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Children Could Benefit from Medical Research, Study Says

Tom Henderson — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids

Credit: Getty Images

You read about all these studies and research projects on ParentDish. Have you ever thought to yourself, "Gee, I wish scientists from Pennbrook University would do medical research on my child"?

Most parents overlook the possible benefit of children participating in medical research. How do we know? Guess what? There's been a study.

Researchers from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health surveyed parents earlier this year and found one in nine adults have participated in medical research -- compared with only one in 20 children.

A university press release also reports that 68 percent of adults are aware of medical research opportunities for themselves. However, 84 percent of parents are not aware of medical research opportunities for children.

So, c'mon, kids, who wants to play guinea pig? It's not as bad as it sounds.

"Medical research is the backbone of improving medical care. Without volunteers, medical research cannot move forward," Matthew Davis, an associate professor at the University of Michigan's medical school, says in the release.

Participation in research is essential to continued medical progress, Davis says.

Over the last 100 years, infant mortality in the United States has been reduced by 90 percent. Millions of deaths from diseases such as polio, diphtheria, pneumonia and influenza have been prevented by vaccines.

Children with life-threatening diseases such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and diabetes now survive beyond childhood, into adult years.

All thanks to kids participating in medical research.

"Awareness about research opportunities, which is a necessary step before participation, is reasonably high among adults but strikingly low for children's research," Davis adds. "To improve participation rates among children, researchers and institutions evidently need to do a better job of getting the word out to parents."

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Breast-Feeding Reduces Children's Risk of Asthma

Tom Henderson — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding, Research Reveals: Babies

Credit: Getty Images

While women's breasts often make grown men gasp and wheeze, they seem to have the reverse effect on nursing infants.

The Daily Telegraph in London reports babies who are not breast-fed are 50 percent more likely than develop asthma symptoms than babies who do breast-feed.

Researchers at Erasmus Medical Centre in The Netherlands studied more than 5,000 children and found those who were never breast-fed were 50 percent more likely to have persistent phlegm and 40 percent more likely to wheeze regularly.

They also reportedly suffered more from shortness of breath and a dry cough in the first four years of life.

Breast-feeding could cut the chance of asthma by reducing the number of serious colds and flu virus infections, researchers concluded.

"These results support current health policy strategies that promote exclusive breast-feeding for six months in industrialized countries," Agnes Sonnenschein-van der Voort tells the Daily Telegraph. "Further studies are needed to explore the protective effect of breast-feeding on the various types of asthma in later life."

The Daily Telegraph reports past studies have shown that breast-feeding cuts the risk of infections in the first six months of life.

Others have found it also cuts the chance of childhood obesity and can lead to more intelligent and better behaved children.

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Go Ahead and Sleep With Your Toddler, Study Says

Tom Henderson — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies

Credit: Getty Images

Does sleeping with a toddler leave the child socially maladjusted and lead to other developmental problems?

Not according to fresh research from Stony Brook University in New York.

"After statistical adjustment for socio-demographic characteristics, there were no behavioral or cognitive differences at age 5 between children who bed-shared with a parent during their toddler years and those who did not," researcher Lauren Hale of Stony Brook tells the website LiveScience.

LiveScience reports that's good news for roughly a third of parents who believe it's OK to sleep with toddlers. The rest of the parenting community is evenly split, according to the website, between those who oppose and those who have no opinion one way or the other.

Those who oppose it argue that it will give the child developmental problems down the road.

But researchers followed 944 low-income toddlers and their parents beginning when the children were a year old. After two years, any developmental problems could be traced to other factors (socioeconomic status, parenting style, etc.) rather than bed-sharing.

There was virtually no developmental difference between children who slept with a parent and those who slept on their own, Hale tells LiveScience.

"Since we did not find a difference, this study suggests that bed-sharing patterns are not contributing to divergent developmental trajectories," she says.

The American Association of Pediatrics recommends against sharing bed with infants because of the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, but Hale says that has nothing to do with this study.

