Business of the Week: Down to Earth Pediatrics and Medical Urgent Care

145 Bolinas Avenue

Fairfax, CA 94030

downtoearthpediatrics.com

What do they offer? 

Focusing on pediatrics, including urgent care for immediate medical needs, Michelle Perro, M. D., D.Hom, also offers homeopathic remedies, “second opinion” medical advice, information and medicine for those travelling to foreign countries, plus camp and sports physicals. Like the family doctor from generations past, Dr. Perro takes walk-ins, after hours appointments and even makes house calls. (!)   

Blending Western medicine with homeopathy, she states that her goal is “to get people better - quickly, non-toxically, and affordably,” following up every visit with phone calls and emails.  

Dr. Perro provides nutritional and homeopathic solutions to heal kids with chronic problems like thyroid, bipolar and immune issues. “Keeping up with the science of homeopathy is a huge challenge. Balancing it with Western medicine is an art form,” she said.

She works on a fee-for-service basis. Homeopathic remedies, nutritional supplements and books are available for purchase. The whimsical light-filled waiting room looks like a playroom, with an activity table, rocking horse, toys, books and games. Dr. Perro speaks Spanish and rescue dogs Che and Sasha are part of her office staff.

Who are they? 

Michelle Perro is a practical and grounded New Yorker, who attended the renowned High School for Performing Arts (Fame). Because of her ethnic look, a teacher said she didn’t stand much of a chance as an actress quipping that “the part of Maria had already been cast.” She cried for two weeks. 

“Finally, I realized she was right. I had been a candy striper at hospitals in middle school and found that I liked the healing environment. I decided I wanted to become a doctor. I was very competitive and motivated,” she said.  

Graduating cum laude from Yale University before attending Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Perro completed her pediatric training at New York University/Bellevue Hospital. She is certified by the American Academy of Pediatrics in Pediatrics and is a Diplomat in Homeopathy. Since 2002, she has been recognized annually as one of “America’s Top Pediatricians” by the Consumer’s Research Council of America. Her degrees and magazine covers decorate the waiting room.   

She was a clinical Professor at UCSF Medical Center and spent seven years working in the Pediatric After Hours Clinic in Greenbrae. She also provided  medical care for abused children in Marin County. Prior to that, for ten years, she was an attending physician in the emergency department of Oakland Children’s Hospital, where she met her husband, Rich Bodony, M.D., now an attending physician at Novato Community Hospital. Residents of Fairfax since 1994, the two of them are parents of seventeen-year-old son Jesse and daughter Anji, thirteen.  

Travel medicine came about when she took people on river trips in Mexico and Guatemala. She advises clients on what they might need while back-packing in the Himalayas, for example.     

This summer, Dr. Perro will spend ten days in Nicaragua with the International Medical Alliance. 

How long have they been there? 

Down to Earth Pediatrics and Medical Urgent Care opened in Fairfax in 2006. 

An old friend she ran into at a college reunion invited her to visit Larkspur and she was hooked on Marin. She moved to the county in 1989. “Even back then I had my eye on Fairfax,” she said.   

Why are they business of the week? 

“I saw that no one else was doing acute care and thought I could do urgent care because of my ER background. I wanted to blend Western and homeopathic remedies. Also, I take care of chronic issues for which there is often no Western treatment,” Dr. Perro said. 

She believes that the Western medical model is not complete. “It is not serving all of the issues we are seeing these days. I take a more holistic approach,” she said. 

"I'm very involved with MOMAS (formerly Mothers of Marin Against the Spray) and started a no-charge lecture series on food and immunity, water, and GMOs."   

Dr. Perro also deals with psychiatric and social issues, and even provides remedies for people’s cats.  Though the sign says pediatrics, she treats adults as well. The first Fairfax patient was an eighty-seven-year-old woman. 

“The clinic is way more than I ever thought it would be,” said Dr. Perro. “That’s the beauty of Fairfax.”