Arch Dis Child 2001 Volume 85 No 4

At least one medical journal is fond of presenting a “Lesson of the Week”. Eschewing such parsimony, this month's ADC overflows with lessons—for example, we must be alert to rare ill effects of common practices (breast feeding and treating asthma with inhaled corticosteroids). The author of an exhaustively researched update on managing non-traumatic coma enjoins us generally to think the unthinkable but specifically to learn an algorithm and a list of vital criteria. Two papers on children with complex health needs detail how we fail them and, refreshingly, what might be done about it. The most fascinating lesson of the month, for an editor who likes words such as eschewing and parsimony, is a study from Kenya which provides evidence of the sensitivity of linguistics in making a bacteriological diagnosis. Tempted? Then read on.