Children's Health News

April 20, 2025

Top Headlines

Early-Life Exposure to Air and Light Pollution Linked to Increased Risk of Pediatric Thyroid Cancer

Apr. 18, 2025 — A new study suggests that early-life exposure to two widespread environmental pollutants -- small particle air pollution and outdoor artificial light at night -- could increase the risk of pediatric ...

Study Identifies New Method for Improving Lung Growth and Function in Preterm Infants

Apr. 17, 2025 — A clinical trial conducted in a neonatal intensive care unit has identified a new treatment protocol to improve lung growth and function among preterm ...

Nurturing Now, Thriving Later: The Lasting Power of Affectionate Mothering

Apr. 16, 2025 — Affectionate mothering in childhood may have a lasting impact on important personality traits, potentially influencing life outcomes such as educational achievement, economic success, and health and well-being, according to new research. The ...

Experts Stress Importance of Vaccination Amidst Measles Outbreaks

Apr. 14, 2025 — Pediatric infectious diseases experts stress the importance of vaccination against measles, one of the most contagious viruses, which is once more spreading in the United ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:50am EDT

Hidden Potential in Multiple Disabilities

Apr. 10, 2025 — Using eye-tracking -- a technique for recording and analyzing eye movements -- a team has shown that individuals with multiple disabilities can improve their social and emotional skills. Although ...

New Genetic Cause of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Apr. 10, 2025 — A seminal study has uncovered a new genetic cause of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). The discovery offers both closure and hope to potentially thousands of families worldwide who have long been ...

Gestational Diabetes Linked to ADHD in Children

Apr. 14, 2025 — A new study has found children born to mothers who experienced gestational diabetes (GDM) during pregnancy are more likely to develop attention-deficient hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and externalizing ...

School-Based Asthma Therapy Improves Student Health, Lowers Medical Costs

Apr. 11, 2025 — Millions of U.S. children have asthma and benefit from taking anti-inflammatory medications at least once a day as prescribed by their health care provider. This school-based asthma therapy program ...

Unsafe Driving During School Drop Offs at 'Unacceptable' Levels

Apr. 10, 2025 — Risky driving by parents and other motorists who do the school run is putting children in danger, according to a new ...

Tech-Assisted Peer Therapy Effective for Perinatal Depression in Lower Income Countries

Apr. 8, 2025 — A study has demonstrated the effectiveness of a technology-assisted intervention for perinatal ...

Parents' Metabolic Traits Can Affect the Child's Health Over Time

Apr. 8, 2025 — Research shows that the biological parents' genes affect the child's insulin function and capacity to regulate blood sugar levels and blood lipids in different ways. Such knowledge may be used to to ...

Early Education Impacts Teenage Behavior

Apr. 8, 2025 — Researchers explored the long-term effects of preschool expansion in Japan in the 1960s, revealing significant reductions in risky behaviors amongst teenagers. By analyzing regional differences in ...

Groundbreaking Study Reveals Changes in Brain Cell Composition and Gene Activity in Tourette Syndrome

Apr. 8, 2025 — In the first comprehensive, cell-by-cell analysis of brain tissue from individuals with Tourette syndrome, researchers have pinpointed exactly which ...

Childhood Experiences Shape the Brain's White Matter With Cognitive Effects Seen Years Later

Apr. 7, 2025 — Investigators have linked difficult early life experiences with reduced quality and quantity of the white matter communication highways throughout ...

Perceiving One's Own Body: Babies Sense Their Heartbeat and Breathing

Apr. 7, 2025 — Body signals such as heartbeat and breathing accompany us constantly, often unnoticed as background noise of our perception. Even in the earliest years of life, these signals are important as they ...

Outdoor Time and Multisport Activities Develop Children's Motor Competence

Apr. 4, 2025 — A study followed the development of children's motor skills over a three-year period, from early childhood education to school age. The study showed that independent outdoor time and multisport ...

Exposure to Wildfire Smoke Linked With Worsening Mental Health Conditions

Apr. 4, 2025 — Exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke was associated with increased visits to emergency departments (ED) for mental health conditions, according to a new ...

