Approximately one-fifth of all fathers and over one third of all mothers experience an episode of depression within the first 12 years of their child being born, with the first year having the highest risk, says a British study of 86,957 families published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA/Archives publication...

(MedPage Today) -- Adverse health outcomes including cancer and cardiovascular disease can't be blamed on prolonged occupational sitting, at least not until additional clarifying research is done, a systematic review concluded.

Young children and infants who do not get enough nighttime sleep have a significantly higher risk of becoming obese later on in life - napping does not reduce the obesity risk significantly, reports a study published in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA/Archives journal. Over the last 20 years obesity rates in the USA and many other countries has increased dramatically...

(MedPage Today) -- Late bedtimes may exact a hefty price by contributing to childhood obesity, results of a prospective longitudinal study showed.

(MedPage Today) -- More than a third of mothers and a fifth of fathers experienced at least one episode of depression in the 12 years after the birth of a child, British researchers found.

It is fairly easy to avoid surgical complications in children related to anesthesia administration by asking a few simple questions before arriving at the operating table...

Latest reports, up to the end of August place the number of reported whooping cough (pertussis) cases in the state of California at 3,311, a seven-fold increase over the same period in 2009 when the figure reached 501 cases, says the California Department of Public Health. Health authorities estimate a state rate of 9.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants...

Progress in childhood cancer is a good news story. Children treated for cancer have an overall 70-80 per cent cure rate. As the numbers of survivors of childhood cancer increases, studies of the long-term survivors allow research that can guide newer treatment protocols and further improve the outlook for newly diagnosed patients...

Lancet Editorial Makes Recommendations For Health-System Strengthening "There is strong consensus in the global health community, among donors, recipient countries, and policy makers, about the need for health system strengthening in low-income and middle-income countries," write the authors of a Lancet Comment...

According to a new report, 2 out of every 5 of New York City's children from kindergarten to eighth grade, are either overweight or obese. This figure, released in a report on Sunday, comes from the latest New York City (NYC) Fitnessgram assessment, a new program that was piloted in 2005-06 and is now in place across the city...

As many as 5 million uninsured kids are eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, according to a report published Friday in the journal Health Affairs, Reuters reports. "An estimated 7.3 million children were uninsured on an average day in 2008 and 65 percent of them were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP coverage, the report said. ...

VOA News examines President Barack Obama's $63 billion Global Health Initiative (GHI), noting the initiative's emphasis on cost-effective strategies to improve child- and maternal-health as well as programs to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria...

School children who consume foods purchased in vending machines are more likely to develop poor diet quality - and that may be associated with being overweight, obese or at risk for chronic health problems such as diabetes and coronary artery disease, according to research from the University of Michigan Medical School...

In a first person paper published in the August 27, 2010 issue of Childhood Obesity, Dr. Melinda Sothern, Director of Health Promotion and Professor of Public Health at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, provides three ways to de-program the 1950s obesity trinity underlying the current obesity epidemic in the United States and protect future generations from its health consequences...

Background This study aimed to profile levels of blood cells and serum cytokines during afebrile and febrile phases of periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome to advance pathophysiological understanding of this pediatric disease.Methods A cohort of patients with a median age of 4.9 years experiencing 'typical PFAPA' episodes participated in this study. Blood cells and serum cytokines were analyzed by CBC analysis and multiplex ELISA.Results Oscillations in the concentration of blood cells during the afebrile and febrile phases of typical PFAPA syndrome were observed; novel findings include increased monocytes and decreased eosinophils during a febrile episode and increased thrombocytes in the afebrile interval. Relatively modest levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines were present in sera. IFNgamma-induced cytokine IP10/CXCL10 was increased after the onset of fever while T cell-associated cytokines IL7 and IL17 were suppressed during afebrile and febrile periods.Conclusions Identification of dysregulated blood cells and serum cytokines is an initial step towards the identification of biomarkers of PFAPA disease and/or players in disease pathogenesis. Future investigations are required to conclusively discern which mediators are associated specifically with PFAPA syndrome.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan highlighted the Connecting Kids to Coverage Challenge to enroll five million children in Medicaid and CHIP within five years...

School children who consume foods purchased in vending machines are more likely to develop poor diet quality - and that may be associated with being overweight, obese or at risk for chronic health problems such as diabetes and coronary artery disease, according to research from the University of Michigan Medical School...

After a comprehensive review, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada announced that they have found no cause linking Pampers Dry Max diapers and reports of diaper rash and other skin conditions. Pampers has welcomed the Commission's and Health Canada's thorough review and cooperated fully with them. "We are thankful that the U.S...

The Herbalife Family Foundation (HFF) has established two new Casa Herbalife programs to support nutrition and wellness programs at Scotland's Action for Children (North Lanarkshire Young Carers Project), and in Queretaro, Mexico at La Alegria de los Niños, IAP (Children's Happiness)...

Ardi Rizal, from Musi Bayuasin, South Sumatra, Indonesia was smoking two packets of cigarettes per day. He became addicted to nicotine in tobacco after his father had given him a cigarette. According to his parents, his addiction became so bad that he would throw violent tantrums if they did not give him a cigarette...