Kids' lack of self-control tied to extra pounds

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Preschoolers who had less patience and worse self-control while waiting for treats in a classic behavior study ended up weighing slightly more as adults, a new analysis shows.

Although the link between childhood patience and extra pounds in adulthood was "not particularly large," researchers said it might still help hint at which little kids are at risk of growing into overweight adults - and give their parents and teachers a chance to intervene.

"This is a skill or set of skills that really emerges through the preschool years," said Alison Miller, a developmental psychologist from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Self-control "is really developing for kids, and there are a lot of things that you can get in there and teach," she told Reuters Health.

Researchers said teaching patience and self-control to little kids may also have other long-term benefits, such as better grades and overall health.

"This is a struggle that all parents face," said Lori Francis, who has studied kids' self-regulation at Penn State University in University Park.

But, she told Reuters Health, "The idea that children have something to look forward to and there is this awesome reward if you learn how to be patient and wait... that has so much relevance for other things that kids will encounter in life."

Previous research has suggested self-control in preschoolers is tied to their weight as preteens. But for the new study, Tanya Schlam from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison and her colleagues wanted to look farther into the future.

They mailed health questionnaires to adults who had taken part in a delayed-gratification experiment in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when they were four years old.

For the test - which has now become standard in developmental psychology - kids are offered a treat like a marshmallow or cookie immediately or told they will get two marshmallows, for example, if they can wait 15 minutes.

The longer children are able to hold out for a bigger reward, the greater their self-control.

In the original marshmallow study, the average kid was able to wait about six and a half minutes for a treat. About a quarter had enough self-control to make it the full 15 minutes and get the extra snack.

By linking those test results to adults' reports of their own height and weight 30 years after the experiment, the researchers calculated that each extra minute four-year-olds were able to wait for marshmallows was tied to a 0.2-point decrease in their adult body mass index.

Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure of weight in relation to height. A difference of 0.2 points is equivalent to about one pound in most adults.

The majority of the 164 adults included in the final study were considered in the normal range for weight, according to findings published Thursday in The Journal of Pediatrics.

The study can't prove lack of self-control causes kids to become heavier adults, the researchers noted. They also didn't have information on other factors that could predispose people to gain more weight - such as whether or not their moms were also heavy.

Still, they think childhood self-control and patience play a role.

"Self-control is associated with so many outcomes important to society: weight... but also health, financial stability (and) likelihood of being convicted of a crime," Schlam told Reuters Health.

Francis, who wasn't part of the research team, said there could be basic differences between kids who are or aren't good at self-regulating - such as their environment growing up or their families' beliefs - that go on to influence eating and weight.

"The big question mark is explaining why this relationship exists," she said.

Of course, the typical four-year-old isn't exactly known as the model of patience and self-control. But Schlam said meditation, yoga, martial arts and mindfulness can all promote greater self-control, even in young people.
Miller, who also wasn't involved in the new study, said simply talking through self-regulation with kids - like validating their feelings that yes, it's really hard to wait - can help build basic patience skills. So can encouraging kids to distract themselves by thinking about something else in situations that require waiting.

SOURCE: bit.ly/NsrjeR The Journal of Pediatrics

Drinking in Pregnancy Shows Up in Child's Growth: Study

(HealthDay News) -- Children who had significant prenatal exposure to alcohol may have delayed weight gain during infancy and alcohol-related growth restriction from early infancy until 9 years of age, researchers report.

Weight, height and head circumference are indications of brain growth, the study authors pointed out. Persistent reductions in these measurements among children exposed to alcohol in the womb suggest the effects may be permanent and could affect their mental development, according to the study published online Aug. 15 and in the November print issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"These effects may be detrimental to the children as growth deficits have been shown to be related to other health problems, such as lower IQ," study corresponding author Dr. R. Colin Carter, an instructor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, said in a news release from Children's Hospital Boston. "Furthermore, the effects of alcohol on growth were much more severe if the child had iron deficiency anemia as an infant, a condition that is common in the U.S. and worldwide."

The study involved newly pregnant women in Cape Town, South Africa. The researchers divided the women into two groups based on their drinking habits. In the first group, there were 85 women who drank two or more drinks per day or four or more drinks at a time. The second group included 63 women who did not drink at all or drank less than one drink daily.

While pregnant, the women described their smoking habits and alcohol and drug use to researchers, and provided demographic information. Their babies were measured for length, weight and head circumference when they were 6.5 months and 12 months old. These measurements were also taken when the children were 5 years and 9 years old.

Children whose mothers drank heavily while they were pregnant had reduced weight, height and head circumference, compared to children who were not exposed to as much alcohol, the study revealed.

"This alcohol-related growth restriction was present in early infancy and persisted through to 9 years of age. What is important is that these effects were exacerbated by iron deficiency in infancy," Carter said. "By contrast, iron deficiency at 5 years of age and food security did not impact the effects of alcohol on growth."
Children with significant prenatal alcohol exposure had a delay in weight gain at 12 months old, the study found. In addition, the children with fetal alcohol syndrome and partial fetal alcohol syndrome had leaner body composition than other children who did not have these conditions.

The study authors said that growth restrictions should be used as a marker for prenatal exposure to alcohol.
"We saw a postnatal delay in weight gain at 12 months, which may have relevance for postnatal nutritional interventions," Carter said. "The leaner body composition seen in children with [fetal alcohol or partial fetal alcohol syndrome] could be attributable to decreased nutritional intake, for example, total energy or protein, increased metabolic needs, for example, from increased catabolism or physical activity, or a deficit in nutrient utilization in alcohol-exposed children."
-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas

Source : medicinenet.com

Pregnancy May Raise Risk of Cerebral Bleeding in Some Women

(HealthDay News) -- Pregnant women are at higher risk of bleeding in the brain from vessel abnormalities known as arteriovenous malformations, a new study indicates.

Arteriovenous malformations are tangled bits of veins and arteries that can affect circulation, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Ruptured arteriovenous malformations can lead to death or serious disability, the researchers noted.
In conducting the study, Dr. Bradley Gross and Rose Du, from Harvard Medical School, reviewed information on 54 women with confirmed arteriovenous malformations between 2002 and 2010. They calculated the women's overall risk of bleeding, as well as their risk of bleeding during a total of 62 pregnancies. The study revealed four of the women had a total of five bleeding events while they were pregnant.

As a result, the researchers concluded that women with arteriovenous malformations had an 8 percent risk of rupture and bleeding during pregnancy. In contrast, the rate of bleeding while the women were not pregnant was about 1 percent per year, according to the report published in the August issue of Neurosurgery.
In following the women to the age of 40, the investigators found the risk of bleeding during pregnancy increased. At this point, it was 18 times higher than when the women were not pregnant.

The study authors noted that in the four cases of bleeding events during pregnancy, the arteriovenous malformations caused sudden headache and other symptoms between 22 and 39 weeks of pregnancy.

Prompt treatment, however, saved the lives of the women and their babies, they pointed out in a journal news release.

The researchers advised that all women with arteriovenous malformations who plan to have children be treated. If an arteriovenous malformation is discovered during pregnancy, women should be counseled on the risks of treatment versus careful monitoring during the pregnancy. They also recommended that women with the malformation have a cesarean-section delivery.
-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas

Source : medicinenet.com

Pregnancy Changes Mom's Gut Bacteria

Having a kid changes everything, from your sleep schedule to the status of that formerly spare room. The stable of bacteria that live in a woman’s gut is also transformed when their host becomes pregnant. So finds research in the journal Cell. [Omry Koren et al, Host Remodeling of the Gut Microbiome and Metabolic Changes during Pregnancy]

The study looked at women in Finland. The women’s microbial makeup changed dramatically between the first and third trimesters. The array of microbes in the gut went from looking normal in the first three months of a pregnancy to resembling what’s found in patients suffering from metabolic disease in the last three.

But some of the symptoms of that condition – like weight-gain and slower sugar metabolism – can be beneficial to pregnant women, supporting energy storage that helps a fetus develop. Other symptoms, like inflammation, demonstrate that the immune system is functioning properly as a pregnancy comes to term.

