News

Summary: These links help teens with everything from proper diet and exercise regimens to mental well-being, plus things they may not feel comfortable talking to anyone about-tampons, steroids, birth control, drugs, and drinking.

Read up on the science behind vaccines, and also the arguments made against them.

These links offer some scientific research, some old wives’ tales, and some dubious claims-in other words, the same mix parents get bombarded with. “Getting it right the first time” is the topic of a new Contemporary Pediatrics podcast on toilet training.

These links offer information on types of toys, and toy safety standards.

Eventually pediatricians must say goodbye to our patients.

Brain injury toolkit * Pediatric slide chart * Standing device with mobile option

Letters to the Editor

Asthma step-down strategy * Inadequate fluoride in bottled water * Smoking in movies * Osteoarticular infection

Tips on getting a child to use the potty.

An explanation of why developmental and behavioral assessments are important components to pediatric practice.

While we often think of childhood as a carefree time of life, children and adolescents do in fact experience high levels of stress and anxiety-sometimes on a debilitating scale. For the clinician addressing these issues, recognizing the varying types and causes of anxiety is only half the battle.

While we often think of childhood as a carefree time of life, children and adolescents do in fact experience high levels of stress and anxiety-sometimes on a debilitating scale. For the clinician addressing these issues, recognizing the varying types and causes of anxiety is only half the battle.

You tell your parents to read the labels on their child's food. Tell them to read the labels on their toys as well.

Certain exanthems show a predilection for the summer. The path to diagnosing these conditions, however, can be anything but clear. A new algorithm sheds some much needed light.

A 2-year-old boy is experiencing episodes of pallor, perioral cyanosis, and becoming limp after bath time.

A healthy 2-year-old was noted to have "blueberry" spots on her legs and trunk at birth.

Update on pediatric drug exclusivity legislation and report on how adolescent brain scan images can help prevent drug abuse.

Varicella vaccination update * Goltz syndrome * FDA News * Global News

Pediatric residency training needs more flexible, and more appropriate training. Barriers to these needs include the mechanism by which residency training is funded; the difficulty designing and implementing individualized schedules while maintaining patient services; and the need to design assessments of competence to allow certification of physicians whose training is individualized.

Helpful guidelines for parents when choosing playthings for their child.

While we often think of childhood as a carefree time of life, children and adolescents do in fact experience high levels of stress and anxiety-sometimes on a debilitating scale. For the clinician addressing these issues, recognizing the varying types and causes of anxiety is only half the battle.

A 9-month-old white boy was brought to the emergency department (ED) after he had been crying inconsolably for 2 hours. The parents thought the crying was related to the child's left leg, which they felt "did not look right." Two weeks earlier, the boy had a similar episode of inconsolable crying, and a fracture of the right distal radius was diagnosed. The fracture was presumptively caused by entrapment of his arm in the crib railings.

We frequently see children who have just returned from India with fever, diarrhea, and constitutional symptoms. It is our job to determine whether they have a benign viral illness or something more serious. Some of the children have received malaria prophylaxis (usually mefloquine [Lariam] and occasionally atovaquone and proguanil [Malarone]). The number of children who have been vaccinated against hepatitis A infection is certainly on the rise, but few have been vaccinated against typhoid fever.

Heelys

It was my first day back at the office after a 2-month medical leave, which included 14 days of hospitalization for severe depression. I'd had plenty of time to ponder whether this was an endogenous or exogenous depression. There were many things that could have caused me to be depressed: the death of my wife a few years ago, a pediatric career devoted-in large part-to abused children, conflicts between the medical school and the hospital, administrative decisions forcing my division to "do more with less" that made life difficult, and a general pervasive attitude that making a profit mattered above anything else.

This 6-month-old infant, born at 29 weeks' gestation, was transferred to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles for evaluation of intermittent stridor and a history of poor feeding.

In his recent case involving a child with a black tongue, John Harrington, MD, noted that certain types of yeast and bacteria produce porphyrins that can give the tongue a black appearance.