A 15-year research and advocacy effort to make microwave ovens safer has led to a change in national manufacturing standards that will make microwaves more difficult for young children to open, protecting them from the severe microwave-related burns that scar hundreds of kids under 5 years old in the United…
Hope for children with rare heart condition: Novel stem cell therapy to save the day
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a condition caused by the weakening of the heart muscle, affecting the ventricles (chambers in the heart that push blood around the body as it contracts). If allowed to progress unchecked, DCM can lead to heart failure and death, especially in children. The only cure, at…
Q&A: COVID-19 and multisystem inflammatory syndromes in children and adults
DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I have been hearing about this pediatric syndrome that affects children with COVID-19. A friend recently said it can affect adults, too. Can you explain what these syndromes are and what I need to do to keep my family safe? ANSWER: Although children of all ages can…
Frozen eggs and ovarian tissue helped women conceive children after breast cancer
Women with breast cancer whose eggs or ovarian tissue were frozen had more children after their diagnosis than did women who did not undergo fertility preservation using those methods before start of cancer treatment. That is according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, published in the…
Inherited genetic variant influences response to leukemia treatment for some children
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are investigating the inherited genetics of childhood leukemia and how particular gene variations can affect treatment outcomes. The research showed that an inherited variation in the GATA3 gene strongly influences early response to chemotherapy and is linked to relapse in children with acute…
COVID-19 less deadly and causes milder symptoms in children: study
Children and teenagers are less likely than adults to develop severe COVID-19 or die from the disease, according to the world’s largest study of hospital patients with COVID-19. Obesity, Black ethnicity and being under one month old are factors that increased the risk of a child being admitted into intensive…
Nutritional assistance program needed to treat increasing food insecurity among children and their families
A new perspective published in Pediatrics warns of the detrimental consequences food insecurity can have on children and families. Written by pediatric health experts from Children’s HealthWatch, based at Boston Medical Center, the perspective highlights the importance of protecting and enhancing SNAP benefits given the financial challenges facing millions of…
Highly fluorinated chemicals can increase risk for diabetes and coeliac disease in children
Tuulia Hyötyläinen and Matej Orešič, both researchers in biomedicine, have published two studies on the connection between highly fluorinated chemicals—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) – and two diseases in children: type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease (US spelling celiac, or gluten intolerance). Both are autoimmune diseases, which arise from an…
At least 31 percent of children tested in Florida are positive for COVID-19: report
Sen. Rubio on complicated debate over if Florida schools should reopen in the fall Republican Sen. Marco Rubio warns working and low-income families will be hurt the most the longer schools stay closed. Nearly one-third of every child tested for the coronavirus in Florida are positive for the virus, according to a…
Bedtime media use linked to less sleep in children who struggle to self-regulate behavior
For some children, screen time before bed translates to less sleep. According to a study from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology, media use in the hour preceding bedtime impacts how kids sleep, especially children who struggle to self-regulate their behavior. Frequent media use before bed in these children…
Early research results show impacts of pandemic on children and youth
Two girls passing notes to each other through their shared backyard fence. A boy breathing a sigh of relief for not having to face unpleasant classmates at school. These are some of the stories being captured in Brock University research on the experiences of children and youth during the COVID-19…