"Our finding is not in conflict with this recommendation, because our study looked at bed-sharing at ages 1, 2 and 3 (past the period of infancy)," she tells LiveScience.

Helen Ball, a researcher at Durham University in England, wasn't involved in the study, but tells LiveScience it's welcome news.

"The study is helpful in debunking the myth that bed-sharing is associated with negative developmental outcomes," she says.

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Kids Safer With Grandparents Behind Wheel, Study Finds

Tom Henderson — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Big Kids

Grandpa, will you drive me to school? Credit: Getty Images

Quit grousing about senior drivers. Sure, they drive 45 mph on the freeway. Yes, you could grow old yourself waiting for them to realize the light turned green.

And you wish there was some way to tell them their left turn signal has been blinking since Albuquerque.

But consider this: Researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found children are safer riding with Grandma or Grandpa behind the wheel than their own parents. Mom and Dad have the reflexes, but Grandma and Grandpa have the experience -- with just a dash of paranoid caution.

The Globe and Mail in Canada reports this is a stunning discovery, especially when you consider the older generation has a more lackadaisical attitude toward car seats and safety belts.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, assessed crash data on 11,859 children in 15 states and the District of Columbia from 2003 to 2007.

While grandparents made up 9.5 percent of the drivers in the crashes analyzed, only 6.6 percent of the injuries occurred with them in the driver's seat.

"We were surprised to find that there is a protective effect on child-injury risk in a crash when grandparents are driving," Fred Henretig, the lead researcher, tells the Globe and Mail. "There is something about grandparents' driving style with their 'precious cargo' in tow that is protective."

Flaura Winston, the director of the National Science Foundation's Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies and co-author of the study, adds seniors "tend to drive more slowly, more cautiously and in the right lane."

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Car Exhaust Can Hurt Unborn Babies, Study Finds

Tom Henderson — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals

Credit: Getty Images

Car exhaust might hurt unborn babies.

The Canadian website Autos.ca reports researchers at the University of Sunderland in northeast England have linked car exhaust to children being born with respiratory ailments such as asthma and allergies.

Lead researcher Mohammad Sahmssian and his team tested the lung functions of 1,397 children ages 7 to 10 in Cairo, one of the world's most congested cities.

Researchers discovered a high prevalence of asthma, wheezing, eczema and hay fever symptoms. They also found air pollution causes two million premature deaths worldwide each year. Autos.ca reports Sahmssian is calling on the British Department of Health and Research Funding Council to conduct more surveys in major cities such as London, Manchester and Newcastle.

"We have identified that pollutants such as nitrogen and sulphur dioxide, as well as particle matter from vehicle exhausts and road dust, is linked to the onset of asthma," Sahmssian tells the website.

"The risk can start from the time a child is in the womb, as the placenta does not offer protection to mothers exposed to pollutants," he adds. "Pollutants entering the fetal circulation have a significant impact on growth and development. There have also been cases of babies born with retardation, morbidity and low birth weight. Children in homes near roads with heavy traffic also have increased risk of new onset asthma, incidence of wheeze, risk of recurrent dry coughs, hospitalization and school absenteeism."

Sahmssian cites studies in California that show when air pollution was reduced, annual asthma-related emergency visits and hospitalization decreased from 22 percent to 6 percent, and bronchitis decreased from 40 to 20 percent.

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Speech-Delayed Children Will Catch Up, Study Shows

Tom Henderson — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers

Albert Einstein developed speech later than most kids. Credit: AFP/ Getty Images

Albert Einstein supposedly didn't talk until he was 3 or 4. People later asked him why.

"I didn't have anything to say," he responded.

That story may just be a legend, but it's a good illustration for what Australian researchers are trying to tell parents: Relax.

Speech-delayed kids will catch up eventually, and when they do, they will be no more at risk for behavioral or emotional problems as anyone else.

MSNBC reports parents should take a "wait-and-see" attitude when their speech-delayed toddler is acting up. Human communication can be frustrating -- that's why most animals don't even bother with it.

