Children

Children's taste sensitivity and food choices influenced by taste gene

Variation in a taste receptor gene influences taste sensitivity of children and adults, accounting for individual differences in taste preferences and food selection, report a team of researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center. In addition to genes, age and culture also contribute to taste preferences, at times overriding the influence of genetics. The findings may help to explain...

$5.1 billion would save 6 million children

Six million children could be saved if $5.1 billion in new resources for preventive and therapeutic interventions were provided each year, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. Approximately 90 percent of all child deaths occur in 42 countries around the world. In those countries, the average cost per child saved would be $887 or...

Transgenic goat's milk offers hope for tackling children's intestinal disease

It's hard to improve on milk, but animal scientists at the University of California, Davis, have found that milk produced by transgenic goats, which carry the gene for an antibacterial enzyme found in human breast milk, altered the intestinal bacteria in young goats and pigs that were fed the milk. The researchers hope these findings will one day lead to milk that protects infants and chi...

Genetically engineered animals help in scientific research that may benefit children

The recent use of genetically modified mice and rats in combination with an animal model of obstructive nephropathy, a type of renal disease, has given researchers new insight in the development of kidney disease. This research is published in the September issue of Kidney International. "Chronic kidney disease is difficult to study since it takes a fair amount of time to install," states...

Genes linked to treatment resistance in children with leukemia

Today, the most common childhood cancer is cured in about 80 percent of patients; only forty years ago, this number was closer to five percent. In efforts to further increase the survival rate, researchers from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Chicago studied how an individual's genetics might play a role in the effectiveness of chemotherap...

Customized gene chip provides rapid detection of genetic changes in children's cancer

Genetics researchers have developed a customized gene chip to rapidly scan tumor samples for specific DNA changes that offer clues to prognosis in cases of neuroblastoma, a common form of children's cancer. Rather than covering the entire genome, the microarray focuses on suspect regions of chromosomes for signs of deleted genetic material known to play a role in the cancer. The investigat...

Zinc supplements safe for HIV-infected children

Zinc-deficient children living in communities where they do not receive adequate amounts of zinc from their diet should be given supplements, even if they are HIV-infected, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. Previously, it was not known if zinc would speed up HIV disease progression in children by increasing their viral...

Clinical trial to test stem cell approach for children with brain injury

A unique clinical trial will gauge the safety and potential of treating children suffering traumatic brain injury with stem cells derived from their own bone marrow starting early next year at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital. The clinical trial is the first to apply stem cells to treat traumatic brain injury. It does not involve...

Children overprescribed antibiotics for sore throat

Physicians prescribe antibiotics for more than half of children with sore throat, exceeding the expected prevalence of strep throat, and used nonrecommended antibiotics for 27 percent of children who received an antibiotic prescription, according to a study in the November 9 issue of JAMA. Pharyngitis (inflammation of the throat) accounts for 6 percent of visits by children to family medic...

UCLA imaging study of children with autism finds broken mirror neuron system

New imaging research at UCLA detailed Dec. 4 as an advance online publication of the journal Nature Neuroscience shows children with autism have virtually no activity in a key part of the brain's mirror neuron system while imitating and observing emotions. Mirror neurons fire when a person performs a goal-directed action and while he or she observes the same action performed by others. Neu...

Environmental tobacco smoke linked to behavior problems in children and pre-teens

A new Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study shows that exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, even at extremely low levels, is associated with behavior problems in children and pre-teens. While the study examined 5 to 11 year olds with asthma, the findings most likely could be extrapolated to include children without asthma who "act out" or experience depression and anxiety...

Low-cost drug gaining favor for use in HIV-infected children in poor countries

A new systematic review highlights strong results from a single study at the center of mounting support for worldwide use of the low-cost drug Bactrim to help HIV-infected children in poor countries. The reviewers surveyed medical literature on the preventive use of Bactrim -- one of several brand names for the generic medicine cotrimoxazole -- for children to ward off common infections th...

Bocavirus infection may be associated with pneumonia in Thailand, especially in children

The newly identified human bocavirus was found in nearly 5 percent of pneumonia patients in rural Thailand, mostly in very young children. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report their findings today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases "Our preliminary data suggests that human bocavirus may be associated with pneumonia in Thailand...

New vaccine for condition that kills 500,000 children a year

In a study of more than 68,000 infants published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, the investigational vaccine Rotateq demonstrated that it can safely prevent 98 percent of severe cases of viral diarrhea and vomiting that account for 2 million hospital visits and 500,000 pediatric deaths each year worldwide. In one of the largest pre-licensure vaccine clinical trials ever con...

Genes affecting blood pressure change as children become adults

As children transform into adults some of the genes involved in controlling their blood pressure change as well, according to a study of more than 500 pairs of twins. The study of black and white identical and fraternal twins showed that changes in gene expression between ages 14 and 18 accounted for up to one third of the blood pressure variation that occurred by age 18, says Dr. Harold S...

