News

Andrew J Schuman, MD, FAAP, presents his take on the US Supreme Court decision to uphold the healthcare subsidies provision of the Affordable Care Act and how the monumental decision will affect the future of pediatrics.

As the summer months approach and the likelihood of transmission of head lice at summer sporting events and campouts looms, the American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its clinical guidance report on head lice management. Here’s why the AAP wants pediatricians to become more involved in the diagnosis and treatment of pediculosis.

Brain tumors are one of the most common pediatric cancers alongside leukemia and neuroblastoma. Now a new clinical trial aims to help surgeons better identify and remove tumor cells from healthy brain tissue for safer curative outcomes in children.

Something as basic as obtaining an accurate weight on a young patient can be a monumental task in disadvantaged areas, or in emergency situations. Yet accurate weights are critical in terms of medication dosing, fluid volumes, device sizing, and many other treatments and applications.

Children who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during their toddler years may be able lose the designation as they grow up but will continue to have certain ongoing behavioral and special education needs, according to a new study.

Adolescents may use the Internet to search for information about general health topics, but they turn to their parents for trusted answers to questions about their own health issues, says a report from Northwestern University’s Center on Media and Human Development.

An anxious mother of a 10-year-old boy brings him to the office for evaluation of a new mole that appeared on his back in the last 24 hours. What is causing the rapidly developing pigmented lesion in this patient?

Emergency contraception is used to decrease the risk of pregnancy after unprotected or underprotected coitus.

Teenaged pregnancy rates in the United States continue to be among the highest in the industrialized nations.

The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) strongly endorses abstinence until marriage sex education and recommends its adoption by all school systems in lieu of “comprehensive sex education.”

Laws that ban texting while driving have indeed reduced crash-related hospitalizations among all age groups, according to a recent report.

Combining speech-recognition software with electronic health records in computerized telephone conversations to remind parents of asthmatic children about prescribed corticosteroids significantly improves adherence to medication, a recent study showed.

A multilevel healthcare intervention to address the increased odds of mortality among Latino children admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) significantly reduced these odds, an observational study indicates.

Early antibiotic use increases weight and growth in children.

For a retired pediatrician, the present discussion about vaccinations after the Disneyland measles outbreak brings back a deluge of memories. How times and, yes, people have changed.

Whether you realize it or not, you have been practicing telehealth for years. By communicating with patients by telephone, you are managing their care at a distance.

Births to teenaged girls took another impressive drop from 2012 to 2013, according to the annual report Health, United States, 2014, recently released by the National Center for Health Statistics.

The results of 2 recent studies indicate that although teenaged pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are significantly lower than in previous years, there is still much room for improvement.

Suicides among black children aged 5 to 11 years have increased significantly over the past 2 decades while suicide rates among white children have decreased significantly, a new study shows. Both trends have been masked by an overall stable suicide rate among elementary school-aged children.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adolescents who are sexually active are at higher risk for unplanned pregnancies than their heterosexual peers.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy statement updating guidelines for releasing healthy term newborns from the hospital. The new guidelines aim to ensure that both baby and mother are ready to go home based on their unique situation.

More than two-thirds of teenagers who participated in a recent national survey said that the main reason they don’t use birth control is fear of parental discovery, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

From 2009 to 2012, the number of babies born in the United States with neonatal abstinence syndrome-symptoms of opioid withdrawal-almost doubled, pushing associated hospital costs to $1.5 billion, a new study reports.

Rapidly waning protection among teenagers who have received the tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis vaccine is apparently contributing to an upsurge in pertussis (whooping cough) in the United States, according to 2 recent studies.

Infants who sleep in sitting or carrying devices such as car seats, swings, slings, or bouncers run a risk of suffocation, warns a new study.

For the first time, the American Thyroid Association has issued guidelines specifically for evaluating and managing benign thyroid nodules and differentiated thyroid cancer in children and adolescents aged 18 years and younger.

Although I’ve been writing articles for Contemporary Pediatrics since 1988, I have never received as much supportive e-mail as I have in response to my 2 maintenance of certification (MOC) articles published in the January 2015 issue.

Rashes and fevers are among the most common complaints seen in the pediatrician’s office. The differential diagnosis is often large and ranges from entities the pediatrician sees commonly such as erythema infectiosum to the less common diseases such as Kawasaki syndrome, to more potentially serious conditions such as vaccine preventable illnesses and everything in between.

As a pediatrician accompanying friends, family, or youth groups, or because of coincidental proximity to accidents, we may be looked on to provide initial medical care for injured or sick children (or adults) in a wilderness setting far from our usual practice, and far from our usual comfort zone.

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental health disorder that is often first diagnosed during young adulthood or adolescence. Symptoms of the illness, however, also can appear in early childhood.