Children’s Health

A recent study published in the journal The Lancet has revealed that self-reported use of face masks together with social distancing has a considerable impact on controlling the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the United States. Moreover, the urge to wear a face mask has been found to increase independently

Pregnancy and childbirth are especially high-risk periods for mental ill-health. The mobile health program called Essential Coaching for Every Mother (ECEM) was designed to meet the needs of mothers during this critical time, but its introduction was delayed because of the onset of the pandemic. A recent preprint posted to the medRxiv* server describes the

Jan 20 2021 A 15-year research and advocacy effort to make microwave ovens safer has led to a change in national manufacturing standards that will make microwaves more difficult for young children to open, protecting them from the severe microwave-related burns that scar hundreds of kids under 5 years old in the United States each

Half of all young people treated for severe obesity have neuropsychiatric problems, according to a new study by researchers from Lund University and Gothenburg, Sweden, among others. Two thirds of the teens suffered from some type of mental health problem, as reported by themselves or their parents. Both obesity and mental illness have increased among

Early life experiences can have an outsized effect on brain development and neurobiological health. New research is showing that those effects can be passed down to subsequent generations, reporting that the infant children of mothers who had experienced childhood emotional neglect displayed altered brain circuitry involved in fear responses and anxiety. The study appears in

When he was in middle school, teachers would give Sam Curran a list of words to type in a computer to practice his vocabulary. But Sam, who has autism, was unable to stay focused on the task and required a significant amount of one-to-one direction from a teacher to complete his work. After his mother,

Variation in consumption of market-acquired foods outside of the traditional diet — but not in total calories burned daily — is reliably related to indigenous Amazonian children’s body fat, according to a Baylor University study that offers insight into the global obesity epidemic. The importance of a poor diet versus low energy expenditure on the

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that starts early in childhood and lasts throughout a person’s life. Most commonly, it affects how a person interacts with others, acts, communicates, and learns. Now, a study by researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Arizona State University, and the Mayo Clinic found that mothers

American dairy consumers are often influenced by a variety of factors that can affect their buying habits. These factors include taste, preference, government information, cultural background, social media, and the news. In an article appearing in JDS Communications, researchers found that households that frequently bought food for children are interested in dairy as part of

Pediatric laryngotracheal stenosis (LTS), a narrowing of the airway in children, is a complex medical condition. While it can be something a child is born with or caused by injury, the condition can result in a life-threatening emergency if untreated. Treatment, however, is challenging. Depending on the severity, doctors will use a combination of endoscopic

A national group of pediatric addiction medicine experts have released newly-established principles of care for young adults with substance use disorder. Led by the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center, the collection of peer-reviewed papers was developed to guide providers on how to treat young adults with substance use disorder given their age-specific

In a large study of pediatric cancer patients, researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have analyzed the frequency, fusion partners, and clinical outcome of neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) fusions, which are clinical biomarkers that identify patients suitable for treatment with FDA-approved TRK inhibitors. The researchers found that NTRK fusions are more common in

Diabetes is characterized by elevated levels of sugar or glucose (hyperglycemia) in the blood. This occurs due to the lack of the hormone insulin in type 1 diabetes, and to reduced insulin levels in combination with insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes. A recent review of data supports stricter control of hemoglobin A1C levels (HbA1C)

Children and adolescents with a family history of suicide attempts have lower executive functioning, shorter attention spans, and poorer language reasoning than those without a family history, according to a new study by researchers from the Lifespan Brain Institute (LiBI) of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania. The study is the

The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) hub partnership between Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, Carilion Clinic, and Inova Health System has awarded $200,000 in funding to five research projects through the Pilot Translational and Clinical Studies Program. Multi-institutional teams of scientists, physicians, and engineers will study Parkinson’s disease, celiac disease, pediatric heart transplant,

Researchers in Germany and Belgium have conducted a survey demonstrating some of the adverse effects the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had on people’s eating habits. Overall, the study, which included almost 1,000 participants, showed that food consumption had increased, along with the purchase of convenience foods such as ready-made meals and canned foods

A first-of-its-kind, international study of 107,000 children finds that higher temperatures are an equal or even greater contributor to child malnutrition and low quality diets than the traditional culprits of poverty, inadequate sanitation, and poor education. The 19-nation study is the largest investigation of the relationship between our changing climate and children’s diet diversity to

A UMass Lowell researcher developing innovative therapies for injured children and teens has received more than $700,000 from the National Institutes of Health to support that work. UMass Lowell’s Jiabin Shen, assistant professor of psychology, is exploring how virtual reality-based rehabilitation could improve cognitive functioning in young people with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). A new,

Among children who were not in an independently verified incident, evaluation for child abuse should be done by specialty consultation in children aged less than three-years old presenting with rib fractures and children aged less than 18-months presenting with humeral or femoral fractures. That is the conclusion of a study titled Identifying Maltreatment in Infants

As a former school nurse in the Columbia Public Schools, Gretchen Carlisle would often interact with students with disabilities who took various medications or had seizures throughout the day. At some schools, the special education teacher would bring in dogs, guinea pigs and fish as a reward for good behavior, and Carlisle noticed what a