Health Tip: Sleep Positions While You're Pregnant

As your pregnancy progresses, sleeping may become a little more uncomfortable each month.The American Pregnancy Association offers these suggestions to help you sleep more comfortably during pregnancy:

* Try sleeping on your side -- particularly your left side, if it's comfortable. Bend your knees, and place a pillow between your knees.
* Also try a pillow under your belly, for support.
* If heartburn bothers you, prop up your upper body with pillows.
* If you feel short of breath, lie on your side or propped up with pillows.
* You should avoid sleeping on your back and on your stomach during pregnancy.

Childhood eczema tied to asthma risk later

Children with the allergic skin condition eczema are at increased risk of developing asthma well into adulthood, according to a decades-long study.Australian researchers found that among nearly 8,600 study participants followed from the age of 7, those who'd had childhood eczema were roughly twice as likely to develop asthma by middle-age.

It's not clear whether the eczema directly contributed to asthma development in these cases. However, the findings do suggest a cause-and-effect relationship between the two conditions, according to the researchers, led by Dr. John A. Burgess of the University of Melbourne.

They report the results in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The findings come from a study that began in 1968, when parents of 8,583 7-year-old children in Tasmania were surveyed about their children's health. The children also had a medical exam. At that time, 769 were found to have eczema.

The researchers found that children with eczema were twice as likely as their peers to develop asthma as teenagers, and 63 percent more likely to develop the lung condition as adults.

Other researchers have noted a phenomenon dubbed the "atopic march," which refers to the sequential development of eczema, followed by nasal allergies and finally asthma. The current findings, Burgess and his colleagues write, suggest that this march continues on well past childhood.

It's also possible that eczema directly contributes to asthma development, the researchers say. One theory is that certain immune system cells, primed for an allergic response, might migrate from an eczema patient's skin to tissue of the airways. That could make their airways more likely to inflame in response to an inhaled allergen, leading to asthma symptoms.

"Our data suggest that a causal link is possible," Burgess told Reuters Health.

"If in fact the link was causal," he added, "then aggressive treatment of childhood eczema aimed at really tight control of that disease might have an impact on the development of asthma in adolescence and in adult life."

SOURCE: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, August 2008.

Argentina investigates deaths of vaccinated kids

Argentine authorities are exploring a possible link between the deaths of 14 children and an experimental vaccine they were taking in a clinical trial run by GlaxoSmithKline.Argentina's food and drug administration is investigating whether the deaths are tied to the Synflorix vaccine, said an agency official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The drug, designed to fight pneumonia, ear infections and several other pneumococcal diseases, was manufactured by the London-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the world's second-largest drug maker.

A U.S. spokeswoman for Glaxo, Sarah Alspach, said the company is not attributing the deaths to the experimental vaccine, which is being tested in three Latin American countries and in other countries around the world.

An independent board monitoring participants' safety recommended that the Latin American trials be temporarily suspended — which they were in late June — but then gave its OK for tests to resume, she added.

"We rely on their safety review," Alspach said. "Safety is our primary concern, always, with the development of any new treatment."

More than 19,000 babies have received at least one dose of Synflorix, which Glaxo plans to test on a total of 24,000 infants, she said. The company is still enrolling participants.

But according to the Argentine official, who works at the country's National Medicine, Food and Medical Technology Administration, the agency "received complaints about irregularities in the recruitment of patients" for the drug trial and on July 31 asked that recruitment be suspended.

Glaxo stopped recruiting the following day, saying it had already gathered the necessary number of participants, the official said.

Ana Maria Marchesse, who heads one of two groups that notified the national food and drug administration, told The Associated Press that she'd witnessed "poor ethical management" of patient recruitment.

"They didn't explain to the parents that this was an experimental vaccine, and a lot of the parents who signed consent forms were illiterate," said Marchesse, a pediatrician who heads the Health Professionals' Labor Association in the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero, where she said seven of the 14 children died.

