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Automated external defibrillators used in the critical first minutes after cardiac arrest can ensure a victim’s best chance for survival. However, emergency medical responders often are delayed past the window when early defibrillation is most effective. Training programs for physicians and laypersons on how to use public access defibrillators in public venues can save precious minutes.

The mother of a 9-year-old boy brings him to the office for urgent evaluation of undiagnosed widespread blistering of the skin and mouth. The eruption has occurred 2 to 3 times a year for the last 3 years, and the oral lesions have been severe enough on several occasions to prompt hospitalization for dehydration. She wants an answer to the mystery now. What are you going to tell her?

You are called to see a 17-year-old Hispanic girl in the pediatric emergency department (ED) complaining of abdominal pain for 1 week. She describes a “stabbing” pain in the epigastrium and flanks that radiates to the lower back. She says that the pain comes intermittently in attacks that occur throughout the day and may last up to several hours. She feels pain most of the day, but it is worse at night and frequently causes her to awaken from sleep.

There’s always room for improvement when it comes to office workflow. Here we discuss ways to simplify processes and tasks that will move your practice toward optimum efficiency while still taking time to address the needs of your patients.

Seventeen years ago I was given the great honor and responsibility of succeeding Frank Oski, the founding editor-in-chief of Contemporary Pediatrics. The original Editorial Board and contributors of Contemporary Pediatrics included some of the most dedicated educators and clinicians in the country, and many of them, through their work on the magazine as well as in their roles as educators generally, continued to inform, provoke, challenge, and befriend pediatricians right up until their deaths-deaths that came much too early for Joseph St. Geme Jr, Frank Oski, Walter Tunnessen, and Caroline Hall.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has released the first-ever “Action Plan on Children in Adversity,” saying that the plan provides overall policy and guidance for US international assistance “to ensure that children not only survive, but thrive.”

A new technique facilitates collection of infant urine samples. Spanish investigators reported a technique for obtaining a midstream clean urine sample in newborns in a median time of 45 seconds.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is adding its strongest warning to labels of codeine-containing products advising against their use for pain relief in children after surgery to remove tonsils or adenoids.

New data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2010, reveal that US children and adolescents have reduced their average caloric intake, which could signal that the prevalence of obesity is easing in this population.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a revised clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and management of uncomplicated acute otitis media in children aged younger than 12 years.

Children with high-risk conditions should be given the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) even if they have been immunized with other pneumococcal vaccines, according to new, stronger recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

When it comes to selecting a primary care physician (PCP) for their child, most parents depend on word-of-mouth recommendations rather than online ratings for making a final decision, according to a new national poll.

A new US government report on emergency contraception, or “morning-after” pills, reveals that 14% of young women aged 15 to 19 years who ever had sexual intercourse said they used it at least once to prevent pregnancy.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified 16 cases of acute kidney injury among adolescents and adults after they smoked synthetic cannabinoids. The cases were reported in 6 states between March and December last year.

Firstborn children could be at increased risk for high blood pressure and diabetes compared with their younger siblings, suggests new research from New Zealand.

Young children learning to play the drums, or a tiny violin, or the piano might not be making music to their parents’ ears, but they definitely are making their brains grow, says a new study.

Hospitalizations for human metapneumovirus in children aged younger than 5 years has reached a rate similar to that of influenza, according to a study of the disease burden of the respiratory illness in young patients.

A review of clinical interventions for children exposed to traumatic events has found that few treatments actually helped them to heal. The body of evidence provides little insight into how such treatments might influence healthy long-term development in young victims.

A new vaccine-resistant strain of Bordetella pertussis could be responsible for the increase in whooping cough reported among previously vaccinated children.

New evidence-based guidelines update recommendations for automated vision screening to detect amblyopia and other eye abnormalities in children before they can read traditional eye charts.

New research reveals that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are 5 times more likely to have eating problems and subsequently nutritional deficiencies than children who do not.

A new prediction rule helps doctors decide when to use computed tomography (CT) scans in children with blunt trauma to the torso. The findings will enable emergency department physicians avoid using unnecessary radiation.

The year 2011 saw a record number of US children covered by health insurance, and the rate increased for the fourth year in a row, according to new report from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

Limiting salt and boosting potassium in children’s diets will reduce the risks of hypertension, heart disease, and stroke in future populations, says a WHO report.

New research has linked obesity in adolescent girls with an increased risk of pediatric multiple sclerosis (MS) or clinically isolated syndrome.

Food insecurity affects more than 16 million U.S. children : How to screen and intervene Oral and facial trauma : How to proceed in an emergency Dermcase : Patterned bruises on 2 infants

You care called to the emergency department to evaluate a 4-month old girl with multiple areas of purpura, including a distinctive bruise on the later aspect of the left thigh. The child's mother states that she noticed these lesions after picking up the infant from her biologic father, whose was watching the child alone. No trauma history is reported. The child has been otherwise in good health, with no signs of infection.

Preventing tragedies like Newtown isn't just about reducing the availability of guns. We need to look at all of the variables.