"When late-talking children catch up to normal language milestones -- which the majority of children do -- the behavioral and emotional problems are no longer apparent," lead researcher Andrew Whitehouse tells MSNBC.

Whitehouse, an associate professor at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research at the University of Western Australia in Perth, says the study involved 1,400 children born between 1989 and 1991 from ages 2 to 17.

While parents don't need to freak out, Whitehouse tells MSNBC they should still take notice of speech delays. Between the ages of 3 to 5 is the best time to get kids help with speech problems, he adds.

But Maxine Orringer, a speech-language pathologist and coordinator of the department of audiology and speech pathology at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, says there may be a slight cause for concern.

She finds the study's don't-worry-be-happy conclusion "worrisome," she tells MSNBC.

"I don't think parents need to be frightened by delays, but the earlier we can get in and identify the problem and resolve it, the better," she says. "The brain is just more malleable when children are young."

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Autism is Caused by Environmental Factors -- Maybe

Tom Henderson — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids

After a study of twins in the 1970s, Autism became regarded as a genetic disorder. Credit: Mario Tama, Getty Images

Your child wasn't born with autism; He got it from eating turkey.

Food allergies, once discredited as a cause of autism, are making a comeback. So is exposure to chemicals, bacterial infections and other environmental factors.

"Genetics don't explain it," researcher Neil Risch, a genetic epidemiologist at UC San Francisco, tells the Los Angeles Times. "They're part of the story, but only part of the story."

Other research has largely ruled out environmental factors, but Risch and his colleagues still think they may be responsible for autism.

"I think they're really on shaky ground to say that," Paul Law, the director of the Interactive Autism Network at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, tells the Los Angeles Times.

"It's a massive claim," echoes Angelica Ronald, a behavior geneticist at Birkbeck University of London. "It flies in the face of the previous data," she tells the Times. "I don't see why the results have come out the way they have."

Risch and his team resurrected environmental causes after studying 192 pairs of identical and fraternal twins with at least one of the twins having autism. The researchers admit their calculations provide a wide margin for error. Still, they insist environmental factors deserve a fresh look.

So what really causes autism? Pick a card, any card.

The Times reports the condition used to be blamed on detached, unemotional "refrigerator mothers." After a study of twins in the 1970s, it became regarded as a genetic disorder. When the number of autism diagnoses began exploding in the '90s, it was blamed on everything from childhood vaccines to over-reactive doctors and parents.

Scientists have all but given up on finding a smoking gun that can explain large numbers of autism cases, the Times reports. Instead, they are looking for multiple risk factors that each have small effects. But the smaller the risk, the paper reports, the more difficult it is to find.

Autism researcher Lisa Croen, an epidemiologist who heads Kaiser's Autism Research Program in Oakland, tells the Times one thing is certain: "We can't determine causation from one study."

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Babies Show 'Mature' Response to Malfunctioning Toy

Tom Henderson — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies

Researchers find babies have more reasoning powers than we suspect. Credit: Getty Images

When something goes wrong, you don't pitch a baby fit, you try to figure out exactly what happened and fix it.

That's the mature response, right?

Actually, it may be the right response, but don't pat yourself on the back for being mature. Even infants investigate and seek solutions when life doesn't go their way, reports show.

Hyowon Gweon and Laura Schulz at Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a study to find out how infants respond when a toy suddenly breaks down. NewScientist.com reports babies respond in much the same way as adults.

Gweon and Schultz presented 16-month-old babies with a toy with a button on top. When you press the button, music plays -- sometimes.

The babies watched as adults demonstrated the toy. It only played music half the time. When the children were given the toy, the buttons didn't work at all. The children quickly stopped playing with the toy and went on to something else.

So what?

These findings are actually very significant, according to Gweon and Schultz. It means babies quickly ascertained that the problem was because of the toy -- not themselves. Realizing they couldn't do anything different to make the toy worked, they moved on.

Metaphorically, they didn't keep butting their heads against the same wall. That is amazingly mature reasoning, the researchers tell NewScientist.

