Children’s Health

Infants who were started on solid foods at or before three months of age showed changes in the levels of gut bacteria and bacterial byproducts, called short-chain fatty acids, measured in their stool samples, according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior studies have linked the early introduction

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 31 2020 New research from University of California, Davis, suggests that parents should delay introducing their children to any screen media, as well as limit preschool-age children’s use of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics this week.

In a new pre-clinical study published this week in the journal Leukemia, the research team of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles investigator Hisham Abdel-Azim, MD, MS, worked with colleagues to engineer T-cells to identify and target multiple sites on acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells instead of just one. The early collaboration points the way to future clinical

As the world struggles with the coronavirus pandemic, more and more people are trying to protect themselves against the virus by all means possible. There are currently no vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), so boosting the immune system by way of diet, regular exercise, and sleep are sensible measures. It’s essential

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 30 2020 A City of Hope scientist is one step closer to discovering what weakens a pathogen that appears to cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads. Interestingly, it takes studying “mini brains” to understand why certain unborn babies infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) enter the world with shrunken

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 26 2020 Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health contributed to a new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that finds the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among 11 surveillance sites as 1 in 54 among children aged 8 years in 2016 (or 1.85

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 26 2020 Canadian scientists have developed an innovative new technique that uses artificial intelligence to better define the different sections of the brain in newborns during a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam. The results of this study — a collaboration between researchers at Montreal’s CHU Sainte-Justine children’s hospital and the

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 27 2020 Parents of children who play a lot of video games can breathe a sigh of relief: gaming won’t cause or intensify their child’s ADHD symptoms. “We found no negative consequences for children who spent more time gaming,” says Professor Frode Stenseng at the Norwegian University of Science and

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 27 2020 An international collaboration led by veterinary scientists at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan, has found that size of a dog heart affects both vortex flow and pressure difference in the heart, which both are promising as an index of diastolic function. Their findings mean that

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 27 2020 Allison Jack, Assistant Professor, Psychology, is examining gene coexpression and brain connectivity in females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To do this, Jack is conducting a secondary analysis of de-identified data from a National Database for Autism Research collection called “Multimodal Developmental Neurogenetics of Females with Autism.” During

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 26 2020 Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine are launching a pair of studies to answer critical questions regarding the roles COVID-19 may play in breast milk and pregnancy. Breastmilk and COVID-19 The University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Family Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation

Researchers from Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China have looked at the outcomes of pregnant mothers with COVID-19 and their newborns. Their study titled, “Clinical features and obstetric and neonatal outcomes of pregnant patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective, single-center, descriptive study” was published in the latest

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 26 2020 The University of Maryland School of Medicine has launched a special COVID-19 website for pediatric healthcare providers and practices, parents, and children. This resource brings together important research, professional guidance for pediatric practices, and practical tips for parents and caregivers. “It’s very important that our health systems are

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 26 2020 Childhood obesity is not just a public health concern in western countries; it is rising across the world, particularly in poor and low-income countries. But the factors causing childhood obesity are quite different for wealthier and poorer countries, and in the big picture, management of the disease is

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 26 2020 Shortages of respiratory protective devices for healthcare personnel are major concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Emory University, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Centers at the Centers

Ependymoma is a rare form of brain cancer that implicates children and is often tricky to diagnose. Since effective treatment options can be initiated only after a well-formed diagnosis, there is a dire need among the medical community to identify markers for ependymoma, which in turn, will help oncologists tailor therapy better. Richard Wong’s and

In some parts of California, a higher percentage of children who were tested had elevated levels of toxic lead in their blood than in Flint, Michigan, during the height of that city’s water crisis. More than 5% of children under age 6 in nine mostly rural California counties had blood lead levels in 2015 that

As the world prioritizes social distancing to stop or slow down the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), a new study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University demonstrates that mother-infant touch and contact are essential for optimal neurodevelopmental regulation in early infancy. Kangaroo Care, a skin-to-skin, chest-to-chest method of caring for a baby, especially one who is

Mar 24 2020 Researchers at Keio University report in the journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health the results of an in-depth study on the importance of sleep for children’s health and social behavior. The main findings showed that the sleep onset time and duration of sleep are important factors for the development of

A new study looks at the time spent by kids looking at a screen and the development of their language skills. The team writes that there have been several studies that have found an adverse relationship between the two and this study is a collation of the data that exists from these studies. The study