Nebulised budesonide significantly improves PEFR levels and fitness for discharge at 2 h when compared to oral prednisolone in children between 5 and 12 y with acute severe asthma.

Background: Breast feeding, an effective tool in bringing down the mortality and morbidity of infants and under 5 children has major barrier in successful establishment due to lack of proper knowledge among expectant mothers, family members and inappropriate cultural practices. Objective of this study was to determine the knowledge regarding breast feeding practices among mothers having children less than 3 years of age attending Paediatric OPD of Karpagavinayaga Institute of Medical Sciences, Kanchipuram for medical illness from rural area.Methods: This study is a hospital based cross sectional study was conducted for a period of 5 months from September 2017 to January 2018 with pretested structured questionnaire.Results: In this present study 81.7% of mothers were well known about exclusive breast feeding. 68.7% of the mothers knew that colostrum should be given as first feed. In this study only, the knowledge about the demand feed was present in 37.4% of mothers. Knowledge about complementary feed was present in 82.6% of mothers. 54.8% of mothers had known about Prelacteal feeds.Conclusion: This study shows that adequate knowledge regarding breast feeding and complementary feeding should be provided to the mother during their antenatal, postnatal period and during vaccination which greatly reduces infant and under 5 mortality and morbidity.

Introduction: Severe hyperbilirubinaemia cause long-term morbidity that can be prevented by early prediction of the development of significant jaundice by measuring Umbilical Cord Bilirubin (UCB). Aim: To measure the predictability of UCB as an early marker of development of significant hyperbilirubinaemia needing phototherapy. Materials and Methods: The study was a prospective observational study conducted at Vinayaka Mission Medical College, Karaikal, Pondicherry, India. A total of 50 babies born between February and August 2022 were included in the study. Bilirubin levels were obtained at birth by umbilical cord sampling and rechecked again at third or fourth day. Blood group incompatibility was defined as A or B blood group babies born to O group mothers. Phototherapy was started when the bilirubin levels were above or upto 2 mg/ dL below the cut-off for that patient as indicated by the curve for the risk group of the patient as per the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) guidelines. Phototherapy also was started if clinically indicated by visual assessment by Kramers rule. Results: Results were analysed by Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve analysis for measurement of sensitivity and specificity for predicting significant neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia. ROC curve anlaysis revealed that a cutoff of UCB of 1.95 mg/dL resulted in an accepatable sensitivity and specificity for predicting significant jaundice requiring phototherapy at 75% and 68% respectively. ROC curve analysis revealed that Area Under Curve (AUC) for UCB levels of all babies for predicting jaundice requiring treatment was 0.765, 95% CI 0.592 to 0.937. Separate ROC analysis showed that AUC for UCB for predicting phototherapy in babies with blood group incompatibility (AUC 0.80, 95% CI 0.418 to 1.00) was more significant than the AUC for babies without blood group incompatibility (AUC 0.490, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.69). Conclusion: UCB has high predictability for significant jaundice requiring phototherapy. The prediction is more when babies with blood group incompatibility is considered compared to babies without blood group incompatibility.