A baby's sleep position is the best predictor of a misshapen skull condition known as deformational plagiocephaly - or the development of flat spots on an infant's head - according to findings reported by Arizona State University scientists in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics. [More]

In developing countries, almost 200 million children under the age of 5 "suffer from stunted growth and health problems due to poor nutrition in their early years," according to a UNICEF report released on Wednesday, Reuters reports. [More]

Low birth weight increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Until recently scientists had attributed this to maternal malnutrition during pregnancy. However, now it seems that genetic background may also play a major role. A research team of Technische Universität München and Helmholtz Zentrum München has now demonstrated, that gene variants which influence insulin metabolism can also affect birth weight. [More]

A nutritionist whose research was instrumental in adding fruits and vegetables to the federal Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food subsidy will receive the March of Dimes Agnes Higgins Award for outstanding achievement in the field of maternal-fetal nutrition. [More]

Infants in special care baby units or neonatal intensive care units are at greater risk for missed or incomplete newborn screening than normal newborns. To minimize the risk of missing or delaying a diagnosis, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) recently published a new document, "Newborn Screening for Preterm, Low Birth Weight, and Sick Newborns; Approved Guideline" (I/LA31-A). [More]

Nearly half of American children - including 90 percent of black children and 90 percent of children who spend their childhoods in single-parent households - will eat meals paid for by food stamps at some point during childhood, reports a Cornell researcher. [More]

The injectable, multi-dose H1N1 vaccine contains the mercury-based preservative thimerosol to reduce risks of bacterial contamination. The presence of thimerosol has once again raised concerns whether there are risks posed to children when the tiny amount of mercury contained in thimerosol is included in a vaccine. [More]

A Pittsburgh-based maternal and child health care collaborative will undertake a unique and innovative initiative to help families face the challenges of parental depression and early childhood developmental delays. [More]

Offspring whose mothers had been supplemented with iron-folic acid during pregnancy had dramatically reduced mortality through age 7, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. [More]

A new research study being published in the October 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry suggests that maternal smoking may increase the level of distress of newborns. [More]

A landmark report released today by the Institute of Medicine provides powerful new evidence that elected officials have no excuse for failing to enact comprehensive smoke-free workplace laws. The IOM report concludes smoke-free laws reduce the number of heart attacks and save lives. The report also confirms that there is conclusive scientific evidence that secondhand smoke causes heart disease, including heart attacks, and finds there is compelling evidence that even relatively brief exposure to secondhand smoke can lead to a heart attack. [More]

A new study from the medical university Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm shows that children born with low birth weight are at a higher risk of developing asthma later in life. The study, which is published in the journal Pediatrics, is based on data on the incidence of asthma in 10,918 twins from the Swedish Twin Registry. [More]

As more extremely pre-term infants survive in Sweden, an increasing number of babies are experiencing vision problems caused by abnormalities involving the retina, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. [More]

A new study from the medical university Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm shows that children born with low birth weight are at a higher risk of developing asthma later in life. [More]

United Concordia Dental, one of the nation's largest dental insurers, has helped provide more than $400,000 in free dental services to nearly 2,800 people in need since the beginning of the year. [More]