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Comprehensive prenatal care can decrease rates of low birth weights

Comprehensive prenatal care can decrease the rate of low birth weights, according to a study led by Dr. Yasmin Neggers, a University of Alabama researcher and professor of human nutrition and hospitality management.

25 Sep 2012

Gates Foundation blog examines recent global initiatives with focus on women's, children's health

In this post in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Gary Darmstadt, head of the family health division of the foundation, family planning expert Monica Kerrigan, and Wendy Prosser, a research analyst with the foundation's family health division, examine global initiatives "launched in recent months and years" that bring "needed attention to women's and children's health," including "the Muskoka Initiative, Every Woman Every Child, the Child Survival Promise to Keep, and the Millennium Development Goals."

25 Sep 2012

Scaling up access to maternal, child health care would prevent most deaths during pregnancy, childbirth

"Every day, 800 women lose their lives giving birth -- 287,000 each year -- and the vast majority of these deaths occurs in developing countries. ... These deaths are unacceptable, particularly because they are preventable," the heads of the Health 4+ (UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, U.N. Women, the WHO, and the World Bank, known as H4+) write in the Huffington Post's "Global Motherhood" blog.

25 Sep 2012

Insufficient evidence to support medical intervention use in young adults with autism

Vanderbilt University researchers are reporting today that there is insufficient evidence to support the use of medical interventions in adolescents and young adults with autism.

25 Sep 2012

Joint report calls for action on child nutrition in countries with highest numbers of malnourished children

"Countries with the highest numbers of malnourished children urgently need to step up the way they respond to the problem in order to prevent millions of unnecessary deaths, according to a joint report," titled the "Nutrition Barometer" and released on Friday by Save the Children and World Vision, AlertNet reports.

25 Sep 2012

Lonafarnib proves effective for children with progeria

Results of the first-ever clinical drug trial for children with Progeria, a rare, fatal "rapid-aging" disease, demonstrate the efficacy of a farnesyltransferase inhibitor (FTI), a drug originally developed to treat cancer. The clinical trial results, completed only six years after scientists identified the cause of Progeria, included significant improvements in weight gain, bone structure and, most importantly, the cardiovascular system, according to The Progeria Research Foundation (PRF) and Boston Children's Hospital.

25 Sep 2012

Study tracks and compares brain growth in chimpanzee and human fetuses

Humans' superior brain size in comparison to their chimpanzee cousins traces all the way back to the womb. That's according to a study reported in the September 25 issue of Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, that is the first to track and compare brain growth in chimpanzee and human fetuses.

25 Sep 2012

Mailed sun protection kits lead to higher frequency of sun protective behaviors

A blistering sunburn during childhood or adolescence more than doubles the adult risk of skin cancer. The accumulation of long-term sun exposure may be equally dangerous.

24 Sep 2012

Some children are less responsive to internal cues of hunger and fullness

When compared to their normal-weight siblings, overweight and obese children ate 34 percent more calories from snack foods even after eating a meal, reports a University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing researcher in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. That can be enough calories, if sustained over time, to continue excess weight gain.

24 Sep 2012

Pacifiers may have a deleterious effect on development of emotional intelligence

Scientific literature tends to refute the concerns of generations of parents who worry they may be harming their infants by giving them pacifiers (also called dummies, binkies or soothers). Recent consensus has agreed though generally bad for growing straight teeth, their soothing effects are not psychologically damaging, and could even be beneficial.

24 Sep 2012

More money, focus needed to reach maternal, child health MDGs

Though the global community has "made incredible inroads" on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), "the majority of developing countries are still expected to fall short of the MDG targets for reducing maternal and child mortality by 2015," Carole Presern, director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), writes in the Huffington Post's "Global Motherhood" blog.

24 Sep 2012

Frontline health workers essential for newborn survival

"An infant's first moments and the twenty-eight days that follow are the most precarious, and her risk of death is never higher," but "[s]imple and inexpensive techniques, ... such as drying her, clearing her airway, keeping her warm or using a simple ventilation device to stimulate her breathing, can help," and frontline health workers "deliver these lifesaving techniques."

