Excessive weight gain over the first 18 months of life may have consequences for later body size. However, the relationship of weight gain in this period to atherogenic risk factors in later childhood is not well characterized.

Early postnatal weight gain from birth to 18 months is independently associated with childhood overweight and obesity, excess central adiposity, and greater arterial wall thickness at age 8 years. (Read the full article)

Preterm neonates in resource-poor settings frequently develop hypothermia. Plastic bags or wraps are a low-cost intervention for the prevention of hypothermia in infants in developed countries.

For preterm infants born in a resource-poor health facility, placement in a plastic bag at birth can reduce the incidence of hypothermia at 1 hour after birth. (Read the full article)

Elevated blood pressure (BP) has long-term influence on the atherosclerotic process. The relative predictive ability of the standard BP definition endorsed by the National High Blood Pressure Education Program and the recently proposed 2 simplified definitions has not been studied.

Simplified pediatric BP tables predict risk of high adult arterial stiffness as well as the complex table does. These simple screening tools could be used for identifying pediatric subjects at risk and for intervening to improve adult cardiovascular outcomes. (Read the full article)

Significant variation in the mortality of preterm infants has been observed among NICUs. Factors explaining this variation have been difficult to identify.

Sizable center differences in mortality exist, even among similarly sized NICUs in academic centers. Patient characteristics and center treatment rates explain some of the center effect, especially for the youngest infants, but a significant portion of these differences remains unexplained. (Read the full article)

Obesity is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors and chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes. However, a proportion of overweight and obese youth remain free from cardiometabolic risk factors and are considered metabolically healthy.

This study provides insight into the determinants of cardiometabolic risk factors and the concept in health promotion of "fitness versus fatness." Hepatic lipid accumulation and not fitness level appears to drive cardiometabolic risk factor clustering among overweight and obese youth. (Read the full article)

Minority children are less likely than white children to be diagnosed and treated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. However, diagnosis patterns over time in early and middle childhood and whether confounding factors explain these disparities are not currently well understood.

Racial/ethnic disparities in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder diagnosis occur by kindergarten and continue until eighth grade. Racial/ethnic disparities among diagnosed children in medication use occur in both fifth and eighth grades. These disparities are not attributable to confounding factors. (Read the full article)

Several risk factors for both overweight and obesity in childhood are identifiable during infancy.

A simple risk algorithm can be used to quantify risk of overweight in children. It can be used to help identify at-risk infants in a clinical setting to facilitate targeted intervention. (Read the full article)

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption in school-age children and adolescents is linked to heavier weight, and decreased SSB consumption results in less weight gain. Reports regarding these associations among children aged 2 to 5 years have been mixed.

Preschool-aged and kindergarten children drinking SSB compared with infrequent/nondrinkers had higher BMI z scores. SSB consumption is also associated with higher weight status among children aged 2 to 5 years. (Read the full article)

Data available before the 1990s in addition to small studies with clinical populations have shown that ocular growth and development differ between extremely preterm and term-born children.

Contemporary data on long-term visual outcomes indicate that adolescents born extremely low birth weight and/or extremely preterm exhibit more visual sensory and perceptual morbidity than adolescents born at term. (Read the full article)

Preterm and low birth weight infants are at increased risk of hospitalization due to rotavirus gastroenteritis, and rotavirus vaccine is immunogenic and well tolerated among these infants when provided at or after discharge from the NICU.

Many preterm infants with a birth weight of ≤1500 g are not eligible to receive rotavirus vaccination because they remain in the NICU beyond the upper age limit recommended for immunization. New strategies are needed. (Read the full article)

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in young children worldwide. Anemia, widely prevalent globally, is not routinely assessed when treating pneumonia. The effect of anemia and high altitude on outcome of pneumonia is not well described.

Anemia at high altitude increases the risk of poor outcome with severe pneumonia. Children with severe pneumonia at high altitude present with more severe hypoxemia and have a longer time to recovery than children at low altitude. (Read the full article)

Higher-hazard, no-benefit research involving children may be approved by local institutional review boards only when the protocol enrolls children with the medical condition under study. The ethics of this distinction have been debated, but parental opinions have not been explored.

We found that parental opinions support federal regulations. We discuss parental motivations for and against research participation and the extent to which enrolling a child in higher-hazard, no-benefit research reflects appropriate surrogate decision-making. (Read the full article)

Obesity and overweight can seriously affect health outcomes. Many obesity prevention interventions have been proposed, but few have been effective. Motivational interviewing in primary care seems promising, but results in BMI control are controversial and require further investigation.

