Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in children. It has been suggested that maternal depression during pregnancy is associated with asthma in the offspring, but the role of antidepressant use during pregnancy is not known.

In our prospective cohort study, we found that maternal antidepressant use during pregnancy generally did not increase the risk of asthma except for use of older antidepressants, which could reflect confounding by the severity of maternal depression. (Read the full article)

Although there is evidence regarding comorbidity of physical and mental disorders from clinical samples of specific disorders and treatment registries, there is limited evidence from systematic samples of youth with comprehensive information on the full range of mental and physical disorders.

This report is the first study to investigate the specificity of associations between a broad range of mental and physical conditions by using a large, systematically obtained pediatric sample with enriched information from electronic medical records and direct interviews. (Read the full article)

Existing literature discusses the unique medical and psychological needs of sex trafficking victims and highlights the importance of screening patients with risk factors. However, little is known about providers’ knowledge and confidence in their ability to provide care to victims.

The study summarizes the knowledge gaps and barriers providers face when assisting pediatric sex trafficking victims. It also highlights the impact of training on providers’ confidence and ability to appropriately care for victims. (Read the full article)

Subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics have been used as growth promoters in animal farming since the 1950s. Antibiotic exposure during infancy is associated with increased body mass in humans.

The weight-promoting effect of antibiotics is most pronounced when the exposure occurs at <6 months of age or repeatedly during infancy. Increased body mass is distinctly associated with exposure to cephalosporins and macrolides, especially in boys. (Read the full article)

Although the psychometric properties of the school-age Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) have been extensively examined by using longitudinal data, the preschool version of the SDQ has only been explored in a limited number of cross-sectional studies.

This is the first psychometric study of the preschool SDQ using longitudinal data. We report measurement invariance over time, satisfactory reliability, construct and criterion validity, and predictive utility for subsequent behavioral problems (4 years) and clinical disorders (2 years). (Read the full article)

Smoking has been found to increase the risk of some specific congenital anomalies; however, results remain inconsistent. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is increasingly being used as for smoking cessation in pregnancy although little is known about its association with congenital anomalies.

Being prescribed NRT while pregnant was not associated with major congenital anomalies (MCA), except a small increase in respiratory anomalies (3/1000 births). This must be considered in context of the rarity of MCAs and higher morbidities in the NRT group. (Read the full article)

Sharing human milk between those with an abundant supply and those seeking milk for their child is growing in popularity, including that facilitated by Web sites established to link buyers and sellers.

This study documents that human milk purchased via the Internet can be contaminated with cow’s milk, which poses a potential risk to infants with allergy or intolerance to cow’s milk. (Read the full article)

Children’s time with parents is critical for healthy development. Lack of control over parents’ schedules and limited supervisor support for personal and family life can interfere with parents’ family time.

This is the first group randomized controlled field trial demonstrating effects of a workplace intervention, designed to increase schedule control and supervisor support, on working parents’ time with their children, as assessed by using longitudinal daily telephone interviews. (Read the full article)

Current childhood vaccination coverage rates among military dependents in the United States are not known. Past studies on childhood vaccination coverage in military dependents have shown mixed results, with the majority showing lower than ideal coverage rates.

This study analyzes a national database with 6 years of data and provider-confirmed vaccination status to describe the current documented vaccination coverage rates among military dependents in the United States. (Read the full article)

A program to support pediatric primary care providers in mental health care using point-of-care, telephone-based advice from specialists has been available since 2005 in Massachusetts. Other US states are implementing similar models. Little is known about how providers use this service.

There is wide variability in adoption and use of this program. Patterns are associated with panel size, enrollment timing, and assignment to the program team at the pilot site. Findings will help new programs establish expectations and design implementation interventions. (Read the full article)

Clinical trials of the quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine show it to be highly efficacious in preventing vaccine-type–specific cervical dysplasia and anogenital warts, but few studies have assessed its effects in the real world and none have done so at the program/population level.

This study provides strong evidence of the early benefits of quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccination on reductions in cervical dysplasia and possible reductions in anogenital warts among girls aged 14 to 17 years, offering additional justification for not delaying vaccination until girls are older. (Read the full article)

Outbreaks of serogroup B meningococcal disease occur at universities and other organizations. Until October 2014, options for control of serogroup B outbreaks were limited by the absence of a licensed vaccine for serogroup B meningococcal disease in the United States.

