Dermatology

A 3-month-old girl is brought to your office with diarrhea, poor weight gain, and hair loss. She was thriving until a month ago, when her parents said she became chronically irritable and developed loose stools and a scaly rash on her face and in the diaper area.

As more and more kids participate in recreational and competitive sports, pediatricians must be able to recognize and treat infectious diseases that commonly plague athletes and to make sound decisions about when athletes may resume play.

This electronic wizard can help you make an unusual diagnosis, generate management guidelines, or locate a support group more quickly and easily than any other resource in your office--if you understand a few basic principles.

Recognizing and treating an anaphylactic reaction are only part of managing this life-threatening condition. Equally important is preventing a recurrence by finding out what caused the episode.

Do you do a genital exam on your male adolescent patients? You should. These adolescent specialists demystify the process by teaching you where the landmarks are and what to look for.

A 12-year-old girl with insulin-dependent diabetes comes to your office for you to evaluate several scar-like reddish-yellow plaques that developed on her shins over the last three months. The lesions do not hurt or itch, she reports, but they are continuing to spread.

General pediatricians do not always have access to a neonatologist when they need one. This case-based review will refresh and update your knowledge of how to approach neonatal problems ranging from the need for resuscitation to development of a rash.

Publicity about an increase in melanoma has some parents panicked. Pediatricians can set these concerns at rest, as well as their own, with a clear understanding of when a mole suggests melanoma and the role of sunlight in melanoma development.

Treating otorrhea with oral antibiotics is not always successful, and the alternatives--referral for frequent suctioning and possible surgery--can be traumatic and costly. Newly approved fluoroquinolone otic drops offer another choice.

Vigilant monitoring and management are the keys to keeping the healthy, full-term infant with hyperbilirubinemia healthy and heading off the danger of brain damage.

Two days after the onset of fever and sore throat, a toddler developed painful lumps on his chest.

From Ma huang to bee pollen, deep breathing to acupuncture, alternative asthma therapy is in vogue. You need to know what your patients are using, whether it's safe, and how it works. Here's the evidence.

It was once the only way to treat acute otitis media. Now it's more useful than ever, the author argues, especially in light of increasing antibiotic resistance. Learn what tympanocentesis can do for your patients and how to perform it in the office.

Whether to circumcise a newborn son is one of the first decisions parents must make for their child. Pediatricians can help them sort through the confusion and controversy surrounding the issue by providing accurate information and answers to their questions.

Is that "bruise" or "burn" really a sign of child abuse? To avoid a misdiagnosis that can have profound consequences for the child, family, and suspected perpetrator, be sure you consider the full range of possibilities.

At a routine visit you note multiple skin tags in the perianal area of an otherwise healthy 12-month-old girl. Her mother first noticed a small bump near the anus when the child was 2 months old but didn't mention it to you because it did not seem to bother the child.