Scientists don’t yet fully understand what brings about the changes in gut bacteria – immune function is a suspect, but factors like hormonal signals aren’t ruled out. The research suggests that other changes to the body, like puberty or old age, could also bring about microbial makeovers.
—Ian Chant

Source : ScientificAmerican.com

Consider Your Childbirth Options

Your baby's kicks and stretches are a daily reminder that you'll soon get to see your little one's smile. Have you thought about how and where you want to bring your newborn into the world? Do you want a natural childbirth in a home-like setting? Or would you feel more comfortable with all the conveniences of modern medicine close at hand?

While today's mom's-to-be have more options than ever before, you may be limited by certain factors:

• Where your provider practices
• What your insurance covers
• Whether you have a high-risk pregnancy
• Where you live and what hospitals are close by

The type of birth experience you want is a very personal decision. The following overview can help you sort through your options.

Hospital Birth

The vast majority of women in the U.S. give birth in a hospital. If you have a high-risk pregnancy or want to try having a vaginal birth after a cesarean delivery (VBAC), then a hospital is the safest -- and often the only -- place you can deliver your baby. Even if you have a low-risk pregnancy, you may want to give birth in a hospital where you have ready access to the latest in medical technology.

Fortunately, the old stereotype of delivering your baby in a cold hospital room with your feet up in stirrups is long gone. Now, many hospitals provide one or more of these options:

Traditional hospital birth. In some hospitals,you may move from one room to another depending on what stage of labor you are in. For example, you may go through labor and delivery in one room, recover in another, then move to a semiprivate room. Your baby may be brought to your room for feedings and visits, but stay in the hospital nursery the rest of the time. Not all hospitals follow the same routine, so ask what you can expect during your stay.

Family-centered care. Many hospitals now offer private rooms where you can go through labor, delivery, and recovery all in the same room. Often your partner can stay with you. These rooms are often decorated with pictures on the walls, soothing colors, and cabinets that hide medical equipment when it's not in use. After birth, your baby stays in your room with you.

In-hospital birthing center. These centers are either within a hospital or next to a hospital. They offer natural childbirth in a home-like setting. If problems occur during labor, you are just steps away from expert staff and medical equipment to help you and your baby.
Many hospitals also offer:

• Childbirth and parenting classes and lactation consultants.
• Certified nurse-midwives on staff.
• The ability to have an unmedicated, "natural" delivery.
• Birthing pools or tubs for water births.
• Birthing stools, birthing balls, and other equipment to help you feel comfortable during labor.
• The option to wear your own clothes during labor and delivery.
• The option to have friends and family attend the birth and to videotape your delivery.

Source : webmd.com

U.S. kids downing more diet drinks

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The number of U.S. children who drink sugar-free beverages has doubled in the past decade, a new study finds - though the health implications of the trend, if any, are unclear.

Using data from a federal health survey, researchers found that by 2008, 12.5 percent of children were drinking artificially-sweetened beverages. That was up from six percent a decade earlier.

U.S. adults are downing more diet drinks too. One-quarter of Americans surveyed in 2007-2008 said they'd had a diet drink in the past day, versus 19 percent in 1999-2000, the researchers report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

It's not surprising to see such trends, but the size of the increase among kids was a bit unexpected, according to senior researcher Dr. Miriam B. Vos, of Emory University in Atlanta.

And whether the pattern is good or bad is unknown.

"We do want children to drink less sugar," Vos said in an interview.

"But the challenge," she added, "is that there are no studies that have looked at the long-term health effects of artificial sweeteners in growing children."

That's not to say they are unsafe, Vos said. But she added that animal research has raised some potential concerns. For instance, animals fed artificial sweeteners have shown weight gain - suggesting there could be some effect on metabolism.

"We don't know if anything like that happens in children," Vos stressed.

But before anyone can make widespread recommendations that kids should have diet drinks instead of sugary versions, she said there should be studies into the possible effects on weight and health.

Sugar substitutes include artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin and sucralose; the herbal sweetener stevia is available as a dietary supplement in the U.S.

With the rapid expansion of Americans' collective waistline in the past couple of decades, diet versions of sweet drinks and foods are increasingly popping up on supermarket shelves.

No one knows if that's helping. Vos noted that large population studies have not shown diet-beverage drinkers to be doing better weight-wise - and they tend to weigh more than people who favor water.
But it's hard to know what to make of that, Vos said. People who drink diet beverages may already be overweight and trying to shed some pounds, for instance.

The current findings are based on more than 42,000 Americans who took part in a periodic federal health survey. It included questions on what respondents had to eat and drink in the past 24 hours.

The fact that the questions covered only one day is a limitation of the study, according to Vos. There's no way of knowing how often kids may be having diet drinks, for instance.

Vos said she thinks studies that follow kids over time, to see whether there's a link between diet drinks and weight gain or health, are needed.

Besides the animal research, some studies have found that diet-beverage lovers have increased risks of diabetes, heart problems and stroke. But those reports point only to correlations, and do not prove that artificially-sweetened drinks are to blame.

Vos said that when she counsels families, she suggests that kids stick with water and milk, which has protein, calcium and other nutrients.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Should Parents' Religious Beliefs Determine Kids' End of Life Care?

A child is on life support with little hope of recovering. The parents, who are deeply religious, want treatment to continue—despite doctors’ pessimism—believing a miracle will occur.

What should be done?

The morals behind such scenarios are the subject of a study in the Journal of Medical Ethics. Researchers reviewed 203 cases over three years in the UK that dealt with children’s end of life issues, the treatment their parents wanted, the treatment recommended by the medical staff, and how the cases were resolved.

In 186 cases both the parents and healthcare professionals came to an agreement about stopping treatment that was aggressive but considered ineffectual.

In the other 17 cases parents and the medical team were at loggerheads, with parents wanting to continue full treatment and doctors wanting to stop existing or future treatment based on medical evidence.

In 11 of those 17 cases parents’ decisions to continue treatment were based on religious beliefs. Those beliefs—which included Christian fundamentalism, Judaism, Islam and Roman Catholicism—included faith in a divine intervention for a cure and a distrust of doctors’ opinions.

Five of the 11 cases found resolution after meetings with religious leaders, and one case went to court. The remaining five went unresolved, and medical treatment continued. Four children eventually died, and one lived but with severe brain damage.

While the study authors said they understand why parents would want to try every medical avenue possible to save their child, they question the humanity of continuing extraordinary care. They also argue that since very young children can’t choose a religion, perhaps their parents’ beliefs shouldn’t be considered the default position.

The authors also said that in a number of cases they found “unorthodox interpretations of religious teaching. … The use of religious teachings to perpetuate a situation that appears futile and which may result in distress to the child needs to be questioned.”

They added that existing ethical and legal principles should be reconsidered, and courts should be readily accessible when children’s best interests may be compromised by parents’ expectations of a miracle cure.
The paper was followed by four editorials released this week writtten by Oxford University professors who offered other views of dealing with ethical and medical impasses, such as talking with ultra-religious parents on their own terms and that idea that neither religious nor secular beliefs should be put in the way of the best interests of the child.

Should religious parents be allowed to determine end of life care for their children? Let us know in the comments.


Jeannine Stein, a California native, wrote about health for the Los Angeles Times. In her pursuit of a healthy lifestyle she has taken countless fitness classes, hiked in Nepal, and has gotten in a boxing ring.

Source : news.yahoo.com

Excess Weight, Diabetes Raise Risk of Big Babies

Even Overweight Women Without Gestational Diabetes at Risk of Delivering Large Babies, Researchers Found

Women who are overweight or obese at the start of pregnancy are much more likely than healthy-weight women to deliver large babies, according to new research.

That's true, the researchers found, even if the women did not develop gestational diabetes, a known risk factor for delivering large babies.

In the past, researchers have focused on gestational diabetes -- diabetes that develops during pregnancy -- as a risk factor for having a large baby, says researcher Mary Helen Black, PhD, a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente's Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation.

