Children’s Health

Oct 21 2020 To mark Allergy Awareness Week (19-25 October), two leading allergy charities are urging parents and teachers to ‘Check It, Don’t Chance It’ to ensure pupils and young adults with allergies are safe in schools. Most classrooms can expect at least one child to have a food allergy with 20% of severe food

Plastics have been a part of our lives since the creation of the first plastic bottle more than a hundred years ago. But, do you know that the tiny bits of plastic that make up the bibs, bottles, and packaging also shed tiny microscopic particles? Previous studies have shown that microplastics are present almost everywhere

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 21 2020 Researchers at McMaster University have found distinct effects of adversity early in life in the genomes of men compared to women who were born extremely preterm. The study, published online in the journal Development and Psychopathology, followed infants who weighed between 580 and 1000 grams at birth. The

In most places around the world today, testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is initially based on common symptoms. The assumption is that testing symptomatic individuals and tracing, testing, and isolating their positive contacts is the most efficient way of using limited testing resources. In the UK, the criteria for testing individuals

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 19 2020 A multisite study led by UC Davis Health found that two prominent early intervention models for autism had a similar impact. The researchers compared developmental and symptom improvements in toddlers with autism who received one year of one-on-one intervention sessions using either the Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI)

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 19 2020 Like a cold front that moves in, setting the stage for severe weather, coronavirus infection triggers showers of infection-fighting immune molecules – showers that sometimes escalate into a chaotic immune response known as a cytokine storm. About 20 to 30 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 develop severe

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 19 2020 Children who are later diagnosed with autism and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder visit doctors and hospitals more often in their first year of life than non-affected children, suggesting a potential new way to identify the conditions early. The findings from Duke Health researchers, appearing online Oct. 19 in

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 19 2020 Elevated birth weight is linked with developing atrial fibrillation later in life, according to research presented at the 31st Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology (GW-ICC). GW-ICC 2020 is a virtual meeting during 19 to 25 October. Faculty from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) will participate in

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 19 2020 Adults and children born with heart defects had a lower-than-expected risk of developing moderate or severe COVID-19 symptoms, finds a study of more than 7,000 patients from the congenital heart disease center at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Throughout the course of the pandemic, evidence

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020 Health care leaders have new, improved tools to identify children at the greatest risk of preventable deaths, based on surveys of more than 67 countries around the world by researchers at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Our paper shows how to better identify at risk children

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020 Understanding sounds in language is a critical building block for child literacy, yet this skill is often overlooked. Researchers from Michigan State University have developed a new software tool to assess children’s phonological awareness — or, how they process the sound structure of words. The ATLAS, or Access

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020 When a child has a rare blood disorder, clinicians can struggle to find the best diagnostic and treatment methods. New research led by UT Southwestern shows the effectiveness of a treatment for aplastic anemia and reveals the range of diagnosis and treatment options used by hospitals around the

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 16 2020 Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is the most common birth defect in the United States, occurring in approximately one in every 100 babies. However, hospital data regarding short- and long-term outcomes for patients has been limited and oftentimes difficult to access and/or interpret. “Children’s Hospital Colorado has long been

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 16 2020 E-cigarettes might not be a safer alternative to smoking during pregnancy, according to the first known study into the effects of prenatal nicotine exposure on babies. Psychologists at Durham University, UK, found that babies of mothers who smoked e-cigarettes during pregnancy displayed similar abnormal reflexes to infants whose

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 16 2020 A patient with end-stage and rapidly progressing soft-tissue cancer whose tumor did not respond to standard treatment, had a “rapid and complete response” to a novel combination of immunotherapy, according to new research published by a team of scientists from John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020 New parents who receive attentive, supportive nursing care during labor and immediately after childbirth are more likely to exclusively breastfeed their newborn when leaving the hospital, finds a study published in MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing. Nurses make substantial, often unrecognized, contributions to public health during

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has granted a 4D Nucleome award to support research by a group of scientists at Gladstone Institutes led by Benoit Bruneau, PhD, and Katie Pollard, PhD. This prestigious award will provide more than $3.6 million over 5 years to study how human

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 15 2020 Researchers have used insight from a comprehensive genomic analysis of neuroblastoma to learn about the process driving one of the most common childhood solid tumors. The findings revealed possible approaches for developing precision medicines to improve patient outcomes. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists led the study, which

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 14 2020 New research by a University of Georgia scientist reveals that girls who are maltreated show higher levels of inflammation at an early age than boys who are maltreated or children who have not experienced abuse. This finding may forecast chronic mental and physical health problems in midlife. Led

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 14 2020 Regular cannabis exposure in rats during pregnancy may cause their offspring to have long-term cognitive deficiencies, asocial behavior, and anxiety later in adulthood. That’s according to a new study by neuroscientists in Washington State University’s Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience unit that provides a rare look at the effects