Bubble Wrap PLUS – April ’24

Can’t get enough of Bubble Wrap? The Bubble Wrap Plus is a monthly Paediatric Journal Club reading list from Professor Jaan Toelen (University Hospitals Leuven) and Dr Anke Raaijmakers (Sydney Children’s Hospital). 

This comprehensive list is developed from 34 journals, including major and subspecialty paediatric journals. We suggest this list can help you discover relevant or interesting articles for your local journal club or allow you to keep a finger on the pulse of paediatric research.

In this month’s list of the journal club, we would like to draw your attention to some studies that caught our interest. 

Neonates requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at birth are at risk of neurodevelopmental injury. In a review of resuscitation techniques used in the delivery room published in Archives, researchers explore a technique involving continuous compressions with sustained inflation. The authors call for a randomised controlled trial comparing this ‘new technique’ to the current 3:1 compression-to-ventilation ratio. We will keep this in mind, and if such a study is published, it will be found on our list. 

A case-control study on the association between exposure to air pollutants at home/daycare and the risk of severe bronchiolitis in children under two years was published in the current issue of the European Journal of Pediatrics. Exposure levels were predicted using an interpolation model based on fixed measuring stations. Reassuringly, there were hardly any significant differences in the day-to-day air pollution values between cases and controls. However, medium-term (31 days) exposure was significantly higher in cases than controls in univariate analysis. A logistic regression revealed an association between severe bronchiolitis and increased pollutants at home and in daycare. Although further studies are needed, the study suggests a possible link between severe bronchiolitis and medium-term (air pollution exposure), particularly in daycare. 

Many of us would believe that toddlers’ screen time reduces their word exposure by more than 1000 words per day. A study published this month in JAMA Pediatrics highlights that growing up in a language-rich environment is important for children’s language development. They examined the association between screen time and different measures of parent-child talk (adult words, child vocalizations, and conversational turns) in children aged 12 to 36 months. Advanced speech recognition technology was used to capture their screen time and home language environment on an average 16-hour day. Language Environment Analysis technology provided automated counts of children’s language environment and exposure to electronic noise. The largest decreases were seen at 36 months when an additional minute of screen time was associated with a reduction of 6.6 (95% CI, −11.7 to −1.5) adult words, 4.9 (95% CI, −6.1 to −3.7) child vocalizations, and 1.1 (95% CI, −1.4 to −0.8) conversational turns. Time to turn off those screens at home! 

Urinary tract infections remain a hot topic. This list features an excellent review of biomarkers for urinary tract infection (Ped Neph) and a meta-analysis on the duration of treatment (Eur J Pediatr). Seventeen studies involving 1666 pediatric patients were included. As urinary tract infections cause many febrile episodes, consensus regarding treatment duration could have major health benefits and reduce healthcare costs. There were no significant differences in reinfection and relapse rates within 15 months between short (≤ 5 days) and long-course therapy (≥ seven days), but short-course therapy was associated with a significantly higher failure rate when compared to long-course therapy. 

We hope this month’s list will keep you interested in the progress in our field!

You will find the list is broken down into four sections:

If we have missed out on something useful or you think other articles are absolutely worth sharing, please add them in the comments!