We describe a serogroup B outbreak at a university in 2013 and the campaign with investigational serogroup B vaccine held in response. This was the first use of a serogroup B vaccine as an outbreak response in the United States. (Read the full article)

Disparities in asthma morbidity are exacerbated by underutilization of preventive controller medications. Community pharmacies are well positioned for an increased role in population health. The Asthma Medication Ratio, currently used at the patient-level, could be adapted for use at the pharmacy-level.

A newly developed Pharmacy-level Asthma Medication Ratio was associated with population-level childhood asthma morbidity. Collaborative relationships between physicians, community pharmacists, and patients (and families) have the potential to promote testable interventions aimed at reducing asthma morbidity and cross-community disparities. (Read the full article)

Although waning immunity with the childhood pertussis vaccination series has been reported, there are limited data on duration of protection of the adolescent pertussis vaccine (Tdap), especially among those who have received only acellular vaccines.

This study reports that protection from Tdap wanes substantially 2 to 4 years after vaccination among adolescents who received all acellular vaccines during childhood. This waning protection is likely contributing to the increase in adolescent pertussis. (Read the full article)

More than a quarter of child deaths in the United Kingdom are estimated to have identifiable failures in care. Although children account for 40% of the family practice workload, little is known about iatrogenic harm to children in this setting.

This is the first analysis of nationally collected pediatric safety incident reports from family practice. To mitigate harm to children, priority areas requiring improvement include medication provision, referral of unwell children, provision of evidence-based treatment, and adequate diagnosis and assessment. (Read the full article)

Infants born extremely premature and infants born to adolescent mothers are at risk for adverse developmental and behavior outcomes. There is limited research on the dual risk imparted to infants born extremely premature to adolescent mothers.

Extremely premature infants of adolescent mothers have significantly increased rates of behavior problems. Nonwhite race and living in ≥3 places by 18 to 22 months of age are risk factors for adverse behavior outcomes among infants of adolescent mothers. (Read the full article)

Distribution of infant formula discharge packs to breastfeeding mothers is common practice in maternity care facilities in the United States. Receiving discharge packs is associated with shortened exclusive breastfeeding duration. Many efforts have been made to discourage this practice.

From 2007 to 2013, there has been a marked reduction in distribution of discharge packs containing infant formula to breastfeeding mothers in hospitals and birth centers in the United States. (Read the full article)

The sensitivity of the urinalysis (UA) traditionally has been considered suboptimal in young infants. Whether the finding of a negative UA and a positive urine culture represents a false-negative UA versus a false-positive urine culture remains unclear.

In infants <3 months with bacteremic urinary tract infection, a condition that represents true infection, the UA sensitivity is higher than previously reported for urinary tract infection in general, suggesting that the UA is reliable even in young infants. (Read the full article)

Youth drinking is associated with adult drinking. Alcohol policies can influence youth and adult drinking. However, it is unknown whether alcohol policies influence youth drinking patterns directly or through their effect on adult drinking.

Alcohol policies, including population-oriented policies, are protective for youth drinking. The effect of population-oriented policies may be mediated though effects on adults. These findings suggest that efforts to reduce youth drinking should rely on policies that address all age groups. (Read the full article)

Pediatric patients suffer higher mortality due to the shortage of transplantable organs. Factors influencing families’ donation decisions are similar for pediatric and adult patients. However, the general perception that families of pediatric patients are less willing to donate persists.

Communication emerged as a critical factor of family authorization, reinforcing its importance in the organ donation process. Patient age (ie, adult versus pediatric) was not predictive of family authorization. (Read the full article)

Permanent neuronal deletion and neurocognitive impairment after anesthetic exposure in animals raised substantial concern that similar effects occur in children. Human studies were equivocal but have not combined structural and intelligence tests in otherwise healthy children after childhood anesthesia.

Anesthetic exposure for surgery did not lead to measurable neuronal elimination in brain regions previously identified in animals. However, language comprehension and performance IQ were decreased in exposed children and associated with decreased gray matter, primarily in posterior brain regions. (Read the full article)

Firearms are among the 10 leading causes of injury-related death for youth and continues throughout the life span. Annually youth homicides and assault-related injuries result in an estimated $16 million in combined medical and work loss costs.

Findings add to the field’s broadening conceptualization of youth victimization highlighting the potentially highly consequential risk factor of firearm and other weapon exposure as a component of victimization experiences on the mental health of youth. (Read the full article)

Low case volume has traditionally been associated with poor outcomes in complex surgical procedures, including pediatric liver transplantation.

