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Most children who have trouble controlling their asthma with low-dose inhaled corticosteroids show improvement by increasing the dose or adding another medication, a new study finds. But the best option differs for each child.

Last month, Dr. James M. Perrin, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, became the president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a professional group of 60,000 doctors. A primary care physician, Perrin is particularly interested in addressing chronic childhood illness during his three years of leadership at the academy, first as president-elect, then president, then president emeritus. What do you think are the biggest health issues facing today’s kids? Childhood obesity and other chronic health conditions: the continuing growth in childhood asthma, and the tremendous growth in mental health conditions and developmental conditions like autism. We’ve got three or four major epidemics really growing among children and adolescents in America.

what’s the advantage of aerosol medicines?Many drugs that used to be administered as a high dose pill, or by IV injection, are now available as aerosols.  Inhaled medications include corticosteroids to treat patients with asthma and antibiotics to treat patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). By delivering these drugs directly to the lungs as an aerosol, we are able to bypass delivery into the systemic circulation, which allows us to give lower doses and reduce unwanted side-effects. Other drugs, such as bronchodilators and hypertonic saline, also benefit from this route of administration.

The U.S. Department of Education announced today that its Office for Civil Rights has reached a resolution agreement with the Memphis, Tenn., City Schools on aids and services to students with disabilities. The agreement resolves a compliance review initiated by the department to address whether the district is appropriately evaluating students with food allergies, asthma, diabetes, and other health impairments who have Individual Health Care Plans (IHCPs) to determine if the students are qualified students with a disability as defined by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Title II). OCR also investigated whether there was a difference in the provision of services to health impaired students on the basis of race.

Congress passed a bill today(!) that would help fund school efforts to fight allergy attacks. The U.S. Department of Education currently offers grant money to states in which schools are taking steps to prepare for asthma attacks. Under the newly passed H.R. 2094, though, the department would prioritize those funds to benefit states wherein schools also prepare for allergy attacks by having a stock of epinephrine (EpiPen), and staff trained to use it.

The Impact on Students with LD and AD/HD The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) was passed by Congress in December 2008 and became effective January 1, 2009. This significant piece of legislation corrected what Congress considered to be a departure from the intent of the original ADA (passed in 1990) brought about by several narrow interpretations of the law through Supreme Court rulings. These rulings weakened the law and made it difficult for people with disabilities to receive the protection the law intended.The ADAAA also has a direct and substantial impact on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) -an important law that provides protections for school-age children with disabilities.   This Parent Advocacy Brief will help you understand the changes brought about by the ADAAA, how they apply to Section 504, and how these changes may impact children with disabilities, including learning disabilities, as well as other conditions such as Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), Aspergers Syndrome, diabetes, asthma, and life-threatening food allergies.

Some novel programs are addressing a growing gap in health care: helping the millions of survivors of serious childhood diseases find treatment when they grow up. Thanks to medical advances, there are a growing number of survivors of childhood cancers as well as patients living longer with diseases like cystic fibrosis and spina bifida. More children have diseases like diabetes and asthma that will follow them into adulthood. Nearly 25% of children have at least one of a list of 18 chronic conditions, according to federal survey data.