“Good germs” to help acute diarrhoea in children have become very popular, and with some reason. For a decade or more, I used to advise parents to give their kids some live yoghourt, but now there is a veritable ecosystem of commercial bugs available, many with more than one name. For example, Lactobacillus rhamnosus is the same as L casei strain GG or L GG; there are lots more, but I won’t go on because according to this Italian study, this is the only one that works. Forget the rest if you want to reduce the number of stools in squitty children.

A good clear single-author review of carpal tunnel syndrome tells you what you want to know. The diagnosis lies more in the history than the classic tests, and although neurophysiology is the “gold standard”, it is not a particularly good one. Figures for sensitivity and specificity are given, but it’s not clear where they come from, and of course they won’t be the same in primary care as in a hand clinic. Anyway, try a splint; maybe try an injection; but for a cure, get a decompression done (it doesn’t matter which procedure).