The use of biventricular assist devices may be an effective method for sustaining small children awaiting heart transplantation, according to research published Sept. 30 in a supplement issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report estimates that 6.5 million US children ages 2 to 18 enrolled in Medicaid have untreated tooth decay, according to Reuters.
Treatment patterns of psychotropic medication in children and adolescents vary widely between the United States, the Netherlands and Germany, according to an article in the Sept. 25 issue of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health.
During the 2006-2007 flu season, influenza vaccination coverage increased among adults, but only one in five children aged 6 months to 23 months were fully vaccinated, according to two reports from researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in the Sept. 26 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Introducing fish to an infant's diet before 9 months of age reduces risk of eczema, while breast-feeding does not, according to a report published online Sept. 25 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have expanded their recommendation for flu vaccination coverage to include all patients ages 6 months through 18 years.
The U.K. health care system is failing to encourage women to breast-feed, and a national breast-feeding promotion strategy is urgently required if breast-feeding rates are to improve, according to an editorial published online Sept. 25 in BMJ.
Diabetic women whose blood sugar is continuously monitored during pregnancy are more likely to have better glycemic control in the third trimester, and their babies have a lower birth weight and reduced risk of macrosomia, according to research published Sept. 25 in BMJ Online First.
A community-based behavior modification program was able to reduce neonatal mortality by more than half in a rural setting in India, researchers report in the Sept. 27 issue of The Lancet.
American youth are between two and three times more likely to be prescribed psychotropic treatments than children in Europe, according to the September 25 online Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved triamcinolone acetonide for sneezing, runny nose, and congestion caused by allergic rhinitis in pre-schoolers, according to the manufacturer Sanofi-aventis.
Maternal race is associated with induction of labor, with rates increasing disproportionately among non-African American women, according to the results of a study published in the September issue of Medical Care.
Children and adolescent cancer survivors may continue to face the risk of increased morbidity and mortality due to recurrence of their original cancer, researchers report in the Oct. 1 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The growing popularity of high-caffeine content energy drinks has resulted in an increasing number of reports of caffeine intoxication, and an increase in the combined use of caffeine and alcohol, according to a study published online Sept. 21 in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
The rate of women in America seeking abortion hit a 30-year low in 2004, but this trend masks disparities in abortion rates across various demographic groups, according to a report published in August by the Guttmacher Institute.
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation of more than 1,000 retail markets which may have brought Chinese infant formula into the U.S. yielded no such items, the FDA stated.
When the American Academy of Pediatrics released revised recommendations for the management of hypercholesterolemia in children this year, a media firestorm erupted over the inclusion of statins as potential first-line pharmacologic agents. But the epidemic of childhood obesity has forced pediatricians to balance the unknown risks associated with pharmacologic therapy in children against the risk that failure to treat could lead to heart attacks and other complications in young adulthood, according to a Perspective article published in the Sept. 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Prophylactic administration of nasal insulin soon after birth does not prevent children with HLA genotypes and autoantibodies from developing type 1 diabetes, nor does it delay onset of the disease, according to research published online Sept. 23 in The Lancet.
Children who are foreign-born are increasingly likely to lack health insurance, according to survey results published in the November American Journal of Public Health.
Parents of babies who die as a result of extreme prematurity or potentially lethal congenital abnormalities report that religion, spirituality and hope guided their decisions about resuscitation rather than the physician's predictions about morbidity and death, according to an article published in the September issue of Pediatrics.
There will be no change to the Part B Standard Medicare premium in 2009 compared with 2008. This is the first time since 2000 that the premium has not risen over the prior year, according to an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
In children with a first demyelinating event, those with lower vitamin D levels are more likely to progress to multiple sclerosis, and the incidence of first demyelinating events is significantly greater at higher latitudes, where the sun's rays are weaker and vitamin D insufficiency is more common, according to research presented at the World Congress on Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis held Sept. 17 to 20 in Montreal, Canada.
About a fifth of Down syndrome patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia have a mutation in the Janus kinase 2 (JAK2) protein, according to a report published online Sept. 20 in The Lancet.
The Immunization Alliance, which includes the American Academy of Pediatrics and 21 other groups, is calling for greater awareness about immunization rates in children.
Regularly measuring fraction of exhaled nitric oxide (NO) didn't lead to improvement in asthma symptoms or lung function in young patients with asthma, according to research published in the Sept. 20 issue of The Lancet.
Screening all newborns for a panel of 29 disorders recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics would help detect significantly more children with rare disorders, according to a report published in the Sept. 19 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The use of paracetamol (acetaminophen), whether in the first year of life or later in childhood, is associated with higher risk of asthma symptoms at ages 6 and 7, according to research published in the Sept. 20 issue of The Lancet.
Factors associated with asthma diagnosed in adulthood include persistent wheezing in early life, bronchial hyper-responsiveness at 6 years of age, and allergic or non-allergic rhinitis in adulthood, according to the results of two studies published in the Sept. 20 issue of The Lancet.
A concerted international and national response, behavior change by consumers and providers, and the development of antibacterial agents are all urgently needed to tackle the global problem of rapidly increasing antibiotic resistance, according to an article published online Sept. 18 in BMJ.
Problems at school are more likely in children who worry about their parents arguing, reported researchers in the September/October Child Development.