In another phase of the study, one child's toy always worked while another's always failed. The one with the faulty toy, sensing he might be doing something wrong, passed the toy back to an adult for help. That's also pretty amazing, Gweon tells the Website.

"The children are showing surprising competence in using statistical information to solve problems," Gweon says. "Our study shows that young babies are rational learners that possess powerful learning mechanisms that allow them to make generalizations from a small amount of data."

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Pregnant Moms: Get Flu Vaccine to Keep Babies From Getting Sick, Researchers Say

Lesley Kennedy — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:10:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Pregnancy Health

Credit: Getty Images

Don't want to take any chances when it comes to keeping your newborn from catching the flu? Get the influenza vaccine while you're still pregnant.

Researchers have found babies born to to moms who got the shot while preggers have almost a 50 percent smaller chance of being hospitalized for the flu than those whose mom's didn't get the vaccine, according to a news release.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends the influenza vaccination for kids older than 6 months, but pregnant women should get it, too, the release states.

"It is recommended that all pregnant women receive the influenza vaccine during pregnancy because it is known that pregnant women have increased morbidity and mortality during pregnancy and in the immediate postpartum period if they get the flu," Dr. Katherine A. Poehling, an associate professor of pediatrics and lead author on the study, says in the release. "We also know that mothers pass antibodies through the placenta to the baby. This study showed us that receiving the influenza vaccine during pregnancy not only protects the mother, but also protects the baby in the early months of life."

Infants younger than 6 months have the highest rates of flu hospitalization among all children, Poehling says in the release, but the influenza vaccine isn't effective in babies that young.

"Similar findings have been published from other studies, but they've been published in general journals or journals about pediatrics and infectious diseases," Poehling says of the study, published in the June issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. "Where the information is published really does make a difference because pediatricians need to know about it, but it's even more important that the doctors taking care of pregnant women -- obstetricians and gynecologists (OB/GYNs) -- know it, too. Pediatricians have been vaccinating children for a long time, but vaccine recommendations for OB/GYNs have changed over the last decade, so everyone is having to learn new recommendations and adjust. This is a relatively new activity for OB/GYNs."

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Investing in More Midwives Could Help Save Lives, UN Study Finds

Lesley Kennedy — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Delivery, Research Reveals: Babies, Pregnancy Health, Research Reveals

Credit: Getty Images

Midwives don't only deliver babies, they can deliver health services to women, as well, something that could affect newborn and maternal deaths worldwide, the Associated Press reports.

According to the news service, a United Nations Population Fund study of 58 countries
identified as "suffering from a crisis in human resources for health," shows midwives should be respected and invested in by governments and donors.

"We have now realized that there is a huge potential in the hands of the midwives that was not being exploited," Dr. Vincent Fauveau, who coordinated the study, tells AP, adding that midwives can assist women with birth control services.

Some of the study's findings, according to the news service, include:

Just 6 percent of births in Ethiopia are attended by a doctor, nurse or midwife.
AIDS is linked to nearly 80 percent of maternal deaths in Botswana.
Midwives in Liberia often deal with 10 to 15 deliveries a day; U.N. health agency recommendations say that number should be one or two.

Fauveau tells AP investing in more clinics is also essential and that war, poverty and hunger serve as other dangers for women and kids.

"The revolution will not take place in a few months or a few years," he tells the news service. "It's a long-term strategy."

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Gripe Water: Time-Honored Remedy for Colic or Myth?

Tom Henderson — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies

Credit: Amazon

Have a cranky baby with a sour stomach?

You might want to try some gripe water. That's a home remedy with varying ingredients (depending on the home) but generally including alcohol, bicarbonate, ginger, dill, fennel and chamomile.

A lot of folks have been swearing by it since the mid-19th century.

Of course, a lot of folks have been swearing by monkey bladders a lot longer than that. The curative powers of monkey bladders for everything from upset stomachs to impotency to eye diseases to childhood tantrums have been lauded in China since ancient times.

