Texting, Tweeting, and Talking: E-communicating with adolescents in primary care
June 1st 2013With rapidly increasing access to mobile devices and the Internet, adolescents spend increasingly less time communicating in person and more time communicating electronically. Health care providers may be in a position to harness the power of novel mobile and electronic technologies to improve communication with adolescent patients and potentially enhance their health outcomes.
Black spots on a toddler’s skin
June 1st 2013You are called to the emergency room to evaluate a healthy 2-year-old boy with black spots on his legs that were noted yesterday evening. His younger brother developed similar black spots this morning. The boys are healthy, and the lesions are not symptomatic and appear to be superficial.
Bed sharing with parents raises risk for SIDS
May 28th 2013Infants who share a bed with their parents during the first 3 months of life are at a 5-fold greater risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than babies who share their parents’ rooms and sleep in their own beds, according to a British study.
One in 10 adolescents uses study drugs
May 28th 2013Feeling the pressure to succeed academically, 10% of teenagers are using someone else’s prescription stimulant medications-“study drugs”-to do better in school. Surprisingly, only 1% of parents are aware that their children are abusing these medicines.
AAP policy addresses care for homeless kids
May 28th 2013Homelessness can have a lifelong impact on children’s health. New recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provide pediatricians with a plan to address the adverse health effects of housing insecurity on homeless children and their families.
Suicidal kids and guns in homes a deadly mix
May 6th 2013One in 5 children and teenagers at risk for suicide lives in a home where firearms are present, and 15% of these kids at risk know how to access both the guns and bullets, said researchers at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting this week in Washington, DC.
Screening and Intervention for Intimate Partner Violence A Practical Approach
May 1st 2013Fifteen million children are exposed to intimate partner violence in their homes each year, and all pediatricians, whether they are aware of it or not, have cared for families in which there is overt or hidden physical or sexual abuse.
FDA approves EC pill without prescription
April 30th 2013The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Plan B One-Step levonorgestrel pill for emergency contraception (EC) without prescription for women aged 15 years and older, although proof of age must be provided at the time of purchase.