News

Malnutrition among pediatric patients is an ongoing problem that is often underdiagnosed. A new report examines alternate methods for recognizing malnutrition beyond anthropometric percentiles.

A third of US children and teens eat fast food daily, and more than 12% consume nearly half of their daily calories from fast food, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Staphylococcus aureus plays an important role in the pathogenesis and course of atopic dermatitis. Compared to the normal pediatric population, atopic patients are especially susceptible to colonization and recurrent infections of S aureus.

Barring a last minute reprieve, International Classification of Diseases version 10 (ICD-10) diagnostic coding went into effect the first of this month. If you read my March 2015, Peds v2.0 article on ICD-10 adoption-and heeded the advice contained therein-you have successfully implemented ICD-10, and everything is going smoothly now.

A healthy 10-year-old boy is brought to your office by his worried father for evaluation of an asymptomatic birthmark on his left ankle. It has grown proportionately and does not cause pain or interfere with normal function. What’s the diagnosis?

A nationally representative survey of more than 1000 mothers of infants aged 2 to 6 months showed that mothers report receiving little or inappropriate advice-even from physicians-about 5 key infant care practices: immunization, breastfeeding, sleep position, sleep location, and pacifier use.

After the implosion late last year of the 14-year effort for a comprehensive national study of the environmental effects on children, Congress has told the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to try again.

A skin manifestation can be a pediatrician’s first clue that a patient is being abused. Up to 90% of physical abuse victims present with cutaneous findings, such as bruises, lacerations, abrasions, burns, oral trauma, bite marks, and traumatic alopecia.

Of 32 neonates who died suddenly at a hospital in the United Kingdom and whose deaths remained unexplained after a thorough postmortem, 12 (37.5%) were born to mothers with a history of methadone use or use of drugs of addiction during pregnancy.

A 3- to 5-minute intervention delivered during routine pediatric visits and targeting 4 behaviors related to obesity-milk consumption, juice and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, television/screen time, and physical activity-decreased the rate at which body mass index (BMI) percentile increased in young children in a recent trial.

Where teens hang out affects how likely they are to engage in risky behavior.

Clearly, we touched a nerve when we invited you to put pen to paper to channel your feelings about the Maintenance of Certification program-in haiku form!

Individualized parental counseling focused on presenting a wide range of information and options is key factor in effective collaborative care for extremely preterm infants, says AAP.

Contemporary Pediatrics brings you 10 tips to make the switch to the ICD-10 coding system.

How fitting is it that the subject article for this first commentary would be on a topic that impacts all of our practices: Childhood obesity (“’F’ for ‘Fat’ Grading Weight Report Cards”). In it, Dr. Petrou discusses some of the controversies regarding legislation implemented in 24 states requiring mandatory body mass index (BMI) surveillance and screening programs in schools with ‘report cards’ to parents.

Adolescents can benefit from early screening and treatment of major depressive disorder initiated in their pediatrician’s office, according to a new draft recommendation from the US Preventive Services Task Force.

After the FDA endorsement, people worried that prescription abuse would rise and others felt like no real change would occur.

Busy PNPs and their fellow pediatric-focused APRNs recognize how important, yet sometimes difficult it is to maintain current clinical practice in a rapidly changing healthcare environment. NAPNAP is pleased to announce our new partnership with Contemporary Pediatrics.

A new report offers new information of what influences children's behavior toward alcohol and what pediatricians can do to curb underage drinking.

Since its approval nearly 20 years ago, emergency contraception therapies have changed a lot. One in 5 physicians hesitates to discuss them with their patients, but a new bulletin from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology seeks to open the discussion.

Adolescents who don’t get the healthcare they need become adults with poor health outcomes-and the problem doesn’t only boil down to cost.

A new report examines whether or not adolescents with mood disorders also face an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Comprehensive preventive oral health services (POHS) provided by primary care clinicians can help improve the oral health of Medicaid-enrolled children, a retrospective study in more than 29,000 kindergarten students in North Carolina showed.

Empiric beta-lactam and macrolide monotherapy are similarly effective in outpatient management of children with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), according to results of a multicenter retrospective study in 1164 children treated for CAP at primary care pediatric clinics in Pennsylvania.

The mother of a 7-year-old girl brings her to the office for evaluation of eczema. On review of symptoms, she mentions concern about a bald spot above her daughter’s right ear, noticeable when she braids her hair.

Using a text messaging system to remind adolescents of scheduled appointments for a contraception injection appears to improve clinic attendance.

Participation in high school sports may curb persistent antisocial behavior. Investigators assessed almost 1000 boys and girls aged younger than 15 years for the presence of conduct disorder (CD) and questioned them about their involvement in sports and other extracurricular activities.

The incidence and prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) among children and adolescents necessitates that pediatricians be able to identify and treat these increasingly common conditions.

When I started my pediatric practice in 1986, we tested patients for strep throat by performing a throat culture, which was placed in a small office incubator for 48 hours. Typically, we put patients on an antibiotic pending culture results and would stop antibiotics if the culture proved negative. In my first year of practice, an interesting new technology arrived-rapid antigen detection tests (RADTs). These tests were reasonably accurate and enabled us to make a diagnosis at the time of the visit.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) can be a chronic and severe condition that often starts in adolescence. The telltale sign: children’s preoccupation with the idea that there’s something wrong with how they look, when in reality the imperfections they perceive in their appearance are slight or nonexistent.