Welcome to the latest edition of Pediatric Grand Rounds. Let’s get down to business.

About a Flea

We’ve lost Flea, one of PGR’s greatest supporters. We are thinking he crawled into some lawyer’s ear and got caught in the wax. Hopefully, he’ll dig his way out.

I wish I could do more than this, but here is a brief chain of what others have said about Flea and Fat Doctor, who also shut her blog down. It isn’t just the posts I’ve linked to here, but all the comments on those posts that bear record of how much the medblog community loved Flea and Fat Doctor.

• Rob Lamberts:  I am a blogger. I am a doctor.
• Dr. Anonymous: Dr. Flea Disappears
• Kevin MD: Black Wednesday, Demise of the Medical Blogosphere?
• Val Jones: 2 Medical Blogs Shut Down
• MedStudentGod: Flea Down
• Moof: One Injustice after Another, Since when… ?
• Walter: In Memorandum

I’ve probably left a lot out. If you have one or know of another one, please contact me either through a comment or my email so I can add it to the list.

What is the role of the doctor in the child’s life? What is the role of the child in the doctor’s life? 

It was Charity Doc that made me think about this. He isn’t a pediatrician, but at Crack City ER, he sometimes treats kids. It was his recent post about helping an abused child that made me think about how far a doctor needs to go in order to treat a child, IOW, remove a child from harm. Some doctors seem to feel no need to get beyond CYA, while others will do everything in their power. Scroll down the comments to find out the ending to that story. It is definately worth it.

To simply do whatever needs to be done is not simple at all. It fills up all of our life. It lifts us to the heights and draws us into the depths. PGR founder and ardent believer in Unintelligent Design Dr. Clark shares with us how he has grown into the role he has in the lives of the children and families that he treats.

It isn’t just the people who are children now that affect us, but the children we were that impacts the adults we have now become. Val Jones brings us a story from her childhood demonstrating that well before she got her MD, she practiced compassion.

The assertive pediatric patient: Paige is eight years old and was born prematurely. How do doctors deal with this child who fully understands her condition? Stacy, Paige’s mom and writer of The Preemie Experiment tells us.

I’m lucky enough to have a healthy child, but there is an issue I’m trying to figure out.

Dealing with Illness

Jen from Unique But Not Alone is the mother of two girls with an inherited liver disorder called Alpha-1. She brings to us a story of loss that is felt not only because a dear little friend is gone, but because of how closely connected his death is to her daughters and how deeply it touches her own fears.  

When medical procedures on your child are a regular part of life, it isn’t just worry that plagues the parent. A whole new dimension in parental self doubting is opened up. Moreen gives us a glimpse into that altered universe in The Wait and the Wonder.

Walter of Highlight HEALTH gives us some advice regarding how to use the internet to become an empowered patient and advocate when you or your child has a complex illness.

Dealing with Evil Bureaucracies

What happens if you don’t get your baby screened for a metabolic disorder and one is discovered later having already wreacked havoc? What happens if you do and one is discovered at the time, so that early dietary intervention prevents damage? Laura, having some Adventures in Juggling, knows that the answer in both cases is that the insurance companies will try to get away with paying out as little as possible and use bureaucratic red tape to get away with it. She relates to us the battle being waged in California to remedy the situation. She also gives us a head up on PreemieCon 2007, which is not an evil bureaucracy.

The Shinga Files

Dame Shinga graciously bestows us with an abundance of paediatric links from the blogosphere. In her own words:

Tara presents an interesting case where a little boy with eczema developed complications after exposure to his smallpox vaccinated father who did not take adequate protection measures.

Dr. de Asis is reassuring on the issue of asthma medications in pregnancy

Interesting take on vaccine delivery systems for rotavirus – which is particularly tricky because of its likeliest demographic for those who need it most.

We don’t have these shoes in the UK (I don’t think)…

Ex Utero explores one of his favourite interests…”the natural course of events will be as neonatal medicine and obstetrics continue to improve survival of very low birth weight infants”.

Overview of a study on PTSD and resilience in children

Sandy has an embarrassment of choice – I liked this one about a programme that had a negligible impact on childhood obesity despite all the optimistic reports

Dental problems that come with prematurity and the emotional issues of being a mother who can’t ‘just hug it better’.

AADT gives an overview of reports on the effects of parental drug abuse on children and the likelihood of developing anxiety, depression and related conditions.

Dad of Cameron gives a thorough look at whether scientific claims are matched by scientific data in a recent paper on mercury in baby teeth – autism etc.

Dr. Novella says that there is still no association between autism and mercury in vaccines

Regards – Shinga

Thank you so much, Shinga, for all the work you do for PGR. I’d like to thank everyone who contributed. There were some great posts. I enjoyed putting together this edition. I’d like to thank Flea for all of the wonderful posts he wrote, for his cheer and passion, and for his kind words about me last week.

There are no hosts on the schedule for the next PGR. The totally bodacious and adventurous Awesome Mom will be hosting. Step up to the plate, bring some traffic your way, and meet some great members of the pediatric community. Contact clarkbar2019 AT yahoo DOT com.