News

Discussion of the new digital edition of Contemporary Pediatrics.

The Arkansas surgeon general testified about how his state is fighting the obesity epidemic.

A 4-month-old trauma patient is unresponsive after a falling one foot from his bed to the floor.

Two separate studies have outlined the dangers of drinking alcohol before age 15 and secondhand smoke at home, respectively.

When I was growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s, kids started their preparations for Halloween after dinner on October 31. We would find an old mask, or make one out of a paper bag; wealthier kids might buy one. I would grab a pillowcase to hold my "loot" and take off. Neighbors would give us store-bought candy or homemade cookies or cupcakes. It didn't occur to anyone that an unwrapped, unsealed item could be dangerous. Older kids were the real danger: they would steal our goodies and often beat us up.

This 9-year-old girl has extensive psoriasis and is currently receiving narrowband UVB phototherapy for her body plaques. Her mother has insisted on covering her daughter's face during treatment and on having the girl use sunscreen on her face whenever she is outdoors to prevent premature aging.

Two-month-old boy with divot in the lower back, shown here with the gluteal crease relaxed (A) and spread (B). Infant is a product of an uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery. Nursery stay uneventful. Subsequent feeding and growth normal. Parents report no problems with urination or defecation.

Reports on medication research published in general news media often fail to disclose that the research received pharmaceutical company funding and frequently refer to drugs by brand name rather than using the generic name, according to an article published in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Excess testosterone exposure during pregnancy reduces the reproductive health of male offspring in sheep, according to a report first released online July 31, in advance of publication in an upcoming issue of Endocrinology.

The use of biventricular assist devices may be an effective method for sustaining small children awaiting heart transplantation, according to research published Sept. 30 in a supplement issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report estimates that 6.5 million US children ages 2 to 18 enrolled in Medicaid have untreated tooth decay, according to Reuters.

Treatment patterns of psychotropic medication in children and adolescents vary widely between the United States, the Netherlands and Germany, according to an article in the Sept. 25 issue of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health.

During the 2006-2007 flu season, influenza vaccination coverage increased among adults, but only one in five children aged 6 months to 23 months were fully vaccinated, according to two reports from researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in the Sept. 26 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Introducing fish to an infant's diet before 9 months of age reduces risk of eczema, while breast-feeding does not, according to a report published online Sept. 25 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have expanded their recommendation for flu vaccination coverage to include all patients ages 6 months through 18 years.

The U.K. health care system is failing to encourage women to breast-feed, and a national breast-feeding promotion strategy is urgently required if breast-feeding rates are to improve, according to an editorial published online Sept. 25 in BMJ.

Diabetic women whose blood sugar is continuously monitored during pregnancy are more likely to have better glycemic control in the third trimester, and their babies have a lower birth weight and reduced risk of macrosomia, according to research published Sept. 25 in BMJ Online First.

A community-based behavior modification program was able to reduce neonatal mortality by more than half in a rural setting in India, researchers report in the Sept. 27 issue of The Lancet.

American youth are between two and three times more likely to be prescribed psychotropic treatments than children in Europe, according to the September 25 online Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved triamcinolone acetonide for sneezing, runny nose, and congestion caused by allergic rhinitis in pre-schoolers, according to the manufacturer Sanofi-aventis.

Maternal race is associated with induction of labor, with rates increasing disproportionately among non-African American women, according to the results of a study published in the September issue of Medical Care.

Children and adolescent cancer survivors may continue to face the risk of increased morbidity and mortality due to recurrence of their original cancer, researchers report in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The growing popularity of high-caffeine content energy drinks has resulted in an increasing number of reports of caffeine intoxication, and an increase in the combined use of caffeine and alcohol, according to a study published online Sept. 21 in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

The rate of women in America seeking abortion hit a 30-year low in 2004, but this trend masks disparities in abortion rates across various demographic groups, according to a report published in August by the Guttmacher Institute.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation of more than 1,000 retail markets which may have brought Chinese infant formula into the U.S. yielded no such items, the FDA stated.

When the American Academy of Pediatrics released revised recommendations for the management of hypercholesterolemia in children this year, a media firestorm erupted over the inclusion of statins as potential first-line pharmacologic agents. But the epidemic of childhood obesity has forced pediatricians to balance the unknown risks associated with pharmacologic therapy in children against the risk that failure to treat could lead to heart attacks and other complications in young adulthood, according to a Perspective article published in the Sept. 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Prophylactic administration of nasal insulin soon after birth does not prevent children with HLA genotypes and autoantibodies from developing type 1 diabetes, nor does it delay onset of the disease, according to research published online Sept. 23 in The Lancet.

Children who are foreign-born are increasingly likely to lack health insurance, according to survey results published in the November American Journal of Public Health.

Parents of babies who die as a result of extreme prematurity or potentially lethal congenital abnormalities report that religion, spirituality and hope guided their decisions about resuscitation rather than the physician's predictions about morbidity and death, according to an article published in the September issue of Pediatrics.