Receive summaries of articles in each month’s issue of Pediatrics when you sign up at www.pediatrics.org. Measles-Containing Vaccines and Febrile Seizures in Children Age 4 to 6 Years

Febrile seizure risk 7 to 10 days after measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) is double that of separate measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and varicella vaccines among 1-year-olds. Whether MMRV or MMR and varicella affect febrile seizure risk among 4-to 6-year-olds has not been reported. Using Vaccine Safety Datalink data, we examined risk for febrile seizures after measles-containing vaccines. This study provides reassurance that MMRV and separately administered MMR and varicella were not associated with increased risk of febrile seizures among 4-to 6-year-olds. Pain during routine infant immunization causes parental anxiety. Oral sucrose solutions are effective pain-reduction strategies. Few studies have measured a combined strategy of a physical intervention along with sucrose to decrease the infant' s pain response. We demonstrate that a physical, nonpharmacological intervention called the 5 S' s (swaddling, side/stomach position, shushing, swinging, and sucking) provides significant pain reduction with or without sucrose during routine 2-and 4-month vaccinations. Following a rapid increase from 1980 to 2001, the prevalence of obesity among school-age children and adolescents in the United States has plateaued. Few studies have examined obesity trends among younger children in the past decade, and findings are inconsistent. Among children aged ,6 years at this multisite pediatric practice, the prevalence of obesity was fairly stable during 1999–2003, but substantially decreased during 2004–2008. Disparities are known to exist in the prescription of opioid analgesics among racial and ethnic groups in the management of postoperative, cancer, and emergency department pain in patients across all ages, including children. Race is associated with an unequal burden of perioperative pain and opioid adverse effects in children. Relatively, African American children had higher postoperative pain, and Caucasian children had higher incidences of opioid related adverse effects. We lack prospective studies documenting " dosage effects " of chronic child maltreatment for both subsequent adolescent and adult outcomes. It is unknown whether effects are linear, shelving, or exponential, and we lack data across domains of outcomes. Chronic child maltreatment reports are a robust indicator of future negative health and behavioral outcomes. There is a dose-response relationship between chronicity and outcomes