The neurologic examination in the 1st year of life. 2

The author gives a review on normal neurological development in the first year of life. In the second part the author describes the special reflexes and reactions laying the foundation of the normal beginning of locomotion.     

Celiac disease and dietary habits in the 1st year of life

The Authors have performed a study on the dietary habits of 74 celiac children and have analysed retrospectively the type of nursing (breast-feeding or bottle-feeding), the time and the age of gluten introduction. Then they related these data to the age of onset of symptoms. Children breast-fed for 3 months or more showed a marked delay in the onset of the disease and a longer latency time from gluten introduction when compared with bottle-fed children; on the contrary early gluten introduction was not positively correlated to risk of celiac disease. This observations induce to think that breast-feeding may be a protective factor towards coeliac disease, while the precocious gluten introduction is not an important factor of risk correlated to this disease.     

Longitudinal study of blood pressure during the 1st year of life

Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), heart rate and weight were measured in 260 boys and 254 girls, from birth to 12 months of age. Mean±SD values of parameters studied and percentile curves are reported. Systolic and diastolic BP increase significantly during the first 6 months of life and are poorly correlated with weight. In the 1st month of life the diastolic BP values are lower than those reported by others.     

Cryptorchidism: medical and surgical treatment in the 1st year of life

Since cryptorchidism can cause infertility and early orchiopexy can improve fertility, we tried to determine whether medical and surgical treatment in the 1st year of life can improve testicular fertility. We concluded that this is the best time to treat cryptorchid tests.     

Reflux nephropathy in the 1st year of life — the role of infection

The importance of infection and vesico-ureteric reflux in the development of reflux nephropathy is generally accepted. Widespread use of antenatal ultrasound scanning has identified dilated fetal urinary tracts, allowing prompt investigation and treatment in the early post-natal period; some of these children have vesico-ureteric reflux. This study compares renal parenchymal damage, demonstrated by uptake of technetium ^99m dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) in two groups. The first included babies less than 6 months old who had presented with their first urinary tract infection and had vesico-ureteric reflux. The second included those in whom a dilated urinary tract had been identified at antenatal ultrasound and post-natal investigation revealed vesico-ureteric reflux, but who had no evidence of urinary tract infection. Renal damage was present in 68% of group 1 and 29% of group 2 when DMSA scanning was used to detect scarring (P = <0.05). Our results support the proposal that infection is a major factor in development of renal damage in patients with vesico-ureteric reflux. Identification by antenatal ultrasound scanning allows early therapeutic intervention before renal damage occurs. Offprint requests to: D. C. S. Gough