"In some cases, they first gave them the vaccine and then gave them a 13-page consent form to sign that I had to read three times to understand," she added.

Marchesse said her group and a provincial doctors' association reported what they saw to the food and drug administration.

Glaxo's trial includes thousands of babies in Argentina, where Alspach said 12 children died; in Panama, where another two died; and in Chile. The natural infant death rate in those countries from pneumonia is 4 to 5 of every 1,000 live births — more than four times the rate seen in the study, Alspach said.

Pneumonia is the world's top killer among infectious diseases, causing more than 2 million deaths a year in children under five, mostly in developing countries, she said.

The company is testing the vaccine in more than 40 clinical studies around the world, she added. Data from other studies show the vaccine is about as safe and tolerable as competitor Wyeth's blockbuster Prevnar, a vaccine widely used against pneumococcal disease, she said.

Still, the Argentine province of Santiago del Estero is conducting a separate inquiry into the deaths of the seven children there, local Health Minister Franklin Moyano told state news media.

"While legal authorities investigate, we're in an observation phase to see if everything happened as expected, or if there were deviations that caused damage, in this case the death of seven kids," he said.

Health Tip: Don't Do Your Child's Homework

A proper home atmosphere for doing homework is important for learning and keeping up in school.The Nemours Foundation offers these suggestions:

* Create an area at home just for homework. It should be well-lit, with all of the supplies that your child needs.
* Set aside a certain time every day -- such as before a snack or after dinner -- to study and do homework.
* Minimize distractions during homework time, including music, television and phone calls.
* Don't do your child's homework. The child won't learn from mistakes if they're yours. But offer help when needed. Praise your child for doing well and trying hard.
* Be involved in your child's school work, and set a good example by reading and working at home, too.

Insurance Matters When It Comes to Kids' Health Care

Insured children in the United States are much more likely than uninsured children (91 percent vs. 69 percent) to visit a doctor's office and to have a regular annual check-up (77 percent vs. 45 percent), according to new data released Thursday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The study, conducted by University of Minnesota researchers who analyzed U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2005-07, also found that:

* About 10 million American children have chronic illnesses and 3.6 million of those children are covered by Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Chronically ill children covered by public insurance receive the same level of health services as those with private insurance, but chronically ill children with no insurance receive far less care.
* Uninsured children with chronic needs are far more likely (41 percent) to have their care delayed or to receive no care, compared to insured children with chronic needs (10 percent).
* Eight percent of children with chronic health conditions enrolled in SCHIP or Medicaid don't have a personal doctor, compared to 21 percent of uninsured children.
* Sixteen percent of children with special needs who are enrolled in SCHIP or Medicaid don't receive mental health care services, compared to 43 percent of uninsured children.

The findings highlight the importance of government insurance programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP, the study authors said.

"SCHIP and Medicaid provide an important safety net for America's families, especially for families with chronically ill children. These programs allow kids to get the care they need, so they can feel better, grow stronger and thrive in school," Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said in a news release.

"When children who need care do not receive it, their conditions worsen and are harder and more expensive to treat later. Because of Medicaid and SCHIP, millions of kids can get regular check-ups, take the medications they need to stay well and see a doctor when they are sick. Parents of any uninsured child should find out if their family is eligible for low-cost or free insurance before sending their kids back to school," Lavizzo-Mourey added.

Currently, more than nine million children in the United States are uninsured, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Most uninsured children live in families where at least one parent works full-time.

Childhood Dairy Intake Boosts Bone Health Later On

Having two or more servings of dairy products a day starting as a preschooler may lead to better bone health as an adolescent, a new report says.The study, expected to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics, found higher levels of bone mineral content and bone density in teens who consumed dairy at least twice a day since the ages of 3 to 5. These adolescents' average bone mineral content was 175 grams higher than adolescents who had consumed less than two dairy servings a day, even after researchers adjusted the results for factors that affect normal bone development, such as the child's growth, body size, and activity level.