That's the problem with folk remedies. They are long on personal testimonials and short on actual scientific evidence. They generally fall under the category of chicken soup. Hey, it can't hurt.

The Los Angeles Times reports that gripe water has moved outside the realm of home remedy and has become trendy as a mass-marketed commodity for children with colic.

They have brand names like 'Little Tummys' and 'Mommy's Bliss Gripe'. They don't contain (sorry, kids) any alcohol but are more expensive than a lot of wines. A 4-ounce bottle of Mommy's Bliss costs about $12.

"We have a customer base of parents who absolutely love this," Dean Siegal, the director of communications for Prestige Brands, the makers of Little Tummys, tells CBS.

Gripe water may help calm upset tummies, Anne Eglash, a family physician and clinical associate professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, tells CBS.

"Trying gripe water isn't a bad thing," she adds.

However, she says, there's a big difference between mild stomach upset and full-blown, five-alarm colic. "Giving gripe water isn't going to do much," Eglash tells CBS.

The ginger, fennel and other ingredients found in gripe waters are safe enough for babies, Eglash tells the network. Nonetheless, the federal Food and Drug Administration officials recalled apple-flavored Baby's Bliss Gripe Water in 2007 after detecting the intestinal parasite cryptosporidium in a sample.

It's important to remember, she says, gripe waters have never been scientifically tested as remedies for colic or anything else.

"People are trying this and many other unproven treatments because they are desperate," Edzard Ernst, a professor of complementary medicine at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, England, tells CBS.

The best remedy could be not to freak out. Most babies with colic grow out of it by the time they're 3 months old, CBS reports.

If they don't, there's always monkey bladder.

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A Little Time Apart Can Shield Toddlers from Mom's Depression

Tom Henderson — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Baby-sitting, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Expert Advice: Just For You

Credit: Getty Images

If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Fortunately, research has discovered a way to keep toddler's from getting caught in the fallout of their mother's depression: Stay the bleep out of her way.

It's true. WebMD reports just a few hours of child care can shield toddlers from the psychological radiation of an exploding mommy.

Mommies often lose their tempers because small children can drive them feather-plucking insane. Just a few hours apart acts as a pressure valve for both mother and child, lead researcher Lynne Giles of the University of Adelaide in South Australia tells WebMD.

"Modest amounts of formal child care in toddlerhood for the children of mothers with recurrent depressive symptoms can have enduring benefits for the emotional and behavioral state of the child around the time they transition to school," says Giles.

By "formal child care," Giles means day-care centers or paid caregivers such as a nannies. Informal child care, by contrast, is leaving with the kids with Grandma. No offense to Grandma, but the formal child care showed a more beneficial effect in the study.

Of the 438 moms in the study, 69 percent showed no signs of depression, 20 percent reported some depression and 11 were seriously bummed out. Formal day care seemed to help mostly moms with chronic depression.

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New Sticker Price on Raising a Child: $226,920

Tom Henderson — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens, Research Reveals: Teens

Credit: Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images

Do you really want to have a baby? Take another look at the sticker price.

You could buy a top-of-the-line Mercedes Benz SLS for the same amount of money -- and have a few bucks left over gas. You could also buy a near-mint condition copy of Superman No. 1. Or how about a two-bedroom, 580-square foot condo in Boston?

But if you still want a baby, go ahead. It's your $226,920.

That's how much the United States Department of Agriculture says having a kid cost these days. Of course, the cost is spread out over 18 years. Sometimes much longer.

USDA officials release figures on how much it costs to raise a child every year as part of a federal program. We think it's just to seriously depress parents.

And wait. It gets more depressing. Bloomberg News reports the price has shot up 2.1 percent in just one year. That includes the price of child care, education, transportation and health services.

The typical two-parent family spent from $11,880 to $13,830 on each child in 2010, according to the USDA -- give or take. A family earning less than $57,600 a year was likely to spend $163,440 in 2010 dollars to rear a child, the USDA reports, while parents earning more than $99,730 may spend $377,040.