Now it appears that overweight and obesity play at least as important a role as gestational diabetes in the risk of delivering a large baby. "And that is important because infants born too large for gestational age are at all sort of increased risk for other complications, including obesity later in life," Black says.
The new research is published in Diabetes Care.

Weight, Diabetes, and Risks to Babies

For her study, Black looked at the medical records of nearly 10,000 women who got prenatal care and delivered their babies at a Kaiser Medical Center in Downey, Calif., from 2005 through 2010.

Nearly 60% of the women were overweight or obese, and more than 19% had gestational diabetes.
Of those who had gestational diabetes, more than 76% were either overweight or obese.

Black looked at how weight and diabetes affected the baby's birth weight. A baby is determined to be large based not only on birth weight, but on gender and race, Black says.

Compared to women of healthy weight and those without gestational diabetes, Black found those overweight, obese, or with gestational diabetes all had increased risks of having large babies.

• Overweight women without gestational diabetes had a 65% increased risk of having a large baby.
• Overweight women with gestational diabetes had a 177% increased risk.
• Obese women without gestational diabetes had a 163% increased risk.
• Obese women with gestational diabetes had a 447% increased risk.

Obese women who didn't have gestational diabetes but gained more than 20 pounds (the maximum recommended for obese women) during pregnancy were also more likely to have large babies, Black found.

Weight, Diabetes, and Large Babies: Perspective

The findings echo those published earlier this year by Ravi Retnakaran, MD, a clinician scientist at Mount Sinai Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. "This is showing that the predominant determinant of risk of having a large-for-gestational-age baby is maternal obesity and overweight," he says.

The recent research findings, he says, do not mean blood sugar levels aren't important to monitor during pregnancy. "It's not saying don't treat gestational diabetes," he says.

The study adds to growing evidence that excess weight and diabetes during pregnancy increase the risk of having a large baby, says Jennifer Wu, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.

Source : webmd.com

Babies of Heavy Moms Grow Slower: Study

(HealthDay News) -- Babies with overweight or obese mothers appear to gain less weight and grow more slowly during the first three months of life than babies born to normal-weight women, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Iowa and their colleagues also found these infants gained less fat mass, which is critical for proper brain growth and development.

"We've found these children are not growing normally," said Katie Larson Ode, an assistant clinical professor in pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the University of Iowa, in a university news release. "If what we have found is true, it implies that the obesity epidemic is harming children while they are still in utero and increases the importance of addressing the risk of obesity before females enter the child-bearing years, where the negative effects can affect the next generation."

The study, recently published in the Journal of Pediatrics, included nearly 100 mothers. Of this group, 38 were overweight or obese. The researchers noted none of the women had diabetes.

The study found babies of overweight or obese mothers gained 11 fewer ounces than those born to normal-weight mothers from the time they were 2 weeks old until they were 3 months old. These babies also gained 0.3 fewer ounces in fat mass and grew nearly half an inch less than infants born to normal-weight mothers.
Although infants born to overweight or obese mothers are slower growers initially, they are at greater risk for rapid weight gain as teenagers and becoming overweight themselves, the study's authors noted.

"A message from this study is, 'Don't panic,'" Larson Ode said. "Pediatricians see a lack of (initial) growth, and they assume the child is not getting enough nutrition. But we believe the baby is in fact getting plenty."
The researchers suggested this slowed growth has to do with inflammation. Fat cells flare up when an adult is overweight, they explained. As a result, the immune systems of overweight pregnant women could inflame their unborn baby's developing immune system as well. That may means energy the babies need for development is being used elsewhere.

"These (fat tissue-derived) hormones and inflammatory factors tend to have appetite/satiety regulating effects early on, and may exert their negative effects on growth both during gestation and through passage into the breast milk during postnatal development as well," noted study senior author Ellen Demerath, who was Larson Ode's university advisor, in the news release.

Moreover, the researchers said overweight or obese pregnant women could be inundating their babies with free fatty acids while in the womb. This, in turn, could slow growth hormone production in the pituitary gland in their brains. After birth, the baby's pituitary gland is not able to produce enough growth hormone on its own.

"It's just not mature yet," Larson Ode explained.
The researchers said their findings need confirmation in a larger study.

According to a 2010 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 60 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age are overweight or obese.
-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas

Source : medicinenet.com

Study: Junk food laws may help curb kids' obesity

CHICAGO (AP) — Laws strictly curbing school sales of junk food and sweetened drinks may play a role in slowing childhood obesity, according to a study that seems to offer the first evidence such efforts could pay off.

The results come from the first large national look at the effectiveness of the state laws over time. They are not a slam-dunk, and even obesity experts who praised the study acknowledge the measures are a political hot potato, smacking of a "nanny state" and opposed by industry and cash-strapped schools relying on food processors' money.

But if the laws have even a tiny effect, "what are the downsides of improving the food environment for children today?" asked Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. "You can't get much worse than it already is."

Children in the study gained less weight from fifth through eighth grades if they lived in states with strong, consistent laws versus no laws governing snacks available in schools. For example, kids who were 5 feet tall and 100 pounds gained on average 2.2 fewer pounds if they lived in states with strong laws in the three years studied.

Also, children who were overweight or obese in fifth grade were more likely to reach a healthy weight by eighth grade if they lived in states with the strongest laws.

The effects weren't huge, and the study isn't proof that the laws influenced kids' weight. But the results raised optimism among obesity researchers and public health experts who generally applaud strong laws to get junk food out of schools.

"This is the first real evidence that the laws are likely to have an impact," said Dr. Virginia Stallings, director of the nutrition center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Stallings chaired an Institute of Medicine panel that urged standards for making snack foods and drinks sold in schools more healthful but was not involved in the new research.

The authors of the study, released online Monday in the journal Pediatrics, analyzed data on 6,300 students in 40 states. Their heights and weights were measured in spring 2004, when they were finishing fifth grade and soon to enter middle school, and in 2007, during the spring of eighth grade.

The researchers also examined several databases of state laws on school nutrition during the same time. The states were not identified in the study because of database license restrictions that protect the students' confidentiality, the authors said.

The laws governed food and drinks sold in public school vending machines and school stores, outside of mealtime. Laws were considered strong if they included specific nutrition requirements, such as limits on sugar and fats. Laws were rated weak if the requirements were vague and merely urged sales of "healthy" food without specifics.

The results show that for these laws to be effective, they need to be consistently strong in all grades, said lead author Daniel Taber, a health policy researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In late 2003, 27 of the states studied had no relevant laws affecting middle-schoolers, seven had weak laws and six had strong laws. Several states and school districts enacted tougher laws affecting middle-schoolers and younger kids during the next few years as national concern rose over obesity rates.

Recent data suggest that almost 20 percent of elementary school children nationwide are obese, and the rate among teens is only slightly lower.

In states with consistently strong laws in elementary and middle school, almost 39 percent of fifth-graders were overweight when the study began. That fell to 34 percent in eighth grade. Also, almost 21 percent of fifth-graders were obese, declining to about 18 percent in the eighth grade.

In states with no relevant laws, almost 37 percent of fifth-graders were overweight and 21 percent were obese, and those numbers barely budged by eighth grade.

Boston University statistician Mark Glickman said the study design makes it difficult to reach any convincing conclusions. It's possible, for example, that stronger laws might be more prevalent in Democratic-leaning states with better-educated residents, and less obesity. But the study authors said they found stronger laws in states that had high levels of obesity.

The authors accounted for gender, race, income and school location.

Taber noted that several Southern states have been the most aggressive at targeting school junk food, "probably because they have the highest rates of obesity."

Ludwig, the Boston obesity specialist, praised the researchers for trying to "tackle a complicated question."
"The challenge is that there are a great many factors that coalesce to influence body weight," Ludwig said. "Disentangling these influences and looking at the independent effects of just one is a methodological nightmare."

Source : news.yahoo.com

Heart defects on the decline in European babies

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The number of newborns in Europe affected by heart defects appears to have fallen in recent years, but it's not clear why, says a new study.