The study highlights the significant role dairy plays in childhood as "a key source of proteins, calcium, and other micronutrients including phosphorus and vitamin D," study researcher Lynn Moore, of Boston University School of Medicine, said in a news release issued by the journal.

The researchers also found that children who combined their 2 or more servings of dairy with 4 ounces of meat or other nondairy protein during a day had bone mineral contents more than 300 grams higher than those children with lower intakes of both dairy and other proteins.

The findings come from analyzing data and family food diaries from the Framingham Children's Study, which gathered information from 106 children, 3 to 5 years of age at the beginning of the study, over a 12-year period. Information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was also used to determine the children's average daily intake of dairy and other foods.

Kids' Obesity Linked to Ear Infections

Damage caused by chronic ear infections in children may alter their sense of taste, making fatty and sweet foods more desirable and increasing the risk of obesity.That's the conclusion of four new studies presented Thursday at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in Boston.

In the first study, Kathleen Daly, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Minnesota, found that "middle ear nerve damage may play a role in affecting taste in children with recurrent ear infections or chronic ear disease who get [drainage] tubes. This damage may increase intake of fattening foods."

For the study, Daly's team followed children from birth to 2 years of age who had been treated with tubes for ear infections.

"There was a trend, but not significant, for recurrent ear infection to lead to overweight," Daly said. "Other studies have reported a similar relationship between ear infections and overweight. We did not find evidence for the reverse hypothesis: larger and heavier children were more prone to ear infections and tubes than smaller and lighter children."

In the second study, led by John Hayes of Brown University, researchers found that among 110 middle-aged women with a sense of taste consistent with nerve damage, those who preferred sweet and high-fat foods tended to have larger waists.

"Surprisingly, we found that the single best predictor of body weight was not how much saturated fat they took in and not how often they ate high-fat foods, but was how much they liked high-fat and sweet foods," Hayes said.

Hayes noted that taste can vary genetically, but also through exposure to environmental changes. "Particularly with damage to the taste system and we think this happens from ear infections," he said.

Another study by Hayes' group found that preschoolers with a history of severe ear infections ate fewer vegetables, more sweets and tended to be heavier.

In the third study presented Thursday, led by Howard Hoffman, an epidemiologist at the U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, researchers found that removing the tonsils had an effect on whether children would be overweight.

"Taste does have an impact on selection of food and diet," Hoffman said. "A tonsillectomy may damage one of the nerves that carry taste information. In addition, ear infections can also alter taste. Altering taste does have an effect on the preferences for food," he said.

Hoffman's team reexamined data on 13,887 children who took part in the National Health Examination surveys during the 1960s. The researchers found that children who had had their tonsils removed were at greater risk of being overweight. Among children aged 6 to 11 who'd had a tonsillectomy, they were 40 percent more likely to be overweight at the time of the survey, compared with children who did not have a tonsillectomy.

What's more, teenage girls who'd had a tonsillectomy were 30 percent more likely to be overweight, the researchers found. Hoffman noted that tonsillectomies were a common treatment back in the 60s for chronic ear infections, which can alter the taste buds and affect eating habits.

"This data is not conclusive, but it's suggestive," he said.

In the final study, Linda Bartoshuk, of the University of Florida College of Dentistry, and colleagues collected data on 6,584 people who attended a lecture series. These men and women, between 16 and 92 years old, were asked about their history of ear infections. The researchers found that those with a history of moderate to severe ear infections were 62 percent more likely to be obese.

Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Yale University School of Medicine Prevention Research Center, thinks that alteration in taste only plays a small part in the overall obesity epidemic in the United States.

"It certainly makes sense that variations in taste, due to many factors including a history of ear infections, could influence food preferences, total food intake and weight," he said.

However, despite variation in taste perception, variation in dietary preference, and variation in the history of ear infections, researchers have projections forecasting all but universal obesity among U.S .adults within several decades should current trends persist, Katz noted.