"Child-rearing expenses vary considerably by household income level," according to the report. "Annual expenses generally increased with a child's age, a circumstance true in both two-parent and single-parent families."

If the study itself is insufficient depressing, the report includes an online calculator so parents can calculate their own costs and bum themselves out for an entire weekend. Try not to think of that Mercedes.

You'll really start moping if you live in the urban Northeast. Parents raising children in the West and Midwest might be slightly less traumatized. The least expensive places to raise a child, by the way, are the urban South and rural areas.

Housing accounts for the biggest portion of expenses, averaging 31 percent over 17 years, the USDA reports. Child care and education average 17 percent, with food costs at 16 percent. The estimates don't include college expenses.

The USDA has been bumming parents with these numbers every year since 1960. Your parents probably thought they had it rough, too. Tell them to stop their whining.

If you're 50 years old, health care was only 4 percent of the cost of raising a child -- half of what it is now. Education and child care accounted for 2 percent.

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What's the Poop on Probiotics and Constipation?

Tom Henderson — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Big Kids

Do probiotics relieve constipation in kids? Credit: Corbis

Doctors refer to probiotics as "friendly" bacteria. Why? They help us poop.

Any bacteria that does that is bound to have lots of friends -- especially down at the senior center. But what about the younger crowd? Do probiotics relieve constipation in kids?

Some authorities say. Others say no.

Meanwhile, kids wish adults would make up their %$#@! minds because they really ... have ... to ... poop! And it would be nice if they didn't have to scrunch up their faces like Popeye when they do it.

On the nay of the probiotic debate, according to WebMD, are researchers in Europe who say a fermented dairy product containing a probiotic didn't do jack (pardon the expression) squat to relieve constipation among kids.

Researchers looked at 159 constipated kiddies for two months who pooped less than three times a week. (And you thought you had a weird job.) Half of them were given a probiotic twice a day. The others got nothing but heartache.

Actually, they all ended up with the same aches. Researchers report the probiotics had no effect.

Be that as it may, many parents and physicians continue to give children probiotics for constipation. It's like chicken soup for a cold. It can't hurt.

"It is not unreasonable that parents seeking a safe and natural remedy might turn to probiotics for relief," Sandra Fryhofer, an internal medicine specialist in Atlanta who was not involved in the study, tells WebMD.

The common treatment is for constipated children is giving their parents long-term dietary advice, she adds. This is when most bloated, cramped and anguished patients lunge for a sharp object and demand a laxative.

A laxative is the next step in the process, Tabbers tells WebMD.

That could include a probiotic. Good luck, kids.

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Breast-Feeding Impacts a Child's Metabolism, Study Finds

Lesley Kennedy — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies, Breast-Feeding, Nutrition, Research Reveals: Babies

Study finds another benefit to breast-feeding. Credit: Getty Images

We know breast milk is the preferred method of feeding a newborn, but here's another benefit to breast-feeding: It could impact your child's metabolism.

A new study conducted by French researchers finds babies who were breast-fed for their first four months of life had different growth and metabolic rates than babies fed formula, the Los Angeles Times reports.

According to the newspaper, researchers looked at three years worth of data that followed the feeding patterns of 234 kids. During the first four months of life, one group, the Times says, was strictly breast-fed, while two other groups were fed either a low- or high-protein formula.

At just 15 days of life, the Times reports, the babies who were only breast-fed showed lower blood insulin levels than the formula-fed newborns, and, by age 3, the high-protein formula-fed babies had higher blood pressure readings than the breast-fed babies, although the readings were still considered normal.

The study, presented this week at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Denver, "suggests that if breast-feeding is not possible, infants should be fed formula that has a metabolic profile as close to human breast milk as possible," the Times reports.

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One in Four Children in US Raised By a Single Parent

Associated Press — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Divorce & Custody, In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Teens

Credit: Getty Images

MIAMI (AP) - One in four children in the United States is being raised by a single parent - a percentage that has been on the rise and is higher than other developed countries, according to a report released Wednesday.

