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Lighten the winter doldrums with a selection of tried-and-true ideas to use in your practice—including a CLIA-waived test for detecting alien life!

Children who are uncomfortable with their gender are often in distress and represent a source of tremendous anxiety to their parents. Consider your role in such cases to be one of helping the family adjust to and support their child's development with the goal of optimizing the outcome for parents and child.

A very smart 7-year-old girl in my practice has difficulty taking timed tests in school. Also, she is able to spell complicated words but sometimes has problems spelling simple words, such as "the," and may spell the word backward. What could explain these difficulties?

The father of two siblings in my practice—a 7-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy—is upset by the fact that their mother (from whom he is divorced) showers with the two children together. At what age is it no longer appropriate for a parent to shower with a child of the opposite sex, and for two opposite-sex siblings to shower or bathe together?

For the past few months, a 2-year-old in my practice has been smearing stool on herself and her crib almost every time she has a bowel movement. What can help stop this behavior?

Uptick in Medicare payments, threat to cut Medicaid reimbursement, and a possible booster dose of varicella vaccine

It's dark now when I go to work and dark when I drive home. But my home has walls and a roof, and it's warm.

How many times have you been frustrated trying to open a crying newborn's eye to evaluate red reflexes?

An index of articles in Contemporary Pediatrics in 2004, by author and by subject.

Gambling among youth is an underrecognized problem. To prevent serious consequences of this activity over the short term and during adulthood, the authors recommend that you screen patients for a gambling habit and refer those in whom you uncover cause for concern.

Hunger, sex education, and the hunt for more flu vaccine