"So while the link between taste buds and vulnerability to obesity is worthy of further exploration, the simple fact is that the entire population is vulnerable to obesity," Katz said. "The major causes of the obesity epidemic reside in the 'obesigenic' environment, rather than on our tongues."

Early monitoring for infant skin tumors needed

The rapid growth of reddish skin tumors called infantile hemangiomas requires close observation in the first months of life, according to a report in the journal Pediatrics. Treatment should be undertaken promptly.

Infantile hemangiomas are non-cancerous tumors that can grow rapidly during infancy, but usually resolve by 9 years of age. Hemangiomas are the most common tumors in infants and, aside from cosmetic concerns, most have no medical significance.

"Not all hemangiomas need treatment -- actually the majority does not -- but a significant minority does," Dr. Ilona J. Frieden told Reuters Health. "So the real message of our study is that patients with hemangiomas that are at high-risk for complication or need...treatment should be identified early and referred as soon as possible."

Frieden from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues determined the specific growth characteristics of hemangiomas in 433 infants with a total of 526 hemangiomas.

"Eighty percent of hemangioma size was reached" by 5 months of age in most cases, the researchers report, and overall growth was nearly always completed by 9 months of age.

During the first 18 months of life, hemangiomas affecting only the upper layers of skin were more likely to start resolving, whereas deeper hemangiomas were more likely to continue growing.

Though parents noticed most hemangiomas within 1 month of age, the investigators say, the infants were 5 months of age, on average, when they were first taken to a dermatologist.

Most hemangiomas reached 80 percent of their maximum size by the tine the infants were 5 months old, suggesting that physicians need to start referring affected infants to specialists earlier in life, the authors conclude.

"One major reason for this is that current treatments work best when instituted early," Frieden said. "By 5 months of age the majority of growth is actually over and the opportunity to prevent complications in many cases has already passed."

SOURCE: Pediatrics, August 2008.

Poor Coordination in Childhood Tied to Adult Obesity

A lack of physical control and coordination in childhood may be tied to an increased risk of obesity in later life, a new study says.he research, published online at BMJ.com Wednesday, adds to previous studies that found poorer cognitive function in childhood may be linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes in adults.

The findings, based on 11,041 individuals in the ongoing National Child Development Study in Great Britain, showed that children who showed poor hand control, poor coordination, and clumsiness at age 7 in testing were more likely to be obese adults. Those with poorer functioning motor skills at age 11 also tended to be obese at age 33.

Adjusting for factors that may influence the results, such as childhood body mass and family social class, did not change the results. However, the study did not delve into specific biological processes that may explain poorer physical control and coordination in childhood with adult obesity.

"Some early life exposures (such as maternal smoking during pregnancy) or personal characteristics may impair the development of physical control and coordination, as well as increasing the risk of obesity in later life," the authors, from Imperial College London and Orebro University Hospital & Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, wrote.

"Rather than being explained by a single factor, an accumulation throughout life of many associated cultural, personal, and economic exposures is likely to underlie the risks for obesity and some elements of associated neurological function," they concluded.

Your Child Is Fat

School children across England will soon have their Body Mass Index (BMI) tested as part of a new effort to tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity. Parents will be sent a letter telling them whether their child is underweight, a healthy weight, overweight or very overweight. The letter will also include leaflets giving advice on eating healthily, physical activities their child might do and the risks of being overweight.So, are parents really failing to notice their little angels piling on the pounds? Yes, says the U.K.'s Department of Health. "Today, when more children are overweight compared with previous generations, it can be harder for parents to objectively identify if their child is overweight," says a spokeswoman from the Department of Health. "Research shows that most parents of overweight or obese children think that their child is a healthy weight. Some research showed that only 10% of parents with overweight or obese children described their child as overweight."

