Michelle Leff, M.D.

Bio

Dr. Michelle L. Leff is a board-certified pediatrician who specializes in the care of newborns. She also provides primary care for infants, children, and adolescents through all of their life stages. As a newborn hospitalist, Dr. Leff meets with parents and their babies during their postpartum stay in the hospital, providing daily care to infants. This care includes newborn examinations, screening tests and breastfeeding help, including frenotomies.

Dr. Leff also provides family-centered newborn care, such as education and discharge planning within the postpartum unit. She enjoys helping new mothers and fathers transition into parenthood, and the ability to work with families to achieve optimal health for their infants. Her areas of expertise include breastfeeding, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and car seat safety.

As an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Dr. Leff instructs medical students, pediatric and family medicine residents and neonatology fellows on newborn care. She has authored numerous abstracts and presented on topics such as vaccines for newborns and their families and the incidence of formula supplementation in breastfeeding newborns.

Dr. Leff completed her residency at UC San Diego School of Medicine and earned her medical degree from University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. She is board certified in general pediatrics.

She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and member of the American Pediatric Association. Dr. Leff is also a founding member of the Academic Pediatric Association's BORN (Better Outcomes through Research for Newborns) Network and chair of UC San Diego Medical Center's Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative Education Committee.

In 2013, Dr. Leff received the American Academy of Pediatrics Special Achievement Award.