[Feeding and eating in infancy and early childhood part III. - Development of self-feeding skills in the large-sample of the “For Healthy Offspring” project INTRODUCTION - After introducing adequate complementary food to the diet of breastfed/formula-fed babies, the frequency and amount of semisolid/solid food is increasing, the breastmilk/formula intake is decreasing and finally the weaning process is completed. During this process the developing feeding skills of the infant enables them to self-feed. The self-feeding infant and toddler should participate in family meals. SUBJECTS AND METHODS - In the Healthy Offspring project self reported questionnaires were received from 1133 parents of 0-3 year old children. Issues concerning the development of self-feeding skills were analyzed. RESULTS - With advancing age the proportion of infants/toddlers, reported to be able to (partially) self-feed, has increased. The age, at which the majority of toddlers (83.1%) were reported to self-feed, was at 13-15 months. By the age over 2 years 57.2% of the toddlers were fully self-feeding, 39.3% were self-feeding with some assistance, and 3.5% were still completely fed by their mother/caregiver. While self-feeding became more prevalent, the proportion of toddlers with feeding problems and insufficient weight gain has increased. With more prevalent complementary feeding more parents assessed their feeding style rather scheduled than on demand. In the whole sample the proportion of infants/toddlers, who ate with the family, was 43.8%. CONCLUSIONS - In our sample, as previously described in the scientific literature, the developmental readiness to self-feed has developed in the majority of infants by the age of 13-15 months. During progres­sion of weaning an increasing proportion of parents thought, that feeding was rather scheduled than on demand. This finding points at the importance of educating parents about the importance of responsive feeding during and after weaning. For self-feeding toddlers, responsive feeding means, that the mother/caregiver offers a choice of healthy and adequate amount of food, at a proper place, at proper times, responds to the hunger and satiety cues of the child and the toddler decides, whether to eat, what and how much to eat.]

Although vertigo is one of the most common complaints, intracranial malignant tumors rarely cause sudden asymmetry between the tone of the vestibular peripheries masquerading as a peripheral-like disorder. Here we report a case of simultaneous temporal bone infiltrating macro-metastasis and disseminated multi-organ micro-metastases presenting as acute unilateral vestibular syndrome, due to the reawakening of a primary gastric signet ring cell carcinoma. Purpose – Our objective was to identify those pathophysiological steps that may explain the complex process of tumor reawakening, dissemination. The possible causes of vestibular asymmetry were also traced. A 56-year-old male patient’s interdisciplinary medical data had been retrospectively analyzed. Original clinical and pathological results have been collected and thoroughly reevaluated, then new histological staining and immunohistochemistry methods have been added to the diagnostic pool. During the autopsy the cerebrum and cerebellum was edematous. The apex of the left petrous bone was infiltrated and destructed by a tumor mass of 2x2 cm in size. Histological reexamination of the original gastric resection specimen slides revealed focal submucosal tumorous infiltration with a vascular invasion. By immunohistochemistry mainly single infiltrating tumor cells were observed with Cytokeratin 7 and Vimentin positivity and partial loss of E-cadherin staining. The subsequent histological examination of necropsy tissue specimens confirmed the disseminated, multi-organ microscopic tumorous invasion. Discussion – It has been recently reported that the expression of Vimentin and the loss of E-cadherin is significantly associated with advanced stage, lymph node metastasis, vascular and neural invasion and undifferentiated type with p<0.05 significance. As our patient was middle aged and had no immune-deficiency, the promoting factor of the reawakening of the primary GC malignant disease after a 9-year-long period of dormancy remained undiscovered. The organ-specific tropism explained by the “seed and soil” theory was unexpected, due to rare occurrence of gastric cancer to metastasize in the meninges given that only a minority of these cells would be capable of crossing the blood brain barrier. Patients with past malignancies and new onset of neurological symptoms should alert the physician to central nervous system involvement, and the appropriate, targeted diagnostic and therapeutic work-up should be established immediately. Targeted staining with specific antibodies is recommended. Recent studies on cell lines indicate that metformin strongly inhibits epithelial-mesenchymal transition of gastric cancer cells. Therefore, further studies need to be performed on cases positive for epithelial-mesenchymal transition.