Still, it pays to break the news of a child's problem gently. Following the advice of numerous obesity experts, the Department of Health has decided that the name of the final, portliest category - very overweight - was a more sensible choice than obese. "Preliminary findings of the survey suggest that many people who would be defined clinically as obese find the use of the term obese highly offensive and would stop listening to further advice."

The softly-softly approach doesn't please everyone. "To shrink from using the word obesity is really ducking an issue," insists Dr Colin Waine, Chairman of the National Obesity Forum. "It does not have to be used in a judgmental or insulting way: if a child is obese then the parents should know that its obese. We must make parents know that the lifestyle of the family needs to be modified."

Statistics on childhood obesity in Britain make grim reading. Figures from 2006, the most recent numbers, show that nearly a third of all children aged between two and 15 are overweight or obese, an overall increase of 11% from 1995.

The U.K. childhood obesity rate is comparable to that in the U.S., where obesity in children aged between six and 11 has tripled over the past three decades, which may be why a few U.S. states already send reports on heavy kids home to parents. The College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, published a paper in November 2006 describing the "risks and benefits of BMI reporting in the school setting", and in May 2007, Wyoming started a program in which students' report cards came complete with their BMI.

Some worry that such information should be given more discreetly: "Our feeling is that the information should be given to parents if there is a serious health concern much like any other health concern a child might have," said Meghan Cavanaugh, a spokeswoman at the Childhood Weight Control Program, the University of Buffalo. "This information should not be included on a report card or such. Medical information should be kept separate."

Based on current growth rates, obesity is predicted to cost the wider community of the U.K. around $100 billion a year by 2050, according to the Department of Health. "The Government must lead on action across society to tackle obesity. Engaging parents in this issue is essential to achieving success in instigating behavioral change."

Death From Febrile Seizure Rare in Children

Even in high-risk children, death from febrile (fever-linked) seizures is rare, say Danish researchers who analyzed data on 1.6 million children.Febrile seizure, a generalized convulsion caused by increased body temperature, affects 2 percent to 5 percent of children under age 5. About one-third of affected children have more than one seizure episode. Many parents fear their child is dying during a febrile seizure and are worried death may occur during subsequent seizures, according to background information in a news release about the study.

This study included almost 1,676,000 children born in Denmark between 1977 and 2004, who were followed from three months of age until death, emigration or Aug. 31, 2005. Among the children, there were a total of 8,172 deaths, including 232 deaths among the 55,215 children with a history of febrile seizure.

Overall, 132 per 100,000 children died within two years of a febrile seizure compared with 67 per 100,000 children without a history of the condition.

The duration of the fever episode seemed to matter, however. The death rate for children with simple febrile seizures (lasting less than 15 minutes and none recurring within 24 hours) was similar to that of children in the general population. In contrast, the death rate for children with complex febrile seizures (lasting longer than 15 minutes or recurring within 24 hours) was twice as high in the two years following the seizure than in the general population.

But the researchers emphasized that the overall risk of death among children with febrile seizures is small -- 2 deaths per 1,500 children, compared with 1 death per 1,500 children in the general population.

"Children with simple febrile seizures had a risk of death similar to the background population, whereas those with complex febrile seizures, febrile seizures triggered by a temperature below 39 degrees C, and febrile seizures occurring before 12 months of age had a twofold higher mortality lasting for about two years. The excess mortality was at least partly due to pre-existing neurological abnormalities and subsequent epilepsy ... Parents should be reassured that death after febrile seizures is very rare, even in high-risk children," the researchers concluded.

The study was published in this week's issue of The Lancet.

Robot Playmates Help Autistic Kids With Social Skills

Many children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) interact more easily with mechanical devices than with humans, according to new reports. Researchers at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, who have presented their finding at various conferences in the United States and in Europe this summer, found that Socially Assisted Robotics (SAR) that blow bubbles, toot horns and even make facial expressions appear to increase the child's speech and interaction levels.