Of the 27 industrialized countries studied by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. had 25.8 percent of children being raised by a single parent, compared with an average of 14.9 percent across the other countries.

Ireland was second (24.3 percent), followed by New Zealand (23.7 percent). Greece, Spain, Italy and Luxemborg had among the lowest percentages of children in single-parent homes.

Experts point to a variety of factors to explain the high U.S. figure, including a cultural shift toward greater acceptance of single-parent child rearing. The U.S. also lacks policies to help support families, including childcare at work and national paid maternity leave, which are commonplace in other countries.

"When our parents married, there was a sense that you were marrying for life," said Edward Zigler, founder and director of Yale's Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy. "That sense is not as prevalent."

Single parents in the U.S. were more likely to be employed - 35.8 percent compared to a 21.3 percent average - but they also had higher rates of poverty, the report found.

"The in-work poverty is higher in the U.S. than other OECD countries, because at the bottom end of the labor market, earnings are very low," said Willem Adema, a senior economist in the group's social policy division. "For parents, the risk is higher because they have to make expenditures on childcare costs."

The Paris-based organization looked at a broad sector of indicators that affected families and children, including childhood poverty, early education and amount of time spent on parental care.

Across the nations examined, preschool enrollment has grown from 30 to 50 percent between 1998 and 2007. The average enrollment was 58.2 percent, while in the U.S. it was lower.

The report noted that public spending on child welfare and education is higher in the U.S. than in other countries - $160,000 per child compared to $149,000. However, the authors say most of that money is spent after the crucial early childhood years.

"This means early investment - including childcare and support for families around the time of birth - could be strengthened," the authors wrote in a separate paper examining the United States.

The study pointed out that the U.S. is the only OECD country that does not have a national paid parental leave policy. Some states have started to adopt such policies, but most parents are offered 12 weeks of unpaid leave. This is particularly difficult for unwed mothers, who may not be able to afford to take time off, Zigler said.

"We have not built in the kind of national support systems for families and children that other countries have," he said.

Childhood poverty rates in the U.S. are also expected to climb - 23.5 percent from 20 percent. Adema said the rise is a direct result of the financial crisis and higher unemployment rates.

"The financial strain causes all sorts of other strain, so ultimately it might contribute to family dissolution," Adema said. "At the same time, it might bring some families together. I suspect that the response differs across families."

The single parent phenomenon has been occurring over recent decades. The study noted the U.S. and England have higher teenage birthrates than other countries, partially contributing to the higher single-parent numbers, though the proportion of children born outside marriage was not significantly higher than the other countries.

Christina Gibson Davis, a professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Police, said changing gender roles, the rise of contraception, high incarceration rates in some communities and an acceptance of having children out of wedlock have all contributed to the growing number.

Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, added it isn't being a single parent in itself that raises difficulties.

"Single moms do a brilliant and amazing job raising their children," said Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. "It is also true that single moms in this country are systemically underpaid, and systematically under-resourced and systemically unrespected. It's not the fact they are single moms that makes things difficult."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. This article was written by Christine Armario, AP Writer. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

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Pesticides Could Affect Babies' IQs Later On, Study Shows

Tom Henderson — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Pregnancy Health, Health

Watch a video on testing IQ in children!

Mom's exposure to pesticides can lower babies' IQ. Credit: Getty Images

Pesticides may kill brain cells as well as bugs.

The Los Angeles Times reports researchers in three separate studies have found expectant mothers exposed to low doses of a specific class of pesticides may have babies who develop slightly lower IQs in later childhood.

Researchers claim children often had lower IQs by age 7 if their mothers had higher-than-average exposure during pregnancy to organophosphates -- pesticides farmers sometimes spray on fruits and vegetables.

Most of the time, those in the study were low-income African-American and Hispanic women.

Researchers in each study measured organophosphates in the mother's urine or blood during pregnancy. Women could have been exposed to pesticides by eating or breathing.

