For more than two past decades, the health of children and adolescents in Russia has persistently deteriorated, as demonstrated both by the official statistical data and results of several studies [1-8]. Various sources of information should be taken into account to determine the health status in different children cohorts: results of preventive medical examination of children conducted at children's clinics and scientific materials of pediatric universities, university departments and research institutes [4]. Scientific Center of Children's Health RAMS remains the leading national institution which studies health conditions (including diseases) of children of different ages.

The article tells about the current situation with iodine deficiency in the children of Russia, negative effects of Iodine deficiency disorders on child and adolescent health, methods of iodine prophylaxis.

Due to the widespread prevalence of ARI, its treatment and prevention remain a relevant issue. Even mild ARI may cause exacerbation of a chronic disease. The economic damage to the state equals $ 1.6 billion each year. ARI distribution pattern dictates the need to isolate the child from the ill person or the potential source of infection. There are a number of vaccines against certain pathogens causing ARI; bacterial vaccines are widely used; interferon prophylaxis is recommended to children with a history of premorbid conditions, who just started to attend child care centers, and during flu epidemics. The effectiveness of some prevention methods may cause doubts. We should not forget about alternative methods of improving child's resistance to infectious agents and cold training.

We discussed problems faced by parents during the period of teething in infants and currently available solutions with Tatiana Andreevna Polunina, head of the department of ENT and maxillofacial organs rehabilitation treatment, Research Institute of Preventive Pediatrics and Rehabilitation, Scientific Centre for Children's Health RAMS, PhD in Medicine.

Recent years have seen an increase in the prevalence of food allergies globally, and pathological conditions associated with impaired tolerance to certain food are posing bigger problem for pediatrics. Food allergy is currently believed to be an adverse (pathological) reaction caused by intake of food, conditioned by certain immune mechanisms, including IgE-mediated and non-IgE-mediated allergic reactions.

Care for Newborn Skin

Headache (H) is one of the most frequent complaints in schoolchildren. The frequency of H in child and adolescent population is growing, making H both a general health and social-economic challenge. Primary H, as H in general, affects the life quality of the younger generation, limits the child's activity, impairs social contacts, often requires use of analgesics and other drugs with possibility of developing an addiction, increasing the dose and manifestations of toxic effects [1]. Pediatrician's role when dealing with such patients is to determine whether H is primary or secondary, concomitant with other disorders (injuries, sinusitis, eye disease, etc.), in order to better target and time consultations, patient management tactics and the volume of interaction with the family [2-4].

The article concentrates on one of the most common chronic childhood diseases - asthma. Asthma, which significantly reduces the quality of life of patients and their families, remains a serious public health problem. Persistence of chronic inflammation is the major sign of heterogeneous pathological process in asthma. Despite some success in understanding the pathogenesis of asthma, primary prevention of the disease has not been developed, and it is still impossible to stop asthma. The most preferred dynamic criterion to classify the condition of asthma patient is the level of control. For the majority of patients with asthma, adequate therapy, monitoring and training, a high compliance level and adherence to the prescribed treatment can help achieve and maintain control of the disease on a constant basis.

Nasty days of autumn and winter, with their cold days, windy weather, rain and snow bring about a period of increased morbidity. It's not a secret that almost every cold is accompanied by an inflammatory ENT disease. Along with the wider availability of the Internet in the recent years, an increasing number of patients do not seek medical help but choose self-medication. This leads to frequent and often unjustified administration of antibacterial drugs, growth in the number of antibiotic-resistant strains of microorganisms, which finally results in higher incidence of chronic acute bacterial sinusitis and severe complications. On the other hand, clinical practitioners often "commit a sin" of prescribing a list of medications which do not always constitute a rational therapy, often ignoring the routine patient examination that would ensure accurate diagnosis. The purpose of this article is to recall the clinical pattern, diagnosis and current treatment schemes for acute rhinitis and sinusitis, to help us avoid certain mistakes in the future.

Neurogenic bladder dysfunction (NBD) has long remained one of the most topical problems in pediatric urology. This is explained by the steady growth in the number of patients. Urination disorders against a background of NBD inevitably lead to a decrease in the quality of child's life manifested in social maladjustment, conflicts in the family and with other children, growing number of stressful situations and, consequently, a significant decrease in self-esteem.

Respiratory infections are among the most common diseases of childhood and the main reason for seeking medical help. Most of them are known to be viral; however, a big role among upper and lower respiratory tract infections belongs to those caused by pathogens such as pneumococci, Haemophilus influenzae and pyogenic streptococci. Despite the availability of international guidelines and medical literature on antimicrobial chemotherapy, the percentage of unjustified antibiotic therapies remains high, leading to enhanced resistance of pathogens.

Acute infectious respiratory diseases are among the most common childhood pathologies in the structure of medical aid appealability. A child typically suffers from 2 to 5-6 episodes of ARI during the year, which are often complicated by bronchitis, pneumonia or ENT diseases. Medication treatment recommended by the doctor does not always result in full recovery, and leads to certain side effects. Aromaphytotherapy is one of the major symptomatic treatments for respiratory diseases in children, which in many cases allows to significantly reduce the pharmacotherapeutic burden on the child's organism. The crucial task for today is to develop innovative standardized medicines for aromaphytotherapy with proven efficacy and safety in children, and easy to administrate formulations.

Modern diagnostic capabilities and improved medical knowledge allow to detect more diseases that were previously considered extremely rare. Along with the achievements of the pharmaceutical industry, timely diagnosis and adequate therapy often save the child's life and slow the progression of the disease. The article focuses on a rare genetic lysosomal storage disease which is inherited in autosomal recessive fashion - Niemann - Pick disease, type C. Types of clinical course and diagnostic methods are described in detail.

The healthcare system modernization in Russia is primarily aimed at strengthening the infrastructure, the information system development and professional growth of health specialists in pediatrics, the number of which, according to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, exceeds 60 thousand pediatricians and 130 thousand nurses.