"I am gratified by these preliminary results," Maja Mataric, a professor at the USC Interaction Laboratory, said in a news releases issued by the university. "I believe that Socially Assistive Robotics has a part to play in helping families, both the affected children and their parents and siblings."

The initial study, reported in a June Conference on Interaction Design for Children with Special Needs in Chicago, paired an ASD child with a colorful bubble-blowing wheeled robot that either operated on its own or blew bubbles when the child pushed a button.

"We found that the behavior of the robot affects the social behavior of a child (both human-human interaction and human-robot interaction): social behavior with a contingent robot was greater than with a random robot," the report stated.

"Generally, when the robot was acting contingently, the child was more sociable," the authors wrote.

Two other presentations -- made at the International Symposium on Experimental Robotics in Athens, Greece, in July, and at the IEEE Proceedings of the International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication -- discuss these results and efforts to make the robots flexible and useful tools in ASD therapy.

Men More Likely Than Women to Adopt Children

American men ages 18 to 44 are more than twice as likely as women in the same age group to have adopted a child, a new federal report says.The report uses data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, which showed that more than 1.2 million men and 613,000 women had adopted children. The exact reasons why more men adopt than women aren't outlined in the report, but it may be partly due to men getting married and adopting their spouse's children from a previous relationship, the report said.

The report found that:

* Among people who've ever been married, men were more than 2.5 times as likely as women to have adopted -- 3.8 percent vs. 1.4 percent. Overall, 2.3 percent of all men had adopted a child.
* More than one in four women ages 40 to 44 who had ever used infertility services had adopted a child.
* Never-married adults ages 18 to 44 were significantly less likely to have adopted a child compared to those who were currently married. About 100,000 never-married women and 73,000 never-married men had adopted a child.
* Compared with non-Hispanic white women, Hispanic and non-Hispanic black women were more likely to be currently seeking to adopt a child.

The report was released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center on Health Statistics.

Detecting False Labor

You should speak with your doctor if you're concerned about the possibility that you've gone into labor, or whether you're experiencing a false alarm called "false labor," the American Pregnancy Association says.

The association offers this information that can help you decide whether a trip to the hospital is in order:

* False labor contractions occur at irregular, unpredictable intervals.
* False labor contractions are variable in duration and intensity, while true contractions last at least 30 seconds and become progressively longer.
* False labor contractions often stop no matter what you are doing, while true contractions continue during any activity.
* True labor pains start high in the abdomen, extend to the lower abdomen and around to the lower back. False labor pains, on the other hand, are usually concentrated in the lower abdomen and groin.

Managing Your Child's Migraines

If your child gets migraine headaches, the American Academy of Family Physicians offers these suggestions to help prevent them:

* Make sure your child eats meals on a regular schedule, and never skips a meal.
* Keep your child on a regular sleep schedule.
* Make sure your child gets daily exercise, but don't overdo it.
* Figure out what triggers migraines in your child, and try to avoid those factors. Common triggers include stress, too much intense exercise, or changes in weather or altitude.
* Avoid foods that are known to trigger your child's migraines. Popular culinary causes include: cheese, processed meats, chocolate, caffeine, nuts, pickles and foods high in the preservative monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Fever-related seizures in children rarely fatal

Although fever-related seizures can prove fatal for some children, such deaths are nonetheless extremely rare, a large study from Denmark shows.

The findings, reported in Saturday's issue of The Lancet medical journal, should be reassuring for parents, researchers say.

About 2 percent to 5 percent of children younger than 5 will suffer at least one febrile seizure -- generalized convulsions caused by elevated body temperature. But studies on the condition have been too small to estimate how many children actually die from fever-related seizures.

For the new study, Dr. Mogens Vestergaard, from Aarhus University in Denmark, and colleagues analyzed data on nearly 1.7 million children born in Denmark between 1977 and 2004. They identified 8,172 children who died during the study period, including 232 deaths among more than 55,000 children with a history of febrile seizure.

