Rowing parents increase teenage risk factors

When a relationship breaks down there are many factors to consider, and if there are children involved then often there is conflict over whether it’s better to divorce or stay together for their sake. New research published as a report from the California Center for Population Research at the University of California-Los Angeles shows clearly that staying together is not always the answer. The research was carried out jointly by the universities at Cornell and Minnesota and reported that adolescents tend to get on better at school, and socially, when they live with both parents. But, and it’s a big but, if staying together means the parents argue a lot and there is a feeling of tension and conflict then the children are significantly more likely to binge drink, smoke and get poorer grades than other teenagers. In fact they are comparable results to those seen in single parent families, and are significantly more likely to binge drink.So staying together ‘for the kids’ only benefits them if you can do so by minimizing conflict and reducing arguments.

Language, babies and TV

Parents know that as an unpaid babysitter, television is a highly effective way of keeping children occupied and, hopefully, quiet. But new scientific evidence suggests that doing it too much will cause a child’s development to suffer. If that child is very young the risk is greater of them not being able to improve their social, cognitive and language development.The ‘baby’ language of many children’s programmes such as the Teletubbies can actually decrease a child’s likelihood of learning new words, and it’s passive nature affects their ability to talk, play and interact with others.

Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a University of Washington pediatrician, goes a step further and suggests that these negative effects are made worse when the parents are watching as well, which is not what I would have expected. He found that the parents are more likely to be distracted by watching the TV and less likely to interact with the child. He was able to put a number on the problem as he found that for every hour a television was turned on, babies heard 770 fewer words from an adult, and that conversational exchanges between baby and parent dropped 15%, as did the overall number of words spoken by children.

Television is essentially a passive medium, unless you are screaming at the screen during Big Brother, a football match or the final of Britain’s Got Talent.

Christakis found that on average when the TV is switched on, children spend more time in silence and solitude than they do in active social interaction. Even DVD’s aimed at encouraging interaction and education of children show up in this research as having the opposite effect, however good their intention and may even contribute to a drop in learning new words. The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages television-watching for babies under 2, and certainly unless it is balanced with a high level of encouragement and interaction from the parents it is certainly a babysitter with distinct drawbacks. Face to face, one on one, with good physical and emotional contact and lots of verbal interaction seems to be the best prescription to enhance a child’s development.

Autism risk higher in boys

Statistically, boys are four times more likely to be autistic than girls are – something that has puzzled researchers for a number of years. Now a new report this week in Molecular Psychiatry announces that researchers have found a genetic clue that may help explain why. While nearly 40% of the general population has the most common form of the gene CACNA1G, one variant of it was more prevalent in autistic boys, though why is still not clear. It is responsible for regulating the flow of calcium into and out of cells and this is important as nerve cells in the brain rely on calcium to become activated. An imbalance in calcium can result in these neural connections becoming over stimulated, more excitable, and this can create developmental problems, such as autism and even epilepsy. In the next five to ten years this could lead to a much better understanding of the causes of autism as researchers try to use known autism genes to help develop screening tools or early interventions.

Childen and vaccination pain levels

If you have ever sat with a child having multiple vaccinations then you will know it can be a traumatic experience for all concerned. Now some new research may help reduce the pain levels, and make it an easier experience all round.

The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has carried out a study that reveals that if you give a child the least painful vaccine first, then that can reduce overall pain from multiple injections. If you want to pass this on to your doctor or clinic, the order they found most effective was to give the primary vaccine for diphtheria, polio, tetanus, pertussis, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (DPTaP-Hib) and the final shot was the pneumococcal conjugatevaccine. Giving them in this order definitely resulted in less overall pain than getting the pneumococcal vaccine first as this one causes most pain reaction.

As some parents do refuse vaccinations for their children because of the pain they cause, this could be a simple way of overcoming this problem. If you are interested, they measured the pain levels in two ways; first using the child’s facial expressions, body movements, and crying and also asked the parents to rate their child’s pain. Based on my own experience, I would just have used a sound meter!

New evidence of infection link to childhood Leukaemia

Every 20 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancers of the blood such as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. UK researchers have for the first time identified the molecule that stimulates leukaemia to develop in children, according to a study published in the April edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research have observed that pre-leukaemic stem cells multiplied substantially at the expense of normal cells when exposed to a molecule produced in the body called TGF.

TGF is triggered as a normal response by the body to infection and so the new finding provides the first experimental evidence as to how common infections might trigger childhood leukaemia.

“We had already identified that a genetic mutation occurring in the womb created these pre-leukaemic cells,” Dr Anthony Ford from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) says. “But we have been looking for a trigger that could send these cells down the pathway to leukaemia. We believe TGF is part of that missing link.”

In a study of identical twin girls last year, ICR scientists discovered a genetic mutation – the fusion of the TEL (ETV6) and AML1 (RUNX1) genes – was responsible for initiating childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in the womb.

This mutation means pre-leukaemic cells grow in the bone marrow as a silent time bomb that can stay in the body for up to 15 years, but requires other factors to convert into leukaemia. Evidence suggests the mutation may be present in as many as one in 100 babies,but only about one in 100 of those children with the mutation then go on to develop leukaemia.

The latest ICR study, funded by Leukaemia Research, found TGF creates conditions that allow the pre-leukaemic cells to multiply. This increases the chance that some will become even further damaged in a way that results in the child developing leukaemia. Before this study, there had been only circumstantial evidence to implicate infections in the progression from a child carrying pre-leukaemic cells to actually having leukaemia. There was no evidence of the mechanism by which this might happen. While infection is clearly only one factor in triggering progression, this study greatly increases the strength of evidence for its role in the commonest form of childhood leukaemia.