This retrospective analysis supports the association between low case volume and poorer outcomes in pediatric liver transplantation, and, in addition, shows that candidates listed in low-volume centers have severely limited access to transplantation. (Read the full article)

Previous research has described important variability in the medical evaluation of suspected child physical abuse. This variability may contribute to bias and reduce reliability in the medical diagnosis of abuse.

A panel of child abuse pediatricians participated in a Delphi Process, defining critical elements for the medical evaluation of suspected physical abuse in children. Results can be used to reduce practice variability that may contribute to potential bias in evaluation. (Read the full article)

Infant screening is valued by members of the lay public, but how different benefits are independently valued, and whether harms are disvalued, is not known. Public expectations of screening can inform decisions about what diseases to screen for.

The public values clinical benefits of screening and disvalues harms, with tolerance for harm proportional to clinical benefit. These findings support newborn screening policies prioritizing clinical benefits over solely informational benefits, coupled with concerted efforts to avoid or minimize harms. (Read the full article)

Parents generally adapt well to newborn screening results, but reactions to carrier status for X-linked conditions are unknown.

Results suggest that detection and disclosure of FMR1 newborn carrier status may not result in significant adverse events for mothers. (Read the full article)

Discharge from the NICU requires coordination and may be delayed for nonmedical reasons. Predicting when patients will be medically ready for discharge can avoid these delays and result in cost savings for the hospital.

We developed a supervised machine learning approach using real-time patient data from the daily neonatology progress note to predict when patients will be medically ready for discharge. (Read the full article)

In adults, there is significant increased length of stay, cost, and/or resource use associated with hospital-acquired conditions. Less is known about the epidemiology and impact of many hospital-acquired conditions in pediatric populations.

We find increased pediatric length of stay and costs due to venous thromboembolism and catheter-associated urinary tract infections. This is essential information for hospital administrators and safety departments who are planning interventions to reduce harm associated with these hospital-acquired conditions. (Read the full article)

Rudeness is routinely experienced by hospital-based medical teams. Individuals exposed to mildly rude behavior perform poorly on cognitive tasks, exhibit reduced creativity and flexibility, and are less helpful and prosocial.

Rudeness had adverse consequences on diagnostic and procedural performance of members of the NICU medical teams. Information-sharing mediated the adverse effect of rudeness on diagnostic performance, and help-seeking mediated the effect of rudeness on procedural performance. (Read the full article)

Historically, children with end-stage renal disease who initiated chronic dialysis during the first year of life were far less likely to survive or successfully receive a kidney transplant compared with those who initiated chronic dialysis at older ages.

In recent years, survival has improved markedly among children who initiate chronic peritoneal dialysis at <1 year of age. Among those infants who initiate dialysis after the neonatal period and later undergo kidney transplantation, graft survival has improved as well. (Read the full article)

Adding second-stage automated auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing for infants who failed the initial OAE test in a two-stage neonatal hearing screening has been shown to reduce false referrals to the hearing clinic.

Infants with hearing loss may be missed by a 2-stage hearing screening because they pass the automated ABR test. In our study, a significant number of infants with hearing loss >45 decibel hearing level passed screening with automated ABR. (Read the full article)

The source of infant pertussis infection is typically identified ~50% of the time. Historically, mothers have been identified as the most common source of pertussis transmission to infants.

This analysis of 8 years of enhanced pertussis surveillance data has uncovered a shift in the most common source of infant pertussis infection in the United States from mothers to siblings. (Read the full article)

Intervention strategies are needed to reduce underage drinking. Meta-analyses of youth alcohol brief interventions (BIs) conclude that therapist-delivered BIs are efficacious; however, to maximize public health impact, recommendations include using technology to streamline intervention delivery, for which evidence is lacking.

A single-session BI, delivered by a computer or therapist in the emergency department, shows promise for underage drinkers. Findings for the stand-alone computer BI are particularly appealing given the ease of future implementation. (Read the full article)

Two prospective studies of children with septic arthritis have shown that the addition of dexamethasone to antibiotic therapy contributes to clinical and laboratory improvement. Nevertheless, the mainstay of treatment remains antibiotics alone.

This study, which was conducted outside a randomized controlled trial, demonstrates that children with septic arthritis treated early with a short course of adjuvant dexamethasone show earlier improvement in clinical and laboratory parameters than children treated with antibiotics alone. (Read the full article)

Many studies have suggested that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are commonly co-occuring neurodevelopmental conditions.

