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Concern about fever can lead parents—and health-care providers—to overmonitor and overtreat this common symptom. Accurate advice to parents begins with a clear understanding of fever on your part.

Concern about fever can lead parents—and health-care providers—to overmonitor and overtreat this common symptom. Accurate advice to parents begins with a clear understanding of fever on your part.

An 11-year-old girl reports that she has experienced genital itching and pain for several months. The pain is especially intense when she wipes herself after urinating.

This 15-year-old girl does not appear to be in any acute distress, but her cautious gait reminds you of a person walking in the dark.

The editors of Contemporary Pediatrics thank the esteemed professionals who serve on our Behavior: Ask the Experts panel. At the start of this new year, we share their names with you.

Q A 15-year-old girl in my practice routinely comes across pornographic materials at her father's house when she goes for a visitation (her parents divorced recently). She has asked her mother not to speak to her father about this because she doesn't want him to know she is snooping. What advice should I give the mother to deal with this uncomfortable situation?

In November 2004, the British government announced a comprehensive campaign to address major health threats to the country's population. Their efforts raise a question: Where does the role of the physician stop and the responsibility of society begin?

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It's morning on an unseasonably warm Tuesday in February. As you walk across campus from grand rounds, a page from the pediatric emergency department signals that a patient is waiting to be admitted. Off you go!

This has been an exciting year for medical office technology. Improvements in otoscopy, hemoglobin analyzers, tissue adhesives, and topical skin preps top the list of innovations.

Most adolescents who commit suicide saw a physician in the weeks or months before death. You can play a key role in preventing such tragedy by recognizing predisposing signs and symptoms and collaborating with mental health professionals to help vulnerable patients.

The parents of a 2-year-old girl mentioned that once or twice a day over the last few months, when she gets tired, she crosses her legs and leans over as if she has abdominal pain.

If laughter is the best medicine, clowning is one way to make a sick child feel better. Could you conga to the beeping of an IV pump and be a clown doctor, Doctor?

Every year, no matter how many times I consult the dosing chart for inactivated influenza vaccine, I still find myself forgetting when to give 0.25 mL (cc) vs. 0.5 mL (cc) and when to give two doses.

Each year in November, December, and January our office is inundated with calendars from pharmaceutical companies. I collect them and give them out to my asthma patients.

Letters from readers

Safer drugs, childhood obesity, and a plan to deliver flu vaccine this season

A toddler likes to wind her hair around her thumb and then suck her thumb.

Disorders associated with international adoptions include fetal alcohol syndrome and ADHD. What type of physician would you recommend for evaluation of a child adopted internationally?

Frank A. Oski, Walter W. Tunnessen, and Catherine Caldwell Brown are remembered by a colleague for their inestimable contribution to this publication.

Because families will call on their child's pediatrician to interpret the results of expanded neonatal screening, it is important to consider the implications of these programs.

Pediatricians have an obligation to aid children and adolescents who are exposed to family alcohol or other drug abuse or dependence. Asking the right questions, showing empathy, and guiding patients and families to available resources are the keys to motivating change.