News

Laboratory tests are not very helpful when trying to determine whether a child with musculoskeletal complaints has any of the rheumatic diseases of childhood, and using adult models to evaluate these children is equally ineffective.

The biologic agent adalimumab provides effective control of acute inflammatory activity in most children with steroid-resistant refractory noninfectious uveitis, but the beneficial effects tend to dissipate with time, according to results from a small study.

It seems that bottlefeeding, compared with breastfeeding, more than doubles the risk for hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (HPS) in children, and that HPS is more common among children born to women who are older and multiparous, according to the largest study to date on the topic.

About half of all moms and at least a third of dads still engage in spanking their preschool-aged children, even though research shows it has negative effects on a child’s behavior. Now, a new study finds it has deleterious effects on cognitive ability as well.

Although vitamin D insufficiency is associated with anemia in healthy US children, threshold levels vary with race, a new study finds.

University Hospitals (UH) Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, has joined forces with HealthSpot to provide Cleveland’s children with free, after-hours access to pediatricians.

To discuss the gamut of pediatric pain management, Constance Houck, MD, and Joseph Tobias, MD, presented 4 scenarios during their session “Pediatric pain management,” held Saturday, October 26.

The third day of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2013 National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, did not disappoint! Attendees explored the exhibit hall, attended AAP Resource Center book signings, networked with colleagues, watched product theater presentations, and experienced a multitude of sessions covering the latest advances and best practices in pediatric care. Contemporary Pediatrics presents just a few examples of the best-in class programs from the conference schedule.

Sarah de Ferranti, MD, director of the Preventive Cardiology Clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital, explained that what is controversial about the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s most recent set of guidelines addressing lipid screening in children is the call for universal screening at 2 time points: between 9 and 11 years of age and again between 17 and 21 years of age. “This represents a change in practice,” she said in a session titled “Universal lipid screening: Are pediatricians doing it and how is it working?” held on Monday.

Day 2 at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2013 National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, was an interesting mix of research from allergies to urology, from practical pediatrics to practice management. Here are reviews of just 3 of the sessions presented on Sunday, October 27.

It turns out the very name itself is new, according to Ann Reynolds, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora.

“EMRs (electronic medical records) have the potential to increase patient safety, improve outcomes, and create legible, accurate records, but, unfortunately, they also have the possibility of doing just the opposite,” said Herschel Lessin, MD, Children’s Medical Group, PLLC, Poughkeepsie, New York.

“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.