News

Patients and their families are usually thrilled to hear than a child's needed surgery can be done using minimally invasive means, said Hanmin Lee, MD, Associate professor of pediatric surgery at the UCSF Children's Hospital.

Stem cells offer real solutions for those who often have no better options, according to one of the country's leading researchers in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

"What is an economist doing here?" James J. Heckman, winner of the John Bates Clark Medal and the Nobel Prize in Economics, asked to the AAP's opening plenary audience in his keynote address. The answer, it turned out, was to reinforce a core belief with hard data.

Jay E. Berkelhamer, MD, the outgoing president of the AAP (American Association of Pediatrics), gave his introductory talks of the Saturday plenary session after a performance of a boys' choir. His message of the critical need to better child health care was also preached to a choir, one of like-minded health care providers.

"We are all too familiar with methamphetamine abuse as a psychosocial or criminal problem. It is easy to forget that the health aspects are at least as important in the population that we serve."

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning not to consume apple-flavored Baby's Bliss Gripe Water bearing the code 26952V, expiration date October 2008 (shown as 10/08 on the label), and distributed by MOM Enterprises, Inc. of San Rafael, Calif.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has awarded 15 grants of approximately $28 million to help at-risk children and adolescents suffering from traumatic experiences. The grants are a part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative, a nationwide cooperative network of organizations that have the capabilities to address trauma-related illness.

A joint meeting of the FDA's Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and Pediatric Advisory Committee was held to review "the safety and efficacy of over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold products marketed for pediatric use."

An article in the October 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA. 2007:298;1772), reports on a small study done by clinicians who found the emergence of a strain of S pneumoniae (serotype 19A) that is resistant to all of the antibiotics approved for children, due to extensive use of the pneumococcal 7-valent conjugate vaccine (PCV7). This bacterial strain causes acute otitis media (AOM) in the pediatric population.

Welcome to the October 2007 Contemporary Pediatrics Show Daily. Over the next four days, the editors of Contemporary Pediatrics will bring you conference coverage from the floor of the 2007 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference Exhibition.

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A clinical approach to asymptomatic proteinuria can be one of the biggest factors in returning a successful outcome.

The challenges of making and using flu shots. Plus: What does thimerosal do to young children?

The author discusses the efforts to build a pediatric hospital in devastated Sri Lanka.

Milk warmer * Baby carrier * Office screening tool

Pediatric hypertension * Procalcitonin and C-reactive protein * Newborn hearing tests * Total parenteral nutrition

Just because you can bill well and sick visits together, doesn't mean you should. Pick and choose the encounters that justify doing so.

Administering a psychotropic med to a young patient can be an uneasy venture, but you can build your comfort level through review.

Your journey through pediatric ECGs continues with the last four principles essential to their analysis, and a review of normal/abnormal findings.

A 6-year-old patient presents with an annular, scaly lesion on his leg. What could be the cause?

A 20-year-old presents in the emergency department with abdominal pain, and fever.

SCHIP renewal * Preteen vaccination * FDA news * Global news

Letters to the Editor

A thank you from the Editor-in-Chief, years later, to her fellow residents, who helped her with scheduling and on call when she was pregnant and about to have her child.

A 2-week-old infant was assessed for an abnormal penis with a dorsal hood and a meatus that extended to the corona. Both testes were palpable in the scrotum. No chordee was apparent. Hypospadias occurs in 1 in 250 male newborns.1 In neonates with this congenital anomaly, the urethral meatus is ectopically positioned to open proximal to the normal site and on the ventral aspect of the penis or, in severe cases, on the scrotum or perineum. The prepuce is incompletely developed over the glans and presents as a hood. Some cases are associated with a chordee, which causes a ventral curvature of the penis with erection.

ABSTRACT: Chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis (CRMO) is an inflammatory bone disease that occurs primarily in childhood. The clinical picture often is confused with bacterial osteomyelitis. Awareness of CRMO as a clinical entity helps avoid diagnosis and treatment delays. Our patient, an 8-year-old girl, presented with acute left hip pain. One month after presentation, a lytic lesion was seen on plain radiographs; biopsy revealed nonspecific inflammation. It was not until more than 2 years later, when multifocal bone lesions and psoriasis developed, that the diagnosis became clear. Our patient's case demonstrates several key points: not all children with CRMO present with multifocal disease, patients frequently have comorbid inflammatory conditions, and there are no diagnostic laboratory studies. The optimal treatments remain unknown.

The sharply demarcated, smooth red plaques on this 3-year-old's tongue had been present for several months. The child initially refused to stick out his tongue. He cooperated after he was offered a lollipop (with the stipulation that "the wider he opened his mouth, the bigger the lollipop he would receive").