A team of European Union researchers analyzing millions of birth records found that the number of European babies born with heart defects fell from around seven in every thousand births in 2004 to around six per thousand by 2007- a drop of around four percent each year.

While any drop in the numbers of babies born with birth defects is good news, experts noted that the decline is a modest one and the researchers can only speculate about the reasons for it.

There is cause "for a high level of skepticism," said Dr. Joe Simpson at the New York-based March of Dimes foundation, a non-profit organization that works to improve babies' health.

"It would be lovely if... true," Simpson told Reuters Health, but given the lack of explanation for the change, "whether it persists over time remains unclear."

For the new study, a team led by Dr. Babak Khoshnood at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), in Paris, France, looked at data on congenital heart defects collected in 16 mostly western-European countries between 1990 and 2007.

They found 47,000 cases of congenital heart disease among more than seven million births.
According to the report, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, cases of the most severe forms of CHD - including conditions like hypoplastic left heart syndrome, when the left side of the heart doesn't develop properly - has held steady at around five per 10,000 births since 1990.

But less severe conditions, like 'hole in the heart' syndrome, decreased from around 50 to 40 cases per 10 000 births, between 2004 and 2007. For a country like France, with around 780,000 births a year, that means about 780 fewer babies born with heart problems every year.

Khoshnood speculates that increased folic acid intake by European women is a possible cause of the decline in defects. But, "we don't have the data to know for sure," he added.

A recent study in Quebec, Canada, found that the number of babies born with heart defects dropped after 1998, shortly after the government began adding folic acid to staple foods like cereal and bread.

Folic acid fortification programs were introduced in both Canada and the U.S. in 1998 to reduce the number of serious birth defects in the spine and brain, known as neural tube defects. But there are no such programs in Europe.

It's possible that European women have increased their consumption of folic acid and are starting to follow recommendations to take it before and during pregnancy, Khoshnood said.

"People are realizing that there is a lot of voluntary fortification. In some breakfast cereals and so on, there is folic acid added, although it's not mandatory. Women are getting folic acid even if they don't take any."

Dr. Sunil Malhotra, a surgeon specializing in congenital defects at New York University, points out, however, "Folic acid has been a part of prenatal care in the U.S. for the better part of a decade, but there hasn't been a similar decrease (in heart defects) here."

According to the American Heart Association, the causes of congenital heart defects are still unknown. So researchers can only speculate about what could be causing the European decline.

Simpson and Malhotra noted further limits to the new study.

Methods to diagnose birth defects have changed during the last 20 years, said Simpson. And with babies leaving the hospital within a day of being born, there is less time to spot heart defects.

Some conditions, including hole in the heart syndrome, don't show up until a couple of days after birth, he said.
"I was not overwhelmed by the strength of the data," Malhotra added. The study draws on data from a lot of different country registries that each collect and store data in a different way, and that data can often be incomplete, he explained.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 40,000 babies are born with heart defects in the U.S. every year. Close to one million adults in the U.S. live with congenital heart disorders, which can cause tiredness, shortness of breath and abnormal heart rhythms.

Advances in surgical techniques mean it's now possible to treat many heart defects, although life-long follow-up care is still essential. Mild cases can often be treated with medication.

"One thing we do know," Malhotra said, is that detection of CHD in the womb has "improved markedly, as has care for mothers with babies with CHD." As a result, those mothers can get more prenatal attention and "have better outcomes when those babies deliver."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/N0bJuX Journal of Pediatrics

Tips to Dress in Early Pregnancy

After the second month of pregnancy, you may often find yourself rummaging through your closet to find something suitable to hide the slightly visible changes in your body. During pregnancy, almost every woman enters a fashion limbo, investing in pregnancy clothing that tends to be a faux pas. Save yourself from cramping your style with these handy tips to dress in early pregnancy.

Try Before You Buy

Pregnancy clothing can be expensive so, try them out before buying. You may also borrow some. Ask your mommie friends to give you some for trial. Considering that maternity wear is only used for few months, gathering piles of them won’t be an intelligent idea. The good news is that there are shops and clothing stores that sell used but maintained pregnancy clothing. Because clothing stores offer used pregnancy clothing, you can grab few designer maternity wear in half the original cost.

The Bigger the Better

During the first trimester of pregnancy, you may stuff your closet with loose pants, tunic tops and skirts with elastic and drawstrings. Wearing a pair of jeans that is one-size bigger will provide extra room for your skin to breathe.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

Yesteryear’s baggy maternity clothing does not exist anymore. Flaunting your baby bump and curvaceous breasts in fitted one-piece dresses and tunics can be fun and stylish. Don’t shy away from showing off your curves. If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

Sneak into Your Husband’s Closet

Have you given a thought to trying your husband’s t-shirts and pyjamas? Your husband’s clothes  will not only comfortable, but memorable too! Team up his loose t-shirts with leggings. Look classy by accessorising the clothing with earrings and multicoloured bangles.

Wear a Sporty Look

Pair a fitting tee with a low-rise pant to boast a sporty look. Stretchy denim gaucho or capris teamed with peasant-style top will hide the slight baby bump, thereby giving you a trimmed silhouette.

Expose a Little

You don’t have to wrap yourself in clothes just because you’re pregnant. Flaunt your bountiful cleavage in low-cut tops or v-neck tees. Sleeveless tees or shirts will distract the attention from your breasts and belly. Bateau necklines will highlight your glamorous back and sexy shoulders.

Tips to Accessorise your Pregnancy Outfits 

• Use a bright coloured jewellery to add some oomph to your monochromatic outfit.
• Sport a pair of funky shoes and carry a handbag of matching colour to add style to the basic look.
• Tying a sweater or a single coloured scarf around your shoulders will perk up your dress.

Furthermore, make sure you always wear a well-fitting pair of lingerie. Stay away from push-up and underwire bras. Don’t try to force yourself into wearing pre-pregnancy lingerie.

Source: onlymyhealth.com

Tips for a Happy Pregnancy during Monsoon

Being pregnant during summer is a dreadful experience, especially with the excessive sweating. Regrettably, monsoon does not bring much relief to pregnant women. Although, monsoon may make you feel more uncomfortable than usual, here are a few changes you can make to your lifestyle to feel less uneasy.

Clothes

Monsoon is likely to make you sweat more than summer for monsoon increases the level of humidity by manifolds. Avoid wearing uncomfortable clothes, especially when you have a big tummy. To stay comfortable, make sure that you wear fitting clothes or clothes that are slightly loose. Avoid wearing clothes that are made of synthetic fabrics as they retain perspiration and heat.

You may also like to read: Tips to Dress in Early Pregnancy.

Hygiene

Bathe at least twice a day to make sure that you stay cool and fresh. Keep a wet tissue or towel dipped in cool water handy so you can use it whenever you want to wipe sweat and grime away. Use a spray of rose water to spray it on your face to feel fresh and clean.

Make sure that you never step outdoors barefoot. Dirty water that is mixed with soil and sewage can lead to several infections. Therefore, wash your feet and hands with warm water and a disinfectant soap to keep them clean and shielded against infections and other skin problems.

Food and Drink

Keeping yourself well hydrated is the key to surviving summer and monsoon. Drink plenty of water and make sure that you drink only filtered water. If you experience any symptoms of headache, nausea, fatigue or dizziness, talk to your doctor. Avoid eating foods that are served by street vendors. Such foods include fruits, fried fruits, juices, water/milk based drinks, etc. If you must eat out, choose a place that is known for its hygiene.

You may also like to read: What Not to Eat during Pregnancy.

Keep Home Clean

Since you would be spending most of your time at home, especially during the last few months of pregnancy, ensure that you keep the house clean and fresh. Use a high quality disinfectant to clean the bathrooms and floors. Use pest control for your homes to protect you from flies, cockroaches, termites, mosquitoes and other diseases. You may choose to burn camphor, dry neem leaves, etc to purify the air. Keep a small mesh bag of cloves near the window or in the cupboard to allow a fresh and natural scent to hang in the air.

Tips to Keep in Mind

• Before stepping out, make sure that you keep these tips in mind.

• Always carry an umbrella or raincoat.