Sleep deprivation doubles risks of obesity in both children and adults

Research by Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick has found that sleep deprivation is associated with an almost a two-fold increased risk of being obese for both children and adults. Early results of a study by Professor Francesco Cappuccio of the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School were presented to the International AC21 Research Festival hosted this month by th...

Farm kids almost twice as likely to die from injury as children overall

A new retrospective study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal shows that young farm children, particularly boys, are about twice as likely as the total population of young Canadian children to die from an injury. Brison and colleagues collected and analyzed Canadian data on fatal agricultural injuries to young children to determine rates, identify patterns and devise prevention str...

Very low birth weight linked to reduced quality of life in pre-school children

Babies with very low birth weights tend to have a much lower quality of life when they are three or four years old, according to a study published in the latest issue of the UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing. Researchers assessed 118 children who had birth weights of 1500g or less and compared them with a control group of 170 born at normal weights to compare their quality of life when...

Perceived facial similarity in children is an estimate of kin recognition

Perceived facial similarity of children is effectively an estimate of the probability that two children are close genetic relatives according to a new study recently published in Journal of Vision, an online, free access publication of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). Participants in the study judged pairs of pictures of children, half of which portrayed ac...

Embryonic selection of sex avoids conceiving blind children

The Assisted Reproduction Unit at the Quirón Hospital in Donostia-San Sebastián has managed, for the first time in the Basque Country, to successfully carry out an embryonic sex selection in a woman who is a carrier of the disease Retinosis Pigmentaria, linked with the X chromosome ?in order to avoid giving birth to a male child. Retinosis Pigmentaria is a hereditary illness of the eyes of...

New book uses ABCs to teach children microbiology

A new children's book from ASM Press uses the familiar genre of the ABC book to introduce readers to the not-so-familiar world of microbes. The Invisible ABCs will delight readers of all ages with its colorful presentation and spectacular selection of illustrations. Intended for school-age children and younger, this unique new book will stimulate parents, teachers, librarians, and even older stu...

Children of allergy sufferers prone to same problem

Infants whose parents have allergies that produce symptoms like wheezing, asthma, hay fever or hives risk developing allergic sensitization much earlier in life than previously reported, according to a study by Cincinnati researchers. The study suggests that the current practice of avoiding skin testing for airborne allergens before age 4 or 5 should be reconsidered, so children in this h...

A silent pandemic: Industrial chemicals are impairing the brain development of children worldwide

Fetal and early childhood exposures to industrial chemicals in the environment can damage the developing brain and can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs)--autism, attention deficit disorder (ADHD), and mental retardation. Still, there has been insufficient research done to identify the individual chemicals that can cause injury to the developing brains of children. In a new revie...

Older fathers more likely to have autistic children

Children of men age 40 and older have a significantly increased risk of having autism spectrum disorders compared with those whose fathers are younger than 30 years, according to an article in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Autism is characterized by social and language abnormalities and repetitive patterns of behavior, according...

Lead-'scrubbing' drug may also improve muscle function in lead-exposed children

University of Cincinnati (UC) environmental health researchers say a therapy commonly used to remove dangerously high levels of lead from the body may also improve muscle functions associated with postural balance and movement in lead-exposed children. Led by Amit Bhattacharya, PhD, the UC team found that children treated with succimer (SUX-sim-er) chelation therapy showed a 19 percent im...

Infection detectives use disease 'fingerprints' to track common infections in children

Infectious disease specialists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found a new method for identifying suspect viruses and bacteria that cause some of the most common acute infections in children. Traditionally, researchers have looked for clues to an infection by tracking down the virus or bacteria causing it. But that doesn’t always work because the bacteria or virus may not be prese...

Children who sleep more weigh less

Children who sleep more tend to weigh less than children who sleep less, and they are less likely than their counterparts to be overweight five years later. That’s one of the major findings of a new study published in the January/February 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. Conducted by researchers at Northwestern University, the study looked at 2,281 children from a nationally re...

A frown or a smile? Children with autism can't discern

When we have a conversation with someone, we not only hear what they say, we see what they say. Eyes can smolder or twinkle. Gazes can be direct or shifty. “Reading?these facial expressions gives context and meaning to the words we hear. In a report to be presented May 5 at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Seatlle, researchers from UCLA will show that children with autism c...

Children of smokers have more than 5 times higher levels of a nicotine toxin

Having a mother that smokes was found to have the bigg...

Study shows lizard moms dress their children for success

Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, "dressing" their progeny in patterns they will wear for th...

Millions of children denied drug that costs less than $3 a year

Of the 35 million people with epilepsy who live...

Snoring in children might be an allergic type disease

The study published in the latest edition of the international medical journal, Pediatric Pulmonology has established children with rhinitis who were first born, were...