News

Cutting recess to increase time for academics makes children less productive in the classroom and diminishes their social and emotional development. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises in a new policy statement that school recess is a vital complement to academics for developing the whole child.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says that all school districts should have a school physician to oversee student health services and policies. The recommendation appears in a new policy statement that addresses the overall well-being of children within the context of the school setting.

In the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is calling for federal action on stricter gun control and pledging its support for changes that will ensure the safety of children in their schools and communities.

Food allergy

Distinguishing between true allergy to any food and sensitivity or intolerance to certain components often is difficult because diagnostic testing can be ambiguous. Determining the epidemiology of a food reaction is the first step toward managing the disease.

The parents of a 15-day-old boy who returned for his 2-week checkup are worried about a firm, glistening papule on his abdomen that has been present since birth. The patient is otherwise healthy, but the parents are seeking reassurance. A pediatric dermatology referral was quickly placed.

A review of new automated screening technologies to help detect vision problems in young children.

Baby boys who are not circumcised face a 10-fold higher risk for urinary tract infection (UTI) in their first year than boys who are circumcised and a 23% increased risk of UTI through their lifetimes.

Caroline Breese Hall

Contemporary Pediatrics' Editor-in-Chief reflects on the career of Editorial Board member Caroline Breese Hall, who passed away on December 10, 2012.

A study that compared traditional auscultation by stethoscope with ultrasonography for diagnosing pneumonia in children and young adults has found that ultrasound is more accurate.

A retrospective study in more than 1,000 well-appearing infants aged younger than 3 months with fever without a source (FWS_ found that procalcitonin (PCT) performs better than C-reactive protein (CRP) in identifying patients with invasive bacterial infections (IBIs), which are positive bacterial cultures of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) or blood, and seems to be the best marker for ruling out IBIs.

A study of 17 adult patients with culture-confirmed episode of erythema migrans-whose first bout with Lyme disease was treated appropriately with standard courses of antibiotics-found that additional consecutive episodes of erythema migrans were due to reinfection, not relapse.

Laceration repairs in pediatric patients ideally should be quick and painless, be strong and resistant to infection, promote healing, and yield good cosmetic outcomes. Tissue adhesives offer these advantages and are a wise choice for children who present with minor, low-tension wounds, especially on the head and face.

It's been a busy day in the emergency department (ED). You pick up the next chart and prepare to see a 14-month-old Arab American boy with a 10-day history of rhinorrhea, cough, fever, and tugging of his ear. The boy's mother explains that his pediatrician evaluated her son about 1 week ago and that the pediatrician prescribed amoxicillin for otitis media.

Adolescents who use earbuds and headphones with their music players and game systems could be damaging their hearing without knowing it. Now parents overwhelmingly want them screened for hearing loss, says the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s HospitalNational Poll on Children’s Health.

The kindergarteners and first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, saw first hand horrors that many of their parents will never see in their lifetimes, yet the children will eventually cope with this tragedy and grow up without long-term emotional problems, say experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA).

Adolescent girls who are frequent smokers are at increased risk for osteoporosis in the lumbar spine and hips as they age, according to new research on the effect of substance use on bone development in teenaged girls.

Children exposed to ischemic-hypoxic events in utero are at increased risk of developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), especially those born prematurely. The findings add to growing evidence that both prenatal and postnatal factors affect neurodevelopment.

Children who watch TV in their bedrooms are at double the risk for being obese and almost 3 times as likely to develop heart disease and diabetes than children who watch the family set,researchers found when they examined how viewing time affects health in children and adolescents.

Babies who are born preterm or small for gestational age are at increased risk for developingesophagitis early in life, according to a recent study of the association between the risk for esophagitis and birth history.