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Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2000;154:205-206.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

We read with interest the article by Sadow et al.¹ We found the data to be thought provoking, but we disagree with their recommendations regarding the choice of empirical antibiotics for febrile infants younger than 29 days. A recommendation to base decisions on certain tests, such as cerebrospinal fluid and urine studies, must take into account the accuracy of these tests. Regarding cerebrospinal fluid studies in neonates, several authors have already shown that initial cerebrospinal fluid findings can be quite misleading.^2-4 Of special interest are 2 cases of neonatal meningitis in which the initial cerebrospinal fluid findings were normal but grew group B streptococci.^2-3 In these cases the treatment of choice would be to administer ampicillin and gentamicin. Regarding microscopic urinalysis in neonates, our experience has been that the analysis can be quite insensitive. Of additional concern are the data recently presented by Baker and Bell.⁵ In their study they . . . [Full Text of this Article]