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New partnership to promote good nutrition in early childcare and education programs

Today, Dole Food Company and Lt. Governor Casey Cagle's Healthy Kids Georgia Program announced a partnership with the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning to promote good nutrition and increased physical activity in early childcare and education programs.

15 Dec 2012

Approximately 10% of 6-8 year olds have sleep-disordered breathing: Study

Approximately ten per cent of 6-8 year olds have sleep-disordered breathing, according to a recent Finnish study. The risk is increased among children with enlarged tonsils, crossbite and convex facial profile.

14 Dec 2012

Australian researchers to establish dedicated asthma service for pregnant women

Researchers in Australia will establish the world's first dedicated asthma service for pregnant women in a trial of what they hope will reduce the adverse effects of asthma on the growth and survival of babies.

14 Dec 2012

Study finds new evidence that vitamin D decreases risk of autism in children

A study just published online in the peer-reviewed journal Dermato-Endocrinology found additional evidence that vitamin D reduces the risk of developing autism.

14 Dec 2012

K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital offers comprehensive surgical program

No matter what age you are, surgery can be a scary thing. Knowing you are in good hands, though, can help soothe fears. K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital at Jersey Shore University Medical Center offers a comprehensive child-friendly, family-oriented program that includes surgical specialties, dentistry, general surgery, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, ENT, orthopedic surgery and urology.

14 Dec 2012

Study identifies risk factors for falls among children in Italy hospitals

A prospective study of patients admitted to a children's hospital in Italy identified risk factors for falls. It found that lack of attention among parents or caregivers, or by the children, accounted for 41 per cent of falls and that most falls occurred when a parent or caregiver was present, indicating that such supervision did not necessarily prevent a fall.

14 Dec 2012

Administration of N2O + ISO appears to have negative effect on fetal development

An anesthetic regimen typically used during surgery on pregnant mothers appears to have a negative effect on the development of the fetus, according to a new study on mice conducted by neurobiologists from the National Center for Toxicological Research, in Arizona.

14 Dec 2012

Continue support of GAVI Alliance and childhood disease prevention

"Last week a global health event took place in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, to foster greater political will and explore ways to accelerate results, innovation, sustainability, and equity in the field of immunization," Baroness Hollins, emeritus professor of psychiatry of disability at St George's University of London, writes in the BMJ Group Blog about the GAVI Partners Forum.

14 Dec 2012

TUBB5 gene responsible for microcephaly: IMP study

Neurobiologists at the Research institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna have discovered one of the key genes required to make a brain. Mutations in this gene, called TUBB5, cause neurodevelopmental disease in children.

14 Dec 2012

MicroRNA-218 especially low in medulloblastoma

Between the blueprint of the genome and the products of its expression lie microRNAs, which can boost or lower the rate at which genes become stuff. In fact, many cancers use microRNA to magnify the expression of faulty genes or shrink the expression of helpful genes that would otherwise suppress tumors. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the December issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry shows that in medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor of children, microRNA-218 is especially low.

14 Dec 2012

Scientists isolate cancer stem cells that lead to growth of Wilms' tumours

Scientists have isolated cancer stem cells that lead to the growth of Wilms' tumours, a type of cancer typically found in the kidneys of young children. The researchers have used these cancer stem cells to test a new therapeutic approach that one day might be used to treat some of the more aggressive types of this disease.

13 Dec 2012

Examining maternal, newborn health care in Ethiopia

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog features two posts on maternal health in Ethiopia. In the first, Jennifer James, founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, writes about her trip to the country to "observe Save the Children's work with frontline health workers."

13 Dec 2012

Nurse-Family Partnership may not be as successful in reducing early childhood injuries

New research from PolicyLab at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia shows that one of the nation's largest programs providing home visitation support for at-risk mothers and children may not be as successful in reducing early childhood injuries as it was in earlier evaluations.

13 Dec 2012

More than 850,000 children treated for malnutrition in Sahel in 2012, UNICEF says

"A UNICEF progress report says that more than 850,000 children are expected to have received life-saving treatment for severe acute malnutrition across nine countries in the Sahel region during the course of 2012," according to a UNICEF press release, noting the number is "based on the more than 730,000 children under five treated at centers between January and the end of September."

13 Dec 2012

Madagascar traditional midwives recruited to bring women in labor to clinics for care

IRIN examines efforts to recruit Madagascar's traditional midwives, called "matronnes," to "a campaign to get women to deliver in clinics or hospitals, part of a move to lower maternal and newborn death rates."

13 Dec 2012

Ceramic cookstoves may not reduce risk of pneumonia in young rural Kenyan children

Inexpensive, locally-produced ceramic cookstoves may produce less smoke than traditional indoor 3-stone firepits, but they don't significantly reduce indoor air pollution or the risk of pneumonia in young children, according to results from a small, year-long observational study by researchers working in rural Kenya.

13 Dec 2012

Canada's foreign aid agency, Grand Challenges Canada announce global health partnership

"Canada's foreign aid agency will work with Grand Challenges Canada in a bid to bring ideas for health innovation to the developing world, International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino says," the Globe and Mail reports.

13 Dec 2012

New biocompatible patch can repair congenital heart defects

A painstaking effort to create a biocompatible patch to heal infant hearts is paying off at Rice University and Texas Children's Hospital.

13 Dec 2012

Bumetanide could treat children with severe autism or Asperger's syndrome

Although this therapy is not curative, it nevertheless reduced the autistic disorders' severity in three-quarters of the children. The researchers have filed a request for authorisation to perform a multi-centre European clinical trial in order to determine more precisely the population concerned by this therapy.

13 Dec 2012

Dantrolene may help combat Duchenne muscular dystrophy in boys

Drugs are currently being tested that show promise in treating patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), an inherited disease that affects about one in 3,600 boys and results in muscle degeneration and, eventually, death.

13 Dec 2012