With autism rates soaring at an alarming rate in the United States, medical researchers are looking for answers as to what causes this mysterious condition, both on an anatomical and physiologic level.
A study published online in late March, 2014 in the New England Journal of Medicine is adding weight to scientific belief that autism may start in the fetal or even the embryonic stage of child development.
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A new study shows that noise machines, used to help babies fall asleep, can harm infants when played at loud volumes and used too frequently.
Researchers at the University of Toronto tested 14 popular machines that make either ‘white noise’ or nature sounds and are marketed for babies, to lull infants to sleep or drown out noises while babies sleep.
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Ear infections are the most common condition why children see a doctor in their first years of life. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently revised its recommendations to pediatricians, asking doctors not to be so quick to prescribe antibiotics, the usual cure, because of the long-term harm that excessive antibiotic use can cause to a person’s immune system.
About 80 percent of ear infections will go away on their own after a few days. And because of what we know now about how harmful heavy antibiotic use can be, many parents are looking for natural ways to cure their babies’ ear infections when a cure is needed.
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The controversy over Bisphenol A, or BPA, continues, as heated as it was in 2008, when reports about possible health consequences to humans from long-term exposure followed reviews of many scientific studies.
What Is BPA?
BPA is a solid, colorless chemical used to make many kinds of plastics, and to make the sealant or liner on the inside of food and beverage cans. BPA is used to harden plastics, though it’s also found in some plastic sandwich bags and plastic cling wrap.
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The composition of human milk has been understood in great detail only in the last few decades. And even today, scientists continue to discover new components in breast milk. It has many: a handful of proteins, a handful of fats, and hundreds of carbohydrates or sugars — most of which are not digested by the infant but serve to feed the hundreds of beneficial bacteria species in the mother’s milk that are colonizing the newborn’s gut.
Breast milk also has minerals, vitamins, hormones and enzymes; these nourish the baby and regulate thousands of metabolic processes, including digestion.
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Cow’s milk is the single most complete food on Earth — no other food has as many nutrients. So, it is understandable if a mother might be eager to start her baby on cow’s milk as soon as possible.
However, doctors advise against giving cow’s milk to an infant before he or she has turned one year of age. There are several reasons for this.
It is cow’s milk’s very nutritiousness — the sugars, fats, proteins and minerals in it (calcium, phosphorus and potassium, to name the three most prominent) — that make it difficult for young babies to digest, since their digestive systems are still maturing. Read More
New federal recommendations in the United States are for all pregnant women to be screened for gestational diabetes at 24 weeks of pregnancy, even when they have no symptoms of the condition.
The new guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, are now the same as those of other medical organizations, including the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
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A Chinese study has found that breastfeeding may be linked to lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis in women who nursed their infants.
The study reviewed data from more than 7,300 women aged 50 and older from China, who filled out questionnaires asking about their health and lifestyles, including whether they had breastfed their children. Most of the women had at least one child, and more than 95 percent of moms had breastfed for at least one month.
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Women who are hospitalized during pregnancy for reasons other than to give birth have a much greater risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) during and after their hospital stay, according to a new study. Clot risk was also higher in the 28 days following discharge from the hospital. The risk was especially high for women hospitalized for three or more days, women older than 35, and in the third trimester of pregnancy.
The study, published recently on bmj.com, found that hospitalized women in the above groups had 17.5 times the risk of developing the potentially deadly clots, compared to women who were not hospitalized.
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Mistakes by medical staff are usually to blame in cases where a baby suffers a lack of oxygen at birth, according to a new study from Norway.
Birth asphyxiation, or hypoxia, happens when a baby does not get enough oxygen before, during or right after birth. Oxygen deprivaton can result in brain damage, mental disabilities, cerebral palsy, epilepsy or even death to the infant.
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