Children's Health
Childhood cancer survivors face more social, school difficulties
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Children who survive cancer are more likely than children without cancer to have social and educational problems as they grow up, according to the first large, nation-wide study of the issue published in the October 15 issue of the journal Cancer.
Dr. Maru Barrera of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and her team also found that children with higher self esteem and those with more highly educated parents were less likely to experience such difficulties.
Marriage boosts prosperity, helps children
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Stable marriage can increase the financial prosperity of couples and improves the lives of American children, including those being raised by same-sex couples, according to a report released on Tuesday.
The report by the Brookings Institution and Princeton University showed that while the poor see lack of money as a barrier to marriage, even when they have children out of wedlock, healthy marriage actually ensures them healthier finances in the long run.
Mom’s milk richer in fat, energy after one year
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A new study shows that milk from mothers who have been breastfeeding their infants for more than a year is richer in fat and energy than milk from moms who have been breastfeeding for just a few months.
The study is the first to look at the nutritional value of breast milk after prolonged breastfeeding, said Dr. Dror Mandel of Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Children bear brunt of Indian encephalitis outbreak
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With tears in his eyes, Indian farmer Ram Kumar Dwivedi rushes to the side of his convulsing son Vimal and begins pumping his chest with his hands to help the nine-year-old breathe.
Vimal is one of thousands of Japanese encephalitis patients in the impoverished, northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where more than 700 people have died over the past few weeks.
School-based program keeps girls active after class
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A school-based program designed to increase high-school girls’ physical activity levels may have benefits that extend beyond school hours, new study findings show.
Girls who participated in the school-based intervention were more likely to report engaging in vigorous physical activity in the months after the program ended than were girls who did not participate in the intervention.
Birth order doesn’t influence MS risk, study shows
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Contrary to what the “hygiene hypothesis” suggests, the youngest children in a family are not less likely than older siblings to develop multiple sclerosis (MS), new research suggests.
According to the hygiene hypothesis, being too clean is not a good thing.
Infections at an early age actually trains the immune system to respond appropriately to the environment, and this protects kids against certain diseases like asthma and MS, so the argument goes.
Massage improves weight gain in preterm infants
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Moderate-pressure massage therapy increases weight gain in preterm infants by improving stomach motion, investigators at the University of Miami School of Medicine report.
Clinical trials have documented greater weight gain in premature infants after 5 to 10 days of massage, even though food intake and total sleeping time are not increased, Dr. Miguel A. Diego and his associates point out in the Journal of Pediatrics.
Obesity-related diabetes rising in US kids
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A tidal wave of “diabesity”, a new term coined to reflect a form of Diabetes Mellitus brought on by Obesity, is sweeping through American children, said a pediatrician who has published a new book on the affliction.
Francine Kaufman, an endocrinologist at Children’s Hospital here, compared the rise in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus among overweight children to a tsunami starting in the mid-1990s.
A little oxygen at birth, more cancer risk later?
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Babies given 3 or more minutes of oxygen soon after they’re born may run a slightly increased risk of developing cancer later in childhood, according to researchers. The association is not totally clearcut, however.
In a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, Dr. Logan G. Spector, of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues examined the relationship between neonatal oxygen supplementation and childhood cancer. Included were 54,795 children born between 1959 and 1966 and followed to age 8.
Imported spices give seven children lead poisoning
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Two families who frequently cooked with spices purchased in the Republic of Georgia and India inadvertently gave their children lead poisoning, according to a new report.
When the children’s doctors found the kids had high levels of lead in their bodies, authorities inspected the children’s homes but found no obvious sources of lead. “It was a head-scratcher,” study author Dr. Alan D. Woolf of Children’s Hospital in Boston told Reuters Health.
Some teens try to get buff from a bottle
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Many teenagers wish for a toned physique, and some turn to dietary supplements or hormones to get one, according to a new study.
Researchers found that among more than 10,000 12- to 18-year-olds, roughly 5 percent of boys and 2 percent of girls regularly used some purported muscle enhancer—most commonly protein powders or shakes, but also dietary supplements such as creatine and amino acids.
A handful said they frequently used steroids or other hormonal substances—namely growth hormone or the over-the-counter supplement DHEA—and more had at least tried such products in the past year.
Pesticide exposure causes illnesses in schools
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Although reported illnesses due to pesticide exposures at schools in the US are relatively uncommon, the incidence of such exposures among schoolchildren has increased in recent years, investigators report.
There are no specific federal guidelines limiting pesticide exposures at schools, Dr. Walter A. Alarcon and colleagues note in their report in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
Number of Japan child abuse cases soar
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The number of cases of child abuse reported in Japan soared nearly a quarter in the year that ended on March 31, rising above 30,000 for the first time, the Health Ministry said on Monday.
Stricter laws on reporting abuse contributed to the rise, but the main factor was several notorious cases in which children died as a result of abuse by their parents, horrifying a nation that has boasted that its stable family structure made such abuse inconceivable.
Whopping cough vaccine cost effective in U.S. teens
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One-time whopping cough vaccination for all adolescents in the U.S. is likely to be cost effective, according to a report published in the medical journal Pediatrics. If implemented, such a strategy may help stem the rise in whopping cough rates seen in the past two decades.
By contrast, the study did not find adult vaccination for whopping cough, also known as pertussis, to be cost effective, nor was the use of booster shots.
Being well-liked in school a double-edged sword
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The most well-liked seventh- and eight-graders are more likely to be well-adjusted—and to adopt risky behaviors such as drinking, smoking marijuana, and shoplifting, new study findings suggest.
The study also suggests, however, that well-liked students who are surrounded by friends who stay away from drinking and other dangerous behaviors are not more likely to engage in them, suggesting that a popular kid’s crowd has a big influence, said the study’s lead author.
