Children's health
29 Jan 2013
Adolescent stress linked to severe adult mental illness
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have established a link between elevated levels of a stress hormone in adolescence – a critical time for brain development – and genetic changes that, in young adulthood, cause severe mental illness in those predisposed to it. The findings, reported in the journal Science,…
Children's health
29 Jan 2013
Low-income families can help their kids lose weight
When low-income families devote three to four extra minutes to regular family mealtimes, their children’s ability to achieve and maintain a normal weight improves measurably, according to a new University of Illinois study. “Children whose families engaged with each other over a 20-minute meal four times a week weighed significantly…
Children's health
25 Jan 2013
Limiting polyunsaturated fatty acid in pregnancy may influence body fat of children
Southampton researchers have demonstrated that mothers who have higher levels of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are found in cooking oils and nuts, during pregnancy have fatter children. The study, carried out by the Medical Research Council (MRC) Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, assessed the fat and muscle…
Children's health
25 Jan 2013
Human hearts generate new cells after birth
Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital have found, for the first time that young humans (infants, children and adolescents) are capable of generating new heart muscle cells. These findings refute the long-held belief that the human heart grows after birth exclusively by enlargement of existing cells, and raise the possibility that…
Children's health
04 Jan 2013
Benefits of higher oxygen, breathing device persist after infancy
By the time they reached toddlerhood, very preterm infants originally treated with higher oxygen levels continued to show benefits when compared to a group treated with lower oxygen levels, according to a follow-up study by a research network of the National Institutes of Health that confirms earlier network findings, Moreover,…
Children's health
04 Jan 2013
Nearly half of children with food allergies experience bullying
Nearly half of children diagnosed with food allergies who participated in a recent study are bullied, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. One third of those bullied specifically due to their food allergy. Almost eight percent of children in the U.S. are allergic to…
Children's health
02 Jan 2013
More children surviving in-hospital cardiac arrest
Hospitalised children who suffer cardiac arrest are nearly three times more likely to survive than they were about a decade ago, and no more likely to suffer brain impairment, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality & Outcomes. Researchers analysed the cases of 1,031…
Children's health
28 Dec 2012
Teen terminal illness blurs boundaries
Blurring professional and personal boundaries can sometimes happen when it comes to caring for adolescents and young adults (AYA) with a terminal illness, according to a Flinders University palliative care expert. Ms Kim Devery, a lecturer in the Department of Palliative and Supportive Services, and colleague Mrs Sharon…
Blood
21 Dec 2012
Intensified chemotherapy shows promise for children with very high-risk form of leukaemia
Young patients with an aggressive form of leukaemia who are likely to relapse after chemotherapy treatment can significantly reduce those odds by receiving additional courses of chemotherapy, suggest the findings of a clinical trial led by investigators at Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center in Boston. The trial leaders will present the…
