Parental concerns, appropriately, drive a lot of the traffic to our Emergency Departments. Managing concerns and expectations is part of the art of what we do. When a child develops Rectal Prolapse, there are often a lot of concerns,…
Often the Ped EM Morsels discuss diagnoses that emphasize astute clinical skills and vigilance while minimizing the importance of laboratory testing. Appendicitis is a great example of this! Many of you already know my disdain for the ubiquitous WBC…
Evaluating the child with altered mental status can be very challenging. As with adults, there are a myriad of potential etiologies and it can be difficult to prioritize the order of the evaluation. Does this patient have an intracranial process…
We all know that kids love to put odd objects in their mouths (and ears, and nostrils, and other interesting places). We also know that this can cause significant problems and lead to true emergencies. The location of the object…
Like Sisyphus, you may feel that you are continually pushing a diagnostic boulder up a mountain only to watch it roll back down. Certainly, some diagnoses offer less of an incline to overcome; however, others, like Chronic Recurrent Abdominal Pain (CRAP),…
Obviously dehydration is a very significant condition, particularly in the pediatric population, so much so that several Morsels have been dedicated to the topic (ex, ORT, Vomiting vs Diarrhea, Probiotics, Alternatives to IV Fluids). Yet, often I still hear that…
We have discussed vomiting a lot (we just can’t get away from it sometimes!). We covered “simple” issues like emesis/diarrhea and therapies for dehydration. We have also covered more ominous conditions like intussusception, necrotizing enterocolitis, and Inborn Errors of Metabolism. All…