Pediatrics News and Research

Latest Pediatrics News and Research

Talking about sex to teenagers

Sex is one of the most difficult topics a parent can bring up with an adolescent, but a new study finds that parents who are taught specific communication skills can more readily tackle these conversations and sustain them over time.

10 Jul 2008

Potential new way to prevent graft-versus-host disease

A new University of Michigan study in mice suggests that a drug recently approved to fight cancer tumors is also able to reduce the effects of graft-versus-host disease, a common and sometimes fatal complication for people who have had bone marrow transplants.

10 Jul 2008

Novel approach shows potential to become an emergency treatment for heart attack patients

Researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have manipulated cell activity that occurs during the interruption of blood flow to strongly protect heart tissue in animal studies. The finding has the potential to become an emergency treatment for heart attack patients, particularly since already existing drugs might be pressed into service to produce the protective effects.

10 Jul 2008

Lipid Association responds to new cholesterol guidelines for kids

When the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued its recommendation on July 7 regarding the treatment of children with high cholesterol, it generated a strong response from the community of medical professionals and patients. The National Lipid Association (NLA), a group of healthcare professionals who specialize in cholesterol and heart disease issues, believes that the AAP has acted in the interests of patient care by raising the issue of lipid abnormalities in children.

10 Jul 2008

Experts call for cholesterol drugs to be used in young children

Medical specialists in the U.S. are calling for more stringent cholesterol screenings for young children.

8 Jul 2008

A baby's smile gives mothers a natural high

Scientists say the baby's smile that brightens a mother day also lights up a part of her brain.

8 Jul 2008

Hand washing reduces infant mortality

Washing hands with soap and water in preparation for delivery significantly reduced the risk of death for infants within the first month of life, according to a study in Nepal conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

7 Jul 2008

Single oral dose of vitamin A reduces infant mortality

A single, oral dose of vitamin A, given to infants shortly after birth in the developing world can reduce their risk of death by 15 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study is published in the July 2008 edition of the journal Pediatrics.

7 Jul 2008

Sex during adolescence doesn't predict future HPV infection

Predicting a child's future is a near impossible task - today's straight-A student may not become tomorrow's doctor, and the school-yard bully may actually grow up to become a member of the Peace Corps.

7 Jul 2008

Seizures in newborns can be detected with bedside brain-activity monitors

Compact, bedside brain-activity monitors detected most seizures in at-risk infants, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed. That means the compact units could assist clinicians in monitoring for electrical seizures until confirmation with conventional EEG (electroencephalography), the researchers assert in an article published in the June issue of Pediatrics.

2 Jul 2008

Asthma risk increases in children treated for HIV

Children whose immune systems rebound after treatment with potent anti-viral drugs for HIV infection face an increased risk of developing asthma, said a federally funded consortium of researchers led by those from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

1 Jul 2008

Curbing kids' risk-taking behavior

Educating kids and their parents about the importance of wearing a helmet when riding a bike, and buckling up and riding in the back seat of the car, could help to cut down the more than 30 million injury-related emergency room visits that occur each year in the United States.

1 Jul 2008

100 percent oxygen resuscitation after brain injury may do more harm than good to children

The current standard practice of giving infants and children 100 percent oxygen to prevent brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation may actually inflict additional harm, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

1 Jul 2008

Children's Brain Tumor Foundation's tissue bank consortium may solve dire problem in pediatric cancer research

In a major effort to speed treatment and cures for pediatric brain tumors and cancer, the Children's Brain Tumor Foundation (CBTF) today launched the initial phase of a tissue bank consortium designed to jump-start meaningful analyses that could lead to treatment and cures for these types of cancer, where survival rates are unacceptably low and neurocognitive and other damage is posed by today's treatment options.

1 Jul 2008