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Objectives: To investigate the persistent symptoms in preschool children after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant infection, and to provide a basis for developing follow-up plans after infection and reducing and preventing related symptoms after infection., Methods: The children, aged 0-5 years, who had Omicron BA.2 infection and were discharged from the pediatric ward of Shanghai Renji Hospital South Branch from April 13 to May 8, 2022, were enrolled as subjects, and related demographic and clinical data were collected. The children were followed up from the time to SARS-CoV-2 clearance for two consecutive tests with an interval of >24 hours till 4-5 weeks after clearance, and telephone follow-up was performed on the primary caregivers to investigate related persistent symptoms., Results: Among the 103 children who met the inclusion criteria, there were 61 boys and 42 girls, with a median age of 18 months. The primary caregivers who had received two or more doses of COVID-19 vaccine accounted for 64.1% (66/103). Fever (98.1%, 101/103) was the most common symptom in these children, followed by cough/expectoration (63.1%, 65/103), gastrointestinal problems (37.9%, 39/103), loss of appetite (30.1%, 31/103), weakness (27.2%, 28/103), and nasal obstruction/runny nose (16.5%, 17/103). The follow-up at 1 month after discharge reported that 44 children (42.7%) had at least one persistent symptom, including respiratory symptoms in 14 children (13.6%) and gastrointestinal problems in 19 children (18.4%). The children whose primary caregivers received two or more doses of COVID-19 vaccine had a significantly shorter time to SARS-CoV-2 clearance than those whose primary caregivers did not receive or only received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine ( P <0.05), while there was no significant difference between the two groups in the proportion of children with at least one persistent symptom ( P >0.05)., Conclusions: Nearly half of the preschool children may have related persistent symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infection, mainly gastrointestinal and respiratory symptoms. Most of the symptoms may be mild, and continuous follow-up is needed to observe their outcomes. Vaccination of COVID-19 vaccine for primary caregivers has a certain protective effect on children.

The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought great challenges to the traditional medical model. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in Shanghai, China, from March to May, 2022, there was a significant increase in the number of pediatric cases due to high transmissibility, immune escape, and vaccine breakthrough capacity of Omicron variants. The designated hospitals for children with COVID-19 served as a connecting link between children's specialized hospitals and mobile cabin hospitals. From April 7 to June 2, 2022, a total of 871 children with COVID-19 were admitted to Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (South Branch), a designated hospital for children with COVID-19. Among these patients, 568 (65.2%) were children under 3 years old, 870 (99.9%) were mild or moderate, and 1 was severe. This article reports the experience in the management of pediatric cases in this designated hospital, which included the following aspects: establishing an optimal case-admission process; strengthening multidisciplinary standardized diagnosis and treatment; optimizing the management, warning, and rescue system for severe COVID-19; implementing family-centered nursing care; formulating an individualized traditional Chinese medicine treatment regimen; optimizing the discharge process and strengthening bed turnover; implementing strict whole-process control to reduce the risk of nosocomial infection; constructing a structured medical record system and using information platforms to adapt to the work mode of large-volume cases; conducting scientific research and sharing the experience in diagnosis and treatment.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions in children with chronic illness and their parents., Methods: Fifty children with chronic illness and 75 parents participated in the study. Children who were hospitalized between August 2007 and January 2008 and their parents received educational sessions and those who were hospitalized between February and July 2007 and who did not receive the sessions served as the control group. The content of the educational sessions included knowledge of chronic disease, drugs and self-care, and coping skills. The knowledge level, stressors, coping strategies, and psychological conditions of children with chronic illness and their parents were evaluated before discharge and three months after discharge., Results: After educational interventions, the knowledge levels of children and their parents increased and the stressors decreased significantly in the intervention group compared with those in the control group. The children's parents in the intervention group used more active coping strategies (understanding the medical situations through communication with medical staff) than those in the control group. The differences in the medication compliance of children between the two groups were not found., Conclusions: The educational interventions may result in an improved knowledge level and decrease stressors in children and their parents, and improve stress coping strategies in parents. There is no evidence that the educational intervention can improve the psychosocial conditions of children and their parents.

Objective: To investigate the neurodevelopmental outcome of preterm infants who were discharged from neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at 1 year of age and the impact factors contributing to the neurodevelopmental outcome and to study whether early intervention can improve the neurodevelopmental outcome in preterm infants., Methods: Early intervention guidance and follow-up visits were performed after the preterm infants discharged from NICU. The infants received the infant development test of Child Development Centre of China (CDCC) for neurological development at 1 year of age. The neurodevelopmental outcome was evaluated based on mental development index (MDI) and physical development index (PDI). MDI and PDI > 85 was defined as normal, MDI or PDI between 70 and 85 as critical and MDI or PDI < 70 as abnormal. Social-domestic and clinical factors related to neurological development were analyzed by ANOVA or chi-square test. Potential high risk factors were analyzed with logistic regression. To investigate the effects of intervention compliance on neurological development, the infants were classified into two groups according to different intervention compliances. The good compliance group included infants who received a through familial intervention for more than 4 days weekly (30 minutes daily) and consulted with physicians more than 5 times in 1 year. The infants who did not receive the interventions as the good compliance group served as the bad compliance group., Results: This study consisted of 210 infants, with a mean gestational age of 33.2 +/- 2.6 weeks and a mean birth weight of 1923.3 +/- 558.8 g. Normal, critical and abnormal neurological development occurred in 123 cases (58.6%), 61 cases (29.0%) and 26 cases (12.4%) respectively. Eighteen infants (8.6%) had mental lag and 9 (4.3%) had cerebral palsy (CP). The MDI and PDI scores of the good compliance group (111 cases) were 97.15 +/- 17.38 and 94.23 +/- 18.55 respectively, which were markedly higher than those of the bad compliance group (89.87 +/-18.92 and 87.20 +/-19.12; P < 0.05). The incidence of CP (3/111, 2.7%) in the good compliance group was lower than that of the bad compliance group (5/99, 6.1%) although there were no statistical differences. Parents' education level, multiple birth, serious intracranial hemorrhage and apnea were risk factors for adverse neurodevelopmental outcome., Conclusions: Preterm infants discharged from NICU are a high risk group of neurodevelopmental disablement. Early intervention can improve the neurodevelopmental outcome of perterm infants at high risk.