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Background: To assess the change in serum total calcium levels during light-emitting diode phototherapy treatment for jaundice in term neonates. Methods: A prospective observational study was done on 104 term neonates with hyperbilirubinemia in a tertiary care center to investigate the effects of phototherapy using a light-emitting diode device. The total serum bilirubin along with total calcium levels was measured at the start and at the end of phototherapy. Additionally, all the newborns enrolled in the study were evaluated for hypocalcaemia-related symptoms such as jitteriness, irritability/excitability, lethargy, and convulsions. Results: A significant lowering of posttreatment total calcium level compared to that of pretreatment level (p<0.001) was found in our study. Hypocalcemia (serum calcium <8 mg/dL in term neonates) was found in 12.5% of the study subjects. Conclusions: In the treatment of neonatal jaundice, similar to conventional blue and white light phototherapy, light-emitting diode phototherapy also has hypocalcemia as an adverse effect. We recommend monitoring these babies for hypocalcemia during light-emitting diode phototherapy.

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Background: wheezing in children and its seasonal exacerbations are a major concern among parents and health professionals. Increasing the parent's knowledge play a major role in early identification and management of wheezing exacerbation at home. Aims& objectives: This study was conducted with the objective of assessing the health education benefit and improved outcome on parent's attitude knowledge and practice while dealing with their wheezing children. Materials and methods: This prospective study was conducted on parents of 100 wheezing children attending outpatient department of paediatrics at SRM hospital.Health education was provided individually to parents for 10 minutes. Responses for KAP questionnaire on wheezing related knowledge was collected before health education and one week after health education and compared. Results: For all the ten questions the percentage of intended responses improved after health education session. Mean score improved from 12.32 to 17.9 after heath education. (P value <

Background: Asthma is the most common chronic respiratory disorder of children. A significant feature that has not received the attention it deserves is the effect of asthma on quality of sleep itself and the consequent adverse effect on individuals' performance in day to day activities. Increased daytime sleepiness and tiredness because of frequent nocturnal awakenings has been documented even in clinically stable asthmatic children. Hence this study is an attempt at identifying the prevalence of sleep related disorders in asthmatic children and once identified the therapy can be directed towards these nocturnal symptoms so that these children have a better sleep quality and day time performance. Methods: 125 asthmatic children in the age of 3-12 years as per the criteria IAP asthma by consensus attending the outpatient department of a tertiary care centre were classified into the category of asthma. The parents of the children were given the questionnaire sleep disturbance scale for children (SDSC) and were asked to recall the sleep related questions in the preceding 6 month period. Results: Out of the 125 children, 115 (92.0%) of children overall had significant sleep disturbance. The areas of sleep affected were disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep (88.8%); sleep wake transition disorders (87.2%) and disorders of excessive somnolence (89.6%). The use of inhaled corticosteroids with long acting beta 2 agonists showed a reduction of sleep related disorders in these children. Conclusions: It can be concluded that there is significant sleep disturbances in asthmatic children. These children have difficulty in initiating sleep and also have excessive daytime sleepiness and tiredness due to poor quality of sleep.