You?d be forgiven for thinking that COVID-19 was the only important health issue this year. But kids? health is about so much more than viruses, and while media outlets and even medical journals focused on COVID-19 issues month after month, doctors and researchers kept investigating other topics, like fever, sore throats and child safety. As a paediatrician and a mom, I kept my eye out for game-changing developments in kids? health this year. Here are five that are key for us all to know about. 
New fever guidelines
Fever is one of the most common and worrisome symptoms in babies because it can be the first sign of a serious bacterial infection, known as an SBI. For more than 40 years, doctors have been trying to develop evidence-based guidelines to predict which babies are at high risk and which are at low risk of these SBIs, which include sepsis (infection in the blood), urinary tract infections and meningitis. The risk of blood infections, in particular, has been difficult to predict soon after a fever begins because it can be present without having obvious symptoms or laboratory test indicators.  Until now, many hospitals have tested all babies under two to three months who have a fever for all three SBIs with urine and blood tests as well as a lumbar puncture, a needle inserted in the back to withdraw cerebrospinal fluid. They have also treated them with intravenous antibiotics and admitted them to the hospital, even when the babies looked well. 
Now the American Ac...