Pediatric Report's Child Health Newsletter articles from June 1991

Pediatric Report's Child Health Newsletter archives from June 1991

Food poisoning.
June 1, 1991... Thoughts of summer conjure up visions of picnics, outdoor barbecues, clambakes, and...food poisoning. This is not to say that the problem does not exist in the winter, but in the warmer months people become more adventurous, food does more...

Prevalence of HIV infection in childbearing women.
June 1, 1991... The Centers for Disease Control has recently published its findings on a national survey to detect the incidence of HIV infection in childbearing women. This monumental project, started in 1988, was accomplished by making use of the fact that...

Parents appear to be best judge of their child's hearing.
June 1, 1991... Pediatricians like to think that, of all types of doctors, they are particularly good at screening for things like vision and hearing problems. Still, a lot depends on their ability to listen properly...to the parents. In an attempt to...

Diaper rashes.
June 1, 1991... Anyone who cares for young infants knows that it doesn't take much to produce an ugly diaper rash. When pediatricians see infants in the office with a rash, the embarrassed parent invariably will say, "He was fine this morning! Then my...

Wiping kids' noses in day-care: do it the right way.
June 1, 1991... Diseases caused by the bacteria Haemophilus influenzae are among the most serious found in children who attend day-care. However, it seems that these illnesses are found in some day-care settings but not in others. So what distinguishes those...

Bring a thermometer when checking on a day-care home. (making sure the water isn't hot enough to scald)
June 1, 1991... Between 1979-1989 a total of 459 deaths were reported due to scalding from tap water. Of these, 20% occurred in children under age 11. One can assume that thousands of nonfatal burns also occurred during this period. Tap water...

Should phenobarbital be used to treat febrile convulsions in children?
June 1, 1991... Febrile seizures, by definition, are brief convulsions occurring in young children who suddenly spike a high temperature. These seizures tend to run in families, may be recurrent, but most importantly, they cause no harm to the child. The...

Sugar - an old-fashioned remedy for crying baby.
June 1, 1991... Noticing that drinking sugar water seems to calm crying babies, studies were done at Johns Hopkins University to see if it could help alleviate pain. A group of infants given sugar water before blood drawing was compared to a group of babies...

Cold ... "remedies"? (pediatrician's dilemma: to prescribe antihistamine-decongestant combinations or not) (column)
June 1, 1991... We pediatricians are often in a dilemma. We've got desperate parents wanting us to give their children something - anything! - to relieve cold symptoms. They've had it with dripping noses, juicy coughs, and a just plain cranky kid. So give...