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Top 12 health issues facing Australian children

Alarming levels of poorer health within indigenous children and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds tops a new list of 12 major issues threatening the future health of Australia.

10 Oct 2005

Real dangers from environmental toxins most likely occur early in life

Exposure of developing fetuses and newborns to low levels of environmental toxins such as lead, mercury and dioxin, as well as nicotine and ethanol, could be behind the recent sharp rises in asthma, allergies and autoimmune disorders like lupus, says a Cornell University researcher.

10 Oct 2005

Babies should not be asleep in the same bed that their parents are sleeping in

Revised American Academy of Pediatrics' guidelines on preventing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) recommend putting babies to sleep in their own cribs instead of in their parents' beds.

10 Oct 2005

Why kids need to wear mouthguards

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 74 million students will head back to school this fall, however, according to the National Youth Sports Safety Foundation (NYSSF), many of those students end up as part of the 15 million dental injuries and five million cases of traumatically lost teeth that occur every year.

5 Oct 2005

New set of guidelines for treating the mental health needs of incarcerated youth

Although as many as 65 to75 percent of juvenile offenders have one or more psychiatric disorders, most juvenile correctional facilities do not have the resources to serve them.

5 Oct 2005

To improve the diets of British children we need to look beyond school dinners

The health of pupils eating school dinners is no worse - and in some respects may be better - than that of pupils eating meals provided from home, concludes a study published online by the British Medical Journal today.

5 Oct 2005

Half of childhood asthma hospitalizations could be prevented with improved parent-physician communication

Each year, some 196,000 children are hospitalized in the United States with asthma attacks. In addition to the severe breathing problems that the children may experience, it also costs the health care system an estimated $835 million to treat them.

4 Oct 2005

Children enrolled in fitness-oriented gym classes showed greater loss of body fat

Overweight children who took part in lifestyle-focused, fitness-oriented gym classes showed significant improvement in body composition, fitness, and insulin levels, according to a study in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

3 Oct 2005

School meals system failing needy children

New research just published by researchers at the University of Dundee demonstrates that the current system of free school meals is failing many of the most needy children.

28 Sep 2005

New centre to advance child health research

The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Institute of Child Health (ICH) at UCL (University College London) have announced a partnership to establish a centre for research to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases affecting children's health, and to promote their health and well-being.

27 Sep 2005

Findings explain why abused children are often so distracted at school

Even the subtlest hints of anger or hostility in their environment sets physically abused children on prolonged 'alert', even if a conflict has nothing to do with them.

27 Sep 2005

How you interact with your children when they're just starting kindergarten helps determine their behavior by the time they finish fourth grade

The study, from researchers at Wichita State University in Kansas, found that early parent-child relationships, including warmth, good communication and parental tracking of child behavior, serve as important building blocks for later monitoring (knowing where your child is, with whom, and what he or she is doing outside the home) later in childhood.

27 Sep 2005

Stuttering is best treated early

About 5% of children begin to stutter, usually in the third and fourth years of life. The consensus is that early intervention in the preschool years is necessary, but evidence to support this is currently lacking.

26 Sep 2005

Abused children have a tendency to focus and respond to even subtle signs of anger from others

A large body of research finds that physically abused children have a very high risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems later in life.

26 Sep 2005

Stopping UK BCG vaccination well justified

From autumn 2005, the long running routine programme to vaccinate school children against tuberculosis with BCG vaccine will stop. This decision brings the UK into line with much of the rest of the world and is well justified, writes Professor Paul Fine in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

26 Sep 2005

Five-year-olds are able to grasp numeric abstractions and arithmetic concepts

Psychologists at Harvard University have found that five-year-olds are able to grasp numeric abstractions and arithmetic concepts even without the formal education or language to express this knowledge in words.

26 Sep 2005

Halloween often lost on young kids

Halloween may seem like so much harmless fun, a time when adults enjoy laughing in the face of death, and implore their young children to do the same. According to a Penn State researcher, however, the humor of tombstones, monsters and other scary elements is often lost on kids at the ripe age of 6 or 7--many of whom don't find the holiday the least bit funny.

26 Sep 2005

Peer victimization may lead to psychological problems

The long-term effects of teasing or harassment by their peers on pre-adolescent children - specifically, depression and anxiety - are related, in part, to the level of victimization at the end of fourth grade, as well as to how much that harassment increased or decreased between fourth and sixth grade, according to a study published in the September/October issue of the journal Child Development.

26 Sep 2005

Quality of everyday experiences in schools can greatly reduce children's academic and social problems

Take a young child at high risk of doing poorly in the elementary school years, put him or her in a classroom with a great teacher, and that child will do just as well as children who have no such risks.

26 Sep 2005

Pediatricians may fail to diagnose obesity in kids

Many physicians may be missing the chance to talk to obese children and their parents about ways to control the children's weight, according to Saint Louis University research reported in Pediatrics.

21 Sep 2005

Child Health News

Top 12 health issues facing Australian children

Real dangers from environmental toxins most likely occur early in life

Babies should not be asleep in the same bed that their parents are sleeping in

Why kids need to wear mouthguards

New set of guidelines for treating the mental health needs of incarcerated youth

To improve the diets of British children we need to look beyond school dinners

Half of childhood asthma hospitalizations could be prevented with improved parent-physician communication

Children enrolled in fitness-oriented gym classes showed greater loss of body fat

School meals system failing needy children

New centre to advance child health research

Findings explain why abused children are often so distracted at school

How you interact with your children when they're just starting kindergarten helps determine their behavior by the time they finish fourth grade

Stuttering is best treated early

Abused children have a tendency to focus and respond to even subtle signs of anger from others

Stopping UK BCG vaccination well justified

Five-year-olds are able to grasp numeric abstractions and arithmetic concepts

Halloween often lost on young kids

Peer victimization may lead to psychological problems

Quality of everyday experiences in schools can greatly reduce children's academic and social problems

Pediatricians may fail to diagnose obesity in kids

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