MedicineWorld.Org brings daily pediatric news from various sources to keep you updated on the latest events in the world on this topic. Medicineworld pediatric news service is the most comprehensive pediatric news service on the internet. We keep an archive of previous few days of news on this site. Please go down through the list to find the older news items. Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT en-us http://medicineworld.org/images/Pediatric-news.jpg 90 90 http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/mental-fitness-and-multi-lingualism.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/mental-fitness-and-multi-lingualism.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Children who speak a second or third language may have an unexpected advantage during the later part of life, a new Tel Aviv University study has observed. Knowing and speaking a number of languages may protect the brain against the effects of aging. Dr. Gitit Kave, a clinical neuro-psychology expert from the Herczeg Institute on Aging at Tel Aviv University, together with her colleagues Nitza Eyal, Aviva Shorek, and Jiska Cohen-Manfield, discovered recently that senior citizens who speak more languages test for better cognitive functioning. The results of her study were reported in the journal Psychology and Aging........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/caution-on-new-anti-obesity-drug-in-kids.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/caution-on-new-anti-obesity-drug-in-kids.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Anti-obesity drugs that work by blocking brain molecules similar to those in marijuana could also interfere with neural development in young children, as per a new study from MITs Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Marijuana is known to be an appetite stimulant, and a new class of anti-obesity drugssuch as rimonabant (trade name Acomplia) developed by Sanofi-Aventis and awaiting approval for use in the United Stateswork by blocking brain receptors that bind to marijuana and other cannabinoids........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/flip-flops-mulch-and-no-coat.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/flip-flops-mulch-and-no-coat.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT At a time when over half of US children (aged 3-6) are in child care centers, and growing concern over childhood obesity has led physicians to focus on whether children are getting enough physical activity, a new study of outdoor physical activity at child care centers, conducted by scientists at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, has identified some surprising reasons why the kids may be staying inside. The study, will be presented May 5 at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Honolulu, Hawaii........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/breastfeeding-childrens-intelligence-scores.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/breastfeeding-childrens-intelligence-scores.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Long-term, exclusive breastfeeding appears to improve childrens cognitive development, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Prior studies have reported that children and adults who were breastfed as infants have higher scores on IQ tests and other measures of cognitive (thinking, learning and memory) development than those who were fed formula, as per background information in the article. However, the evidence has been based on findings based on observation, in which children whose mothers chose to breastfeed were compared with those whose mothers chose not to breastfeed. The results of these studies may be complicated by subtle differences in the way breastfeeding mothers interact with their infants, the authors note........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/preference-for-alcohol-may-lead-to-heavy-drinking.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/preference-for-alcohol-may-lead-to-heavy-drinking.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have shown a correlation between early drinking patterns and a tendency to be a heavy drinker in adulthood, in a study of adolescent rats. Drinking patterns in adolescents may be set after only a few exposures to alcohol, said Nicole L. Schramm-Sapyta, research associate in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine. Rats that demonstrated a taste for alcohol after only three nights of drinking were very likely to be the biggest drinkers after longer-term exposure........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/uninsured-kids-in-middle-class.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/uninsured-kids-in-middle-class.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Nationwide, uninsured children in families earning between $38,000 and $77,000 a year are just as likely to go without any health care as uninsured children in poorer families. More than 40 percent of children in those income brackets who are uninsured all year see no physicians and have no prescriptions all year, as per new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/1-in-10-children-using-cough-cold-medications.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/5-2008/1-in-10-children-using-cough-cold-medications.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Scientists from Boston Universitys Slone Epidemiology Center have observed that approximately one in ten U.S. children uses one or more cough and cold medications during a given week. These findings will be presented today at the 2008 Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/language-skills-develop-at-6.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/language-skills-develop-at-6.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Psychology experts at the University of Liverpool have discovered that children as young as six are as adept at recognising possible verbs and their past tenses as adults. In a study conducted by the Universitys Child Language Study Centre, children aged between six and nine were given sentences containing made-up verbs such as the duck likes to spling and were asked to judge the acceptability of possible past tense forms. The study focused on the process the children used to come to their conclusions rather than whether their answers were right or wrong........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/every-fifth-adolescent-smokes.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/every-fifth-adolescent-smokes.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT As a number of as 20% of adolescents from 11 to 17 years of age smoke. This was the result of the nationwide German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), performed by the Robert Koch Institute and presented by the sociologist Thomas Lampert in the current edition of Deutsches rzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2008; 105[15]: 265-71)........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/autism-and-muscle-weakness.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/autism-and-muscle-weakness.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Some kids with autism may have a genetic defect that affects the muscles, according to research that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 1219, 2008. The study looked at 37 children with autism spectrum disorders who were evaluated for mitochondrial disease,........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/language-development-in-infants.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/language-development-in-infants.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Uncover how the brains of infants distinguish differences in sounds and it may become possible to correct language problems even before children start to speak, sparing them the difficulties that come from struggling with language. New studies conducted by Professor of Neuroscience April Benasich and her Infancy Studies Laboratory at Rutgers University in Newark are revealing new and exciting clues about how infant brains begin to acquire language and paving the way for correcting language difficulties at a time when the brain is most able to change........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/the-future-of-childrens-health.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/4-2008/the-future-of-childrens-health.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Can diseases such as Alzheimers, obesity and diabetes be prevented before birth? As per Jonathan D. Gitlin, M.D., the Helene B. Roberson Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Genetics at the Washington University School of Medicine, researching whether diseases that strike adults are already genetically encoded in individuals while still in the womb, may enable physicians to one day address and prevent diseases in infancy........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/3-2008/spring-training-for-parents.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/3-2008/spring-training-for-parents.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT As cries of play ball ring out this spring, they undoubtedly will be followed by complaints of anxiety and stress from young athletes wanting to quit sports. Parents and coaches can make youth sports a fun, learning experience or a nightmare, as per sport psychology experts at the University of Washington. But to achieve the former, sports officials and organizations must provide more training programs, particularly for parents, as per Frank Smoll and Ron Smith, who have been studying the youth sport experience and designing programs to improve it for a quarter of a century........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/3-2008/breakthrough-in-birth-defect-research.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/3-2008/breakthrough-in-birth-defect-research.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT Researchers have discovered how to prevent certain craniofacial disorders in what could ultimately lead to at-risk babies being treated in the womb. University of Manchester researchers, working with colleagues at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas, have successfully treated mice with Treacher Collins syndrome a rare genetic disorder characterised by underdeveloped facial bones, absent or deformed ears and occasionally cleft palate........ ]]> http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/3-2008/sticky-blood-protein-yields-clues-to-autism.html http://medicineworld.org/cancer/lead/3-2008/sticky-blood-protein-yields-clues-to-autism.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:56:32 GMT A number of children with autism have elevated blood levels of serotonin a chemical with strong links to mood and anxiety. But what relevance this hyperserotonemia has for autism has remained a mystery. New research by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers provides a physical basis for this phenomenon, which may have profound implications for the origin of some autism-associated deficits........ ]]>