The summer travel season is upon us, at least here in the U.S., and for most of us it means dusting off the car games for the kids to use between bathroom stops as we cruise across the country on vacation.
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This post begins the series of TEN Travel Diseases you shouldn’t forget to consider if you’re lucky (and brave) enough to be taking a vacation this year which involves some degree of traveling – especially across some borders. And remember, the more borders you cross, the more of these you should consider.
You may or may not have even heard of them (hence writing these posts) but be assured, they are still alive and well in the world. And many still here in parts of the United States!
Here is the index to the Ten Travel Diseases series:
Due to editing and space constraints, my (newspaper) article on tonsillectomy two weeks ago did not present the entire picture of how physicians feel about this surgical procedure… and generated several additional questions – which we will cover here.
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I have been asked several times this week about tonsillectomy – whether or not a child should have their tonsils taken out by surgery. Usually the question is in response to a sore throat of some kind, whether or not there is an infected tonsil.
There are just so many variables (i.e. whether it is acute or chronic, allergic or contagious etc.) that my reply must be largely individualized; so, a short article cannot adequately cover the topic.
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Trying to catch up on all the recent research findings about infant nutrition, specifically breastfeeding, we’ve already described a fair number of new findings. We’ll conclude today with a fairly comprehensive listing of new recommendations. Read more→
One of the most common topics for medical articles these days (besides immunizations) is breast feeding. There’s really a lot of them. It’s almost like people are trying to make a point.
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The most recent research into children’s growth and development these days has given rise to changes in the way we think of nutrition.
Frankly, for those of us with… ahem, a bit of experience, our better tools to measure outcomes have produced findings that are a bit startling; especially as it relates to breastfeeding.
Pediatricians, at least all that I know, have always considered “Breast Is Best” but infant formulas were acceptable alternatives. Then, formulas got even better and better as our understanding of nutrition improved. Then, advances in mass data sharing and long term follow-up studies came into being.
Now, we understand better (in the long term) what some of the benefits are. Bottom line, the topic deserves a series of its own, and begins with reporting the results of an extensive study into the benefits of breastfeeding.
We’ve been reviewing all the new pediatric health-care guidelines published last year in the past two articles. So far we’ve found that new research prompted governing groups to release care-guidelines for Congenital Dislocated Hips, Calcium supplementation, Fluoride supplementation, Read more→
Eight major sets of published guidelines for children’s health care were developed in 2014. We are discussing them (in lay terms) and how they affect the way we help children stay healthy.
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Today we go from previous posts on “Vintage Medical Advice” to several new treatment guidelines so “hot off the press” they are still smoking!
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Two Thousand Fourteen was a busy year for medical organizations making treatment guidelines. I counted at least seven of them applicable to children, from ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) tears to Flu Vaccinations.
Of course, these are made so physicians can have the advantage of new research and developments being analyzed and recommended by specialty organizations; and so there might be at least some standardization in treatment.
If you’re wondering about how guidelines are made you may like to try a previous post about evidence-based medicine in the top 50 doctors of all time series.
One only needs to peruse the pages of an old medical text to see how much things have changed in the past 100 years.
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