This is the first study to demonstrate the effectiveness of pediatrician-led motivational interviewing for BMI control in overweight children aged 4 to 7 years. Nevertheless, no effect was observed in boys or when the mother’s education level was low. (Read the full article)

Previous studies have found links between prepregnancy BMI and/or pregnancy weight gain and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) risk. Several contributing factors to BMI and pregnancy weight gain (ie, prematurity, advanced maternal age, parental education, and parity) overlap with established ASD risk factors.

This study identifies an association between ASD risk and prenatal weight gain, but not prepregnancy BMI, and accounts for important confounding variables excluded in previous analyses. It provides the first within-mother comparison of these factors by including unaffected sibling controls. (Read the full article)

Epidemiologic studies have documented that children’s sleep duration is associated with obesity risk. Experimental studies with adults suggest that short sleep may lead to changes in appetite-regulating hormones and food intake, which could lead to weight gain over time.

This controlled experimental study demonstrates that compared to sleeping less, when children increase sleep, they report decreased caloric intake, have lower fasting leptin levels, and weigh less. Such changes, if maintained, could help prevent excess weight gain over time. (Read the full article)

In 2007, manufacturers voluntarily withdrew over-the-counter (OTC) infant cough and cold medications (CCMs) from the US market. A year later, manufacturers announced OTC CCM labeling would be revised to warn against OTC CCM use by children aged <4 years.

Among children aged <2 and 2 to 3 years, emergency department visits for CCM adverse events declined nationally after the withdrawal and labeling revision announcement relative to all adverse drug event visits. Unsupervised ingestions caused most CCM adverse events after each intervention. (Read the full article)

Preterm infants can be successfully resuscitated with <100% oxygen (O₂); however, initiation with room air remains controversial. Current Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) guidelines suggest using air or blended O₂ to titrate O₂ to meet target preductal saturation goals.

This is the first trial to compare a limited O₂ strategy to target NRP–recommended transitional goal saturations versus a high O₂ strategy in preterm infants. The limited O₂ strategy decreased integrated excess oxygen and oxidative stress and improved respiratory outcomes. (Read the full article)

Psychosocial stress in childhood has been associated with a greater risk of future overweight, although the associations have not always been consistent, the types of psychosocial stressors have often been somewhat extreme, and moderators of the association have rarely been examined.

Experiencing many negative life events in childhood, particularly with chronicity or events that are family health related, increases risk of overweight by age 15 years. Maternal obesity and greater delay of gratification for food each intensify this risk. (Read the full article)

Preterm birth is associated with increased morbidity during childhood. Many studies have focused on outcomes for preterm births before 32 weeks’ gestation, but there are few follow-up data for late preterm infants (34–36 weeks’ gestation).

The risk of respiratory admission during childhood decreased with each successive week in gestation up to 40 to 42 weeks. The increased risk is small for late preterm infants, but the number affected is large and has an impact on health care services. (Read the full article)

Several studies have suggested that very low birth weight young adults have increased risks of physical and health problems, educational underachievement, and poorer social functioning than their peers, but there are limited population-based and longitudinal data.

Former VLBW young adults in this national cohort scored as well as term controls on many measures of health and social functioning, including quality-of-life scores, with some differences largely confined to those with disability at age 7 to 8 years. (Read the full article)

Shoulder injuries are common among high school athletes. These injuries, both traumatic and overuse, contribute to significant time loss from athletic activity. Understanding sport-specific injury patterns is critical for development of targeted injury prevention programs.

This study is the most comprehensive analysis of high school shoulder injuries to date, providing national injury estimates while examining injury rates, diagnoses, severity, and mechanisms of injury in 9 interscholastic sports. (Read the full article)

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a leading cause of sensorineural hearing loss and neurodevelopmental impairment in full-term infants. The incidence of congenital CMV infection in preterm infants and the possible associations with developmental outcomes are unknown.

This study defines the incidence of congenital CMV infection in very low birth weight infants and identifies strong associations of congenital CMV infection with hearing loss and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in this population. (Read the full article)

A growing body of research suggests that the food environment affects children’s weight. Specifically, living in areas with higher-priced fast foods and soda is associated with lower weight and BMI, whereas higher fruit and vegetable prices demonstrate the opposite association.

