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“What is important,” said Thomas Challman, MD, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician and medical director of the Geisinger Autism and Developmental Medicine Institute, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, “is to teach families what is a potentially valid therapy from one that really is not beneficial.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2013 National Conference and Exhibition playing this weekend in Orlando, Florida, presents a robust airing of data and developments from the pediatric front. For attendees who missed these sessions onsite, or if you are unable to attend the conference in person, here are highlights from Saturday’s exciting program.

Suicide is the third leading cause of death for United States youth aged between 10 and 24 years, reported Robert Sege, MD, PhD, director, Division of Family and Child Advocacy, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center, in an AAP session on Saturday, October 26, titled “Dying to be young: Teen suicide, screening, and prevention.”

Insurance exchanges and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) should mean greater access, agreed Anne Edwards, MD, and Michael McManus, MD, MPH, in a session titled “How will insurance exchanges work for pediatrics?” held on Saturday, October 26.

Planning is key when it comes to strategies for feeding a baby upon discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), said Steven Abrams, MD, professor of pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. During the Saturday, October 26, session titled “Evidence-informed premature feeding guidelines at the time of hospital discharge and in the first year of life,” Abrams discussed such issues as which babies are most at risk and how long supplemental nutrition is needed.

Parents who use integrated personal health records (PHRs) are more likely to bring their children to recommended well-child care visits and, possibly, to adhere to recommended immunization schedules, according to a new retrospective study.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is common among teenagers with recurrent headaches, particularly those with a chronic condition or functional difficulties.

Vaccinating children against measles when they are aged between 12 and 15 months is associated with less fever and fewer seizures during the 7 to 10 days after vaccination than is vaccinating between 16 and 23 months of age, but experts emphasize that the overall risk is low either way.

Certain modifiable, lifestyle-associated risk factors dramatically increase the odds of childhood cancer survivors developing heart disease as adults. The worst offender may be hypertension.

Five years of the now recommended 2-dose varicella vaccine has dramatically reduced the incidence of chicken pox among all age groups, including among infants too young to be vaccinated.

Even early-term neonates have high neonatal morbidity and high rates of admission to the neonatal intensive care unit or neonatology service, compared with term infants.

The jury is still out on whether we should be screening asymptomatic children and adolescents for primary hypertension in an effort to prevent cardiovascular disease later in life, but we do know that being overweight and hypertension are inextricably linked and both problems seem to be growing in children.

Delaying the introduction of gluten to a child’s diet past the age of 6 months may increase the child’s risk for celiac disease, as may breastfeeding children beyond 1 year of age.

Although the incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in adults is declining, data from population-based surveillance shows no such downturn among children.

Preadolescent and adolescent girls who frequently eat peanut butter or peanuts may lower their risk for benign breast disease (BBD) as young women by about 39%.

The number of emergency department (ED) visits for sports-related traumatic brain injuries (TBI) rose astronomically in the past decade, but the percentage of children admitted to the hospital from the ED with sports-related TBI did not, and the severity of the injuries seems to be decreasing.

Over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers are just as effective as prescription pain medications for posttonsillectomy pain, say researchers from Henry Ford Hospital.

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) just updated its recommendations for the treatment of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and secondary tuberculosis screening among children receiving biologic medications.

Step aside invasive and costly liver biopsies. It looks as if there’s a new noninvasive way to accurately assess hepatic fibrosis in children with chronic liver disease, even in those who are obese.

It seems that far more cases of Kawasaki disease occur in the winter than at any other time during the year, new research finds.

There’s hope for this year’s influenza season, particularly among children. Vaccination coverage appears to be rising.

The mother of a healthy 8-month-old boy pops into your office for an urgent visit seeking advice on a golden brown bump on her son’s lower back, visible since 2 months of age. This morning when he awoke, it appeared angry, red, and swollen although the swelling seems to be improving. What’s your diagnosis?

The discharge of a preterm infant from neonatal intensive care is a developmental milestone, yet it also marks the beginning of a challenging course of medical care from a complex system of outpatient providers. This article addresses the multiple strategies and resources that exist to help pediatricians coordinate health care and optimize quality of life for these children and their families

This month's article discusses how to best investigate the benefits of new devices and testing products for your clinical practice and how to avoid the pitfalls of adopting new technologies.

Alarming rates of pediatric dental caries and spotty access to dental professionals are driving basic dental care into the pediatrician’s domain. Take a look at a video and listen to a podcast also included in this article.

Although overweight/obese Latino adolescents and their parents generally recognize that sugar-sweetened beverages are not healthy, the teenagers still consume these drinks for a variety of reasons, mostly because they are available at home, a new study shows.

Hospitalized children from Spanish-speaking families are likely to stay in the hospital for a longer time in association with a serious or sentinel event after admission than English speakers.

Almost all parents prefer an informed discussion about the risks of brain computed tomography before going ahead with the head imaging for their children.

Parents find both pediatrician-recommended and nonrecommended treatments for kids' nasal congestion effective.

Although tobacco use among adolescents and young adults has declined in recent years, data show that more than 3 million high school students and 600,000 middle school students still smoke cigarettes regularly. Motivational interviewing is one intervention that pediatricians can use to help their teenaged patients quit smoking before the onset of nicotine addiction and its accompanying comorbidities.