Feature Channels: Family and Parenting

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In very poor families, teenagers are going hungry twice as often as their younger siblings, a study finds.

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Women have claimed for years that their bodies react differently whether they’re pregnant with a boy or girl. Now evidence, published by Ohio State University researchers shows the sex of a baby is associated with pregnant women’s immune responses.

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Using a printed 3-D model as a guide, a Children’s Hospital Los Angeles cardiologist specially modified a stent to repair an 18-month-old’s narrowed pulmonary artery.

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Middle school students of color who lose trust in their teachers due to perceptions of mistreatment from school authorities are less likely to attend college even if they generally had good grades, according to psychology research at The University of Texas at Austin published in the journal Child Development.

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In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center’s Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) announced today the launch of a year-long study to measure the efficacy of a new app, Dot™, for avoiding unintended pregnancy as compared to efficacy rates of other family planning methods.

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New recommendations for health care providers, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, offer a road map to helping women with congenital heart disease have successful pregnancies.

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Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have uncovered the details behind the virus’s unique ability to cross the placental barrier and expose the fetus to a range of birth defects that often go beyond microcephaly to include eye and joint injury, and even other types of brain damage.

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Richard Rosenkranz, associate professor of food, nutrition, dietetics and health, offers parents research-based advice for appealing to children's emotional and behavioral appetites to help them eat the vegetables they need.

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Doctor visits can be a challenge for patients with autism, their families and health care providers. Kristin Sohl, associate professor of child health at the University of Missouri, offers several steps providers and families can take to make medical visits more successful. She says that all of them require good communication between the provider and parent before, during and after medical visits.

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International study of more than 750,000 people probes deeper into height than ever before

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Standards of care are ever evolving, but now front-line pediatricians from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have assembled the latest data about the varied causes of DSD, complete with clinical vignettes and appropriate management plans.

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Frequent soccer ball heading is a common and under recognized cause of concussion symptoms, according to a study of amateur players led by Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers. The findings run counter to earlier soccer studies suggesting concussion injuries mainly result from inadvertent head impacts, such as collisions with other players or a goalpost. The study was published online today in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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A large-scale international study involving more than 300 researchers, published today in Nature, heralds the discovery of 83 genetic variations controlling human height. To discover the 83 genetic variations, the research team measured the presence of 250,000 genetic variations in the study’s 700,000 participants – an enormous job. This study paves the way for precision medicine.

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Temple/Wedge Center of Excellence Funded by $500,000 State Grant

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Postnatal screening and treatment may prevent females from being raised as males.

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Depending on the specific type, bacteria in a woman’s vagina and cervix may increase the risk of premature birth or protect against it, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Results of the study provide groundbreaking information that the authors suggest could help physicians learn how to prevent preterm birth, either by eliminating the “bad” bacteria, or increasing the “protective” bacteria.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Vigil Volunteers (V3) program — which pairs volunteers with dying patients who either have no known family or friends, or whose family and friends are unable to be with them — is expanding in 2017.

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Women who used a smartphone app as part of a Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) program were released from the hospital sooner after delivering their babies via cesarean section, according to a study presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists PRACTICE MANAGEMENT 2017 meeting.

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When a woman becomes pregnant, many changes occur in her body. One of those changes is in the levels of various hormones produced by the body.

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Having a loved one go through a critical illness is a stressful and traumatic experience that may have lasting effects months after the patient is discharged from the intensive care unit (ICU). To improve the well-being of both patients and family during this vulnerable time, a set of new guidelines has been released, providing physicians with evidence-based strategies to optimize outcomes for the critically ill and those at their bedside.

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Critics have questioned the effectiveness of video game ratings, but new Iowa State University research finds children spend less time playing violent video games when their parents use the rating system to guide purchases and set rules for video game play.

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A new program offering free elective genetic testing for newborns, developed at RTI International, will become available to North Carolina parents starting in 2018, thanks to a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

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With deportation and discrimination fears currently on the minds of many in the United States, a University of Michigan study shows that the stress from an historic immigration raid is associated with Latina mothers delivering babies with lower birth weights, and sometimes early.

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Learning of her daughter’s hearing loss set this mother on a journey half way across the globe to John Tracy Clinic to receive help for her child. Her experiences inspired her to help change the way treatment is handled in her home country of India.

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In this month’s release, find new embargoed research about: impact of minimum wage on teen birth rates; trends in parental leave rates over 22-year period; and food insecurity and cardiovascular-related health outcomes among American Indians.

