Children's Health News and Research

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Can parents' diet predict childhood obesity? New research weighs in

Children’s eating habits are strongly influenced by their parents' weight status, with those having overweight or obese parents consuming more carbohydrates and exhibiting higher obesity risks.

6 Feb 2025

Survey reveals shift in U.S. views on childhood vaccine requirements

With President Donald Trump having threatened school vaccine mandates for children during his campaign, a new survey finds that nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults support requiring that children be vaccinated against preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella.

29 Jan 2025

Trump’s funding ‘pause’ throws states, health industry into chaos

States and the nation's health industry were thrown into disarray after the Trump administration ordered Monday that the government freeze nearly all federal grants at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, a sweeping directive that at least initially appeared to include funding for Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that covers more than 70 million Americans.

28 Jan 2025

What RFK Jr. might face in his nomination hearings this week

President Donald Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer with no formal medical or public health expertise, as secretary of Health and Human Sciences.

28 Jan 2025

Adderall shortage linked to shift in ADHD treatment for children

A national shortage in a common treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder was associated with changes in stimulant prescriptions filled for children over recent years, a new study suggests.

27 Jan 2025

Trump’s early health moves signal intent to erase Biden’s legacy. What’s next is unclear.

President Donald Trump's early actions on health care signal his likely intention to wipe away some Biden-era programs to lower drug costs and expand coverage under public insurance programs.

23 Jan 2025

As states diverge on immigration, hospitals say they won’t turn patients away

California is advising health care providers not to write down patients' immigration status on bills and medical records and telling them they don't have to assist federal agents in arrests.

23 Jan 2025

Study reveals racial and ethnic differences in children's sleep patterns

Researchers from Michigan State University's Department of Human Development and Family Studies revealed that sleep patterns may vary across different racial and ethnic groups - notably for non-white and multiracial children.

22 Jan 2025

Study reveals how children's immune systems react to cancer

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital in Sweden have determined how children's immune systems react to different kinds of cancer depending on their age.

20 Jan 2025

New push for stricter chemical laws to shield kids from harmful exposure

Research highlights the rising impact of synthetic chemicals on children's health, linking them to noncommunicable diseases and advocating for stringent global regulations.

13 Jan 2025

Trump’s return puts Medicaid on the chopping block

Under President Joe Biden, enrollment in Medicaid hit a record high and the uninsured rate reached a record low.

13 Jan 2025

A new framework for assessing the impact of chemicals on child health

Nations must start testing and regulating chemicals and chemical products as closely as the current systems that safeguard prescription drugs or risk rising rates of chronic illnesses among children, according to a New England Journal of Medicine report by a group of experts writing as the Consortium for Children's Environmental Health.

9 Jan 2025

Decoding sleep disorders through fairy tales

Some traditional fairy tales and classic children's fiction that have soothed many a child to sleep may also provide accessible and engaging ways to discuss healthy sleep with children, suggest researchers in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

18 Dec 2024

Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’

Many of President-elect Donald Trump's candidates for federal health agencies have promoted policies and goals that put them at odds with one another or with Trump's choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., setting the stage for internal friction over public health initiatives.

17 Dec 2024

Parents rely on threats to address young children's misbehavior

When young children's behavior becomes challenging, many parents resort to threats – from taking away toys to threatening that Santa will skip their house, a national poll suggests.

16 Dec 2024

Study links metal exposure to overweight and obesity in children

Researchers from the Granada Biosanitary Research Institute (ibs.GRANADA) and the University od Granada have revealed positive and negative associations between exposure to a combination of different metals and overweight and obesity in children.

11 Dec 2024

Women with PCOS and obesity have smaller babies, study finds

Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and obesity are at a higher risk of giving birth to smaller babies in terms of birth weight, length, and head circumference, according to a recent study conducted at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

10 Dec 2024