A prospective longitudinal study by Lisa J. Berlin, Ph.D., of the University of Maryland School of Social Work, Baltimore, and colleagues examined pregnant women's hostile attributions about infants as a risk factor for early child maltreatment and harsh parenting. (Online First) A diverse, community-based sample of 499 pregnant women participated in the study...

In a study including children and adolescents 6 to 18 years of age, those who have experienced migraine headaches were more likely to have had colic as an infant, according to a study in the April 17 issue of JAMA. "Infantile colic is a common cause of inconsolable crying during the first months of life," according to background information in the article...

New research by Professor James Jaccard, Ph.D., and Nicole Levitz, M.P.H., of the New York University Silver School of Social Work and its Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health (CLAFH) has led them to suggest 12 evidence-based principles that can be used to improve contraceptive counseling of adolescents in U.S. health care clinics, doctor's offices, and health service organizations...

The company you keep in junior high school may have more influence on your smoking behavior than your high school friends, according to newly published research from the University of Southern California (USC). The study, which appears in the Journal of Adolescent Health, identifies how friends' and parental influence on cigarette smoking changes from junior high to high school...

Abnormal gut bacteria in premature babies can be found days before the onset of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) finds new research in BioMed Central's open access journal Microbiome. Babies who later went on to develop NEC had a lower diversity of gut bacteria 4-9 days after birth, increased level of Firmicutes or Enterobacteriaceae, and lacked the Propionibacterium found in healthy babies...

Music - especially lullabies - deliver health advantages to the most vulnerable babies, preemies, who are being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit, a new study suggests. The finding was published in the journal Pediatrics and revealed that premature babies who listen to music can see improvements in their heart rates and breathing...

Parents are influenced by their social network, such as their health care providers, family members, friends, and the media, when making decisions about vaccinating their children. The finding came from a new study published in the journal Pediatrics which examined the role these social networks have in parents' decisions about immunization...

The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project has identified mutations responsible for more than half of a subtype of childhood brain tumor that takes a high toll on patients. Researchers also found evidence the tumors are susceptible to drugs already in development...

A simple in-home training program for caregivers can give children of AIDS patients a better shot at prosperity by improving their early-childhood development, according to a study led by a Michigan State University researcher...

Baby marmoset monkeys that began eating solid food earlier than their peers were significantly more likely to be obese at 1 year of age, scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute found...

The spleen is rarely noticed, until it is missing. In children born without this organ, that doesn't happen until they become sick with life-threatening bacterial infections. An international team of researchers led by scientists from Rockefeller's St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics and Infectious Diseases has now identified the defective gene responsible for this rare disorder...

Some of the rice imported into the United States contains high levels of lead, according to a scientific study presented at an American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans this week...

Proof-of-concept study successfully completed in asthmatic children (age 3-11) Activaero GmbH, the therapeutic area specialist for respiratory diseases, today announced positive results from its phase II trial in children with mild to moderate asthma...

Blockage between the kidney and the ureter in infants can be successfully repaired with minimally invasive surgical approaches, according to a Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC study. The findings are published in the April issue of The Journal of Urology...

A Johns Hopkins Children's Center survey of 102 clinicians who treat teenage girls with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) has found that official guidelines designed to inform decisions about hospitalization versus outpatient care leave some clinicians scratching their heads...

Rice imported from certain countries contains high levels of lead that could pose health risks, particularly for infants and children, who are especially sensitive to lead's effects, and adults of Asian heritage who consume large amounts of rice, scientists said...

Scientists from UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health led by Julia Heck, an assistant researcher in the school's epidemiology department and a member of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, have found a possible link between exposure to traffic-related air pollution and several childhood cancers...

Human osteosarcoma samples are hard to come by, making the disease difficult to study. However, K9 bone cancer is genetically indistinguishable from the human form of the disease, and over 10,000 canine patients develop the disease every year...

An irregularity within many neuroblastoma cells may indicate whether a neuroblastoma tumor, a difficult-to-treat, early childhood cancer, is vulnerable to a new class of anti-cancer drugs known as BET bromodomain inhibitors, Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center scientists reported at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, April 6-10...

There is no specific drug to treat spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a family of motor neuron diseases that in its most severe form is the leading genetic cause of infant death in the United States and affects one in 6,000 people overall...