Children's Health
Kids’ Vaccine Makes Elders Healthier
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Give children a pneumococcal vaccine, and their parents and grandparents may be healthier, according to researchers here.
The widespread use of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-7) for children under the age of five has caused a dramatic decline in invasive pneumococcal disease among those 50 and older, according to Catherine Lexau, Ph.D., of the Minnesota Department of Health.
Could babies be poisoned by bottled water?
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Parents who use bottled water to make up baby milk could be poisoning their children.
Some brands contain levels of uranium that could harm a developing child, a shock official study has found.
They are Buxton - one of the UK’s top sellers - Caffe Nero, Radnor Hills, Rocwell, St Yorre and San Pellegrino.
Stimulating play helps growth-stunted kids
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Mental and social stimulation through play early in life appears to have lasting benefits in poorly nourished children with growth retardation.
According to a study in The Lancet this week, mental stimulation at 9 to 24 months of age among a group of growth-stunted Jamaican children led to improved cognitive function and better academic performance in high school.
Surviving Childhood Hodgkin’s Increases Stroke Risk Sharply
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Surviving Hodgkin’s lymphoma in childhood quadruples the risk of a stroke later in life, researchers here say.
Investigators had expected to see an increased risk of a second cancer or heart failure, but stroke was unexpected, said David Bowers, M.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center here. “We were surprised,” he said.
Home dialysis improves well-being in children
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For children with kidney failure who require dialysis, performing it at home at nighttime seems to improve their overall sense of well-being, a study shows.
Dialysis is a process by which waste products are removed from the bloodstream when the kidneys are incapable of doing so. Traditionally, patients requiring dialysis travel several times per week to a clinic where the process can take upwards of 5 hours.
Training parents aids autistic kids’ language
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Training parents to better communicate with their autistic preschoolers can spur children’s language development, according to a study of one such training program.
Though parental training courses are a growing part of managing autism spectrum disorders, there has been little evidence from clinical trials that the approach aids children’s language, behavior and social skills.
Safe sleep for babies
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MANY mothers like to keep their newborns in bed with them to bond and breastfeed. Now, after years of hedging about the wisdom of the practice, the American Academy of Pediatrics has said that sleeping in a bed with a baby can increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
“Bed-sharing during sleep is hazardous,” says Dr. John Kattwinkel, chairman of the association’s task force on SIDS and a neonatologist at the University of Virginia. “We have strong evidence from 10 controlled studies showing this increases risk.”
Breastfed infants show little effect when moms take popular anti-depressant
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Most breastfed infants nurse without showing meaningful effects from their mothers taking 20 to 40 mg of the anti-depressant fluoxetine ( Prozac ) daily, according to a study by Yale researchers.
Postpartum major depression affects about 10 percent of women. Prozac belongs to a class of anti-depressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which are the most commonly prescribed class of anti-depressants for postpartum depression.
ADHD in Childhood Ups Risk of Smoking
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People who reported symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in childhood have a greater risk of becoming cigarette smokers later in life.
While the researchers who reported these findings looked only at self-reported symptoms and not a clinical diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the study could help in fine-tuning smoking prevention programs.
Parents often OK with teens’ medical privacy
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A majority of parents seem to accept that their teenagers have a right to medical privacy—and those who are resistant to the idea can often be persuaded to change their minds, a new study suggests.
Doctor-patient confidentiality is a standard of medical care, even when the patient is an underage adolescent. But some parents object to that idea, wanting to know about any health issues—such as smoking, drugs and sex—their children have.
Breast milk shows cavity-causing potential
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Though breastfeeding is sometimes seen as a way to protect against early cavities, a new study using rats suggests that breast milk may cause more cavities than cow’s milk does.
However, researchers stress, breast milk appears no more likely to contribute to cavities than commonly used infant formulas—and the animal findings should not be seen as a strike against breastfeeding.
Clowns ease anxiety in young patients -study
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A clown in the operating room may relax anxious children who are about to undergo surgery, but the entertainer has to learn to keep out of the way, Italian researchers said on Monday.
A study of 40 children between 4 months and 3 years old who were accompanied by at least one parent prior to minor surgery found having a clown present significantly reduced anxiety levels for both child and parent. Three out of five children suffer anxiety before surgery, according to the report published in the journal Pediatrics.
Family Therapy Can Combat Conduct Disorders
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Family therapy can help quell substance abuse and conduct disorders in children and adolescents, but is not as effective when the diagnosis is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), researchers said here today.
A 10-year review of published research found that two types of family therapy, parent management training and behavioral family therapy, are especially effective for conduct disorders, said Allan Josephson, M.D., of Bingham Child Guidance in Louisville.
Children Whose Parents Smoke Twice As Likely to Begin Smoking
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Twelve-year-olds whose parents smoked were more than two times as likely to begin smoking cigarettes on a daily basis between the ages of 13 and 21 than were children whose parents didn’t use tobacco, according to a new study that looked at family influences on smoking habits.
The research indicated that parental behavior about smoking, not attitudes, is the key factor in delaying the onset of daily smoking, according to Karl Hill, director of the University of Washington’s Seattle Social Development Project and an associate research professor of social work.
1.4 million children could be saved with vaccines
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An estimated 1.4 children under five years of age die unnecessarily each year from measles, whooping cough or tetanus, all of them preventable with vaccines, the U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported on Thursday.
The worst affected areas are in west and central Africa, in countries of conflict but also in Nigeria, said a new UNICEF report.