It also gives hope for the development of more effective early diagnosis and treatment for childhood leukaemia.

Lack of vitamin D weakens young girls’ muscles

Another reason not to neglect eggs, particularly for teenage girls, is that new research in the USA and Germany has found that having insufficient vitamin D may cause weaker muscles.

A lack of the vitamin causes problems with calcium absorption, and can lead to bone weakness, fractures and osteoporosis as well as increasing the risk of cancer, heart disease and autoimmune disorders. Certainly it is known to impact our muscular and skeletal system and cause weakness, but what’s news it that it can also affect muscle power and force. The researchers tested their theory on nearly 100 girls between 12 and 14 at inner city schools and found that overall 75 percent of them had less than ideal levels of vitamin D, but were not showing any symptoms related to deficiency.

The girls were put through a variety of sport exercises, mainly involving jumping, and it was found that there was a direct correlation between vitamin D blood levels and the girls’ performance on the muscle strength tests. Recent studies suggest that as many as 55 percent of apparently healthy U.S. adolescents might be vitamin D deficient and so it would be worth making sure that girls include the best sources every day such as oily fish, eggs and fortified foods like breakfast cereals and powdered milk. Plus that basic, free source good old fashioned sunlight.

Oxygen therapy showing hope for autistic children

Many studies have suggested treatment that might help autistic children but the majority of them are anecdotal and not generally provable or applicable. Each child is different, but a new oxygen therapy has been put through a controlled trial and is reporting definite clinical improvements.

Six centres in the US that specialise in treating autistic children have been running a controlled trial on 62 children aged from two to seven. They have been using something they call hyperbaric therapy which involves the child being put into a pressurized chamber and then breathing in pure oxygen.

The children were divided randomly into two groups; one who got 40 hours of treatment in the chamber with an atmospheric pressure of 1.3 atm and the second group who had a much less pressured chamber and a lower dose of oxygen. Changes in their behaviour were monitored using three different criteria; the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale, the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC), and the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC).

Those children who had the treatment level of oxygen and pressure were found to have experienced significant benefits in terms of their overall functioning, eye contact, and social interaction when compared to the children in the non-treatment group.

As this is the first control study to be reported, it is worth investigating whether similar treatment is available in the UK. If your doctor or specialist wishes further information this report appeared in MLA BMC Pediatrics (2009, March 16). As Hyperbaric Treatment For Autism Reports Significant Clinical Improvements.

Premature babies benefit from Omega 3

Having a premature baby can be a time of great worry, and although medical knowledge has hugely increased the survival rate, there are still potential health problems for such babies that can affect how they develop. The major concern is for their mental development as they may be slower than babies that go to full term, as well as not having fully developed lungs and digestive systems.

A clinical trial in Australia however offers a simple solution that could help, and although it has only been running for 18 months they are claiming interesting results. For adults, the benefits of omega-3 are well known but so far no one has thought to see if they could also help such young babies. The Australian study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and carried out at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

They used normal omega-3 supplements from fish oil that you would buy in any health store and gave them to 272 nursing mothers of premature babies. They were trying to duplicate the amount of omega-3 that full-term babies usually receive in the womb during the third trimester of pregnancy and that premature babies miss out. They found that just 6 pills a day improved the cognitive ability of the babies when tested 18 months after birth.

Interestingly, the benefit seemed to apply solely to girls as the mothers of boys who took the supplements didn’t see any substantial difference. The doctors believe however that this is not due to a problem with the supplements but to the fact that boys generally develop slightly later than girls so a test over a longer period may show the same results. Differences are really going to persist.

BUT please don’t think that getting your omega-3′s naturally from fish and seafood during pregnancy is a precautionary measure as most doctors advise pregnant women to avoid these foods. However, it certainly couldn’t hurt to take the supplements and if it doesn’t improve the baby’s health it will certainly help the mother’s.

Teenage diabetics choose surgery

Any form of surgery is traumatic to the body, but sometimes it is necessary and unavoidable. My problem is when it’s being sought by the young and vulnerable with no real concept of the consequences. Diabetes is a disease that can be controlled, sometimes easily and sometimes not and the regime of regular medication can be very hard for teenagers – discipline not being a natural characteristic at that age. However a new trend in the USA is for teenage diabetics who are overweight to turn to the surgeon’s knife to help them .

Even more incredible is that this gastric bypass procedure is being suggested by Doctors, despite the fact that the US statistics show that 5 percent of people who have this surgery only survive a year. On the plus side, a study at Cinncinatti Children’s Hospital Medical Center, has shown that in most cases, the teenagers can lose one-third of their weight and come off diabetes medications with remission of their diabetes one year after bypass surgery. It sounds wonderful, but this has not been studied long enough, in my opinion, to suggest it as a viable alternative to diet, medication and lifestyle changes – or is that just me?

Childrens’ huge cancer risk from processed meats

Processed meats – or rather the sodium nitrate it contains – has previously been linked to cancer of the pancreas and colon, and I have reported on it for you. Now, a study carried out at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, has linked processed meat and a substantially higher risk of leukemia in children. Not a slight chance, but a 74 percent chance of contracting leukemia if the diet regularly includes processed meat like sausages, bacon, salamis, hams and hot dogs. It does not apply to fresh meat.

Sodium nitrate is used to give a more appealing colour to these foods, but it is a chemical which when ingested results in the formation of nitrosamine – a well known carcinogenic. If you buy processed meats for children for their lunchbox or snacks, then check the label to avoid those with sodium nitrate used in the curing or processing and where possible go for organic producers as they are unlikely to use sodium nitrate in their processing.

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