News

Getting the lead out

The author discusses a pediatrician who has pioneered lead prevention and abatement in the pediatric community.

Ring around the nevus

An adolescent presents with several moles surrounded by white rings on his back.

A three year old presents with abdominal pain with a history of chronic abdominal distension, after laparotomy he is diagnosed with an omental cyst with features of lymphangioma.

Important pediatric news

SCHIP update * Infant hearing screening * Tinea capitis * TB regimen * ... and more

A 4-year-old US-born Hispanic boy presented with penile discharge and painful urination. His mother reported that he had no fever, trauma, history of masturbation, or recent travel history. She did not suspect any abuse. There had been no similar complaints in the past.

When preparing a nursery, most parents buy bumper pads to soften the sides of the crib and to add a decorative touch. Traditional thinking has been that bumpers protect infants' heads from the hard sides of the crib and prevent arms and legs from becoming stuck between crib rails. The AAP recommends that if bumpers are used, they should be thin and firm.1 They advise parents to avoid pillow-like bumpersand to remove them when the child is pulling to stand.2 However, a study recently published in The Journal of Pediatrics may lead us to rethink what we tell parents about the dangers of decorative bedding.

Walking the Exhibit Hall

As attendees crowded the Exhibit Hall during the AAP Meeting, Contemporary Pediatrics captured the crowd.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) should not be a surprise. The young athlete who drops dead during a game and the teen who is found dead in bed one morning seldom die without warning signs. The problem is the physicians, coaches, and parents who fail to recognize the warnings.

Thirty to forty percent of children who are diagnosed and receive therapy for autism-spectrum disorders can recover, according to Chris P. Johnson, MD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center and San Antonio.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) can have a wretchedly direct relationship to lifelong troubles in adulthood, troubles that can be best fixed in childhood. That's one of the result of the ACE study, according to one of its principal investigators, Vincent Felitti, MD, professor at UC San Diego. From a sample of over seventeen thousand adults, the ACE study team asked about the prevalence of ten traumatic childhood events in three categories: abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. Specific experiences includes loss of a parent, physical abuse, and mental abuse.

The families of pediatric patients who receive a diabetes diagnosis often have a million questions for their physician about the disease. Pediatricians, in turn, have a million questions for the journals, studies, and experts in the field.

Intimate partner violence is a major problem affecting children. About one in every four households is exposed to domestic violence, and as many as 10 million children witness domestic violence every year.