Thank you for visiting the Contemporary Pediatrics® website. Take a look at some of our top stories from the week (Monday, July 21, to Friday, July 25, 2025), and click on each link to read and watch anything you may have missed.
With the start of the school year approaching, pediatricians can expect a familiar trend: families realizing their otherwise healthy children may have missed a crucial well visit—and vaccines—before kindergarten registration. According to Lori Handy, MD, MSCE, associate director of the Vaccine Education Center and attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), this scenario plays out every year.
“By the time a child is 4 years of age, particularly if they are otherwise healthy, there might be a missed well visit,” said Handy. “Then you go to register them for kindergarten and realize, ‘Oh, we missed a visit,’ possibly one with several vaccines due.”
To help manage this annual rush, Handy said pediatric practices can consider offering vaccine-only appointments if the full well-child visit is already scheduled for later in the fall. “This allows the child to enter kindergarten on time and provides more time later in the fall for the full visit,” she noted.
Click here to watch our interview with Lori Handy, MD, MSCE.
In another video interview, Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD, of the Asthma Prevention Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia encouraged families to revisit asthma triggers, refill medications, and manage allergies to prevent avoidable complications when children with asthma return to school.
“September is a bad time for allergies, so making sure allergies are controlled as well as asthma is important,” she said. “I often tell parents that if they take a vacation from allergy medications in July, they should restart them at the end of August so the child is less likely to have allergic symptoms that can trigger asthma.”
Click here to watch our interview with Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has adopted recommendations to remove thimerosal from all influenza vaccines for children and pregnant women, following CDC advisory votes in June. Only single-dose, thimerosal-free formulations will be used going forward, with manufacturers confirming adequate supply. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the move long overdue to protect vulnerable populations from mercury exposure.
Click here for more details.
The case:
A 23-month-old female presented with a 3-day history of cough, rhinorrhea, and increased work of breathing. Initially, she was treated for bronchiolitis at an urgent care center, where a nasopharyngeal swab identified adenovirus. Despite initial treatment, the patient’s condition worsened, and she required oxygen supplementation via nasal cannula for oxyhemoglobin desaturation. Her hypoxemia further deteriorated, necessitating an increase in oxygen supplementation.
On physical examination, the patient showed signs of respiratory distress. A chest X-ray (CXR) revealed opacities in the right middle and lower lobes. The patient’s condition improved with supportive care, and she was discharged after several days in the hospital.
Can you diagnose this patient? Click here for the full case and diagnosis.
For pediatricians treating children with atopic dermatitis, safe and effective topical options are now more accessible and increasingly important to understand, says John Browning, MD, chief of dermatology at Children’s Hospital of San Antonio.
“Pediatricians should be very confident to prescribe steroid-free creams,” Browning said. “They can and should do that when they see a patient.” In many cases, children first present with symptoms of eczema during routine visits or sports physicals, he noted, making the pediatrician the first opportunity for timely intervention.
Having a non-steroidal, fragrance-free treatment readily available “is great,” Browning added, particularly given the limited number of pediatric dermatologists.
Click here to watch this interview with John Browning, MD.