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Kids have upswing in golf-related head injuries

Children’s increasing interest in golf is resulting in an unfortunate upswing in golf-related head injuries, according to a review of sports injuries treated over six years at an academic medical center in Georgia.

5 Apr 2005

Low-cost, hospital-based parent education program can reduce the incidence of shaken baby syndrome

A low-cost, hospital-based parent education program can reduce the incidence of abusive head injuries caused by shaken baby syndrome by nearly 50 percent, a Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center researcher reports.

4 Apr 2005

More exhaust inhaled by kids inside school buses than by others in the area

Children on school buses collectively inhale as much or more exhaust emitted from those buses as does the rest of the city's population, according to a new analysis by researchers at the University of California.

4 Apr 2005

Need for pediatricians to partner with community-based organizations

Pediatricians must look beyond the walls of the examining room and into their own communities to understand and confront the socioeconomic and environmental threats to the health of children and adolescents, such as poor nutrition, exposure to violence, and substance abuse.

4 Apr 2005

Treatment of bronchiolitis in children varies widely and often results in unnecessary tests and antibiotics

Considerable differences exist in the treatment of bronchiolitis at children's hospitals across the United States, according to a study from Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle published in the April 1 issue of Pediatrics.

4 Apr 2005

California teens do not get regular physical activity

Teenage girls, teens from low-income families, teens with no access to safe parks or open spaces, teens whose schools do not require physical education, and Latino, Asian, and African American teens are particularly at risk according to researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

4 Apr 2005

Pediatric use of complementary and alternative medicine

Insured pediatric and adolescent patients account for only a small part of total insurance expenditures for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) but are more likely to use these therapies if their adult family members also use CAM professionals, according to an article in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

4 Apr 2005

Early home environment and television watching influence bullying behavior

Four-year-old children who receive emotional support and cognitive stimulation from their parents are significantly less likely to become bullies in grade school, but the more television four-year-olds watch the more likely they are to bully later, according to an article in the April issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

4 Apr 2005

Study looks at infants and chronic nighttime crying

Two University of Maine researchers working in conjunction with colleagues in Japan have found links between infant and child sleeping arrangements and the phenomenon of "yonaki," or nighttime crying.

3 Apr 2005

Parents drugs, alcohol and tobacco use harm their children's futures

A white paper - Family Matters: Substance Abuse and the American Family - released by The National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, says parents who use illegal drugs, abuse alcohol and use tobacco put half the nation's children - more than 35 million of them - at greater risk of substance abuse and of physical and mental illnesses.

30 Mar 2005

Early onset of puberty – the EU gets serious

Children in Europe and other parts of the world are entering puberty at an ever younger age. The reasons for this are unknown, and the EU is now financing a major three-year project called PIONEER in a determined effort to get to the root of the problem. Two Swedish research groups are involved in the project, both from Karolinska Institutet.

30 Mar 2005

Working mothers do not effect their child's social and intellectual development

Working mothers in the United States can relax. Their kids might still get into Harvard. A study from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin found no differences in children's social and intellectual development during the first three years of life between those whose mothers spent a lot of time with them in infancy and those whose mothers spent less time because they worked outside the home.

29 Mar 2005

Protecting children from industrial chemicals in the environment

American children are likely to face serious health consequences from new and existing industrial chemicals in the environment, argue a group of researchers in a report in this month's premier open-access global health journal PLoS Medicine.

29 Mar 2005

New estimates of the causes of child mortality worldwide

Seventy-three percent of the 10.6 million child deaths worldwide each year are the result of six causes: pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, neonatal sepsis, preterm delivery and asphyxia at birth.

28 Mar 2005

Neonatal infections in hospital born babies are up to 20 times higher in developing countries

Neonatal deaths account for over one-third of the global burden of child mortality. Infections are the major cause of neonatal deaths in developing countries. (See The Lancet Neonatal Survival Series, March 2005) Data suggest that unhygienic practices in labour and delivery, and in after-birth care, put babies in the developing world at great risk of infections and death soon after birth.

28 Mar 2005

Most accurate estimates of the causes of child deaths to date

The most accurate estimates of the causes of child deaths to date, published in this week’s issue of The Lancet, reveal that worldwide more than 70% of the 10·6 million child deaths that occur annually are attributable to six causes: pneumonia (19%), diarrhoea (18%), malaria (8%), neonatal sepsis or pneumonia (10%), preterm delivery (10%), and asphyxia at birth (8%).

28 Mar 2005

Babies weaned with rusks go on to love foods such as crisps and chips

Psychologists at the University of Birmingham have discovered that babies who are weaned onto foods such as rusks go on to have a preference for beige foods such as crisps and chips.

23 Mar 2005

Pushy Mums & Dads bad for kids!!

Clinical researchers from the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, in a small study in Archives of Disease in Childhood, are suggesting that well intentioned, but pushy parents, intent on exercising their rights as healthcare consumers, can be bad for their children's health.

21 Mar 2005

Oral hygiene during preschool years can mean a lifetime of good oral health

Providing proper care and oral hygiene during preschool years can mean a lifetime of good oral health, according to a recent article in the January/February issue of General Dentistry, clinical, peer-reviewed journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD), an organization of general dentists dedicated to continuing education.

21 Mar 2005

Invasive pneumonia and antibiotic resistance decreased after childhood streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine introduced

The problem of increasing antibiotic resistance in cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a major cause of pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, was dramatically reversed following the licensing and use of a new conjugate vaccine for young children in February 2000, according to research conducted at Emory University, the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Georgia Division of Public Health.

21 Mar 2005