Neonatal diabetes differs from insulin-dependent diabetes in that its course is highly variable. Some patients have permanent diabetes, but others have transient or lasting remissions.

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Own data and analysis of previous publications show that situations where accidental ingestion of corrosive substances by children may have happened are frequent, but severe corrosive esophagitis leading to perforation or stricture formation is very rare. In case of suspected esophageal injury, esophagoscopy and glucocorticoid treatment become necessary. The evaluation of the initial symptoms in patients from our own material and from the literature indicates that all children with serious esophageal burns had one or more of the following symptoms: visible burns in the oral cavity, hypersalivation, retching, vomiting, retrosternal or epigastric pain, cardiovascular collaps, airway stenosis. Hence, children with an uncertain history of ingestion and without any of these symptoms need not be treated. After ingestion of liquid substances, but never of dry or granular products, lesions in the esophagus without accompanying burns in the oral cavity were observed. The evaluation of 1158 cases of accidental ingestions of several types of household products and a collection of data from the literature on the causticity of these substances shows that cleaners containing mainly detergents and phosphates (with pH values generally between 9 and 11), and household bleaches on sodium hypochlorite basis, are relatively harmless. Drain cleaners (NaOH), decalcifiers (formic acid) and detergents for automatic dish washing machines (metasilicates) are very caustic and are responsible for the majority of serious accidents in children.

Catch-up growth was analyzed in 20 prepubertal children with primary hypothyroidism (PH) starting treatment at an age of 4.4 (1.2–10.1) years and a height (HT) SD score (HT SDS) of –3.1 (±0.8). All patients were followed for at least 3 prepubertal years. HT velocity was 12.3 ± 2.3, 9.0 ± 1.8 and 7.5 ± 2.2 cm/year, and change in HT SDS was 1.60 ± 0.56, 0.57 ± 0.33 and 0.28 ± 0.38 during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year, respectively. The 11 children followed to adult height reached a HT SDS of –0.11 ± 1.1, all within their target HT range. HT gain (ΔHT SDS) during the 1st year was correlated with the degree of catch-up growth (r² = 0.78, p < 0.001). While catch-up growth in childhood-onset PH is complete, this is not the case in GH deficiency (GHD). Based on the auxological characteristics of the patients with PH, HT velocities during the first 2 years were predicted applying prediction models devised for prepubertal children with idiopathic GHD. The modalities of GH treatment observed in the models were used to calculate predicted HT velocities of the PH patients. Observed HT velocities in PH were higher than predicted HT velocities during the 1st (10.67 ± 1.37 cm/year, p < 0.01) and 2nd (8.35 ± 0.86 cm/year, p = 0.128) year. The data show that catch-up potential in idiopathic GHD of childhood onset is reduced compared to PH. Since early catch-up as well as total HT recovery in children with GHD are often not reached by present treatment modalities, catch-up growth in PH may serve as a model towards optimizing GH treatment. The data suggest that initial GH doses of 1.0 IU/kg/week, rather than the presently recommended 0.6 IU/kg/week, need to be given in GHD in order to achieve the degree of early catch-up observed in PH and to consequently improve the final outcome.

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