News

Anyone who is instrumental in helping a resident achieve the goals of learning enough to be an excellent pediatrician while doing everything possible to provide knowledgeable care for sometimes extremely ill patients, is an important link in the chain from one class of new pediatricians to the next.

Mental illness is—or should be—a pediatric concern. According to a new survey supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, one half the cases of mental illness in the United States developed by the time the patient was 14 years old. The really bad news? Treatment for most of these children didn't start until years—even decades—after symptoms first appeared, rendering their illness more severe and more difficult to treat.

Arizona researchers who studied infant death records in that state have concluded that sleep-associated events—not sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) alone, but suffocation and asphyxiation during sleep as well—are the number-one cause of death in infancy. What's more, those researchers say, three quarters of such deaths are preventable.

Adolescents can be immunized against pertussis; just last month, the Food and Drug Administration put its seal of approval on not one but two such vaccines-Adacel (Sanofi Pasteur) and Booxtrix (GlaxoSmithKline). Whether all teenagers should be vaccinated is another question, however, and one of supreme interest to pediatricians.

Mental illness is—or should be—a pediatric concern. According to a new survey supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, one half the cases of mental illness in the United States developed by the time the patient was 14 years old. The really bad news? Treatment for most of these children didn't start until years—even decades—after symptoms first appeared, rendering their illness more severe and more difficult to treat.

image upload page for the monthly Contemporary Pediatrics email

Medicaid money matters, seeking to restrict emergency contraception, nostalgia for the patient bill of rights

A 4-year-old girl refuses to use the toilet anywhere but home

Be wary when a sick infant has an unusual diet, even if she appears well nourished.

Pediatricians need a keen understanding of the variables that influence how phototherapy lowers the bilirubin level and of how to deliver an optimal dose of light.

The frequency of poor school performance among children underscores the importance of identifying and addressing academic difficulty early. That's a job pediatricians can take on during the normal course of care.

Children are especially vulnerable to conditions ranging from mild heat cramps to life-threatening heatstroke. Early intervention and effective education are the keys to preventing disaster.

Medicaid money matters, seeking to restrict emergency contraception, nostalgia for the patient bill of rights

For every issue of Contemporary Pediatrics, the editorial staff and editorial board work to identify topics and authors that we think will provide useful information for you in daily practice. Surveys of pediatricians—conducted by the publisher and by independent organizations that track how well medical publications are read—demonstrate that our efforts across more than 20 years have, in great measure, succeeded.

A 5-month-old girl was brought to the emergency department (ED) 1 day after she had fallen from a countertop swing onto a tile floor. The child had been loosely buckled in the swing when the mother stepped into the next room. The mother heard a crash and the baby crying: when she came back into the room, the baby's 5-year-old sister was trying to disentangle her from the swing. The infant did not lose consciousness, was quickly comforted, and did not vomit. However, the mother noted that the baby's right thigh seemed tender and that a "black eye" was developing on the left lid. The family lived several hours from the hospital and decided to observe the baby during the night and make the trip to the ED the following morning.

As an avid reader of Consultant for Pediatricians, I would like to comment on a recently published case involving an 8-year-old boy with an erythematous left eyelid ("Photo Quiz," January 2005, page 24).

Over the past 5 years, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates have become widespread throughout the United States as well as the world.1 In some regions, including our own Gulf Coast, MRSA accounts for the majority of S aureus isolates recovered from patients with community-acquired infections.