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Children who receive antibiotics may be more likely to develop inflammatory bowel disease, according to a new study led by Matthew Kronman, MD, of Seattle Children’s Hospital. The study, “Antibiotic exposure and IBD development among children: A population-based cohort study,” was published September 24 in Pediatrics.
Dr. Douglas Diekema, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Task Force on Circumcision, talked with On the Pulse recently about the updated AAP policy released August 27. Dr. Diekema is the director of education in the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and was named to the task force to represent the AAP Committee on Bioethics.
A. The task force concluded that there are significant health benefits of newborn circumcision and that those benefits outweigh the risks of the procedure. Because of the health benefits, the task force also recommends that Medicaid and other insurance cover the cost of circumcision. Those points are the key changes from previous policy statements. Read full post »
Parenting a child with a longstanding or life-threatening illness—including chronic pain, cancer, diabetes, asthma and traumatic brain injury—can have a negative impact on many aspects of a parent’s and family’s life. Parents often have difficulty balancing care for their child with other responsibilities such as work, social life, finance and household tasks.
But there are very few programs in the world that address these issues for parents of children with chronic pain, based on a new Cochrane Review published August 15.
Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews of primary research in healthcare and health policy, and are internationally recognized as the highest standard in evidence-based healthcare. Tonya Palermo, PhD, of Seattle Children’s Research Institute is a co-author of “Psychological therapy for parents of children with a longstanding or life-threatening physical illness.”
Parents who suggest and use healthy media options with their children can improve sleep outcomes, according to a new study from Michelle Garrison, PhD, and Dimitri Christakis, MD, at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. “The Impact of a Healthy Media Use Intervention on Sleep in Preschool Children,” was published online today in Pediatrics.
The latest research also adds evidence that the relationship between media and sleep in preschool children is one of cause and effect. Kids whose parents were encouraged to change the channel to age-appropriate and non-violent content had significantly lower odds of sleep problems in the study, and this effect persisted across the intervention year, but faded six months after the program ended. Read full post »
University of Minnesota researchers interviewed the parents of 60 youth basketball players and found that the young athletes commonly had sweets, such as candy, ice cream and doughnuts; pizza; hot dogs; salty snacks, including chips, nachos and cheese puff and soda and sports drinks.
The parents also reported frequent visits to fast-food restaurants when their children were playing sports.
And, even though the parents agreed that these foods and beverages are unhealthy, they said rushing to practices and games made them rely more on these types of products due to their convenience. Read full post »
As a medical resident, Dr. Ben Wilfond remembers working with a family whose baby had trisomy 21 (down syndrome). He was with the physician when she first talked with the family about their new baby. “She walked in, introduced herself, and the next thing she said was, ‘Congratulations on your baby,'” Wilfond said. The remark took him by surprise. “As a resident, I could see the problems this child was having and I knew some of what was ahead for this family. But the doctor did not deprive them of their celebration, and she chose not to focus on the fact that the child had a disability.”
This situation isn’t always the norm. Dr. Wilfond is a co-author of a new study published in Pediatrics that found parents with children with trisomy 13 and 18 have challenging encounters with health providers. Children born with trisomy 13 and 18 have low survival rates and survivors have significant disabilities. They have traditionally been treated with palliative care. Read full post »
Physicians and researchers can get any number of awards over the course of a career. Landing a Nobel Prize is the tops, of course. But Bonnie Ramsey, MD, received a different sort of honor this week. She christened a petroleum barge in Portland that bears her name. Dr. Ramsey is quite excited about the honor, even if it doesn’t seem very medically mainstream.
“It’s a unique award,” she said. “It’s not the sort of thing most people get, to have something that huge be named after you,” she said, with a smile. Barges can measure more than 400 feet long, bigger than a football field. A barge of this size carries more than 3.5 million gallons in fuel, too.
