The American Academy of Pediatrics yesterday released updated guidelines on calcium intake for children. The AAP reemphasizes that calcium during childhood and adolescence determines peak bone mass development, which may help reduce the risk of fractures and osteoporosis later. They recommend three age-appropriate servings of dairy products per day (four for adolescents), preferably low-fat dairy […]
What do these two things have in common? Risk to children. A new study in the journal Pediatrics determined that increased time watching television means decreased time interacting with parents and siblings and playing creatively. For older children, it also means less time spent on homework. The researchers claim this is the first evidence to
Researchers at Florida State and Vanderbilt Universities claim parents have significantly higher levels of depression than adults without children. More surprisingly, this does not change when the kids leave home, and may in fact increase. Parents who do not have custody of their minor children may also experience greater depression than those who do. Parents’
A new study from the National Institutes of Health, reported in the Economist, claims that the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids a woman eats while pregnant can determine her child’s intelligence, fine motor skills, and sociability. (Omega-3’s are oils found primarily in seafood.) The results are not conclusive, however, although some strong correlations were made
The CDC released a report yesterday stating that children under four are more likely to be hospitalized for unintentionally swallowing medications than for other causes of unintentional injury. Almost three-fourths of the children studied for the report were between one and two years old. Seventy-five percent of the incidents occurred in the home, and about
Have a toddler whose head is rapidly approaching the height of your tables and counters? You can spend $20-30 buying corner guards and bumpers at your local babyplex, or simply get some foam pipe insulation at the hardware store for only a few bucks. (Amazon also sells it, for $1.49 per six-foot length.) These foam
A new study from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance Companies (as reported by Physorg.com) concludes that children riding in SUVs have similar injury risks to children who ride in passenger cars. In fact, one of the co-authors of the study warns that appropriate child restraints and rear seating for children under
With children in the house, most of us want to be extra-extra careful about household safety (without veering into overprotective paranoia, of course). With that in mind, it’s worth checking out these tips on Christmas tree safety from the National Safety Council. It should go without saying (but I’ll say it just in case) that
A new study by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, concludes that drinking two or more cups of tea per day may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer. The researchers caution that more study is needed, and that tea drinkers as a group may make healthier lifestyle choices, which may account for the results. I’ve
Spanish scientists last week reported research findings that indicate a risk of bacterial contamination during the common in-vitro fertilization procedure of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where the doctor injects sperm directly into the egg. The research was conducted on mice, not humans, however, and other scientists are saying they don’t believe there is any health
