The Montreal Children's Hospital Newsletter

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With every New Year comes a new opportunity to live better and live healthier. This year is no exception. In this edition of Where Kids Come First, we've included a host of articles to keep you and your loved ones winter bug-free! As kids go back to school and daycare, germs and viruses are inevitable…but this year, you can develop an action plan for preventing them, and making sure they don't spread to every member of the family!

To make sure you start the year off on the right foot, we've also included some useful tips on how to deal with a less than stellar report card, once those grades come back home.

In other news, we're bringing you the miraculous story of how baby Lily-Rose, now 4 months old, defied all odds earlier this summer as she underwent intense surgery just one day after her birth.

We've also included a question from one of our readers about stuttering and have an expert advise on when to consult outside help. We hope all of this information keeps you well informed.

Until next month, happy reading!
The editorial team at Where Kids Come First


			All first time parents feel anxious and somewhat unprepared for the experience of delivering a baby. Kim Desjardins-Cyr and her partner, Steve Laberge were no different than any other couple. But on August 3rd when their precious newborn daughter was rushed to The Montreal Children's Hospital within the first hours of her life, the couple remembers feeling incredibly worried and afraid. [+]

Gastroenteritis in Children

Fever in Infants and Young Children

Diarrhea and Vomiting

Five Tips for Handling a Bad Report Card


			There are over 200 different known cold viruses, but most colds (30-40%) are caused by rhinoviruses. In Canada, the peak times for colds are at the start of school in the fall, in mid-winter, and again in early spring. Children catch approximately eight colds per year, so it's important to know how to treat and prevent them. We asked Lyne St-Martin, Nurse in Infection Control for a brief overview of what causes these colds and for tips on how to make sure kids don't catch them repeatedly. [+]

THANK YOU FOR THE TOYS!

Every year at The Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre, we look to members of the community to help make Christmas special for the young children who are not well enough to go home for the holidays. This year was no exception. [+]

RESEARCH SHOWS SINGLE-PATIENT ROOMS REDUCE HOSPITAL INFECTIONS IN ICU

A research team from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University has demonstrated that private rooms in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) play a key role in reducing hospital infections like C-difficile. The study, published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, also suggests that length of stay would be shorter and this could lead to cost savings to the healthcare system. [+]

ELEVATORS AND CORRIDORS – A SMOOTH OPERATING NETWORK FOR THE GLEN CAMPUS

Elevators and service corridors are probably not the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about hospital design. But would you believe that many design development workshops on these two subjects are currently being held in preparation for the Glen Campus? [+]


	Do you have a question of a general nature that you'd like to ask our specialist? If your question is selected, the answer will be published in the next edition of the newsletter. Ask a question [+]

	Hello, My 5-year-old son often stutters when he speaks. His pediatrician gave me your brochure about stuttering when I brought up my concerns about the issue when he was 4 years old, and told me not to worry. Nevertheless, the problem has persisted and he is now in kindergarten. He tends to stutter when he is tired, at school in the presence of new friends or when he is asked to speak in front of his kindergarten class. Roughly, 75% of the time he speaks clearly, with no stuttering or hesitation. Should we follow the brochure's guidelines or should we consult a Speech-Language Pathologist? Thank you for your advice, Jacob's mother R : Dear parent, Research evidence suggests that 45-80% of all individuals who stutter will spontaneously recover, with or without therapy. Unfortunately, research has failed to reveal specific markers of who will spontaneously recover and who will not, but we do know that the following factors place a child at higher risk for persistent stuttering. [+]


	Innovative research investigates the importance of reading to newborns in the NICU Jan Lariviere, a nurse in the neonatal clinic and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) of the MUHC led an innovative research project that suggests reading to newborns in the NICU greatly lends normalcy and allows parents to feel closer to their babies during this difficult period. The results are published in the latest edition of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. [+]


	The over-consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks is linked to childhood obesity. True: Sadly, soft drinks, or liquid candy to some, are by far the biggest source of sugar in the average diet. Fruit "drinks," "beverages," and "cocktails" are essentially non-carbonated soda pop. Many contain only 5 to 10 per cent juice. [+]

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