• Keep the vehicle’s fuel tank full.

• Keep the mobile phone charged at all times.

• Always ask your doctor for additional precautions that you may need to take to keep yourself and your baby safe.

Source : feedproxy.google.com

What not to Eat during Pregnancy

During pregnancy, women’s nutritional requirement is more than usual. This doesn’t mean that she needs to increase the caloric intake significantly to fulfil the nutritional requirement. Some expectant mothers also confuse pregnancy with ‘eating for two’. To look after the baby’s needs during pregnancy, pregnancy nutrition is important. There are some foods that may influence the baby’s development within the womb. It is owing to this reason that health experts make a special mention of what not to eat during pregnancy.

An expectant mother’s body becomes efficient at extracting energy and nutrients from your diet, which is why the mother craves for food more often during the term and tends to eat without realising the consequences. It should be understood that a woman requires only 200 extra calories per day during the pregnancy term.

Foods to Avoid during Pregnancy

Unpasteurised milk (buffalo or cow's milk) contains listeria, which is unhealthy for soon-to-be mother and her unborn baby.

Undercooked meat, poultry and eggs are not good during pregnancy owing to the manifestation of harmful bacteria. Therefore, ensure that meat is appropriately cooked before consumption. These foods should also be avoided in the raw state. Raw seafood such as oysters or uncooked sushi should be avoided.

Abstain from predator fish species such as shark or swordfish during pregnancy term as they may contain unsafe levels of mercury. The fish species absorb mercury from contaminated water and get along with proteins in the fish muscle.

Limit the consumption of processed or canned fish as it is preserved in saline water.

Consuming alcohol can also raise health concerns during pregnancy. Physical birth defects, learning disabilities and emotional problems in children are associated with alcohol consumption of the mother during pregnancy.

Caffeine intake should be reduced as well as it increases the risk of miscarriage and low birth weight.

Pregnancy Diet Instructions

When suffering from nausea or sickness, expecting mothers don’t feel like eating proper meals during early pregnancy. Meals should not be skipped by any means during pregnancy. Try to eat small proportions of meals frequently to counter the concern.

Craving for food becomes more after the first few months of pregnancy term. You may be hungry and feel like eating more than usual.

The best way to adhere to pregnancy diet is to eat when you are hungry and ensure that you have healthy foods with excellent nutritive value.

These are some tips that help in structuring pregnancy diet plan to make sure that expecting mothers receive all the essential nutrients every day.

Source: onlymyhealth.com

Health Tip: Protect Against Food Poisoning During Pregnancy

Health Tip: Protect Against Food Poisoning During Pregnancy

(HealthDay News) -- Expectant moms and their growing babies are more susceptible to the dangers of food poisoning.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says pregnant women should avoid these foods to help reduce their risk:

• Don't eat raw or undercooked fish, smoked seafood, or any rare, raw or undercooked meat.
• Don't eat fish that may contain high amounts of mercury, including king mackerel, shark, swordfish or tilefish.
• Don't eat unpasteurized dairy products, including milk or cheese.
• Don't eat eggs or egg products that are raw or undercooked.
• Don't eat deli salads, raw sprouts or unpasteurized vegetable or fruit juices.
• Don't eat spreads made from meat or pate.

-- Diana Kohnle

Source : medicinenet[dot]com

Kegel exercises curb incontinence in late pregnancy

Pregnant women who exercise and strengthen their pelvic muscles are less likely to have problems with urine leakage in their third trimester, a new clinical trials finds.

Experts have long recommended that pregnant women do so-called Kegel exercises to strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor, including the muscles that help control urine flow.

The exercises may help manage urinary incontinence - a common problem in pregnancy - or help prevent it from arising after childbirth.

Still, there have been questions about just how effective Kegel exercises are in preventing incontinence - particularly the fecal variety, according to the researchers on the new study, led by Signe Stafne of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

So Stafne's team randomly assigned 855 women in their second trimester to either join a supervised exercise program or stick with routine prenatal care - which included standard advice to do Kegels and written information about them, but not active instruction.

The exercise group had one weekly hour-long session of low-impact aerobic exercise and strength training, including Kegel exercises.

They were also given a home exercise routine to do at least twice a week.

After 12 weeks, when the women were in late pregnancy, 11 percent of the exercisers said they had problems with urine leakage at least once a week. That compared with 19 percent of women in the control group.

The exercise plan seemed to both treat and prevent problems, the researchers report in the British obstetrics journal BJOG.

Of women who already had urinary incontinence at the study's start, 24 percent were having weekly problems by late pregnancy. That was true of 35 percent of women in the comparison group.

And when women started the study incontinence-free, the exercise regimen seemed to help ward off stress incontinence - urine leakage when there's pressure on the bladder - in particular.

Five percent of women in the comparison group developed stress incontinence, versus just one percent of exercisers.

"The results from the present trial indicate that pregnant women should do pelvic floor muscle training to prevent and treat urinary incontinence in late pregnancy," Stafne's team writes.

As for fecal incontinence, the jury is still out, they say.

Overall, three percent of exercisers had that type of incontinence by late pregnancy. That was lower than the rate in the comparison group - at five percent - but the difference was not significant in statistical terms.

Many women in the comparison group were already exercising when they entered the study, and since all were given information on Kegels, the findings suggest that pelvic exercises are more effective if women get "thorough instructions" in how to do them, the researchers say.

Women can often get instruction on the exercises during prenatal classes, if they take them, or they can ask their obstetrician for help.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/O4LXQa BJOG

Pregnant Mothers' Gut Changes May Support Fetal Growth

Changes to the composition of gut microbes that would normally cause health problems such as weight gain and inflammation may actually be beneficial to expectant mothers, according to researchers.

In conducting the study, published in the Aug. 3 issue of the journal Cell, the researchers examined stool samples taken from 91 pregnant women. They found that the composition of the women's gut microbes changed over time, from the first trimester of their pregnancy to the third trimester.

"This is the first in-depth characterization of the gut microbiota associated with pregnancy," the study's senior author, Ruth Ley, of Cornell University, said in a journal news release. "The findings suggest that our bodies have coevolved with the microbiota and may actually be using them as a tool -- to help alter the mother's metabolism to support the growth of the fetus."

Over the course of their pregnancy, the women's gut microbes became less "normal" and less diverse. The investigators also found that the number of beneficial bacteria declined as levels of disease-related bacteria increased. There also was evidence that inflammation increased during the women's pregnancies.
"The changes in gut microbes were not related to diet, so we think the immune system or hormones play a role," Ley noted.

The researchers then transferred the gut microbes of the pregnant women to healthy mice. They found the mice that received microbes from the third trimester got fatter and had higher levels of inflammation markers and worse blood sugar metabolism than mice that received first-trimester microbes.

"By the third trimester, the microbiota can induce changes in metabolism," Ley said. "In the context of pregnancy, these metabolic changes in the mother are healthy, because they promote energy storage in fat tissue and help support the fetus. Outside of pregnancy, however, these changes can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes and other health problems."

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas
Source : medicinenet.com

Hong Kong tests babies over Japanese milk formula

Hong Kong said Thursday it will test babies who have consumed Japanese-made infant formulas found to have insufficient levels of iodine, after the products were ordered off the city's shelves.

Officials found the Wakodo and Morinaga brands lacked enough iodine, and warned they could have "adverse health effects" on babies' thyroid glands and brains.

"We urge parents to take their babies to the 10 government-designated health centres for blood tests," a spokesman at the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department told AFP, adding that around 2,000 babies could be affected.

The government ordered the two products to be removed from shop shelves, following the findings of a random test on 14 milk brands.

The banned products, which are for babies aged up to nine months, were found to contain less than one-third of the World Health Organization's recommended levels of iodine, an essential nutrient for infant development.
"This may affect the functioning of the thyroid gland," the Centre for Food Safety said in a statement.

"If the thyroid gland's normal functions are significantly affected, there may be potential impact on the brain development of infants."

The government said it would continue to test other brands.

Japanese-made baby formula accounts for about three percent of the total milk brands distributed in Hong Kong.