Overall, the researchers found, children who suffered a febrile seizure were nearly twice as likely as children in the general population to die during the two years following the seizure. Beyond that point, there was no increased risk.

And while the short-term risk of death was elevated, the actual number of children who died was extremely low, Vestergaard's team stresses. Over two years, they say, there would be two deaths per 1,500 children with febrile seizures, versus one death per 1,500 children in the general population.

Moreover, the study found, much depends on the type of febrile seizure.

Children who suffered a "simple" seizure -- lasting no more than 15 minutes, without recurrence in 24 hours -- had a death rate similar to children in the general population.

Instead, the risk was linked specifically to so-called complex seizures, which are longer-lasting or arise again within 24 hours; often, deaths among these children were related to pre-existing neurological abnormalities.

The findings seem to "refute, for infants and children who have simple febrile seizures, the idea of a shared cause between febrile seizures and sudden death," Dr. Maitreyi Mazumdar, from Children's Hospital Boston, writes in a related editorial.

At the same time, she adds, the results reinforce the message that children with complex seizures and neurologic abnormalities should be followed closely by their doctors.

SOURCE: Lancet August 9, 2008.

"Found" needles pose low infection risk for kids

Children who are accidentally stuck with an improperly discarded needle or syringe appear to be at low risk for acquiring hepatitis or HIV, new research suggests.In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, Canadian researchers found that of 274 children with needlestick injuries, none became infected with HIV or the hepatitis B or C viruses.

Nevertheless, parents should immediately seek medical advice whenever a child is stuck by a potentially contaminated needle, say Dr. Caroline Quach and her colleagues.

To insure efficacy, "most prophylactic (preventive) measures need to be given early after the injury," Quach, from Montreal Children's Hospital and McGill University, told Reuters Health.

For their study, Quach and her colleagues assessed the risk of infection among 274 children who'd been stuck by a potentially contaminated needle and were seen over a 19-year period at two major pediatric hospitals in Montreal.

The children, most of whom received therapies to prevent infection, were followed for six months. This is the longest period of time over which someone could develop antibodies against the viruses in question and therefore show they were infected, Quach explained.

After six months the investigators found no hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV infections among the children they were able to test.

Children frequently find discarded needles in "safe" areas such as parks and around home, Quach said. Children may pick up these needles and intentionally stick themselves "not realizing there is a potential health threat associated to a needlestick injury," she noted.

The children in her study were 8 years old, on average, and in most cases had been stuck by a discarded needle found in the street or a park. About 65 percent of the children intentionally picked up the needle.

The number of needlestick injuries followed and treated in this study "is large enough to comfort us in the low risk of transmission of infections," Quach said.

Still, she and her colleagues say, children may need to be better educated about the dangers of discarded needles.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, August 2008.

Health Tip: Keep Gestational Diabetes Under Control

Gestational diabetes occurs in women during pregnancy, and it requires careful attention to keep mother and baby safe and healthy.

When you're pregnant, your body produces hormones that impair the work of insulin. So the pregnant woman produces extra insulin, but in some women this isn't enough. They get gestational diabetes, which tends to go away when pregnancy ends.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers these guidelines if you're prone to gestational diabetes:

* Work with a dietitian to develop a meal plan that accommodates both you and baby.
* Avoid eating sweets, eat frequent small meals throughout the day, and watch your carbohydrate intake.
* Eat sufficient fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
* Generally, exercise for at least 30 minutes each day is recommended. Talk with your doctor about how much and what kind of exercise is appropriate for you.
* Check your blood sugar frequently as recommended by your doctor, and record your results so you can monitor them.
* Take your diabetes medications exactly as prescribed by your doctor.

Bad childhood experiences tied to early drinking

Children who deal with divorce, abuse or certain other hardships may be more likely than their peers to start drinking at a young age, a U.S. study suggests.The study, of nearly 3,600 Americans ages 18 to 39, found that those who'd gone through certain negative experiences as a child were more likely to have started drinking before age 15.

