Child Health News

RSS

Dramatic increase of Type 1 diabetes in under fives

Researchers are calling for more work in to the reasons behind a big increase of young children with Type 1 diabetes. A new study, led by Bristol University, has discovered that the number of children under five-years-old with Type 1 diabetes has increased five-fold over 20 years.

19 Mar 2007

Growing number of young people have fatty liver disease

Indiana University School of Medicine researchers are taking a closer look at a disease whose incidence is rising as obesity in children increases.

15 Mar 2007

Asthmatic children still not breathing easier

"The bottom line is that there's much work that needs to be done in making sure that children with asthma receive appropriate and effective care; it's more complex than one might think."

15 Mar 2007

No-line bifocals slows myopia progression in some children

Certain children who wear a special kind of no-line bifocal lenses show signs of slower progression of myopia than those who wear more conventional lenses according to a new study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS).

14 Mar 2007

Race affects passive smoke absorption in children

New research suggests that a child's race may be a factor in determining his/her susceptibility to tobacco toxins associated with environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).

13 Mar 2007

New report urges expanded health coverage for children

The American Public Health Association (APHA) today released its recommendations for expanding health coverage to uninsured children through Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), a successful federal and state joint program that is set to be reauthorized this year.

13 Mar 2007

SIDS risk lowered by use of pacifier

The risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the third leading cause of infant death, may be lowered through the use of a pacifier.

13 Mar 2007

Bilingual learning benefits second and third generation children

Bilingual learning can provide substantial benefits for second and third generation children whose families speak a language other than English, according to ESRC-funded research by Goldsmiths, University of London.

12 Mar 2007

States face SCHIP funding shortfalls as Congress debates program's funding, formula, eligibility

Fourteen states this year are facing federal budgetary shortfalls for SCHIP because of inflation, higher enrollment levels and program expansions, USA Today reports. Democratic lawmakers want to provide an additional $745 million through a bill funding the Iraq war to maintain coverage levels through the end of this fiscal year.

11 Mar 2007

Kidney disease in children: common but treatable

"Kidney disease occurs more often than we think, but it is also more treatable than we used to think, especially when caught early," says Barbara Fivush, M.D., director of nephrology at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

8 Mar 2007

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle rejects federal abstinence education funds

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) has directed the state Department of Health and Family Services to notify federal officials that Wisconsin is refusing $600,000 in Title V federal abstinence education funds for fiscal year 2007, health department spokesperson Stephanie Marquis said on Friday, the Madison Capital Times reports.

8 Mar 2007

Surgeon General's call to action on underage drinking welcomed

The U.S. Surgeon General's long-awaited Call to Action on underage drinking amplifies the National Academies' Institute of Medicine's report of more than three years ago urging a national strategy to address the nation's worst youth drug problem.

8 Mar 2007

Why children love their security blankets

Every parent of a young child knows how emotionally attached children can become to a soft toy or blanket that they sleep with every night.

8 Mar 2007

Surgeon General gets serious about underage drinking

The Surgeon General's Office has appealed to Americans to do more to stop the nation's 11 million underage drinkers from using alcohol, and to discourage other young people from taking it up.

7 Mar 2007

Children under stress develop more fevers

Children whose parents and families are under ongoing stress have more fevers with illness than other children. Published this month in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, the study also shows the unanticipated conclusion that children's natural killer cell function, part of the body's innate immune system, increases under chronic stress, unlike adults, whose function is decreased.

6 Mar 2007

Democrats, Republicans disagree on funding for SCHIP reauthorization

As Congress begins considering reauthorization of SCHIP, Republican and Democratic lawmakers continue to disagree about funding levels and enrollment eligibility, the Washington Post reports.

5 Mar 2007

Senate hearing to debate junk food in schools

Tomorrow the Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on school nutrition issues, a move that the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says signals new hope for strong, national action to get junk food out of schools.

5 Mar 2007

Women who smoke during pregnancy can cause permanent vascular damage in their children

The Netherlands Atherosclerosis Risk in Young Adults (ARYA) study showed that participants who were exposed to smoke when their mothers were pregnant resulted in permanent cardiovascular damage that could be detected in young adulthood.

5 Mar 2007

Shyness, genetics and parents

New research from the Child Development Laboratory at the University of Maryland shows that shyness in kids could relate to the manner in which a stress-related gene in children interacts with being raised by stressed-out parents.

5 Mar 2007

Vaccines for measles-mumps-rubella and varicella are effective in extremely preterm infants

The study, which included 16 term and 16 extremely preterm (born before about 6 months of pregnancy) infants born between May 2002 and May 2005, is the first of its kind to examine the antibody levels of measles, mumps, rubella and varicella in this population before and after vaccination. It was published in this month's Pediatrics.

5 Mar 2007