Their popularity slumped after the nuclear disaster in Japan last year sparked fears of radiation poisoning.
The producers of Wakodo and Morinaga formula said the products were not intended for sale in Hong Kong, which had different requirements for iodine content than Japan.

"We presume that local importers... are marketing it there," Morinaga spokeswoman Natsumi Takahashi told AFP in Japan.

"When we export our products, we make them compatible with the standards of countries in which they are sold."

The Japanese government does not allow manufacturers to add iodine to powdered milk products, which may however contain some iodine from other ingredients, she said.

Kenta Mitsuhashi, a spokesman for Asahi Group Holdings which includes Wakodo, said the company had "no idea" how its milk formula ended up in Hong Kong.

"Wakodo does not export this product to Hong Kong at present," he said, adding that the "domestically marketed product is safe and can be used without any worry".

"The government does not allow iodine to be added to powdered milk," Mitsuhashi said.

Kyodo news agency reported that Morinaga believed formula producers were not permitted to supplement their products with iodine because of the relatively large amount of iodine-rich seaweeds consumed in Japan.
Hong Kong is a favourite place for mainland Chinese shoppers to stock up on baby formula, thanks to its relatively high health standards and strong enforcement.

Mainland China's dairy industry was rocked in 2008 when at least six babies died and another 300,000 became ill from milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

Melamine had been added to give the appearance of higher protein levels.

Source : news.yahoo.com

Kids' cholesterol down; fewer trans fats cited

Finally some good news about cholesterol and kids: A big government study shows that in the past decade, the proportion of children who have high cholesterol has fallen.

The results are surprising, given that the childhood obesity rate didn't budge.

How can that be?

Some experts think that while most kids may not be eating less or exercising more, they may be getting fewer trans fats. That's because the artery-clogging ingredient has been removed or reduced in many processed or fried foods such as doughnuts, cookies and french fries.

"That's my leading theory," said Dr. Sarah de Ferranti, director of preventive cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital. She wrote an editorial that accompanies the study.

The study did not look at the reasons for the decline, but its lead author, Dr. Brian Kit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the theory makes sense.

The research, released online Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association, also showed that children's average overall cholesterol levels declined slightly.

Too much cholesterol in the blood raises the risk of heart disease. It isn't usually an immediate threat for most children, but those who have the problem often grow into adults with a high risk.

Kit and his colleagues drew data from an intensive national study that interviews people and does blood-cholesterol tests. They focused on more than 16,000 children and adolescents over three periods — 1988-94, 1999-2002 and 2007-10.

During the most recent period studied, 1 in 12 children ages 6 through 19 had high cholesterol. That was down from 1 in 9 during each of the earlier periods — roughly a 28 percent decline.

The average overall cholesterol level fell from 165 to 160. In children, 200 is considered too high.

The study was the first in almost 20 years to show such a decline. Kids' cholesterol levels also fell between the 1960s and the early 1990s, probably because people were eating less fat.

The researchers in the latest study detected modest improvements in children's levels of so-called good cholesterol, which can protect the heart. That may be partly due to declines in teen smoking and childhood exposure to secondhand smoke over the last decade. Studies have found that chemicals in cigarette smoke can lower good cholesterol.

The bigger news was what happened with bad cholesterol and triglycerides. They went down by small but significant amounts.

Cholesterol levels have been declining in adults, too. The incidence of high cholesterol dropped about 27 percent in the last decade, from about 1 in 5 adults at the beginning of the period to 1 in 7 at the end.
But cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins were a big part of the reason for that decline — millions of adults take them. Children are rarely given statins.

Last year, a government-appointed panel urged widespread cholesterol screening for children. It was controversial because of concerns it would lead to more kids being given medicine. Experts say statins should be used in only the worst cases — less than 1 percent.

Artificial trans fats are known to decrease good cholesterol and increase bad cholesterol. In 2006, the federal government began requiring that packaged foods list the amount of trans fat per serving, a boon for careful shoppers.

Meanwhile, a push to take trans fats out of foods gained momentum. New York City banned artificial trans fats in restaurant food in 2008. California in 2010 became the first state to adopt such a ban. Even Crisco, the goopy shortening that was trans fat incarnate, was reformulated to take it out.

"I love the idea that reduced use of hydrogenated trans fats might be responsible" for the new study's results, Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition, food studies and public health, said in an email. "If so — and as usual it's clear that more research is needed — it would mean that public health measures like the trans fat ban in New York City are actually doing enough good to be measurable."

This is not the first study to suggest a payoff in trans fat policy efforts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that from 2005 to 2010, the average trans fat content in bakery items and other foods declined steeply. A small, preliminary CDC study published earlier this year found significant drops in trans fats in white adults between 2000 and 2009.

Despite the good news, experts remain worried.

Seventeen percent of U.S. children are obese, perhaps because they are still eating lots of carbohydrates and sugar. That, along with little exercise, can lead to diabetes and heart disease.

"We may have a small effect in the right direction from lower cholesterol, but I'm worried it will be overwhelmed by the earlier onset of obesity in younger and younger children," de Ferranti said. "I'm still pretty worried about how many kids are going to wind up patients of adult cardiologists."
___
Source: cdc.gov/cholesterol

Cholesterol Levels Getting Better for U.S. Kids: CDC

Cholesterol levels among U.S. kids have improved in recent decades, but almost one in 10 still has high total cholesterol, which endangers their heart health, U.S. health officials report in a new study.

The study included more than 16,000 children and teenagers aged 6 to 19 years who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys during three periods -- 1988-1994, 1999-2002 and 2007-2010. Overall, average total cholesterol levels decreased slightly, but more than 8 percent had elevated total cholesterol in 2007-2010.

Although researchers can't say precisely what led to the overall improvement, several lifestyle factors likely play a role. But experts also caution that many children remain at risk for heart disease.

"We know that dietary intake of saturated fat and trans fats and exposure to second-hand smoke are related to blood cholesterol, so changes aimed at limiting these may have contributed to the changes that we observed," said study author Dr. Brian Kit, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Hyattsville, Md.

As a result of the current U.S. childhood obesity epidemic, conditions formerly seen only in adults, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, are increasingly observed in children. But the decline in cholesterol held even in the face of obesity increases noted during the study, Kit said.

The study, published Aug. 8 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that 22 percent of children aged 9 to 11 years had either low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the "good" cholesterol, or high non-HDL cholesterol concentrations in 2007-2010 -- down from about 27 percent two decades earlier. The latter refers to the difference between the total cholesterol concentration and the good or HDL cholesterol concentration.

Average total blood cholesterol decreased from 165 milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL) in 1988-1994 to 160 mg/dL in 2007-2010, the study showed. HDL cholesterol rose from 50.5 mg/dL in 1988-1994 to 52.2 mg/dL in 2007-2010.

And high total LDL cholesterol, noted in 11.3 percent of youths in 1988-1994, declined to 8.1 percent in the most recent time frame.

Dr. Sarah de Ferranti, director of preventive cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital, said "these small gains are important, but we have a lot of work to do in the weight area.

"The study is a mixed bag," de Ferranti said. "There is some good news in that cholesterol values are getting better, good cholesterol is getting higher and bad cholesterol and triglycerides are coming down, so all of the numbers are going in the direction that I would like."

Still, "I am concerned that small gains are going to be dwarfed by the effects of excess weight and pediatric obesity," she said. "We are not out of the woods.

It's estimated that almost 17 percent of U.S. youth -- or about 12.5 million kids ages 2 to 19 years old -- are obese.

Controlling cholesterol and weight are key strategies in the war against heart disease. Atherosclerosis -- the buildup of plaque inside blood vessels -- starts in childhood and is linked to high levels of LDL or "bad" cholesterol, low levels of HDL cholesterol and other unfavorable levels of blood fats.

Concerned parents should know their own cholesterol numbers and be aware of their family history of high cholesterol and heart disease, de Ferranti said.

