A new report urges parents and children's doctors to change their thinking about homesickness among children, to see it as a nearly universal but highly preventable and treatable phenomenon -- rather than an unavoidable part of childhood. The report, published in the journal Pediatrics, gives parents and physicians specific guidance to help anticipate and lessen the distress that homesickness can cause among kids and teens at sum...Tuesday, 2-Jan-2007 / [ Details... ]
According to researchers in New Zealand by leaving young infants sleeping unattended in car seats, even when they're brought indoors, can be a killer.The researchers from the University of Auckland say such behaviour can have have life-threatening consequences, as in some situations the seats may encourage sleep apnea.The team led by Dr. Alistair Jan Gunn, say that while the seats have been proven to be indispensable in protecting inf...Monday, 11-Dec-2006 / [ Details... ]
According to a report by a Canadian expert, children are being exposed to excessive amounts of radiation when they have a CT scan.Ontario's auditor general Jim McCarter has said in a report that in almost 50 per cent of the cases he studied, hospitals did not reduce the exposure setting when children took the high-tech diagnostic exam.McCarter says because children's organs are more sensitive to radiation than those of adults, a child who has a CT scan on their abdomen using an adult sett...Monday, 11-Dec-2006 / [ Details... ]
A new study by specialists at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and elsewhere suggests that only one in five inner-city children with chronic asthma gets enough medicine to control dangerous flare-ups of the disease.The findings, reported in December's Pediatrics, are disturbing, the researchers say, because preventive therapy failure leads ...Monday, 4-Dec-2006 / [ Details... ]
A new study has found that teenagers who play violent video games have increased activity in those areas of the brain which control emotional arousal, and decreased activity in the regions associated with control, focus and concentration.For the study, researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record tiny metabolic changes in brain activity in adolescents after...Friday, 1-Dec-2006 / [ Details... ]
Researchers in the United States say that doing some form of aerobic exercise during the daytime might improve the sleep-related breathing problems experienced by many children who are overweight or obese. Catherine L. Davis, PhD, and colleagues from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, conducted a study of 100 overweight child.They randomly split the children into three groups; one group were given 40 minutes of supervised aerobic exe...Tuesday, 28-Nov-2006 / [ Details... ]
The largest survey ever undertaken of Aboriginal children and families has thrown new light on why most existing intervention programs are failing to produce results needed for overcoming the present levels of Indigenous disadvantage.The finding is contained in the fourth volume of results from the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey, launched in Perth.The survey, undertaken by researchers at the Telethon Institut...Thursday, 23-Nov-2006 / [ Details... ]
According to the latest research not getting enough sleep can increase a child's risk of being overweight.Other studies have suggested that inadequate sleep has a negative effect on a child's social and emotional well-being as well as school performance.This latest research by a team at Northwestern University, Illinois, has found that a lack of sleep is also a factor in a child being overweight.The longitudinal study used de...Wednesday, 7-Feb-2007 / [ Details... ]
A comprehensive Danish study has found that over a 10-year period there has been in Denmark a substantial rise in cases in children of autism, hyperactivity and Tourette's syndrome.The study carried out by researchers at Denmark's University of Aarhus did not examine the possible causes of the increased numbers.Apparently a number of earlier studies had also reported notable increases in recent years in the number of children being treated f...Wednesday, 7-Feb-2007 / [ Details... ]
All babies in England are to be screened for an inherited metabolic disease called Medium Chain Acyl CoA Dehydrogenase Deficiency (MCADD), within two weeks of birth, announced Health Minister, Ivan Lewis today. The check will be carried out as part of the standard "heel-prick" test for babies that screens for other diseases such as sickle cell disorders and congenital hypothyroidism.MCADD is a rare inherited metabolic disease that reduces the ability to maintain a normal blood sugar durin...Wednesday, 7-Feb-2007 / [ Details... ]