Highlights in this issue

Abstract

John R Østergaard reports that febrile seizures affect 2–5% of all children between the ages 3–60 months. It is usually benign, but meningitis should be considered especially in infants less than 18 months. Febrile seizures of >30 min duration is one of the most common causes of Status epilepticus in children. EEG abnormalities do not predict recurrence with development of subsequent epilepsia (pp. 771–773). Children admitted due to paediatric head injury were investigated. More than 50% had a history deemed to raise suspicions of abuse but only in 10% of these cases, child abuse could be documented. Björn Tingberg et al. propose use of a standardised protocol (pp. 777–781). See also A Different View by Alan Ashare on concussion in relation to child sports (pp. 774–776). As many as 15% of all children experience at least one episode of syncope before the end of adolescence. Syncope is usually due to autonomic mediated reflexes, cardiogenic or psychogenic mechanisms. The authors, Qingyou Zhang et al. propose the introduction of a diagnostic protocol (pp. 879–884). Ravi Swamy et al. found that infants with antenatal diagnosis of clubfoot are more likely to need surgical correction than infants without antenatal diagnosis. The controversial question is whether it is ethical to terminate pregnancy due to clubfoot (pp. 804–806). Lord Byron was one of the most famous persons with clubfoot. There is a positive trend of increasing breastfeeding. However, there is a risk that the mothers are unable to detect a shortage of breast milk and dehydration. A nationwide study on hospital admissions due to dehydration in exclusively breastfed infants was done in the Netherlands, and is reported in this issue, pp. 807–811. However, the risk seems to be very low. Only 20 cases out of 100 000 breastfed infants were reported. This is a lower incidence than reported from the U.K. Most cases are in the group up to 11-days-old. Rolf AA Pelleboer et al. recommend extending the use of breast pumps at home.