Children's Health
Kids exercise to feel good, not lose weight
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Children and young teens may be more likely to exercise if they’re motivated by fun and fitness rather than weight concerns, a new study suggests.
In a study of 200 students (average age, 12-1/2 years) at one Pennsylvania middle school, researchers found that “personal fulfillment” was the only motivation to be active. That meant that kids tended to exercise for the sake of their health and athletic skills, and to simply feel good—and not in order to shed pounds or to emulate their friends or parents.
Cancer drug may help short boys be taller
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The drug tamoxifen, usually used to treat or prevent breast cancer, may help short boys attain a normal adult height, researchers report.
Final body height is determined when the skeleton reaches maturity, and tamoxifen decreases the rate of skeletal maturation, according to study findings reported in the medical journal Pediatrics.
Sweden to probe years of abuse in children’s homes
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Thousands of Swedes who say they were subjected to physical abuse and cruel treatment in state children’s homes and foster care for decades from the 1950s won the promise of an official inquiry on Thursday.
A cabinet minister said the probe would investigate the cases, which peaked in the 1940s and ‘50s when Sweden’s zeal for social engineering included making children of single women or poor people wards of the state.
Backpacks damage kids’ shoulders and backs
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Kids today are carrying too much of a load on their backs and researchers say back pack weight should be reduced for comfort and safety.
The average backpack load of a typical U.S. teen in middle school is far too heavy and the researchers warn that excessive pressure on the shoulder from weighty backpacks may lead to shoulder pain, and low back pain.
Exercise Helps Children With Congenital Heart Defects
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Exercise is good for the heart, even a child’s heart damaged by a birth defect, say researchers here.
Results from a small study suggest that regular exercise can improve cardiac function and reduce morbidity in children with congenital heart disease.
Study finds kids with weak hearts can exercise
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Children born with heart defects who have traditionally been told not to exercise can improve their heart function through programs that involve exertion, according to a U.S. study published on Monday.
“With the approval of a pediatric cardiologist, and after careful exercise testing, exercise is generally safe and tolerable for children with congenital heart defects,” said Jonathan Rhodes, a cardiologist at Children’s Hospital in Boston who led the study published in the December issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Go-cart injuries in children - bad!
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Researchers have used diagnostic images to conduct a study of go-cart injuries in children and the results are concerning, according to findings presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
“We found skull and facial fractures, scalp detachment, brain injury, fractures to the upper and lower extremities and burns,” said study co-author Annemarie Relyea-Chew, J.D., M.S., research scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
New findings in patients with pediatric kidney failure
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Two studies just released by physicians at Texas Children’s Hospital are addressing new findings in patients with pediatric kidney failure, and on the growing prevalence of high blood pressure in children.
Dr. Stuart L. Goldstein, medical director of the Renal Dialysis Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital, and associate professor of pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Daniel I. Feig, chief of the Pediatric Hypertension Clinic’s at Texas Children’s and Ben Taub General Hospital, and assistant professor of pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, were two of only five physicians nationwide to have their pediatric projects selected for the conference’s pediatric briefing.
Christmas is coming and toys can be dangerous
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Even though toys today are safer than ever before, parents shopping for Christmas presents for their children are being warned to be aware of the hidden hazards some toys present.
Years of work by product safety advocates, parents and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), have ensured the toy market is a relatively safe place.
Lack of Hugs Can Change Children’s Neurobiology
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Children raised in the uncaring environment of some eastern European orphanages ended up with a long-lasting deficit in two hormones involved in forming social bonds, reported researchers here.
In other words, nurture—or the lack of it—can trump nature when it comes to the ability to form social bonds, according to Seth Pollack, Ph.D., and assistant professor of psychology and of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin.
In Autism, Related Disorders, Recognizing Emotion Is Different Than Identity
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In contrast to previous reports, for those with autism or Asperger’s syndrome, recognizing facial expressions is separate from identifying familiar faces, according to a study published in the November 22, 2005, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Those who had an impaired ability to process facial identity were no different than those with normal facial identity ability, when it came to processing facial expression.
Led by researchers in the U.S. and Canada, the study examined 26 adults diagnosed with either autism, Asperger’s syndrome, social-emotional processing disorder, or both Asperger’s and social-emotional processing disorder. The shared trait of these disorders is social dysfunction. The individuals took a variety of tests to measure famous face recognition, recognition of non-facial emotional cues (from voices or bodies), recognition of basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, fearful), and recognition of a complex mental state (reflective, aghast, irritated, impatient) presented by a pair of eyes.
Spanking children fuels aggression, anxiety
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Children who are spanked when they misbehave are more likely to be anxious and aggressive than children who are disciplined in nonphysical ways, research shows. This is true even if spanking is the “cultural norm.”
Whether parents should spank their children or use other forms of physical discipline is controversial. Some experts argue that children should not be spanked when they act out citing evidence that it leads to more, rather than fewer, behavior problems and it could escalate into physical abuse. There are data to support this argument.
Moms’ low-allergen diet may ease infants’ colic
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For breast-fed babies who have colic, having mothers switch to a low-allergen diet seems to reduce the amount of time the infants spend crying and fussing, an Australian research team reports.
Previously, investigators have found that substituting a hydrolyzed casein- and whey-based preparation for regular formula appears to improve colic symptoms, as does elimination of some proteins from the breast-feeding mother’s diet. Results have not been conclusive, however.
Antisocial behavior in children associated with gene variant and environmental risk factors
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For children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), possessing a variant of a gene involved in brain signaling may predict antisocial behavior and increase susceptibility to the effects of lower birth weight, according to a study in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
Biological processes play a key role in the genesis of antisocial behavior with specific evidence of brain involvement and contribution of genetic and early environmental risk factors, including prenatal factors, according to background information in the article. Given the links between deficits in a brain region called the prefrontal cortical and antisocial behavior and between the enzyme catechol O-methyltranferase (COMT) and prefrontal cortical functioning, the authors suggest that a variant of the COMT gene might be associated with antisocial behavior.
Adolescents Who Watch Smoking in Movies More Likely to Try Smoking
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The first national study to look at the connection between smoking in movies and smoking initiation among adolescents shows that exposure to smoking in popular films is a primary risk factor in determining whether young people will start smoking.
The study by researchers from Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) appears in the November 7 issues of the journal, Pediatrics. The research, supported by the National Cancer Institute, suggests that exposure to movie smoking accounts for smoking initiation among over one-third of U.S. adolescents. It concludes that limiting exposure of young adolescents to movie smoking could have important public health implications.
