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First 6 months of exclusive breast feeding: Child health experts question recommendation

Current guidance advising mothers in the UK to exclusively breast feed for the first six months of their baby's life is being questioned by child health experts on bmj.com today.

14 Jan 2011

Genetic information from Guthrie cards may serve as valuable resource to diagnose infant diseases

Van Andel Research Institute researchers have developed a method that can yield more information from archived newborn blood that has implications for a vast array of research, including population health studies and answering questions about diseases in infants and children.

13 Jan 2011

Largest long-term examination of children's health and development in the US

The National Children's Study (NCS) has begun inviting women in San Diego to participate in the largest long-term examination of children's health and development ever conducted in the United States.

13 Jan 2011

Baby-led weaning feasible for most infants

Most babies can reach out for and eat finger food by six to eight months, according to a study in the January issue of Maternal and Child Nutrition.

12 Jan 2011

Lancet series examines health challenges in India

"Indians are growing richer, but they are also adopting unhealthy lifestyles that could take years off their lives and threaten economic growth," according to an article published in Lancet Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reports (1/11). The article is one of seven published in the Lancet as part of a series that also includes a set of commentary pieces on health issues facing the country (1/11).

12 Jan 2011

Vaccine Safety Conference affirms urgent need for methodologically sound vaccine science

An international meeting was held in Montego Bay, Jamaica Jan. 3-7, 2011 to discuss current vaccine science and policy safety concerns. Delegates from around the world included senior scientists and physicians, editors of scientific journals, experts in vaccine regulation, social science and health policy, consumer child health advocates, legal experts and members of the media.

11 Jan 2011

AlertNet features 20 low-cost ideas that could improve health, reduce poverty

AlertNet posed health, technology, water and other experts questions, such as, "[w]hat cheap, low-tech innovations could be used to improve the lives of the poor? Which potentially life-saving ideas have been knocking around for years but still aren't widely practised?"

11 Jan 2011

Gigantism gene inherited by hundreds: Study

A gene that predicted gigantism in humans was identified in the DNA of the 18th-century man known as the Irish Giant, who was more than 7 feet 7 inches tall. Copies of the same mutation have been found in patients today who suffer from excessive growth, and scientists have concluded they all inherited the gene from a common ancestor.

9 Jan 2011

Majority of U.S. adults strongly support innovative programs to discourage teen pregnancy

Every hour in the United States, about 40 children are born to teenage mothers. Americans consistently rate teen pregnancy as one of the top 10 biggest health problems for young people and the U.S. still has the highest teen birth rate among all industrialized countries -- despite decreases in the birth rate during the past 20 years.

7 Jan 2011

Study shows positive effects of formal child care in improving language skills

Fewer children who attend regular formal centre- and family-based child care at 1.5 years and 3 years of age were late talkers compared with children who are looked after at home by a parent, child-carer or in an outdoor nursery. This is shown in a new study by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health of nearly 20,000 children.

6 Jan 2011

Maternal depression adversely affects quality of life in children with epilepsy

A study by Canadian researchers examined the prevalence of maternal depression and its impact on children newly diagnosed with epilepsy. Prevalence of depression in mothers ranged from 30%-38% within the first 24 months following a child’s epilepsy diagnosis. The mother’s depressive symptoms negatively impacted the child’s health-related quality of life, but the effects were moderated by the amount of family resources and mediated by how well the family functions and the extent of family demands. Details of this novel study appear online in Epilepsia, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International League Against Epilepsy.

5 Jan 2011

Child's epilepsy diagnosis impacts mother's mental health and family environment

5 Jan 2011

Kaiser Permanente's Los Angeles and San Diego Medical Centers achieve Baby-Friendly status

Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) announced today that the Los Angeles and San Diego Medical Centers have received a prestigious recognition from Baby-Friendly USA, Inc., a non-profit organization that implements the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in the United States. With this month's two designations joining Fontana, Downey and Riverside, KPSC now has five medical centers with Baby-Friendly status, a notable achievement, given that this certification has been granted to only 102 facilities in the United States, 33 of which are in California.

22 Dec 2010

Breast feed for smarter kids

A news study published in the journal Pediatrics this Monday shows that babies who are breastfed for longer than six months may reap he benefits of having better brain function right into school. The benefit may be particularly so in boys.

21 Dec 2010

The Lewin Group to perform two-year study on health outcomes in children with ASD

The National Institute of Mental Health has selected The Lewin Group to perform a two-year study on health outcomes in children with autism and their families. The study will describe the range of medical conditions experienced by children with autism spectrum disorders and the health outcomes of the children and their families.

21 Dec 2010

AAPD pediatric oral health experts partner with text4baby to provide information to pregnant women, new moms

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), the recognized leader in children's oral health, announced today an outreach partnership with the text4baby program. The AAPD's leading pediatric oral health experts will work closely with text4baby in the dissemination of information to pregnant women and new moms about children's oral health care.

20 Dec 2010

New U.N. commission will track donors' pledges on maternal, child health

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete will co-chair a new "U.N. commission tasked with tracking whether $40 billion in pledges from countries and aid groups are really flowing to efforts to improve the health of mothers and young children in poor countries, and what impact the programs have," the Globe and Mail reports (Clark, 12/16).

20 Dec 2010

Opinions: Kangaroo care; NTDs, Women's health

New York Times contributing writer Tina Rosen, on the newspaper's "Opinionator" blog, examines the success of a system known as kangaroo care, which has helped to improve the survival rates of premature infants by using skin-to-skin contact with mothers in place of incubators in low-resource settings. The post notes the potential value of such a strategy in poor countries "where pregnant women are unlikely to get the food and care they need," and "low birth weight babies are very common."

16 Dec 2010

Report examines African government funding for child development

Tanzania, Mozambique and Niger spend the most on child wellbeing in Africa - with Sudan, Angola and Burundi at the bottom of the table," according to an African Child Policy Forum report, which was launched in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday at the opening of the Fourth International Policy Conference on the African Child, Deutsche Presse-Agentur/M&C reports (12/7).

9 Dec 2010

Positive results from PROCHIEVE 8% vaginal progesterone gel Phase III trial to reduce preterm birth risk

Columbia Laboratories, Inc. and Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced positive top-line results from the PREGNANT Study, a large, global Phase III clinical trial evaluating PROCHIEVE® 8% vaginal progesterone gel to reduce the risk of preterm birth in women with a short cervical length as measured by transvaginal ultrasound at mid-pregnancy.

7 Dec 2010