School meals would be even healthier if compliant with US nutrition standards, study finds

Estimated deaths prevented and health care-related cost savings later in adulthood associated with implementation of the 2020 DGA-aligned school meal standards in the United States, by dietary factors. Note: Bars…

Low fiber intake during pregnancy may delay development in infants’ brains

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Undernutrition during pregnancy is one of the factors linked to an increased risk of diseases in children as they grow older. Yet, maternal malnutrition remains a…

How to stop obese children from having heart disease in adulthood

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Childhood is a window of opportunity to tackle obesity before the damage it causes is irreversible, according to a scientific statement by experts on heart disease…

Early peanut introduction gaining traction among US parents, but more work needed

Credit: CC0 Public Domain In 2017, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a dramatic reversal in its approach to peanut-allergy prevention, recommending parents expose their infants as young as…

Indigenous children continue to experience high rates of RSV

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) children experience high rates of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-associated acute respiratory illness (ARI) hospitalization, according to a study published online July 14 in Pediatrics. Jessica E.…

Positive parenting can help protect against the effects of stress in childhood and adolescence, new study shows

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Warm and supportive parenting may buffer against the effects of stress during childhood and adolescence. That is the key takeaway of our recent study, published in…

Pandemic babies behind on communication at age 2, but other developmental areas remain unaffected, finds study

Credit: Prostock-studio/Shutterstock The world changed for all of us when we were suddenly plunged into a pandemic in 2020. COVID sent us into a series of lockdowns in a bid…

Strep throat can easily be confused with throat infections caused by viruses – here are a few ways to know the difference

“My sore throats, you know, are always worse than anybody’s.” So declares Mary to Anne in “Persuasion,” Jane Austen’s 1817 book. Most of us can relate to this feeling. There…

Reading for pleasure early in childhood linked to better cognitive performance and mental well-being in adolescence

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Children who begin reading for pleasure early in life tend to perform better at cognitive tests and have better mental health when they enter adolescence, a…

Being born in a city no longer increases their chances of survival

by Peter Macharia, Andrea Barnabas Pembe, Claudia Hanson and Lenka Benova, The Conversation Each dot on this map represents a group of households surveyed during the 2016 Tanzania Demographic and…