"Current guidelines suggest specific time points for screening cholesterol levels in children," she said. The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends all children be screened for high cholesterol at least once between the ages of 9 and 11 years and again between ages 17 and 21. "But, if a child has particular risk including obesity, he or she can be screened at any time after age 2," de Ferranti said.

Dr. Michael Pettei, chief of nutrition at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York in New Hyde Park, N.Y., said following the recommended screening schedule is critical. "Despite the improvements, the recent recommendations . . . for universal lipid screening of children aged 9 to 11 years is still quite valid to find the individuals at the most extreme risk, particularly from the genetic [blood fat abnormalities]," he said.

He termed the CDC findings "intriguing," especially since the "slight improvement" coincides with the obesity epidemic in the same age groups. "It thus becomes more important for an eventual analysis of the dietary and exercise factors associated with the noted improvements," Pettei said.

More information
The Nemours Foundation talks about cholesterol to kids.

Source : news.yahoo.com

Few Follow Car Safety Guidelines for Kids, Study Finds

Many American children are not meeting recommended car passenger safety guidelines for their age group, a new study finds.

Too many of these youngsters are also riding in the front seat before they're ready, putting them at greater risk on the road, according to research published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"The most important finding from this study is that, while age and racial disparities exist, overall few children are using the restraints recommended for their age group, and many children over 5 are sitting in the front seat," study co-author Dr. Michelle Macy, with the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit at the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, said in a journal news release.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued new guidelines on child passenger safety in 2011.

The AAP advised that children be placed in rear-facing car seats until they are at least 2 years old. Next, children should use forward-facing car seats with a five-point harness until they reach the maximum height and weight requirement recommended by the seat's manufacturer.

Children should continue to use a booster seat until they are about 57 inches tall (the average height of an 11-year-old child) and an adult seat belt fits them properly. Children under 13 years old should ride in the back seat, the AAP said.

For the new study, the investigators examined information on nearly 21,500 children from the U.S National Highway Traffic Safety Administration National Survey on the Use of Booster Seats.

Data collectors observed drivers with child passengers as they drove into gas stations, fast-food restaurants, recreation centers and child care facilities. They recorded the type of restraints being used by the children, where the children sat and if the children were boys or girls. They also noted the type of restraints used by the adults and the type of car they were driving.

The researchers also interviewed the drivers to learn their age as well as the ages of all the children riding in the car. The drivers also gave the race and ethnicity of the child passengers.

As children got older, they were less likely to be restrained in cars and follow recommended car safety guidelines.

"We found that few children remain rear-facing after age 1, fewer than 2 percent use a booster seat after age 7, many over age 6 sit in the front seat," Macy said.

Hispanic and black children were even less likely to use age-appropriate restraints than white children.
"Our findings demonstrate that not all children have been reached equally by community-based public education campaigns and the passage of child safety seat laws in 48 states," Macy said. "Further development and dissemination of culturally specific programs that have demonstrated success in promoting restraint use among minority children are necessary. Further, the findings may also help in developing strategies to lower the racial and ethnic disparities seen in children experiencing crash-related injuries."

More information
View at The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Source : news.yahoo.com

More Kids Taking Antipsychotics for ADHD: Study

Use of powerful antipsychotic medications such as Abilify and Risperdal to control youngsters with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other behavior problems has skyrocketed in recent years, a new study finds.

Antipsychotics are approved to treat bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, other serious mental problems and irritability related to autism. But they don't have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for ADHD or other childhood behavior problems, and their use for this purpose is considered "off label."

"Only a small proportion of antipsychotic treatment of children (6 percent) and adolescents (13 percent) is for FDA-approved clinical indications," said lead researcher Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

"These national trends focus attention on the substantial and growing extent to which children diagnosed with ADHD and other disruptive behavioral disorders are being treated with antipsychotic medications," said Olfson.

The researchers found that doctor visits between 1993-1998 and 2005-2009 that involved a prescription of antipsychotic medication for children jumped sevenfold -- from 0.24 to 1.83 per 100 people. For teens, 14 to 20 years old, the rate rose from 0.78 to 3.76 per 100 people, and for adults, it just about doubled, from 3.25 to 6.18 per 100 people.

Many of the prescriptions for children were ordered by doctors who are not psychiatrists, the researchers found.

Although these drugs can deliver rapid improvement in children with severe conduct problems and aggressive behaviors, it is not clear whether they are helpful for the larger group of children with ADHD, he said. Nor has their long-term effect on children's developing brains been studied.

Olfson said most children and adolescents treated with antipsychotics are not receiving psychotherapy. "This suggests that more needs to be done to increase access and availability of psychosocial interventions," he said.
"Parent management training and cognitive problem-solving skills training are examples of effective but underused treatments for young people with disruptive behavioral problems," he said.

The study, published in the Aug. 6 online edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry, used data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys from 1993 to 2009. More than 484,000 people were included in total.

The researchers found prescriptions for antipsychotics increased for children and adults. But doctors prescribed more antipsychotics to children and adolescents (68 percent and 72 percent, respectively) than to adults (50 percent).

For children 13 and younger, the most prescribed drug was risperidone (Risperdal). Other drugs included aripiprazole (Abilify), quetiapine (Seroquel) and olanzapine (Zyprexa). Of these drugs, Abilify was most commonly prescribed to adolescents, aged 14 to 20, the study found.

All of these antipsychotics, developed since the 1990s, are considered "atypical" or second-generation antipsychotics.

For elderly patients, the FDA recently issued a Public Health Advisory about atypical antipsychotic medications after determining that death rates are higher for elderly people with dementia when taking atypical antipsychotics.

Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist from Ithaca, N.Y., and an outspoken critic of widespread antipsychotic use in children, said these drugs damage developing brains.

"We have a national catastrophe," said Breggin. "This is a situation where we have ruined the brains of millions of children."

In controlling behavior, antipsychotics act on the frontal lobes of the brain -- the same area of the brain targeted by a lobotomy, Breggin said.

"These are lobotomizing drugs," he added. "Of course, they will reduce all behavior, including irritability," he said.

Olfson's team found that most children treated with antipsychotic medications are diagnosed with ADHD, oppositional behavior and unspecified disruptive behavioral disorders.

Between 2005 and 2009, controlling "disruptive behavior" accounted for 63 percent of the reason antipsychotics were given to children and almost 34 percent for adolescents, the researchers found.
In contrast, bipolar disorder and depression were the most common reasons these drugs were prescribed to adults during that time period.

Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said these drugs have serious side effects, including weight gain, diabetes and heart problems.

"But, perhaps even more important is the finding that a substantial majority of the child antipsychotic visits were for young people diagnosed with disruptive behavior disorders, for which there are currently no FDA-approved antipsychotic medications," he said.

Given the uncertain effects that antipsychotic medications have on cognitive (brain), social and physical development in children and adolescents, it may be necessary to reevaluate clinical practice patterns, Rego said.

Efforts to educate physicians about the safety and effectiveness of antipsychotic medications are also needed, he said.

More information
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

Source : news.yahoo.com

Parents Spank, Slap Kids in Public More Often Than Thought

Parents may resort to physical means of admonishing their kids in public spaces much more frequently than they admit to in surveys, a new study suggests.

In another finding, the research showed that fathers tended to more often dole out hugs versus spankings to their kids when out in public.

The study, from a team at Michigan State University, is published in the current issue of Behavior and Social Issues.

According to the researchers, parents dealing with misbehaving children in public places often resort to "negative touches" -- actions such as arm-pulling, pinching, slapping and spanking. But "positive touches," such as patting, tickling or hugging, are typically more effective in getting young children to behave, the researchers say.

In conducting the study, student researchers anonymously watched 106 incidents between caregivers and children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old in public places, such as restaurants and parks. The study revealed that 23 percent of the children received some type of negative touch when they did not do what they were asked to do by their parents.

"I was very surprised to see what many people consider a socially undesirable behavior done by nearly a quarter of the caregivers," study leader Kathy Stansbury, trained psychologist and associate professor in Michigan State University's department of human development and family studies, said in a university news release. "I have also seen hundreds of kids and their parents in a lab setting and never once witnessed any of this behavior."

