Background: Inappropriate use and overuse of antibiotics are important factors leading to increased bacterial resistance apart from increased risk of adverse reactions. The aim of this study was to derive antibiotic use percentage, study its pattern and compare antibiotic prescribing indicators with standard indicators.Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted from 1st August 2018 to 31st July 2019 on paediatric inpatients from 1 month to 14 years. All the relevant data was taken from the case records of patients at the time of discharge. The data included: age, sex, hospital stay, clinical diagnosis and details of antimicrobial treatment.Results: From 989 patients, 85.9% were diagnosed with infectious illness, of which 60.1% had viral and 36.7% had bacterial infection. The use of antimicrobial drugs was 42.7% and antibiotics was 40.4%. The mean number of antibiotics received was 1.13±0.31. 90% patients received single antibiotic. 88.8% drugs were prescribed by generic name and 99% drugs were prescribed from essential drug formulary. 17 different antibiotics were used out of which ceftriaxone (62.5%) was the most commonly used. Groupwise, antibiotic use was cephalosporins (68.4%), penicillin (20.2%), aminoglycosides (4.31%), fluoroquinolones (0.9%) and macrolides (0.22%). The use of higher antibiotics like vancomycin (3.86%) and carbapenems (0.68%) was quite less.Conclusions: The antibiotic use in our hospital was higher than the WHO standard but less as compared to majority of other studies. Use of cephalosporins was more and penicillin was less as compared to other studies. This suggests that there is a need of implementing antibiotic stewardship programs to enhance rational antibiotic prescribing.

BACKGROUND:- Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation. Screening for congenital hypothyroidism can be helpful in preventing mental retardation among general population. Umbilical cord blood TSH (CBTSH) estimation has been universally accepted and is one of the most cost effective screening programs in the field of preventive medicine and public health. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:- This study was aimed to find the effectiveness of cord blood TSH as a screening tool for congenital hypothyroidism. MATERIALS AND METHODS:- This hospital based cross sectional study was conducted at GCS Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, Ahmedabad, over a period of one year in 1687 neonates. All newborns delivered at the institute were subjected to cord blood TSH level estimation and a repeat Serum TSH estimation was done at or after 72 hours of life. Diagnosis of congenital hypothyroidism is confirmed postnatally by standard Serum TSH value cut offs as per age. Data collected and statistically analysed. RESULTS:- Out of 1687 neonates born during the study period, 1548 formed the study group. 805 (52%) were males and 743(48%) were females. The birth weight of babies ranged from 850 gms to 4300 gms. The value of CBTSH varied from 1.3mIU/L to 101.4mIU/L with mean CBTSH of 7.21mIU/L. 28(1.8%) babies had CBTSH levels >20mIU/L. Out of which four were later diagnosed to have congenital hypothyroidism. All four had CBTSH levels >20mIU/L. All other neonates with CBTSH levels less than 20mIU/L were found to have normal screening later postnatally. CONCLUSION:- The current study concludes that cord blood TSH is a sensitive marker to screen for congenital hypothyroidism in neonates. A cut off value of cord blood TSH >20mIU/ml can be used for screening purpose.

Background: India is facing a grave challenge of having very high rates of child under-nutrition and a high infant and child mortality, which demands an urgent need for comprehensive multi-pronged evidence based strategy to tackle the situation. Breastfeeding offers the ultimate food during the first 6 months of life. Complementary feeding starts when breast milk is no longer sufficient by itself, the target age is between 6-24 months. Complementary feeding plays critical role in bridging these gaps between nutritional requirements and growth and development of child with increasing age. Complementary feeding strategies encompass a wide variety of interventions designed to improve not only the quality and quantity of these foods but also improve the feeding behaviors. In this review we analyzed knowledge and attitude of mother regarding feeding practices among children of 6 months to 2 years of age who had visited tertiary care centre.Methods: Personal interview of mothers having a child in the age group of 6 months to 2 years of age in the duration of October 2017 to March 2018 visiting pediatric department at a tertiary care centre and willing to give information are included in the sample. The Questions regarding socio demographic profile, various occupations, type of feeding practiced, knowledge regarding feeding and complimentary feeding were included in Performa. Data was entered in MS Excel and analyzed using SPSS software.Results: Almost 8 out of 10 mothers were literate in the study (77.80%). About 75% mothers didn’t know the correct type of complimentary feeding to initiate for their babies. Knowledge about correct time of starting complimentary feeding was more commonly found in housewife mothers than the working mothers and findings was supported by statistical significance. Mothers with >=2 children were using correct type of food for complementary feeding more commonly that with mothers having single child.Conclusions: The present study highlighting knowledge gap and practice gap in mothers about complimentary feedings. Appropriate complementary feeding education emphasizing timely initiation and meal diversity is necessary to improve knowledge and feeding practices of mothers whether mother is educated or uneducated.

Introduction: Cord blood would be a feasible and simple method for detecting cholesterol level at birth. Neonatal lipids level could serve as a guide to know the physiological levels of lipids required for maintaining the normal bodily mechanisms. Aim: To compare the cord blood lipid profile of 300 newborn babies born to hypertensive and normotensive mothers. Materials and Methods: The case-control study was done in the Department of Paediatrics, GCS Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, for the period of one year from Jan 2019 to Jan 2020. A total of 300 pregnant ladies were included in the study. They were divided in two groups: group A consisted of 150 newborns who were born to 150 hypertensive mothers and group B consisted of 150 newborns who were born to 150 non hypertensive mothers. Five millilitres of cord blood were collected from the placental end of the umbilical vein, and then the serum was separated by centrifugation. Data was collected and mean±SD were calculated. Chi-square test and Mann Whitney test were done for statistical analysis. Results: When the cord blood was evaluated for the cholesterol, Triglyceride (TG) (p-value 0.001), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) (p-value 0.001) and Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) (p-value 0.001) level; it was found that in group A the levels were more in mean value as compared to the non hypertensive group, where the level was found to be lower than the mean value. The difference was found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: Hypertensive status of mother could impact neonatal lipid profile; however, larger prospective studies are required to validate these results.