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The number of U.S. women taking maternity leave has not changed in 22 years despite factors that suggest it should be increasing, a new study found. During the same time, the number of fathers taking paternity leave more than tripled.

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Despite a 2011 pledge among United States chain restaurants to improve the nutritional value of children’s menu options, a new study finds no significant improvements have been made to cut calories, saturated fat, or sodium. The study is the first to look at trends in the nutrient content of kids’ meals among national restaurant chains since the National Restaurant Association launched the voluntary Kids LiveWell program in 2011. The study is published this week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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It sounds simple and harmless—an electronic sensor attached to a baby’s sock that monitors vital signs and alerts parents on their smart phones if, for instance, an infant’s oxygen saturation level drops. But pediatric experts argue that such devices may cause undue alarm to parents, with no evidence of medical benefits, especially to healthy babies.

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Critical illness is a stressful and traumatic experience that may have lasting effects on the health of patients and families, even months after discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU). A new set of guidelines for promoting family-centered care in neonatal, pediatric, and adult ICUs will be presented at the Society of Critical Care Medicine's (SCCM) 46th Critical Care Congress, to be held January 21 to 25, 2017, at the Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu. The guidelines also appear in Critical Care Medicine, SCCM's official journal, published by Wolters Kluwer.

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Should a bystander intervene if he or she sees an adult screaming at or hitting a child? Saint Louis University is studying how and when to take action.

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Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Karolinska Institutet have found that gestational diabetes raises the risk of postpartum depression in first-time mothers.

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A new Université de Montréal study in the British Medical Journal reveals that antidepressants prescribed to pregnant women could increase the chance of having a baby with birth defects.

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A national consortium of clinical geneticists is studying the ins and outs of potentially using genome sequencing for newborn health screenings and beyond.

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Opinions among parents differ when it comes to how sick is too sick to stay home, or the importance of sick day consequences such as parents missing work or kids missing tests.

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The amount of gun violence in top-grossing PG-13 movies, which can be seen by children of all ages, has continued to exceed the gun violence in the biggest box-office R-rated films, a new analysis published in the journal Pediatrics shows.

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A parenting program where fathers engage with their children through reading was found to boost the fathers’ parenting skills while also improving the preschoolers’ school readiness and behavior, finds a study led by NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

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Replacing biomass and kerosene cookstoves used throughout the developing world with clean-burning ethanol stoves may reduce hypertension and cardiovascular risk in pregnant women, according to new research published online, ahead of print in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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Emotions tend to run high in hospitals, and patients or patients’ loved ones can be rude to medical professionals when they perceive inadequate care.

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–Abortion fund patients who get aid to help pay for abortions are younger and more likely to be African American when compared to general abortion patients in the U.S., according to the findings of a study just published online in the journal Social Work in Health Care.

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Depression is very common during pregnancy, with as many as one in seven women suffering from the illness and more than a half million women impacted by postpartum depression in the U.S. alone. The disorder not only affects the mother’s mood, but has also been linked to influencing the newborn’s development, according to recent research. In a study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, research from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found that BDNF levels change during pregnancy, and can cause depression in the mother and low birth weight in the baby.

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In-vitro gametogenesis is an experimental technique that allows scientists to grow embryos in a lab by reprograming adult cells to become sperm and egg cells.

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Three-fifths of low and middle income households are currently unable to save money, while for people already saving, the ratio between spending and saving is dramatically falling, researchers say. A new report from CHASM, University of Birmingham’s research Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management, is calling on the government and employers to do more to help those on lower incomes to start saving.

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Cognitive skills and experiences like classroom-based play in kindergarten lead to participation in extracurricular activities in 8th grade among children growing up in poverty, finds a new study led by NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

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For women with a prior low transverse incision cesarean delivery, the decision to undergo a vaginal delivery or elect to have a repeat cesarean delivery has important clinical and economic ramifications.

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Despite the mandatory addition of folic acid to enriched grain products in the United States, many women still do not consume adequate amounts of this important vitamin, according to an editorial written by Laura E. Mitchell, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health.

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Preschool-age children from low-income families are more likely to be physically active if parents increase activity and reduce sedentary behavior while wearing movement monitors (accelerometers), according to a Vanderbilt study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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Researchers from the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and the University of Adelaide have found a way to provide mothers and young children in Cambodia with better nutrition through an unlikely source – fish sauce.