News

A recent study found that there is a significant familial link in otitis media requiring tympanostomy tubes in both close and distant relatives, with shared environments possibly playing a role, given the fivefold increased risk seen in siblings.

Ear infections remain a top reason for parents to bring their children to the pediatrician-and the top reason for antibiotic prescriptions among pediatric patients. Diagnosis and treatment methods vary, but a new study reveals that a 10-day course of treatment with antibiotics in cases of acute otitis media (AOM) may be the gold standard.

Most children are not being adequately vaccinated against influenza, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also just published a new report demonstrating the efficacy of the vaccine in reducing influenza-related deaths in children.

Despite controversy surrounding the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, more adolescents and young adults are getting vaccinated. However, overall vaccination rates of HPV compared with other teenaged-years vaccines are still low, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Parents often carry misperceptions about the advantages and disadvantages of antibiotic use for pediatric acute respiratory infections, according to an Australian survey in the Annals of Family Medicine.

After CVS, the large retail pharmacy chain, stopped selling cigarettes in its stores, many consumers who used to buy their smokes at CVS simply bought fewer cigarettes and presumably smoked less.

Focusing on emergencies became our platform to address the far more important goals of situational awareness, team integration, and effective communication. As we build increasingly matrixed systems of care that surround our littlest of patients, having addressed these goals inspires us with confidence that we can do so with the child’s safety at top of mind.

A new study found that the well-documented racial/ethnic disparities in asthma diagnosis and morbidity are diminished after accounting for material hardship.

Fewer than half of commercially insured children who have been hospitalized for asthma receive an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS), even though many of them make outpatient visits within 30 days of hospital discharge.

Studies highlight a need for pediatrician offices to be ready to handle emergencies, available data also demonstrate that many practices, including those that have already needed to treat a critically ill child, are not adequately prepared because they lack the relevant protocols, training, and tools.

A reader writes in to discuss the management conditions specifically related to stress.

Securing a child’s airway in an emergency setting can be challenging, and success here is dictated by a mosaic of factors such as clinician experience, appropriate instrumentation, and, importantly, the many anatomical and physiological considerations that differ significantly from the adult population.

Functional constipation in children is no news to pediatricians. What may be news is that recommendations on how to diagnose and treat this common malady keep evolving as more evidence becomes available.

Like typical children, children with intellectual disabilities or autism will toilet train at different rates and with different strategies. For some families, this can be a frustrating and depressing time. Discussing the use of positive rewards and avoiding punishment will help these parents slowly make progress. Here is a detailed program to help patients achieve continence.

This article describes how a mobile application, a “web widget,” and an office triage support tool can expedite and improve your existing office triage capabilities.

A male infant is born and delivery is remarkable for yellow amniotic fluid and a jaundiced infant. Following delivery he is given intensive phototherapy and then develops erythema, which later becomes ecchymosis. What's the diagnosis?

Researchers aren’t certain why adolescent depression rates are on the rise, but they do know that treatment rates are not growing along with increased prevalence, according to a new report.

Action on substance misuse is too important to leave to politicians.

Children in the foster care system are exposed early in life to adverse experiences by living within dysfunctional families and specific facts have not changed. What has changed is the recognition of the need for the healthcare system to change its care for these vulnerable children to prevent the adverse effects that traumatic stress imposes on their physical and emotional development and well-being.

Bacteremia is now a rare event in previously healthy children aged 3 to 36 months because of the introduction of routine immunization with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV).

Among concerns with administering these multiple and frequent immunizations in young children are the potential pain and adverse effects associated with injections. Along with inducing pain in some children, the early negative experience of needle-related procedures can interfere with adherence to immunization schedules and create long-lasting effects of anxiety and stress around needle-related procedures that remain into adulthood.

For Contemporary Pediatrics, Dr Bobby Lazzara discusses a study published in the journal Pediatric Emergency Care that examined whether practices were prepared for emergencies requiring airway management.

A recent study found that taking a watchful waiting approach when managing acute otitis media in qualifying children proves to be the more cost-effective strategy to follow.

A recent study found that pathogen exposure, upper respiratory tract infection (URI), and nasal obstruction all were associated with chronic otitis media with effusion (COME) in preschool-aged children, underscoring the need for improved methods in pathogen transmission prevention in this patient population.

Although penicillin allergy is the most commonly reported medication allergy in children, the true incidence of this allergy in children is low with data suggesting that the large numbers of adverse drug reactions reported by parents as signs of an allergic reaction, such as rash or diarrhea associated with antibiotics, may not be consistent with a true allergic reaction.

Pediatricians can help children fleeing to the United States with medical and social needs, as well as acting as their advocate.

As the number of infants and children developing peanut allergy continues to grow, so does the need for pediatricians and other primary care providers to understand current recommendations on how best to prevent this allergy.

Sales associates at health food stores, which primarily sell dietary supplements, often recommend creatine products and, sometimes, testosterone boosters to young teenaged boys, according to a study involving 244 stores in 49 states.