little time to share the broader lessons I’ve learned to implement in my own life and my children’s about health, wellness and all real life hacks for achieving wellness in day to day life. I want to share this knowledge with every family. This resource was created to fill that gap: a place for the essential “extras” a trusted pediatrician might share if time allowed.
As physicians, our work often centers on treating illness, and the realities of practice can leave little space to explore the daily habits that build lasting health. I believe both are vital. In the hospital, I care for critically ill children; through this platform, I share evidence-based insights and encouragement to help families raise healthy, resilient kids and prevent illness before it begins.
Cheers to the journey of it all, embracing the ‘full catastrophe of life’ and finding as much joy as we can along the way.
Want the real story?
As a mom, I wanted to give my kids the best chance at a healthy life. The further I dove into the wellness space, sometimes the more confused I got. There is so much for adults, but little for kids, and some of it contradicts each other and science.
Who should I believe? Why do they contradict each other? How bad is this type of food or dye, etc? Is this all about food? What about screens, mental health, movement? And where is the practicality in all of it? After all, I like all of you, am a full time working mama.
Then, I'd deep dive into the data, and eventually feel like I understood well enough to form my own opinion..SIGH of RELIEF. But then I realized that if I have 8 years of training in reading, interpreting and authoring my own research articles - are my fellow mamas without a science background or lots of time to research supposed to interpret all of this?!
Then I really wanted to teach all of my families in clinic, but couldn’t find the time in our current medical system. I felt like I was failing my patients and their parents by only skimming the surface.
And so this idea was born: to educate all families about wellness and healthy habits, not just those lucky enough to afford it. I'm trying to give you a basic blueprint of how to raise a healthy family in a very tangible, real life way.
I’m still figuring it all out, but if you’re here for the mess of it all, then I’m definitely your doctor mama to follow. I want so badly to help kids be well and believe firmly this is the greatest way to spread knowledge and start.
Education & Credentials:
I’m a born and raised Iowa farm girl who also happens to love big cities and travel. Life has taken me from working on Wall Street in New York City to training at Vanderbilt in Nashville. In college, I studied economics (with a side of nutrition science) at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University in Minnesota. I even spent a semester abroad in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and wrote my thesis on The Economic Costs of Obesity.
From there, I went to medical school at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine. I recognized quickly in medical school that I would never be practicing what I preach without addressing my own struggles with an eating disorder, so I courageously took a year off for treatment after my first year there. This was one of the more difficult decisions I’ve made, but truly allowed me to practice medicine with integrity and authenticity. My final year of medical school, I spent time studying in Sweden, observing firsthand why and how their mothers and infants have some of the best health outcomes in the world. I learned a tremendous amount and it helped form the foundation for how I want to teach and practice health.
I trained as a pediatric resident at the Stead Family Children’s Hospital from 2014–2018. During that time, I faced severe peripartum depression and anxiety while pregnant, which meant taking a leave of absence. Honestly, I could write a whole book about that season. My psychiatrist and OB/GYN saved my life, and I learned something huge: physical health means nothing without mental and emotional health. We need all three to truly thrive.
In 2018, I became a board-certified pediatrician. A year later, I opened a pediatric obesity clinic inside my general pediatrics practice. In 2022, I shifted into hospital medicine, eventually serving as President of our Pediatric Department and Physician Wellness Director (I even went through Stanford’s wellness training in 2024).
Most recently, in 2025, I stepped into “travel doctoring” in rural Iowa. It feels full circle—back to where I grew up—while also giving me space to keep advocating for kids and families in the ways I care about most.