The experiences specifically linked to early drinking were physical abuse, sexual abuse, living with a mentally ill family member, substance abuse in the home, and parents' divorce or separation.

The findings, reported in the journal Pediatrics, add to evidence that negative childhood experiences are related to early drinking.

What's new is that they point to specific circumstances that may be especially problematic, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Emily F. Rothman of the Boston University School of Public Health.

They found that adults who reported any of those five childhood experiences were more likely not only to drink early, but to drink specifically to cope with their problems.

Drinking early, especially as a way to manage stress, could shape a person's drinking patterns for a lifetime, the researchers note -- possibly raising the risk of alcohol dependence in adulthood.

The study involved a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults who were either current or former drinkers. They were surveyed about various adverse childhood experiences, the age at which they started drinking and the reasons that they typically drank during that first year.

Overall, two-thirds of the respondents said they had gone through at least one negative childhood experience. However, only five types of experiences stood out as being linked to early drinking.

Childhood abuse was most strongly associated with early drinking, conferring a two- to three-fold higher risk. Similarly, having a family member who was mentally ill or a substance abuser doubled the odds of early drinking.

Adults whose parents had divorced or separated when they were children were 70 percent more likely to report early drinking than those whose parents stayed together.

However, the researchers say the findings do not imply that all children who go through these experiences are necessarily at risk of early drinking, or of turning to alcohol to cope with their problems.

One reason these children may start drinking is a lack of adult supervision, Rothman and her colleagues point out; parents dealing with mental illness, for example, may not be able to monitor their children closely.

And this, the researchers write, would mean that having at least one "engaged" parent could help protect children from the effects of whatever stressful circumstance they are facing.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, August 2008.

Spending time outdoors good for kids' eyes

Parents now have another reason to shoo their kids outdoors to play, along with making sure they get enough fresh air and exercise. In a study, Australian researchers found evidence that children who spent the most time outdoors were the least likely to suffer from myopia, also called nearsightedness or shortsightedness"Our evidence suggests that the key factor is being outdoors, and that it does not matter if that time is spent in having a picnic or in playing sport," Dr. Kathryn A. Rose told Reuters Health. "Both will protect a child's eyes from growing excessively, which is the major cause of myopia."

Myopia has become increasingly common in recent decades, with more than 80 percent of people in some highly-educated groups being nearsighted, Rose of the University of Sydney and her colleagues point out in the journal Ophthalmology. Work that requires a person to focus on something close up -- for example reading -- has been proposed to cause nearsightedness, they add.

To investigate how viewing activities at various distances might influence myopia risk, the researchers looked at 1,765 six-year-olds and 2,367 12-year-olds participating in the Sydney Myopia Study. Just 1.5 percent of the six-year-olds were myopic, but 12.8 percent of the older children were. Both age groups spent about 2.3 hours outside each day, on average.

Time spent outside had no significant relationship to myopia prevalence among the younger children, nor did the amount of close work they did.

But among the 12-year-olds, those who spent more than 2.8 hours outside every day were less likely to be myopic than their peers who spent more of their time indoors. Children who spent less than 1.6 hours outdoors every day and more than 3.1 hours in near-work activity had double to triple the likelihood of being nearsighted compared to kids who spent the most time outside and the least time in close-up work.

"We have not yet established why being outside is protective," Rose said. "But a likely candidate is the high levels of light experienced outside compared to inside. Studies in animals suggest that retinal dopamine is released in response to light, and dopamine is known to be able to block eye growth." Myopia is caused when the eyeball grows too long.

The researcher offers the following advice to parents: "Try to ensure that your children spend time outside because we have evidence that the more time they spend outdoors, the less likely they are to develop myopia. This is true, even if they are also doing a lot of close work such as reading and studying." But also, she adds, parents should be sure their kids are wearing hats and sunscreen.

SOURCE: Ophthalmology, August 2008.