This post collects together the precis of the major articles – perspectives, leading articles and original articles – in the April 2008 issue.

Perspectives

Growth

Fry examines the evidence for screening for problems with growth. Here.

Otitis media with effusion

Williamson and Little review the evidence for grommets. Here.

Sudden Infant Death

Blair and Fleming look at the risks for recurrence of sudden infant death syndrome. Here.

Leading Articles

Getting Preterm Neonates Home

Rose, Ramsay and Leaf look at the strategies which can be used to get children home from the neonatal unit in a timely fashion. Here.

MRCPCH Mastercourse

Scott-Jupp, Hall, Vyas and Yap take different perspectives of the new mastercourse for MRCPCH. Here.

Original articles

Height screening programs

In a systematic review of the literature regarding height screening programs, there is incomplete data on their usefulness, but may cost approximately £30,000 per QALY. Here.

Electrolyte disturbance in fluid administration

A telephone survey of 17 hospitals revealed some potentially alarming use of fluids which might lead to electrolyte disturbances, mostly hyponatraemia and hypokalaemia. Here.

HIV and Feeding Advice

334 health workers delivering advice to HIV positive parents in four African countries were tested for knowledge; 70% did not know the feeding transmission rate, and in 640 interventions observed, feeding risks were mentioned in just 307 instances. Here.

Breast feeding

In a study of advice given to mothers, 31 babies given baby-led feeding – where the infant determines the length of feed – were compared with 32 babies fed for ten minutes from each breast, the latter group grew more and had better exclusive breast feeding rates. Here.

Early weighing to prevent neonatal hypernatraemic dehydration

Introduction of an early weighing policy led to an improvement in detection of neonatal hypernatraemic dehydration. Here.

Parenteral nutrition

96 children were identified as being on long term parenteral nutrition in one UK region – West Yorkshire – with favourable outcomes noted. Here.

Anticoagulation

In a retrospective review of 37 patients transferred onto home – point of care – anticoagulation monitoring, control was comparible to the period that they were monitored in the clinic. Here.

Acute Asthma Management

In a review of guidelines and survey of Australasian paediatric emergency departments, there was good consistency in management of mild to moderate asthma, but poor agreement about how to measure severe asthma, which probably reflects paucity of clear evidence. Here.

Reducing prescribing errors

In response to a postal questionnaire, few centres have a systematic approach to assessing competency of paediatric prescribers; a literature review goes on to describe that there are no validated tools, nor has there been any evaluation of the impact of teaching on prescribing. Here.

Empyema trends

In Scotland the incidence of empyema has risen over the last decade, independent of the incidence of pneumonia. Here.

Short Report

Measles immunisation

In 6364 Japanese children having measles immunisation, 501 had a temperature of 37.5 C or higher in the week after, for whom the seroconversion rate was 76.6%, compared to 95.2% controls. Here.

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