In children with co-occurring ASD and ADHD, an initial ADHD diagnosis may be associated with delayed ASD diagnosis and a higher likelihood of ASD diagnosis older than 6 years of age. Clinicians should consider ASD when evaluating young children presenting with ADHD symptoms. (Read the full article)

Although whole fruit intake has increased among US youth from 2003 to 2010, little is known about the specific types of fruits youth consume and whether consumption varies by age, poverty status, gender, and race or Hispanic origin.

Twelve discrete fruits and fruit juices contribute almost 90% of total fruit consumed by US youth. Consumption of specific fruits and 100% fruit juices was associated with age and race or Hispanic origin but not gender or poverty status. (Read the full article)

Urethral catheterization is a painful, yet common procedure to obtain a sterile urine sample in young children. There are conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of lidocaine to reduce pain, and it is unclear if it should be routinely used.

In young children, combined topical and intraurethral lidocaine does not reduce pain during urethral catheterization and is associated with more pain than nonanesthetic lubricant during instillation. Clinicians should use noninvasive methods of analgesia during this painful procedure. (Read the full article)

There are no validated claims-based algorithms for identifying children with disabilities (CWD) to facilitate larger-scale studies of care quality for CWD.

This study develops the CWD algorithm, a claims-based algorithm for identifying diagnostic codes with a ≥75% chance of indicating CWD, and triangulates the algorithm against parent report and physician chart abstraction. (Read the full article)

Children with life-threatening complex chronic conditions (LT-CCCs) experience high hospital use.

Hospital use in the last year of life for these children varies by type and number of LT-CCCs. Most children with ≥3 LT-CCCs are admitted to the hospital for more than 2 months in the last year of life. (Read the full article)

Strictly-defined pediatric bipolar I disorder (BP-I) is a serious condition. Although lithium is a benchmark treatment and has shown effectiveness in adults for decades, no definitive efficacy or long-term safety studies had been performed in pediatric patients with BP-I.

This study provides evidence to support the efficacy of lithium in the acute treatment of youths with BP-I who are currently in a manic or mixed state. Lithium had an adverse effect profile that was acceptable for most patients. (Read the full article)

Systemic responses occur after burn injury that lead to widespread changes to the body, including the heart. Elevated levels of catecholamines and stress hormones have been found up to 3 years after severe burns. Little is known about the longer-term effects.

Children with burns had 1.3 times as many admissions and 2.3 times the number of days in hospital for circulatory diseases compared with uninjured children. Children with minor burns had an increased risk of incident admissions for circulatory diseases. (Read the full article)

Children with Down syndrome (DS) grow differently from other children. Advances in medical care, access to care, and improved life expectancy suggest that contemporary growth patterns may have improved over recent decades for children with DS in the United States.

New growth charts are presented for length/height, weight, head circumference, and BMI for children with DS (birth to 20 y). Weight gain in children <36 months, and stature for males are improved compared with older growth charts. (Read the full article)

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. More than 50% of sexually active men and women will acquire HPV infection in their lifetime. In 2011, HPV was recommended for routine use among male adolescents.

(Read the full article)

Receiving primary care in a high-quality medical home may lead to reductions in hospital or emergency department (ED) utilization; however, the relationship between the medical home and postdischarge hospitalizations and ED visits is poorly understood.

Readmission rates vary markedly based on data source and definition. Unplanned readmissions were associated with absence of a usual source of well and sick care but not other medical home components. Lack of parent confidence at discharge identified patients at high risk for readmissions and ED visits shortly after discharge. (Read the full article)

Our list of the best iPad apps can transform your iPad, iPad mini, or iPad Pro into the ultimate tablet computer for work and play.

Apple is thought to be planning a merger of its app platforms, which means a developer can develop an app once and have it automatically run on iPhone, iPad, and Mac without any extra work. The initiative is called 'Marzipan.'

It was far too easy to accidentally start an app subscription if you own an iPhone with Touch ID. Apple just solved the problem with a pop-up.

Sick of the same-old on-screen keyboard you get with iOS? Download and install a new one and experience keyboard nirvana.

Sometimes your iPhone just isn't big enough to enjoy the best of iOS gaming. Grab your iPad and take advantage of the expanded screen real estate with these games.

Pernille Harder, Ada Hegerberg and Amandine Henry are shortlisted for the 2017/18 UEFA Women's Player of the Year award.