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Specific genes and factors can lead to delays in language development in kids

Boys are at greater risk for delayed language development than girls, according to a new study using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. The researchers also found that reading and writing difficulties in the family gave an increased risk.

19 Feb 2014

Some neurologic diseases associated with prenatal exposure to inflammatory immune responses

Johns Hopkins researchers report that fetal mice — especially males — show signs of brain damage that lasts into their adulthood when they are exposed in the womb to a maternal immune system kicked into high gear by a serious infection or other malady. The findings suggest that some neurologic diseases in humans could be similarly rooted in prenatal exposure to inflammatory immune responses.

7 Feb 2014

Research suggests that male mice may be vulnerable to effects of maternal inflammation than females

Johns Hopkins researchers report that fetal mice - especially males - show signs of brain damage that lasts into their adulthood when they are exposed in the womb to a maternal immune system kicked into high gear by a serious infection or other malady.

7 Feb 2014

Mother's illness, allergen exposure during pregency may predict child's risk of asthma and allergy

Women that are pregnant may want to take extra precaution around those that are sniffling and sneezing this winter. According to a new study published today, the more common colds and viral infections a woman has during pregnancy, the higher the risk her baby will have asthma.

4 Feb 2014

Researchers receive $8M grant to expand research in arsenic toxicity in children, pregnant women

The Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth and its partner universities have received an $8 million grant to expand their research into arsenic toxicity in children and pregnant women.

17 Jan 2014

Fetal exposure to Bisphenol A can increase risk for prostate cancer later in life

Fetal exposure to a commonly used plasticizer found in products such as water bottles, soup can liners and paper receipts can increase the risk for prostate cancer later in life, according to a study from the University of Illinois at Chicago published Jan. 7 online in the journal Endocrinology.

8 Jan 2014

Scientists develop new potential cure for rare eye disease

University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health scientists have developed a potential cure for a rare eye disease, showing for the first time that a drug can repair a birth defect.

22 Dec 2013

Cedars-Sinai physicians awarded grant to study pregnancy problems resulting from fertility treatments

Two Cedars-Sinai physician-researchers have been awarded grants totaling $4 million from the National Institutes of Health to study how the environment - both in the womb and in the hospital where the baby is born - can affect the newborn and the mother.

18 Dec 2013

Researchers treat osteogeneis imperfecta babies in utero by injecting bone-forming stem cells

Osteogeneis imperfecta (OI) is a congenital bone disease that causes stunted growth and repeated, painful fracturing. Ultrasound scans can reveal fractures already in the fetus, and now an international team of researchers from Sweden, Singapore and Taiwan have treated two babies in utero by injecting bone-forming stem cells.

17 Dec 2013

Taking probiotics during pregnancy has no effect on asthma rate amoung infants

Taking probiotics has health benefits but preventing childhood asthma isn't one of them, shows newly published research led by medical scientists at the University of Alberta.

9 Dec 2013

Preterm infants at high risk for significant long-term problems

Premature birth appears to trigger developmental processes in the white matter of the brain that could put children at higher risk of problems later in life, according to a study being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

27 Nov 2013

New insights into human cytomegalovirus may lead to development of therapeutic interventions

New insights into how human cytomegalovirus, the leading cause of birth defects associated with infection spreads from pregnant mother to fetus and from organ to organ in newborns provides translational researchers an exciting new avenue for investigation that may lead to the development of therapeutic interventions.

31 Oct 2013

Multi-center study finds causes for neonatal mortality in infants with HLHS

A first-of-its-kind study led by Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, published online in the journal, Circulation, found that infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome born far from a hospital providing neonatal cardiac surgery for HLHS have increased neonatal mortality, with most deaths occurring before surgery.

24 Oct 2013

Maternal smoking during pregnancy increases infant hospitalizations and death

Maternal smoking is associated with both respiratory and non-respiratory infections in infants, resulting in increased risk for hospitalization and death, according to an abstract to be presented Sunday, Oct. 27, at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in Orlando.

22 Oct 2013

WHO, Health Care without Harm to launch Mercury-Free Healthcare by 2020

WHO and Health Care without Harm have joined forces to launch a new initiative to get mercury removed from all medical measuring devices by 2020.

11 Oct 2013

Contaminated drinking water breeds low-weight or premature babies

Pregnant women living in areas with contaminated drinking water may be more likely to have babies that are premature or with low birth weights (considered less than 5.5 pounds), according to a study based at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

9 Oct 2013

Smoking during pregnancy may affect child’s immune system on molecular level

The Leipzig Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research has gained new insights on the influence of tobacco smoke in utero. For the first time, it could be demonstrated with smoking pregnant women and their children, how exposure to tobacco smoke affects the development of human immune system on molecular level.

8 Oct 2013

Maternal smoking during pregnancy associated with twofold increased risk of BD in offspring

A study published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests an association between smoking during pregnancy and increased risk for developing bipolar disorder in adult children.

2 Oct 2013

Exposure to cocaine during in utero development causes disruptions in normal brain development

Prenatal cocaine exposure affects both behavior and brain. Animal studies have shown that exposure to cocaine during in utero development causes numerous disruptions in normal brain development and negatively affects behavior from birth and into adulthood.

25 Sep 2013

International team of scientists discover new disease related to inability to process Vitamin B12

An international team of scientists, including University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado researchers, has discovered a new disease related to an inability to process Vitamin B12.

6 Sep 2013