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Despite the significant attention and resources committed to the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity, the epidemic shows no sign of abating.1 Although all children are at risk for obesity, there are marked disparities by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, neighborhood, and access to health care.2 Any successful approach to addressing the overall burden of obesity must not rely solely on the healthcare system,3 but must include the implementation of policies that take into account the physical and social environment to change the eating and activity behaviors of children and their families. Examples of such policy efforts include the attempts to ban food marketing to children and to increase access to safe and appealing venues for exercise.4,5 Despite these important policy directions, efforts to sustain changes in behavior remain challenging, and the evidence about which interventions are most effective is still incomplete.6 Social networks are groupings of interconnected 2-way relationships. Modern-day social networks typically rely on social media for communication. More specifically, the term social media refers to the use of Web-based and mobile technologies that are commonly used for interaction and communication within networks. Research underscores strong associations between participation in social networks and preventive health behavior.7–11 Recently, it was observed that obesity may spread across social networks, suggesting that these networks could be leveraged for prevention or treatment.12,13 The main purpose of this statement is to evaluate the role of social networks and social media in relation to childhood obesity. We build on a recent statement by the American Heart Association directed at the management of adult weight management strategies in the ambulatory setting that focused on the use of Internet-based and other related technologies.14 In this statement, we provide an overview of social networks and …

This study examined the impact of recurrent otitis media on mothers' perceptions of themselves and of their 2-year-old children. Fifty-two mothers of children with and without histories of recurrent otitis media completed measures that rated the level of stress in the mother-child relationship at two points in time. The mothers of children who experienced six or more episodes of otitis media in the first 2 years of life rated their children as significantly more demanding at age two and at follow-up 6 months later than did the mothers of children who experienced no more than one episode of the illness. At the first point in time, these mothers also rated themselves as significantly more depressed and less competent than did control mothers, a pattern that was maintained at the follow-up. Findings of the study suggest that recurrent otitis media early in life may contribute to adverse perceptions of child and self that may persist for some time after the child has been relatively disease free and further suggest that parental perceptions may mediate relationships between early recurrent otitis media and later developmental outcomes.

Recurrent vomiting is a common symptom in infancy that, when severe, may prompt an extensive diagnostic evaluation. We report a 1-year-old infant whose recurrent vomiting eluded diagnosis until ipecac syrup was detected in vomitus and urine. Separation of the infant from the mother resulted in complete resolution of the symptoms. In Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a disorder in which a mother fabricates or induces illness in her child, most reported fatalities are due to intentional poisoning. In atypical cases of recurrent vomiting, early screening of body fluids for unexpected drugs, particularly ipecac, may prevent potentially fatal delays in diagnosis.