News

The anxious parents of a 9-year-old boy bring him to clinic for the evaluation of progressive sores in his mouth for 2 days and a rash that erupted last night. Nine days earlier, he had felt warm and had a cough with wheezing and abdominal pain.

A healthy 14-year-old girl who is an avid violin player is brought to the office for evaluation of facial acne. The examination notes a rash on her left neck that has been present for a few years. The patch is mildly tender and itchy but otherwise asymptomatic.

In this article, I describe my experience visiting vendors in the NCE’s exhibit hall and detail some of the best tech presented at this year’s workshops.

After a tumultuous year, what's causing stress for pediatricians? Would they choose to become pediatricians again, if given the choice?

An array of challenging issues confronted by pediatric providers on a regular basis were presented and included, but were not limited to, best practices for migraine variants, sexually transmitted diseases, adolescent obesity, enuresis and encopresis, developmental hip dysplasia, alternatives to spanking, and the arduous task of breaking bad news to parents and families.

Children are using mobile media more often and at early ages than ever before, and parents are unsure how to manage. A new study reveals that parents want more guidance from pediatricians on the best ways to expose their children to media.

Children that lost their ASD diagnoses are often misdiagnosed early on or have their diagnosis changed as they develop, leading researchers to question the way in which ASD is diagnosed and treated.

More than 20% of U.S. children lack adequate nutritious food, and most of their families make too much money to qualify for federal assistance. Find out how to screen patients for food insecurity and what you can do to help.

A new study has found that the overall health of 43 obese children improved in just 10 days by reducing added sugar intake without changing their overall caloric intake or exercise levels.

In the first ever consensus statement on conversion therapy for LGBTQ children, an expert panel cautions against the practice, calling it both ineffective and harmful.

Agpar scoring offers an useful initial assessment of a neonate’s physiological status and fetal to infant transition, but more data should be collected to adequately assess infants in distress that require additional interventions during the scoring period.

Adolescents that pair alcohol with their first sexual intercourse are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors and suffer from long-term negative physical and emotional effects, according to a new report.

Moving beyond intervention for diet and exercise, a new study out of Spain shows that incorporating health knowledge at the preschool level may help improve long-term cardiovascular health.

Recognizing that children’s migraines don’t necessarily look or act like those of adults can speed diagnosis and appropriate treatment, said Eric Pearlman, MD, PhD, during his presentation “Brain Pain: Migraine and Its Variants.”

New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sexually transmitted disease (STD) treatment guidelines cover far more than treatment, said Katherine K Hsu, MD, MPH, during the session “The New 2015 CDC STD Treatment Guidelines in Action.”

With heated debate surrounding the very definition of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH), said Brian A Shaw, MD, this topic yields more unanswered questions today than it did over a decade ago.

Promising avenues for addressing peanut allergies include early-exposure preventive strategies, improved testing methods, and immunotherapeutic treatment approaches, said Robert A Wood, MD, FAAP. He spoke during a session titled “Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy: What’s New?”

Many pediatricians believe that if they pay $30 for an immunization, as long as a payer reimburses them more than $30, they’re OK, said Chip Hart. The fact is, that’s not the case, he explained during his presentation “The Business of Immunization: Protecting Kids without Destroying Your Practice.”

Delivering unsettling news to patients and families demands at least as much listening as talking, said Emma Jones, MD, and Christopher Collura, MD, during their interactive session “Breaking Bad News: A Roadmap for the Most Difficult Conversations,” which allowed attendees to role-play these skills.

Not every vomit-prone infant requires acid-blocking pharmaceuticals, said Jonathan Teitelbaum, MD, FAAP, in his presentation “Burning Questions about First-Line Therapies for GER/GERD.” In the pediatric and adult gastrointestinal community, he said, there’s a general sense that acid-blocking medications are overused, and that pediatricians potentially believe these drugs are needed in cases in which they probably will not help.

As the number of clots in hospitalized children continues climbing, said Shannon L Carpenter, MD, MS, pediatricians must know when and how to screen for risk factors.1 With many serious chronic illnesses now being treated more effectively, pediatricians are seeing increasing numbers of children who previously might not have survived very long, she said during the presentation “Clots and Kids: An Increasing Problem.”

To date, said Sarah C Armstrong, MD, FAAP, treatments for pediatric obesity have largely been limited to behavioral counseling and addressing comorbidities.

Sparing a child the rod of corporal punishment can circumvent a lifetime of adverse health consequences, said Victor Vieth, JD, in his presentation “Spanking: The Why and How of Counseling Families on Alternative Discipline Measures.”

Managing fecal incontinence begins with recognizing that it’s usually a physiologic, not behavioral, problem, said Mary Pipan, MD, FAAP, during the session “Encopresis by Any Other Name: Successful Management of Fecal Incontinence.”

Avoiding misconceptions and practice gaps are keys to recognizing the most common abdominal emergencies in community pediatrics, said Joan E Shook, MD, MBA, FAAP.

A survey of 280 physicians and 256 advanced practice clinicians at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that the vast majority worked while sick at least once in the preceding year and would expect to work with symptoms of contagion, including fever, diarrhea, and acute respiratory tract symptoms.

A pediatric early warning score (PEWS) predicts patient deterioration after transfer to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), according to a retrospective review of patients who were transferred to the PICU at a large children’s hospital during an 8-month period.