24 Sep 2012

Study finds race-specific effect of age and body weight on blood pressure in children

Obesity in black children more severely impacts blood pressure than in white children who are equally overweight, according to a new study presented at the American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research 2012 Scientific Sessions.

24 Sep 2012

Study documents women's experiences after abnormal prenatal chromosomal microarray testing

We often hear that "knowledge is power." But, that isn't always the case, especially when the knowledge pertains to the health of an unborn child, with murky implications, at best. A new study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, begins to document this exception to the general rule.

24 Sep 2012

Harris Health System campaign aims to reduce pregnancy-related complications in African-Americans

African-American women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications and about twice as likely to suffer a miscarriage than other ethnic groups in Harris County. The alarming facts prompted Harris Health System to launch an educational campaign aimed at African-American women before they get pregnant on the steps to have a safe and healthy birth.

24 Sep 2012

Exposure to near-roadway air pollution can cause or exacerbate asthma in L.A. County children

Research conducted at the University of Southern California (USC) indicates that at least 8 percent of the more than 300,000 cases of childhood asthma in Los Angeles County can be attributed to traffic-related pollution at homes within 75 meters (a little less than 250 feet) of a busy roadway.

24 Sep 2012

Greenhouse-grown corn seeds could help treat lysosomal storage disease

The seeds of greenhouse-grown corn could hold the key to treating a rare, life-threatening childhood genetic disease, according to researchers from Simon Fraser University.

24 Sep 2012

Maternal choline intake could essentially change fetal genetic expression into adulthood

Just as women are advised to get plenty of folic acid around the time of conception and throughout early pregnancy, new research suggests another very similar nutrient may one day deserve a spot on the obstetrician's list of recommendations.

24 Sep 2012

What moms eat before pregnancy affects children epigenetically

Everyone knows that what mom eats when pregnant makes a huge difference in the health of her child. Now, new research in mice suggests that what she ate before pregnancy might be important too. According to a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal, what a group of female mice ate-before pregnancy-chemically altered their DNA and these changes were passed to her offspring. These DNA alterations, called "epigenetic" changes, drastically affected the pups' metabolism of many essential fatty acids.

21 Sep 2012

Child mortality rate nearly halved in Niger since 1998, analysis shows

"Niger has nearly halved the death rate of children below five years old since 1998, a significant drop highlighting the benefits of free universal health care for children and pregnant women as well as increased donor funding for health," according to a analysis published in the Lancet, IRIN reports.

21 Sep 2012

Child Health News

Comprehensive prenatal care can decrease rates of low birth weights

Gates Foundation blog examines recent global initiatives with focus on women's, children's health

Scaling up access to maternal, child health care would prevent most deaths during pregnancy, childbirth

Insufficient evidence to support medical intervention use in young adults with autism

Joint report calls for action on child nutrition in countries with highest numbers of malnourished children

Lonafarnib proves effective for children with progeria

Study tracks and compares brain growth in chimpanzee and human fetuses

Mailed sun protection kits lead to higher frequency of sun protective behaviors

Some children are less responsive to internal cues of hunger and fullness

Pacifiers may have a deleterious effect on development of emotional intelligence

More money, focus needed to reach maternal, child health MDGs

Frontline health workers essential for newborn survival

Study finds race-specific effect of age and body weight on blood pressure in children

Study documents women's experiences after abnormal prenatal chromosomal microarray testing

Harris Health System campaign aims to reduce pregnancy-related complications in African-Americans

Exposure to near-roadway air pollution can cause or exacerbate asthma in L.A. County children

Greenhouse-grown corn seeds could help treat lysosomal storage disease

Maternal choline intake could essentially change fetal genetic expression into adulthood

What moms eat before pregnancy affects children epigenetically

Child mortality rate nearly halved in Niger since 1998, analysis shows

Redefining control and consistency in anaerobic microbiome workflows

AI in Healthcare: How generative tools are transforming clinical practice

The future of automation: Machine learning–driven hepatocyte and organoid counting

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