Although the study revealed male caregivers touched the children (either in a negative or positive way) more often than women, most of the time the men provided the children with a positive touch.

"When we think of Dad, we think of him being the disciplinarian, and Mom as nurturer, but that's just not what we saw," Stansbury said. "I do think that we are shifting as a society and fathers are becoming more involved in the daily mechanics of raising kids, and that's a good thing for the kids and also a good thing for the dads."
The study authors pointed out that children comply more often and more quickly to positive touches than a negative touch or physical form of punishment.

"If your child is upset and not minding you and you want to discipline them, I would use a positive, gentle touch," said Stansbury. "Our data found that negative touch didn't work."

More information
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has more about children and discipline.

Source : news.yahoo.com

Severely Obese Donors Raise Risks for Kids With Liver Transplant

Children who receive a liver from a severely obese adult organ donor are at greater risk for graft loss and death following their transplant surgery, according to a new study.

When the donor is a child however, researchers found body-mass index (BMI) did not increase the risk of death for children receiving a liver transplant.

The study was published in the August issue of Liver Transplantation.

"Donor BMI is associated with post-transplant obesity, but not survival rates of adult liver recipients," study author Dr. Philip Rosenthal, from the Benioff Children's Hospital of the University of California, San Francisco, explained in a journal news release. "Our study is the first to evaluate the impact of donor BMI on pediatric liver transplant recipients."

Using data collected by the United Network for Organ Sharing, the researchers examined information on 3,788 children who received a liver transplant between 2004 and 2010. They found an adult donor BMI of 25 to 35 was not linked to graft loss or death among pediatric liver recipients.

When the adult donors had a BMI greater than 35, however, the study showed the risk of graft loss and death among the children receiving livers increased. This still held true when the researchers took other transplant risk factors into account.

"While we found it common for adult donors to be overweight or obese, our analysis suggests that BMI in the 25 to 35 range should not deter liver donation," Rosenthal concluded.

Previous research has shown the number of overweight and obese adults donating livers to other adults has increased over the past 20 year, the release noted.

The study's authors said that more research is needed to understand how obesity affects children undergoing liver transplants.

More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Source : news.yahoo.com

Violent TV Shows Keep Young Kids Awake: Study

There's more evidence that watching violent or age-inappropriate images on TV, in movies or on computers can significantly disrupt children's sleep.

Kids between 3 and 5 years old who were exposed only to age-appropriate viewing materials in the hour before bed were 64 percent less likely to have any type of sleep disturbance, such as trouble falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep or nightmares, according to a new study.

Perhaps surprisingly, "violent" media might even include popular kids' fare such as SpongeBob SquarePants, said the study's lead author, Michelle Garrison.

"Making a relatively simple change in what kids are watching is a change worth the effort," said Garrison, a principal investigator at the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute. "Sometimes parents feel overwhelmed by the idea of getting rid of TV altogether, but switching shows can make a big difference."

The study will be published in the September issue of the journal Pediatrics, and was released online Aug. 6.
Numerous studies have linked media use with sleep problems, but most of these studies have had children of various ages and varying media use. It also hasn't been clear whether watching something right before bed is stimulating in itself or if the content of the media plays a role.

The current study included nearly 600 children aged 3 to 5 living in the Seattle area. Families were randomized into one of two groups: One group received a home visit, follow-up phone calls and mailings with coaching about how to make better media choices for their young children; the other group simply received mailings about nutrition.

The researchers didn't attempt to reduce the total number of hours of media use. The goal instead was to reduce violent and age-inappropriate content.

The types of programming that are considered age-inappropriate might surprise you.
"An 8-year-old can watch superheroes and understand that it's not what happens in real life," Garrison said. "But the same content can be overwhelming and scary for a 3-year-old. The idea that people might just explode is scary for a 3-year-old."

Garrison said the research suggests that parents should instead select shows such as Sesame Street, Curious George and Dora the Explorer. "These shows can be beneficial for preschool children to watch, because they emphasize things such as literacy, numbers and social skills," she said.

"When kids in this age group watched violent or age-inappropriate media, they were more likely to have nightmares, have a hard time falling asleep and wake up during the night," Garrison said.

The researchers found the opposite was true when kids watched nonviolent, age-appropriate media. These youngsters were 64 percent less likely to have any sleep problems.

"Clearly, children process information while they sleep. If it's the last thing they do before bed, they'll be processing that as they sleep," said Dr. Sangeeta Chakravorty, director of the Pediatric Sleep Evaluation Center at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Ideally, Garrison said, children this age wouldn't be engaged with any media in the hour before bed.
"Even shows with really good content can still be a problem for sleep," she said. "When kids are reading a book or playing with toys before bed, they control the pace. But TV ramps their brains up when they're trying to slow down."

Chakravorty agreed. "Electronic stimulation at bedtime can affect your child's sleep and affect their thinking process," she said. "It's best to avoid exposure altogether at least an hour before bedtime. But if your children are watching something before bed, make sure it's age appropriate."

More information
The Nemours Foundation.

Source : news.yahoo.com

Honey a Sweet Treatment for Kids' Night-Time Cough

Instead of reaching for a commercial medicine when your child is coughing through the night because of a common cold, Israeli researchers suggest giving honey a try.

A teaspoon or two of honey before bedtime can safely relieve the symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection, they report.

"The cough due to a viral [upper respiratory infection] is generally a self-limited disease," said study author Dr. Herman Avner Cohen, chairman of the Pediatric Community Ambulatory Care Clinic with Clalit Health Services in Petah-Tikva, Israel.

"However, parents often [want] some active intervention," Cohen said. This often leads to the use of over-the-counter cough medications, which are potentially dangerous because of the possibility of accidental overdose, he said.

For this reason, "honey may be a preferable treatment for the cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood [upper respiratory infection]," said Cohen, who also hails from Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Israel's Tel-Aviv University.

"In light of our study, honey can be considered an effective and safe alternative, at least for those children over 1 year of age," he said.

Cohen's investigation, funded by the Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association, the Materna Infant Nutrition Research Institute and the (for-profit) Honey Board of Israel, is published online Aug. 6 and in the September print issue of Pediatrics.

The authors pointed out that honey has long been appreciated for its antioxidant properties, derived from vitamin C and flavonoids among other sources. It is also known for its antimicrobial potential.

Some researchers have suggested that the proximity of the nerve fibers that control coughing with the nerve fibers that control sweetness may empower sweet substances with a natural ability to suppress coughing.
Still others believe the syrupy thickness of honey, alongside its ability to cause salivation (and thereby throat lubrication), are key characteristics that might explain its potential as an anti-coughing intervention.

To test honey's therapeutic potential, Cohen and his colleagues focused on 300 children between the ages of 1 and 5, all of whom had been diagnosed with upper respiratory infections.

The children, who were brought in to one of six pediatric clinics in Israel, had been ill for seven days or less and all suffered from night-time coughing and runny noses. None had signs of asthma or pneumonia.

The children were randomly given one of four possible treatments a half hour before bed: roughly two teaspoons of eucalyptus honey, citrus honey or libiatae honey, or an extract that tasted and looked like honey but contained none.

Based on parents' responses to a survey completed the day before treatment and the day after, the research team found that while all the children showed improvement in terms of sleep quality and coughing severity, those who received honey fared significantly better than those who consumed the non-honey extract.

The authors thereby concluded that honey might be a "preferable treatment" to relieve the kinds of symptoms that typify childhood upper respiratory infection.

As an expert on the subject of honey as a potential treatment for respiratory infection, Dr. Ian Paul, a professor of pediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine, was not surprised by the findings.

"My study in 2007 was the first paper ever to show that honey was an effective alternative to over-the-counter cold and cough medicines," he noted. "In fact, we found that honey was the best treatment and provided the most relief."

The bottom line for parents is that the common medicines that many families use are "not very effective, if at all, and there's potential for side effects," said Paul, who is also a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on drugs. "Whereas honey for children over the age of 1 is both safe and highly effective."

More information
The U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Source : news.yahoo.com