The pesticides were once common in households before the Environmental Protection Agency banned their use in 2002, according to the Times. But, until recently, the chemicals were still common in inner cities as insecticides.

In one study, the newspaper reports, Columbia University researchers found African-American and Dominican women in New York City had the highest levels of chlorpyrifos, a type of organophosphate, in their umbilical-cord plasma.

In another study, researchers from Mount Sinai found Hispanic and African-American women in New York with the highest levels of organophosphates in their urine had children with slightly lower IQs.

Finally, University of California at Berkeley researchers studied Mexican women in Salinas, Calif. They found a seven point IQ difference between children whose mothers had the highest exposure compared with those who had the lowest.

Many of the women were poor, the Times reports, and socioeconomic status is linked to lower IQs.

Researchers in some of the studies reportedly controlled for variables such as income. Women were compared with other women in the data set, not a national average.

"These studies present compelling evidence of the potential effects on children's neurodevelopment from exposure to chlorpyrifos and other organophosphate insecticides," Rudy Rull, a research scientist at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California in Fremont, tells the Times.

However, Brenda Eskenazi, a lead author on the Berkeley study, tells the Times the IQ differences were small, and some only appeared by looking at the data in a certain way. She urges caution.

"My feeling is, we don't have a super-good measurement of organophosphates during pregnancy, especially when there are lot of different ones they are exposed to," she tells the Times. "It's enough to say, there are definitely limitations to the measurement, and I think that's the reason why given that epidemiology is imperfect, you want to see convergence of findings and consistency among what you see in animals and humans."

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First-Born Boys Demand More Mommy Time

Mary Beth Sammons — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: In The News, Weird But True, Behavior, Research Reveals: Babies

Baby boys demand more attention from moms than baby girls. Credit: Getty Images

Women have thought for years that men are really more high maintenance. A new study confirms that this royal highness syndrome starts at birth, as these little princes demand more of mom's time than baby girls. By requiring more of mom's presence, moms of first born sons are working less, the study claims.

British researchers who have keen insight into royal entitlement have released a new study that says "...women whose first child is a boy are less likely to work in a typical week and work fewer hours than women with first-born girls," according to the Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics blog.

The results, though "statistically significant" and suggesting "quantitatively relevant" losses in lifetime labor income, are nonetheless "a puzzle," the authors write. They say future studies are required to answer the "whys."

But, one reason possibly contributing to the findings, they say, is the desire to have the baby boy.

"A first-born girl reduces substantially the stability of a marriage," thus women are working. It also finds that the divorce rate is four percent higher in families where the first-born is a girl. The first-born boys evidently positively affect the probability that the marriage will survive, so moms aren't racing back to work.

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Heart Defects in Minority Children Yield Greater Risk of Death, Study Shows

Mary Beth Sammons — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies, In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Health & Safety: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Big Kids

Black children with heart conditions have a greater chance of dying before age 5 than their white peers. Credit: Getty Images

The results of the study are short and to the point: Black children with heart conditions have more than a 30 percent greater odd of dying before age 5 than their white peers, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Texas Researchers studied the medical records of almost 20,000 black, Hispanic and white infants born with congenital heart defects between 1996 and 2005. They found that black infants were 32 percent more likely to die before age 5 than white babies. Hispanic babies with heart defects also were more likely to die than their white peers.

Researchers from the study published in Pediatrics say the stats point to the need for preventive strategies to reduce radical and ethnic disparities among infants and young children, U.S. News reports.

"When you consider that the numbers of minority children continue to grow and are expected to account for more than half of all U.S. children by 2040, it's clear we need to reduce the racial and disparities that burden the health care system and adversely affect the lives of families," lead author Wendy Nembhard, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, says in a university release.

Congenital heart defects are malformations in one or more structures of the heart or major blood vessels that occur before birth. They are the most common of all birth defects and the leading cause of death among infants with birth defects, according to the release.

The new study adds to a growing body of evidence that minority infants with specific types of heart defects have lower survival rates in early childhood than those of non-Hispanic white infants.

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