Category Archives: Pediatrics

Stress of 911 Linked To Decrease In Male Babies Born With Birth Defects

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Parvati Singh B. Tech, MBA, MPA
PhD student, Department of Public Health,
University of California, Irvine and
Dr. Tim Bruckner, first author

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: This study builds upon earlier research by our group which showed that male fetal deaths rose and the number of liveborn males fell after the 9/11 attacks. Here we show that, in California, the number of live born males with birth defects fell after 9/11.

This finding appears consistent with the notion that frail male gestations, such as those with defects, may have been lost in utero as a result of the stress induced by the 9/11 attacks.

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Lifestyle-Based Tool Estimates Premature Cardiovascular Events in Young Adults

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Holly Gooding, MD, MSc Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA

Dr. Gooding

Holly Gooding, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine
Boston Children’s Hospital
Division of General Internal Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Boston, MA

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Dr Stephanie Chiuve and colleagues at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health developed the Healthy Heart Score to predict the risk of heart disease in older adults based on lifestyle factors measured in middle age. We have known for some time that the precursor to heart disease – known as atherosclerosis – actually starts in childhood and adolescence. We calculated the Healthy Heart Score for young adults ages 18-30 years old and found it works in this age group as well.

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Babies Find Nipples To Nurse Because of Higher Areolar Temperature

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Francesca Volpe Psy.D and Prof. Vincenzo Zanardo Division of Perinatal Medicine, Policlinico Abano Terme Abano Terme, ItalyFrancesca Volpe Psy.D and
Prof. Vincenzo Zanardo
Division of Perinatal Medicine, Policlinico Abano Terme
Abano Terme, Italy

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Newborn infants, placed skin-to-skin on their mother’s chest instinctively have the ability to crawl to their mother’s breast, exploring with their hands and massaging the breast to support the first feed.  Left undisturbed, the infant will make several attempts until it finds and latches onto the nipple and begins to nurse.

What leads mammalian infants who are placed on their mothers’ chests to seek out, without any assistance, the nipple and to attach themselves to it to nurse is not fully understood. When we turned our attention to the thermal properties of the female’s nipple-areolar complex (NAC) in lactating mothers soon after birth, we found that it had a higher temperature and pH value and lower elasticity with respect to the surrounding breast skin. We hypothesised that the higher temperature could help the newborn infant to locate the nipple and to latch onto it, leading to the first sucking experience.  In addition, the diffusion of odorous molecules is presumably enhanced by the relatively high surface temperature of the areola in view of the rich supply of blood capillaries that irrigate the region. There is, in fact, some scientific evidence that show that infants respond to the odours released by the breasts of lactating women; breast odours, which are enhanced by the skin’s greater warmth, are another factor that facilitates breastfeeding by helping the infant to recognize its mother participating in the mother-to-infant bonding.

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High Dose Vitamin D No Advantage In Preventing Pediatric Viral Infections

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Jonathon Maguire MD MSc FRCPC Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute

Dr. Maguire

Jonathon Maguire MD MSc FRCPC
Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
Staff Pediatrician, Department of Pediatrics, St. Michael’s Hospital

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Vitamin D has been hypothesized as being protective of seasonal viral upper respiratory tract infections.  In this randomized clinical trial, high dose wintertime vitamin D supplementation (2000 IU/day) was compared with standard-dose vitamin D supplementation (400 IU/day) among 703 children.  The number of laboratory confirmed viral upper respiratory tract infections was not statistically different between groups.

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Breastfeeding Rates Increase But Racial Gaps Persist

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Erica H. Anstey PhD Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Immunization Services Division National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases CDC

Dr. Anstey

Dr. Erica H. Anstey PhD
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Immunization Services Division
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
CDC

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that infants are breastfed exclusively for about the first 6 months and that breastfeeding continue for at least 12 months, and thereafter for as long as mother and baby desire. Although breastfeeding initiation and duration rates have increased overall in the United States, breastfeeding rates vary by geographic location, socioeconomic, and race/ethnic groups. Breastfeeding initiation and duration have been historically and consistently lower among black infants compared with white and Hispanic infants.

There are many factors that influence a woman’s decision to start and continue breastfeeding. These include knowledge about breastfeeding, cultural and social norms, family and social support, and work and childcare environments. Some barriers to breastfeeding are disproportionately experienced by black women, including earlier return to work, inadequate receipt of breastfeeding information from providers, and lack of access to professional breastfeeding support.

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American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation Launches Highlight on VACCINATIONS 4 TEENS to Help Address Teen Under-Vaccination

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Hughes Melton, MD, MBA, FAAFP AAFP Foundation president

Dr. Melton

S. Hughes Melton, MD, MBA, FAAFP
AAFP Foundation president

MedicalResearch: What is the background for this initiative? What are the main vaccinations that teens should have?

