Parenting/Kids News

TUESDAY, July 8 (HealthDay News) -- A new sweet treat that actually prevents children's cavities should please children and their parents, researchers say.

CHICAGO - Pressured by desperate parents, government researchers are pushing to test an unproven treatment on autistic children, a move some scientists see as an unethical experiment in voodoo medicine.

QUACK RESEARCH? The government wants to test chelation, a treatment for lead poisoning, on children with autism — even though there's no evidence it leads to improvements.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Everyone knows what too much television can do to the mind and what too little exercise can do to the body, but a Canadian study has now shown that the boob tube can also lead to an increase in how much we eat.

BARCELONA (Reuters) - The same infrared technology that measures fat content in milk can more accurately predict which embryos have the best chance of resulting in a pregnancy, fertility experts said on Tuesday.

MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at a 50 percent higher risk for being overweight if they are not taking medication for the condition, a new study finds.

MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- People who are prone to road rage are also more likely to rant and rave while watching their children play sports, says a U.S. study.

(HealthDay News) -- Roller sports -- including roller skating and roller blading, biking, skateboarding and scooters -- are a common cause of injury, especially in children.

MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- The kinds of foods that students can purchase at their public middle schools or high schools are far less healthy than the food available to children attending elementary schools, a new study suggests.

MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- Among couples with fertility problems, those in which the man is over age 35 have lower pregnancy rates and increased chances of miscarriage, a new study shows.

MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- In a further concession to the impact of the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States, a leading group of pediatricians is recommending that kids as young as 8 years old be given cholesterol-lowering drugs in hopes of preventing heart problems later in life.

MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnancy alone isn't associated with an increased risk of mental health disorders, a new study says.

MONDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- Infants cared for by caregivers other than their parents tend to gain more weight than children cared for by their parents, a new study says.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some children as young as two should be screened for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other heart disease risks, according to new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The corticosteroid drug budesonide, given as a nasal spray for 6 weeks, benefits children with mild sleep apnea, a study shows.

BARCELONA (Reuters) - A new fertility treatment costing less than $200 could help many infertile women in the developing world escape the physical abuse and social stigma of not being able to have children, experts said on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Dr. Robert Schroth from the University of Manitoba reported that mothers of children who developed cavities at an early age had significantly lower vitamin D levels during pregnancy than those whose children were cavity-free.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Infants born to women with substance abuse problems will fare better if their mothers undergo treatment for these problems early in pregnancy, according to the largest study to date to investigate this issue.

CHICAGO - For the first time, an influential doctors group is recommending that some children as young as 8 be given cholesterol-fighting drugs to ward off future heart problems.

PARIS (AFP) - Women's pregnancy rates drop and miscarriages increase when the baby's father is over 40 years old, according to a study to be released Monday.

PARIS (AFP) - Children born to a surrogate mother or conceived through donated sperm or a donated egg do just as well psychologically as counterparts who are naturally conceived, a study unveiled on Sunday said.

KANO, Nigeria (AFP) - Nigerian health workers Saturday began house-to-house immunization of 4.6 million children under the age of five in the northern state of Kano in a new drive to eradicate the disease.

(HealthDay News) -- Trying to get pregnant again after a miscarriage can be fraught with a host of emotional and physical concerns.

FRIDAY, July 4 (HealthDay News) -- Babies born to women with low levels of vitamin D during pregnancy may be at increased risk for tooth enamel defects and early childhood tooth decay, a Canadian study finds.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children born "small for gestational age" - that is, significantly smaller than most babies born after the same number of weeks of pregnancy -- are prone to developing "visceral" adiposity (fatness) of the abdomen, even without being overweight, research hints.

THURSDAY, July 3 (HealthDay News) -- A series of tests that are the first to accurately assess children's ability to taste and smell have been developed by Australian researchers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two rival flu drugs, Tamiflu and Relenza, work equally well to fight the symptoms of influenza in children, Japanese researchers reported on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Babies born by Cesarean section may have a moderately increased risk of developing asthma compared with those born naturally, Norwegian researchers report after investigating this link in a population-wide study.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many children may be carrying the drug-resistant "superbug" MRSA in their nasal passages, unbeknownst to anyone, research suggests. Investigators at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, report that MRSA "is widespread among children in our community."