Child Health News

RSS

Inside the high-stakes corporate fight over feeding preterm babies

In 2013, a scientist at Abbott Laboratories saw study results with potentially big implications for the company's profits and the lives of some of the world's most fragile people: preterm infants.

30 Mar 2026

Why attachment anxiety makes short-form video addiction more likely

Short-form video addiction is associated with attachment anxiety and attentional control, suggesting psychological factors influence digital media engagement.

30 Mar 2026

Trial shows mavacamten benefits adolescents with obstructive heart condition

Adolescent patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) who received the drug mavacamten saw a significant improvement in left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) gradient, a measure of blood flow obstruction in the heart, compared with those who received a placebo, according to a small study presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session (ACC.26).

29 Mar 2026

Children redefine what makes play meaningful and enjoyable

Play is critical for kids’ development — but ‘play’ in research is often defined by adult scientists, not the children themselves.

28 Mar 2026

AI helps identify childhood cancer survivors needing extra support

Artificial intelligence (AI) could help physicians determine if survivors of childhood cancer need extra support - and the more information included in AI prompting, the better its performance.

27 Mar 2026

FDA approves first gene therapy for rare pediatric immune disorder

Dr. Donald Kohn has been developing gene therapies for rare pediatric immune disorders for over 30 years.

27 Mar 2026

Long ADHD wait times leave families feeling powerless and 'forever in limbo'

Families are feeling stressed, powerless and 'forever in limbo' as they wait months, or sometimes years, for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments, according to a new study.

26 Mar 2026

Experts establish standardized protocols for pediatric recurrent wheezing diagnosis

Recurrent wheezing, a respiratory disorder, is caused by the narrowing of the airways, mainly affecting children aged less than 5 years.

26 Mar 2026

Scientists discover how brain development programs fuel pediatric tumors

A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Texas Children's Hospital, and collaborating institutions reveals in the journal Nature a novel mechanism that drives the development of pediatric supratentorial ependymoma (EPN), the third most common pediatric brain tumor. The findings suggest potential new approaches to treat these aggressive and chemo-resistant tumors.

26 Mar 2026

Study links androgens to aggressive childhood brain tumor growth

An international team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, McGill University and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has discovered what drives the growth of a lethal pediatric brain tumor called Posterior Fossa Type A (PFA) ependymoma.

25 Mar 2026

Childhood ADHD medication shows protective effect against future psychosis

A major new study, led by scientists at University College Dublin and the University of Edinburgh and funded by the St John of God Research Foundation, has found that commonly prescribed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication in childhood may lower the long‑term risk of developing serious psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia.

25 Mar 2026

Study links social media addiction to worse student mental health and points to family as a key buffer

A study of 627 Saudi university students found that higher social media addiction was associated with more anxiety and depression, while family environment fully mediated those links in the statistical model. The findings suggest that supportive family relationships may help buffer the mental health burden associated with problematic social media use, although the cross-sectional design does not establish causation.

25 Mar 2026

Chlorhexidine reduces umbilical cord infections in newborns

A new Cochrane review finds that chlorhexidine likely cuts umbilical cord infection rates by about 29% in low- and middle-income countries, and may reduce newborn deaths.

25 Mar 2026

Community music programs boost youth wellbeing and life skills

Improving the wellbeing of young people is an international priority. The World Health Organization has reported that suicide is now the third leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29-years-old globally, and is strongly correlated to youth mental illness.

25 Mar 2026

Placental abruption linked to higher heart risk in children

The risk of developing early cardiovascular disease or dying from cardiovascular disease by the age of 28 was about 4.6 times higher among people born to mothers who had a placental abruption during their pregnancy.

25 Mar 2026

Navigating the moral landscape of pediatric AI surgery

Technological innovation has always driven surgical progress, and AI now represents the next transformative wave. Machine learning models are now being developed to predict surgical risks, assist in diagnosing rare congenital disorders, analyze imaging data, and anticipate postoperative complications. Risk prediction tools have already shifted from traditional statistical methods to more complex machine learning approaches, improving their ability to account for nonlinear interactions.

25 Mar 2026

Pediatric mental health triage often inaccurate in emergency departments

In emergency medicine, triage differentiates patients who require immediate attention from those who can safely wait for care. When it comes to children's mental or behavioral health, however, triage scores were found to be inaccurate in two-thirds of the cases when compared to the level of care the child actually received during their emergency visit, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open.

24 Mar 2026

Nepal and Afghanistan show how abrupt aid cuts can unravel essential care

Abrupt cuts to external health aid can destabilize multiple essential services simultaneously in fragile, donor-dependent settings, as illustrated by Nepal and Afghanistan. The paper argues that donor withdrawal is not just a resilience test, but also an ethical and governance issue that should be managed through “transition discipline.”

24 Mar 2026

Conflict exposure increases PTSD and suicidality among young people in Ukraine

For more than a decade, Ukrainian children have grown up with war as a constant backdrop. According to researchers, the psychological consequences are now becoming clear.

24 Mar 2026

COVID-19 learning losses could deepen class gaps for years

COVID-19 school closures are projected to reduce educational attainment and weaken intergenerational mobility, with children from less advantaged backgrounds facing the greatest losses. The paper’s simulations suggest that unequal access to continued learning during the pandemic could deepen educational inequality and reverse mobility gains, especially in the absence of remedial recovery measures.

23 Mar 2026