BACKGROUNDParenting is the process of giving care to the young and preparing them to face the challenges of life. Diana Baumrind introduced the models of parenting, authoritative, authoritarian and permissive depending on the level of demandingness and responsiveness. Defective parenting is associated with problem behaviours in children. This study was undertaken to find out which parenting style is least associated with behavioural problems and what are the problems associated with the different parenting style.

Background: Down syndrome (DS) is a major cause of mental retardation of prenatal origin and has several associated co-morbidities involving cardiovascular system, respiratory, endocrine system, hematological, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, eye and ear defects, immunological changes and neurological system. This study was conducted to identify the common medical problems in children with Down syndrome and the morbidity associated with these conditions. The objective of the present study was to find out the occurrence of different medical problems in children with DS.Methods: 42 children with a phenotype of Down syndrome in the age group of 0-12 years attending the outpatient, inpatient and Down syndrome Clinic of the Institute of Child Health, Kottayam during the study period were included in the study by purposive sampling. Demographic details were entered, and Pediatric Clinical Examination was performed by the investigator himself to identify the medical problems. Old medical reports were reviewed, and data entered into a proforma and statistically analysed.Results: Out of the 42 children with DS, 22 were males. 15 (35.7%) were less than 1 year, 20 (48.3%) children 1-5 years and 7 (16.1%) children 5-12 years of age. Mean age of the study group was 1.78±0.51 years. Mean age of their mothers at the time of conception was 30.6±5.8 years. 26 (57%) children with Down syndrome had a medical problem during the neonatal period which required hospitalization. Almost all systems are affected and craniofacial features, developmental delay and hypotonia were universal. Various forms of congenital heart diseases were observed in 67% and hypothyroidism in 23.8%.Conclusions: Down syndrome is a common genetic disorder with multisystem involvement. Congenital heart diseases, hypothyroidism and recurrent respiratory infections were the common medical problems identified in this study.

BACKGROUND Down syndrome is one of the common chromosomal abnormalities in humans. It occurs in about one per 700-800 babies born each year. The quality of life of the family may be related to the medical problems in the child, parental awareness and attitude to this differently abled child and other parental factors as their personality, anxiety, depression and stress. Hence, this study was undertaken to assess the quality of life of mothers of children with Down syndrome with respect to differences in selected child related and parent related socioeconomic variables. MATERIALS AND METHODS 31 children with Down syndrome who presented to the outpatient department and Down Syndrome Clinic at the Institute of Child Health, Kottayam from August to December 2016 were enrolled after getting informed consent and IRB approval. Social and demographic data of children and mothers in the study group by purposive sampling were entered into a proforma and detailed medical examination was conducted and recorded in the Paediatric medical examination sheet by the investigator after obtaining informed consent. The mothers were administered with WHO-QOL BREF Questionnaire (Malayalam) to assess the QOL after proper explanation. Data were analysed with statistical tests as mean and standard deviation for descriptive data and Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test for nonparametric data. RESULTS Medium Quality of Life was reported by most of the mothers with mean of 52.82  15.38 overall score WHO QOL BREF questionnaire. Higher mean score was observed in the social relationship domain. QOL scores were better in rural joint families and upper middle class families. This may be due to the better social and psychological support in the family. When the educational status of the spouse is higher, mothers reported a low QoL score, though no such difference was seen with the educational status or occupation of mothers. The maternal QoL scores did not show significant differences with reference to child related variables as age, sex, birth weight, gestational age or medical illness in the child. CONCLUSION Medium Quality of Life was reported by most of the mothers of children with Down Syndrome. Better QoL was observed in rural joint families and upper middle class families; not affected by child related variables.

BACKGROUND Unintentional poisoning is the major cause of morbidity in children. 1 More than 50% of the poisoning occurs in children under the age of 6. Younger children with their natural curiosity and with their recently acquired hand skills and mobility explore more and may accidentally get poisoned. These age group children are undergoing the oral stage of their psychological development. Hence, most childhood poisoning occurs from ingestion. 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a case control analytical study. Purposive sampling method was used for the study. The population in this study were children below 5 years of age who were admitted with unintentional poisoning in Government Medical College, Kottayam during the study period. Studied 23 cases and 23 controls. The tools used for the study were clinical examination proforma, CBCL 1½-5 years questionnaire. Mann-Whitney U test was used for analysis of data. The study focused to determine, which problem items tend to occur together for a syndrome in a child with unintentional poisoning. RESULTS The total score of CBCL were found to be high in children with unintentional poisoning (median of 58) compared to the childre n without poisoning (median of 48). Children with unintentional poisoning were having CBCL 1½-5 scores with a median value closer to maximum scores in the aspects of withdrawn (2, 4); attention problems (5, 9); aggressive behaviour (13, 23); internalising (12, 23); externalising (18, 28) and total problems (45, 80). Compared to the control group, children with unintentional poisoning were having significant increase in internalising problems like withdrawn nature and somatic complaints and externalising problems like aggression and attention problems. Sleep problems were also found to be increased in children with unintentional poisoning compared to age and sex matched controls. CONCLUSION Internalising and externalising problems were found to be increased in children with unintentional poisoning. So the parents can be made aware of the behaviours of the child which can lead to poisoning and precautionary methods can be taken.

BACKGROUNDThough dengue is raging in epidemic proportions in India, not many reports of dengue encephalitis have been reported from this region. We report a case of encephalitis in a child, which turned out to be dengue encephalitis. Unlike many cases of viral encephalitis, the child recovered fast without any neurological outcomes with good supportive care. With the increasing dengue outbreaks in India recently, it should be considered as an aetiological agent in encephalitis also.