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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Using 4-D scans, psychologists have uncovered that a baby learns to open its mouth in preparation for putting a hand in the mouth several weeks before full gestation.
Researchers from Durham and Lancaster universities in England performed 60 scans of 15 healthy fetuses at monthly intervals, between 24 and 36 weeks of pregnancy. The youngest fetuses were more likely to touch the upper part and sides of their heads. But as the fetuses got older, they began to more often touch the lower part of their faces, including the mouth; the lower part of the face is the more sensitive part. By 36 weeks, a greater number of the babies began opening their mouths before touching them, suggesting that they were able to anticipate that they were about to touch their mouths. Younger fetuses tended to open their mouths after having placed their hand on it, meaning that they were responding to the touch.
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It breaks a parent’s heart to see their infant’s skin go from smooth and petal-soft, to developing patches of reddish or whitish dry, rough, itchy skin. And the constant itching is an affliction to both baby and parent. Yet, eczema, also called atopic dermatitis or simply dermatitis, is relatively common among babies. Ten to fifteen percent of all infants will develop this chronic autoimmune condition; some babies are as young as one or two months when symptoms start, but more often, the condition will develop in the first six months of life. Sixty-five percent of babies who will develop eczema show their first symptoms by the time they turn one year of age. Ninety percent of all children who will have eczema show symptoms within the first five years of life.
The propensity for eczema can be inherited from a close relative, or it can be indicative of allergies to certain foods, pet dander or potentially irritating substances like soaps and fragrances.
Read MoreNot long after giving birth, many modern moms get busy getting their figures back through regular exercising; after all, new moms tend to have excess abdominal fat and stretched-out skin. Both of these improve or go away with regular exercising.
But what about before birth? Is there any benefit to pre-pregnancy exercising, in preparing the body for pregnancy and subsequent delivery?
Read MoreScientists have known for years that during pregnancy, cells from the developing fetus can wind up in the mother’s bloodstream. But a newer study shows that fetal cells can also travel to specific organs, such as the heart, lungs, skin … and even the brain, where they can become integrated among the mother’s neuronal cells permanently.
This process is known as “microchimerism.” (The name comes from Greek mythology, in which Chimera was a creature that was part serpent, part lion and part goat.) Microchimeric cells were first noticed in humans when cells containing the male Y chromosome were found in the blood of mothers after a pregnancy (these foreign cells can live in the mother’s bloodstream for years after a pregnancy).
Read MoreAccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asthma is the most common chronic condition affecting children in the United States. In 2009, an estimated 10.2 million U.S. children — almost 10 percent of Americans under 18 years of age — have been diagnosed with asthma.
And it is increasing at an alarming rate; up 75 percent from 1980. A rise in asthma cases among infants and toddlers accounts for a large part of the overall increase. One of the difficulties of diagnosing asthma in this group is that it is difficult to safely measure lung function at that age.
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