Guideline on Newborn Screening for Cystic Fibrosis Calls for Changes in Practice

Apr. 2, 2025 — The United States Cystic Fibrosis Foundation released the first guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis (CF), in order to improve timely detection of CF in infants from all racial and ...

Exposure to Air Pollution in Childhood Is Associated With Reduced Brain Connectivity

Apr. 1, 2025 — A new study has found that children exposed to higher levels of air pollution in early and mid childhood have weaker connections between key brain regions. The findings highlight the potential impact ...

Researchers Develop New Way to Match Young Cancer Patients With the Right Drugs

Apr. 1, 2025 — A team has developed a new way to quickly find personalized treatments for young cancer patients, by growing their tumors in chicken eggs and analyzing their proteins. The team has combined these two ...

My Robot Therapist: The Ethics of AI Mental Health Chatbots for Kids

Mar. 31, 2025 — AI mental health apps may offer a cheap and accessible way to fill the gaps in the overstretched U.S. mental health care system, but ethics experts warn that we need to be thoughtful about how we use ...

PET Imaging Confirms Direct Involvement of Dopamine in Cognitive Flexibility

Mar. 28, 2025 — Scientists have confirmed a neurobiochemical link between dopamine and cognitive flexibility. PET imaging shows that the brain increases dopamine production when completing cognitively demanding ...

Compelling Data Point to a Single, Unknown Respiratory Virus as Cause of Kawasaki Disease

Mar. 27, 2025 — New research strongly suggests that Kawasaki disease is caused by a single respiratory virus that is yet to be identified. Findings contradict the theory that many different pathogens or toxins could ...

Adulting Is Hard on the Heart: Teen to Young Adulthood Is a Critical Time to Address Risk

Mar. 26, 2025 — Many youth have heart disease risk factors by their late teens, and preventing or addressing these risks early may reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the future, according to a ...

Biological Pathway in the Brain Could Help Explain Why Teenage Girls Are More Depressed Than Boys

Mar. 25, 2025 — Research has shown that a biological brain mechanism called the 'kynurenine pathway' is imbalanced in adolescents with depression, and this imbalance is more pronounced in teenage girls ...

Almost Half of Children With Complicated Appendicitis Can Recover from Surgery at Home

Mar. 20, 2025 — Almost half of children who require surgery for complicated appendicitis can safely complete their recovery at home, according to a new ...

Part of the Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia Acts Through the Placenta

Mar. 20, 2025 — An international team has identified associations between modifications in the placenta and the risk of developing schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression ...

How Family Background Can Help Lead to Athletic Success

Mar. 20, 2025 — Americans have long believed that sports are one area in society that offers kids from all backgrounds the chance to succeed to the best of their abilities. But new research suggests that this belief ...

Classifying Childhood Brain Cancers by Immune Response May Improve Diagnostics and Treatments

Mar. 19, 2025 — The new approach establishes an opportunity to harness the success of immunotherapies that revolutionized the treatment of childhood leukemias for childhood brain ...

Gender Gap in Teenage Depression Is Twice as Large in London Than in Tokyo, New Study Finds

Mar. 18, 2025 — Research has tracked depressive symptoms in 7100 young people from Tokyo and London and shown girls have more depressive symptoms than boys in both cities. The study found that this gap is around ...

Innovative Infant Wearable Uses Artificial Intelligence for at-Home Assessments of Early Motor Development

Mar. 18, 2025 — The smart MAIJU jumpsuit offers a novel approach to at-home monitoring of infants' early motor development. The wearable device combines expertise in medicine, measuring technology and AI, ...

How Childhood Adversity Shapes Brain and Behavior

Mar. 17, 2025 — Early-life adversity affects more than half of the world's children and is a significant risk factor for cognitive and mental health problems later in life. In an extensive and up-to-the-minute ...

Maternal Depression Can Lead to Children's Emotional Overeating, Study Shows

Mar. 17, 2025 — Up to 25% of new mothers suffer from postpartum depression, which can significantly impact their parenting behavior and the wellbeing of their children. A new study looks at long-term effects of ...

Older Adults Might Be More Resistant to Bird Flu Infections Than Children

Mar. 13, 2025 — Older adults who were exposed to seasonal flu viruses that circulated prior to 1968 are more likely to have some protection against H5N1, and children would benefit more from H5N1 ...