Aetiology

Welcome to the newest edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds. Grab a chair, get comfortable, and take a gander at the latest blogging in the field of pediatrics.

The dish in the blogosphere

First, the hottest topic of the week (at least, from the collection of posts submitted here): environmental chemical and how they affect children. Clark of Unintelligent Design discusses the "dangers" (or not?) of environmental chemcials--including natural chemicals from our food, etc.-- for childrens' development. Over at Disease Proof, however, you'll find some disagreement. Revere at Effect Measure also has a post up on the topic, highlighting a recent Lancet review of chemicals found to have an effect on development

Also somewhat in that neurological vein, Evil Monkey sends along a post on a potential therapeutic target for treating kids with grand mal seizures.

Orac brings us up to date on the case of Abubakar Tariq Nadama, a 5 year old who was administered chelation therapy as a treatment for autism. The doctor who performed the chelation was recently charged "with six counts that include engaging in unprofessional conduct and breaching the standard of care." See Orac's posts here and here on the topic.

While on the topic of metals in our body, from Pediatrics Info.com comes news of a new paper looking at the effect of iron deficiency in infancy and later cognitive development.

Research and musings

Moving from neuroscience to psychiatry, NHS Blog Doctor discusses a recent newspaper article about a 4-year-old with depression after being refused a place in school. He uses that as a jumping-off point to ask, who *should* treat children with psychiatric problems, especially when there is a shortage of psychiatrists?

Shinga of Breath Spa for Kids brings attention to a new study looking at the correlation between habitual mouth-breathing and sleep-disordered breathing in kids. Another interesting post (especially to me!) looks at the effect of probiotic supplementation on development of asthma.

Neonatal Doc muses about a hypothetical scenario--what if one could switch a baby's parents? What if one baby has likely a poor outcome but parents that seem stellar, and another baby--or babies--are likely to be healthy, but have a parent who may not be up to the task of raising them?

Over at Genetics and Health, Hsein brings us the story of twins born after the parents had the embryos screened in order to avoid a haplotype associated with cystic fibrosis (which one of their older children already has, so the parents knew they were both carriers). The story has sparked debate over the issue of "designer babies" and how far one should go to avoid disease.

Clark at Unintelligent Design makes his second appearance in this week's carnival. We find from the first that duct tape may not be all it's cracked up to be, alas.

Back on the "interesting remedies for childhood problems" theme, over at Parenting Solved comes an interesting lice remedy: blow-drying. Amazingly, lice are one thing I haven't had to deal with yet as a parent (knock on wood), so I'll keep that one in mind.

A Day in the Life

Laura of Adventures in Juggling shares a day in the life of a neonatal nurse--and a neonatal nurse-in-training.

Student Nurse Jack brings us an adorable story of childhood tooth loss from the perspective of a nursing student. (Tie a string around the dog?--new one to me).

On the other side of the aisle, so to speak, Cancer Dad writes from his perspective of the father of a child with cancer.

Similarly, Dream Mom writes about caring for her special-needs son, and from The Wait and the Wonder comes a post about grief and empathy even when you don't physically know the affected patients.

The final word

Finally, Flea reminds us that, even with all our complaining and ranting, things are pretty good, although of course they can get better.

That's it for this week. Thanks to all who submitted posts (and especially to Shinga who actively tracked down posts from additional blogs), and for the American readers, have a happy Thanksgiving! The next edition will be hosted over at The Granola Rules.