 Response: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends adolescents receive four immunizations – two of which are administered as multi-dose series – to help protect against meningococcal meningitis caused by serogroups A, C, W and Y; human papillomavirus (HPV); tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap); and influenza (flu).1 Despite these recommendations, millions of teens remain vulnerable to serious infectious disease.2,3

Family physicians are well equipped to immunize their patients against a host of common infectious diseases and improve public health. However, discussing teen vaccinations during annual appointments may present challenges due to other issues teens and their parents/guardians may be focused on at this age. The American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation (AAFP Foundation) launched Highlight on VACCINATIONS 4 TEENS to help remind family physicians and their care teams to make immunization a priority at these key appointments for teens.

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Brain Imaging Confirms Boys and Girls Experience Depression Differently

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Jie-Yu Chuang PhD Department of Psychiatry University of Cambridge Cambridge, United Kingdom

Dr. Jie-Yu Chuang

Jie-Yu Chuang PhD
Department of Psychiatry
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Men and women appear to suffer from depression differently, and this is particularly striking in adolescents. By 15 years of age, girls are twice as likely to suffer from depression as boys. There are various possible reasons for this, including body image issues, hormonal fluctuations and genetic factors, where girls are more at risk of inheriting depression. However, differences between the sexes don’t just involve the risk of experiencing depression. Men are more liable to suffer from persistent depression, whereas in women depression tends to be more episodic. Compared with women, depressed men are also more likely to suffer serious consequences from their depression, such as substance abuse and suicide. Despite this, so far, most researchers have focused on depression in women, likely because it is more common. As a result, we’d like to make people more aware of the sex difference issue in depression.

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BLISS – Baby Led Introduction To Solids – May Make Feeding Less Fussy

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Anne-Louise M. Heath and
Professor Rachael Taylor
Co-Principal Investigators for the BLISS study.

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Conventional approaches to complementary feeding generally advise parents to spoon-feed their infant pureed foods, gradually progressing to greater variety and texture so that by the time the infant is one year of age, they are eating more or less what the family does.

Baby-led weaning (BLW) is an alternative approach where the infants feeds themselves right from the start of complementary feeding. Because children of this age cannot use utensils, this means hand-held foods are necessary. Advocates of BLW suggest that children have a lower risk of obesity because they remain in control of their own food intake, but research examining this issue directly is scarce. Health professionals have also expressed concern that BLW might put the infant at increased risk of iron deficiency (parents might avoid red meat for fear of the infant choking, and iron-fortified cereals are not easy for the infant to feed themselves), growth faltering (if only low energy foods are offered) and choking (from the infant feeding themselves ‘whole’ foods).

Our study therefore examined a version of BLW that had been modified to address these issues (called BLISS – a Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS). Two hundred families took part in our 2-year intervention, with half following traditional feeding practices and half receiving guidance and support to follow our BLISS approach. We found that BLISS children were not less likely to be overweight than those following traditional feeding practices, nor was growth faltering an issue. BLISS child ate about the same amount of food as control children, and their ability to eat to appetite was not different either.

However, it seems that children following a baby-led approach to complementary feeding are less fussy about food, and have a healthier attitude to food, which might make a difference to their health long term.
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Effect of Depth and Duration of Cooling on Death or Disability at Age 18 Months Among Neonates With Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Seetha Shankaran, M.D. Professor, Neonatology Wayne State University School of Medicine

Dr. Shankaran

Seetha Shankaran, M.D.
Professor, Neonatology
Wayne State University School of Medicine

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: The study was performed because infants with moderate or severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (abnormal neurological exam within 6 hours of birth due to lack of blood and oxygen supply to the brain at birth) have rates of death or survival with disability that were still high in spite of current intensive care including hypothermia.

Whole-body hypothermia, cooling the infant for 72 hours at a depth of 33.5°C that was performed by the Neonatal Research Network funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development was the first trial of this therapy in the USA. We found that hypothermia therapy did decrease the rate of death or survival with disability from 62 to 44%. Since 44% is still high we wanted to see if longer cooling or deeper cooling or both would reduce this rate.

This was a randomized controlled clinical trial to examine whether longer cooling or deeper cooling or both reduced the rate of death or survival with disability among full term neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. The study lasted from October of 2010 to January 2016. 364 infants were enrolled. Neonates were randomly assigned to 4 groups of cooling therapy and the major findings were that neither longer cooling nor deeper cooling nor both were more superior to cooling for 72 hours at 33.5°C.

Our results were surprising because at the time we planned this study there were reports from animal model studies that longer/deeper cooling were more protective to the brain.

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Father’s Involvement In Childrearing Important In Reducing Pediatric Obesity

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Michelle S. Wong PhD Department of Health Policy and Management Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Baltimore, Maryland

Dr. Wong

Michelle S. Wong PhD
Department of Health Policy and Management
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Baltimore, Maryland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: As background, there haven’t been many studies on how fathers might influence overweight or obesity in their children.

Unsurprisingly most of the research has focused on
the mothers’ influence. Existing studies on fathers have focused on the relationship between their parenting practices (e.g., discipline), as well as feeding and physical activity behaviors, with child overweight or obesity. A few studies found that some father feeding practices were related to higher child BMI, but we don’t know whether fathers’ general caregiving matters.

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