The carefree exuberance associated with young children can make the concept of childhood depression difficult to imagine. It is not surprising then that the existence of mood disorders in children has gained acceptance only in the last few decades. While debate continues regarding conceptualisations of childhood depression, evidence from over 20 years of research suggests...

Some parents are concerned about whether their child is ready to start school and they start to seek advice from a range of professionals to support them in making a decision. Often the preschool or kindergarten teacher may raise concerns with the parents, because of observations of the child while in this setting. For the...

Rickets may have been thought to be a 'thing of the past'. In fact at the beginning of the 20th century, it has been estimated that 85% of children living in northern hemisphere urban industrialised cities had rickets. Major public health initiatives were then introduced to tackle this problem. In 'sunny Australia' rickets has not...

Pneumococcal diseases are caused by a common bacterium called Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus). The pneumococcus bacterium has approximately 90 known serotypes, only some of which commonly cause disease. Eleven serotypes are responsible for most of the disease in infants across the globe, with seven serotypes accounting for the majority of diseases in developed countries. The...

There has been much confusion in recent years regarding the terminology used to describe allergic reactions, particularly food reactions. The World Allergy Organisation Nomenclature Review Committee has proposed the following nomenclature. The term food hypersensitivity is used to describe any adverse reaction to a food and encompasses the two distinctly different pathologies of: Food allergy...