Good Lord, what a week I’ve had. Unfortunately I can’t blog about it. My apologies for being a bit derelict in getting the word out – I’ll be on it next time. This week marked the 10 year anniversary of the blog. Look for a nice piece in this morning’s Wall Street Journal detailing the impact of blogging on the world.
Lot's of interesting stuff this week. Let's get started.
Circumcision, Quality of Life and Other Heady Stuff
By the looks of Unintelligent Design it appears that size really does matter. Clark has a lengthy submission covering the in’s and out’s of circumcision. This is remarkably well done and I might suggest that he format this a wee bit differently and make this available for public consumption. That’s just a tip, of course (no pun intended).
If you have a few extra hours and pot of coffee head over to The Preemie Experiment. Stacy drops the question of what constitutes QOL and then suggests that we talk amongst ourselves. And you could have made a full time job following this conversation. I like Teriw/2 and her Catholic angle. Our Neonatal Doc stirs things up a little bit with You II by putting in his two cents on when to resuscitate. It’s interesting to see how outcomes data can make us discriminate based on socioeconomic grounds. Heady stuff.
Dr. Kristy McNealy at NICU 101 is new to me. Read Preemies Feel Pain. More compelling than her interesting discussion of preemie pain is her posting style: remarkably well written, brief and broken into bite-size paragraphs. We could all learn something by checking this out. Nice blog, Kristy. Some personal insight on sensory issues can be found at Unique But Not Alone. I loved Hope posted at Tiggers Don’t Jump. How we communicate potentially ominous news when it isn’t certain is always sticky.
Cholesterol, True Confessions and Nutty Mothers
Dr. Rob discusses the dilemma that we all face when checking cholesterol in children. He offers his two cents from the perspective of someone who treats both adults and kids. You’ll note that the AAP has withdrawn their fuzzy position on screening the world and the AHA has a recent position paper – both are linked and required reading.
I’m absolutely convinced that over the past year Dr. Gwenn has grown progressively more hip! For example, love this discussion from the category of stupid parent tricks: Hiring a parenting consultant. This is my kind of post: amusing, light, while reflective of a frightening trend. Speaking of frightening trends you can check out my post on mothers of kids with peanut allergy who have gone a little far.
Googlevax, Smoking and Infectious Paranoia
For a little fun you can visit Shinga at Breath Spa. She revisits the issue of an anti-vaccine bias in Google searches originally posted at Medgadget. The breakdown is discouraging but well presented and easy-to-read. Speaking of wacked out antivax “researchers,” Respectful Insolence covers the latest on Andrew Wakefield. Interesting to note that this guy was paid by the attorneys (Not Insolence, Wakefield). Island of Doubt covers the suspect link between vitamin D and autism.
Med Journal Watch has an interesting series reviewing the dangers of second hand smoke. Unfortunately missing: excessive infant crying and acid reflux. And I thought this went out in eighties: HIV+ toddler evicted from pool. Tara’s quick synopsis is an alarming eye-opener. Dr. J posts on hand-foot-mouth and the social paranoia that ensues with the appearance of those little red spots. It seems the more we know, the more things stay the same.
And just for fun, there’s an anti-baby movement afoot if you spend enough time on the parenting end of things. Why I Hate Babies, AirTran Gives Baby a Time Out, and The Sippy Cup Incident are but a few.
Thanks to Clark for reminding everyone when I didn’t. And Shinga, as always, pointed out seminal posts that I’ve yet to add to Google Reader. I will add that I unfortunately had to leave out some submissions that promoted products available on the posting site. I'm not sure that we have a host for the next grand rounds so be sure to sign up - Everyone has to pitch in to make PGR great.