Since few data are available about factors affecting renal maturation especially in the lower gestational ages (G.A.), the aim of this work was to study postnatal renal function in a representative population sample of preterm newborns (G.A.

Quality of life is negatively affected in children with food allergy. Oral immunotherapy is an approach to food allergy that leads to patient desensitization by administering gradually increasing amounts of a given food allergen. The aim of this pilot study is to evaluate how oral immunotherapy affects quality of life in children allergic to cow milk proteins. Thirty children (aged 3-12 years) with cow milk allergy were recruited. Their parents were provided with a validated disease specific quality oflife questionnaire (the food allergy quality of life questionnaire -parent form, FAQLQ-PF) before and again 2 months after completing an oral immunotherapy protocol with cow milk. A significant improvement in all the investigated domains -emotional impact, food anxiety and social and dietary limitations -was found. The separate analysis of the different age groups demonstrated that the emotional impact and the foodrelated anxiety improved in children older than 4, while the social domains improved in each age group. In this pilot experience, oral immunotherapy significantly improves quality of life in children with cow milk allergy. The improvement seems particularly evident in children over 4 years old, who are most likely to benefit from the oral immunotherapy approach. Further placebo-controlled studies are needed to confirm these preliminary results.Food allergy is a common problem in children for which at the moment there are no standard curative treatments, so that the management of food allergy is mainly based on food avoidance and emergency treatment in the event of an accidental exposure (l). The need to carefully avoid a given food and fears of unintentional exposure pose limitations on a person's social life, negatively affecting the quality of life (2, 3). Pediatric studies have confirmed that quality of life suffers both in the children affected, at all ages, and in their parents (2, 3). DunnGalvin et al. validated the first food allergy specific questionnaire that allows parents to report children's QoL from the child's perspective (food allergy quality of life questionnaire -parent form, FAQLQ-PF) (4). Being a disease specific questionnaire, it has the advantage of showing no ceiling effect, which on the contrary, is present in the generic quality of life questionnaires due to the fact that most of the patients reach the highest score in generic questions, not related with the specific problems of their disease (l, 5). In addition, a disease-specific questionnaire can be used in longitudinal studies and it is suitable for the assessment of changes in the quality of life due to treatment interventions (4). The objective of our pilot study was to apply the questionnaire to

Rotavirus accounts for a significant proportion of acute gastroenteritis cases in children less than 5 years in Italy, many of whom require frequent primary care consultations, or care in emergency room or hospital settings.

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