Children’s Health

Learning to navigate social relationships is a skill that is critical for surviving in human societies. For babies and young children, that means learning who they can count on to take care of them. MIT neuroscientists have now identified a specific signal that young children and even babies use to determine whether two people have

Five days after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law meant to provide stronger oversight of the more than 100 residential youth treatment programs operating in the state, a 12-year-old boy arrived at one of them, Provo Canyon School. Before long, he was forced into seclusion, denied communication with his family and given antipsychotic medication

A clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health has found that giving peanut oral immunotherapy to highly peanut-allergic children ages 1 to 3 years safely desensitized most of them to peanut and induced remission of peanut allergy in one-fifth. The immunotherapy consisted of a daily oral dose of peanut flour for 2.5 years.

Melanoma cells release small extracellular packages containing the protein nerve growth factor receptor, which primes nearby lymph nodes for tumor metastases, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The study results, published on Nov. 25 in Nature Cancer, may one day help doctors determine which patients need more aggressive treatment and could

Young children, toddlers, and infants infer that individuals who share saliva through activities like kissing, sharing food or wiping drool are in so-called “thick” relationships – intimate bonds that people often share with family members. The findings, based on experimental techniques from developmental science, reveal social clues youngsters use to inform their earliest understanding of

A new study published in Science Advances described the first two patients known to have mutations in both copies of BUB1, a critical gene for cell division. Contrary to previous thoughts, these mutations are compatible with life albeit associated with developmental problems. The identification and clinical/molecular characterization of such mutations could improve the diagnosis of

There is no evidence of recently infected mothers transmitting infectious SARS-CoV-2 through breastmilk to their baby, reports a study published in the journal Pediatric Research. The authors found that, whilst a low proportion of breastmilk contained COVID-19 genetic material, this did not translate into the presence of infectious replicating viral particles or lead to evidence

Many recreational cannabis companies market their products in a way that appeals to children and teens, despite state-based regulations prohibiting it, according to a new study in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. This marketing is easily viewed by people of all ages on social media platforms. “I had expected that cannabis companies

A growing body of evidence indicates that some people thought to have an allergic response to injectable penicillin, the standard treatment for rheumatic heart disease, may instead be experiencing a cardiac reaction to the medicine, according to a new American Heart Association presidential advisory published today in Journal of the American Heart Association. The advisory,

A recent retrospective cohort study published on the medRxiv* preprint server found that the clinical severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was lower in children younger than five years of age after the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant in comparison to COVID-19 cases in this patient population when the SARS-CoV-2

Seeking to better understand the key role the female hormone estrogen plays in maintaining energy balance and weight control, a group led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine looked into estrogen interactions with specific brain regions that provide these anti-obesity benefits. The team reveals in the journal Science Advances an estrogen-activated neurocircuit that stimulates

An investigational cancer drug that starves tumors of their energy supply also shows evidence of improving whole body metabolism, according to a new study in mice from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Shown are sections of liver from mice on a high-fat, high-sugar diet. On the left, more white space indicates greater

Heart function recovery returned within three months in children who developed COVID-19-related multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association. MIS-C is a new illness identified during the COVID-19 pandemic that affects children about four

Two of the most common forms of death among adolescents are suicide and motor vehicle traffic accidents. A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that adolescents who reported at least one suicide attempt within the last year, in comparison to those reporting no attempts, were more likely to also report infrequent seat belt use

The impact virtual school had on kids goes well beyond academics, say Children’s National Hospital experts in a new JAMA Pediatrics editorial. From the beginning of the pandemic, new data shows that school closures for in-person learning led to: School disengagement Mental health challenges Unhealthy weight gain Food insecurity Immunization delay An increase in cases

For transgender people, starting gender-affirming hormone treatment in adolescence is linked to better mental health than waiting until adulthood, according to new research led by the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study, which appeared online Jan. 12 in PLOS ONE, drew on data from the largest-ever survey of U.S. transgender adults, a group of

A combination of anti-cancer antibodies produced a powerfully synergistic response in two hard-to-treat pediatric cancers, according to a new study, in mice, led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The results, which published online Jan. 13 in Nature Medicine, provide hope for better treatments of neuroblastoma, a cancer affecting young children that

Researchers at the University of Sussex are one step further to developing a blood test capable of diagnosing the most aggressive form of brain tumor.   Professor Georgios Giamas and his team, in collaboration with Mr Giles Critchley, Consultant Neurosurgeon and Spinal Surgeon at University Hospitals Sussex, have identified distinctive biomarkers within patient blood samples,

Implementing school-based programs aimed at teaching healthy cardiovascular health habits as early as preschool can achieve lasting lifestyle changes in children, according to a review published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Previous studies have found that unhealthy lifestyle habits such as a nutritionally poor diet, sedentary lifestyle and smoking, all

Decoding letters into sound is a key point in learning to read but is not enough to master it. “Reading calls upon several other essential mechanisms that we don’t necessarily think about, such as knowing how to move our eyes on the page or how to use our working memory to link words together in