Using longitudinal data on lower-income young children, this study finds that higher-priced fruits and vegetables are associated with higher child BMI, but not food insecurity, and that this relationship is driven by the prices of fresh fruits and vegetables. (Read the full article)

Rapid and reliable tools for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis are still unavailable. No single biomarker studied has yielded conclusive results. Genome-wide expression profiles (GWEPs) have been successfully determined for the diagnosis of sepsis in pediatric and adult populations.

GWEPs are described for the first time in very low birth weight infants with proven bacterial sepsis. Our results suggest that GWEPs could be used for early discrimination of septic newborn versus nonseptic infants. (Read the full article)

In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, sexual assault incidence among adolescents is as high as 24%, resulting in serious physical and mental health problems. In the United States, empowerment and self-defense training have been shown to decrease incidence of sexual assault.

This study evaluated an empowerment and self-defense training intervention for adolescent girls in the African context. This intervention proved highly effective at preventing sexual assault and should be replicable in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world. (Read the full article)

Population-based references of birth weight for gestational age are useful indices of birth size in clinical and research settings.

This article uses 2009–2010 US natality data and corrects for likely errors in gestational age dating to yield an up-to-date birth weight for gestational age reference. (Read the full article)

Investigations of adolescents’ sexual risk behavior have focused on factors such as parental monitoring, deviant peer affiliation, and daring that occur during early and midadolescence. Less is known about early childhood precursors to adolescent sexual risk behavior.

This prospective longitudinal study identifies parenting practices and mothers’ depressive symptomatology during early childhood as precursors to later sexual risk behavior and involvement in pregnancy in adolescent boys, with deviant peer affiliation during emerging adolescence mediating these relationships. (Read the full article)

Corrosive substance ingestion is a public health issue in developing countries. Stricture formation is a late complication of corrosive substance ingestion. The role of corticosteroids in preventing corrosive-induced strictures is controversial.

High doses of methylprednisolone therapy lead to less frequent stricture formation in grade IIb esophageal burns in children who ingested caustic substances and may improve prognosis. (Read the full article)

Phototherapy effectively treats unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia. However, in resource-poor settings, functional phototherapy devices are often unavailable due to financial constraints or erratic electrical power availability.

Filtered-sunlight phototherapy could be a cost-effective option in resource-poor settings with abundant sunlight. (Read the full article)

The definition of hypertension in children is complex because of the age-, gender-, and height-specific blood pressure algorithm. Blood pressure to height ratio was reported to easily identify hypertension in Chinese children living in a local area (Hebei Province).

Blood pressure to height ratio index is simple and accurate for screening for prehypertension and hypertension in Chinese children aged 6 to 17 years and can be used for early screening or treating Chinese children with hypertension. (Read the full article)

Hookah use is increasing dramatically among US adolescents. Many consider it a safer alternative to cigarettes. Existing studies often use nonrepresentative local populations to assess prevalence and correlates of hookah use.

This study used a nationally representative sample of US high school seniors. It confirmed some previously found correlates and determined that adolescents of higher socioeconomic status were at high risk for hookah use. (Read the full article)

Children with autism sleep poorly compared with their peers. Sensory integration, including use of weighted blankets, is proposed as a means to reduce arousal and stress. There is, however, no evidence that weighted blankets can improve sleep for these children.

This is the first robust study to evaluate the impact of weighted blankets and show that they do not improve sleep parameters in children with autism spectrum disorder. (Read the full article)

Supplemented mother’s own milk is the preferred nutrition for very low birth weight infants.

Through targeted encouragement and guidance, most mothers are able to provide milk to their very low birth weight infants, both for early and prolonged feeding, in an open-bay NICU. (Read the full article)

Pediatricians need to treat overweight in early childhood. Family-based interventions in specialized clinics are efficacious in children age 8 years and older. Data regarding treatment of younger children are limited in specialty clinics and primary care.

This study shows that a 12-month family-based behavioral intervention in primary care is more efficacious compared with Control condition with a child-only focus. Weight outcome differences between Intervention and Control persist in children and parents after a 12-month follow-up. (Read the full article)

Preterm birth has been associated with increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in infancy, but the longer-term risk is unknown.

In a large national cohort, low gestational age at birth was associated with increased risk of VTE in infancy, early childhood, and young adulthood. These findings call for better awareness of the long-term risk of VTE among preterm birth survivors. (Read the full article)

Recent concussion research has examined the role of impact location (ie, the area on the head to which impact occurred); however, no studies exist regarding impact location’s association with concussion outcomes (eg, symptomatology, symptom resolution time, return to play).

This study is the first to examine the association of impact location and concussion outcomes in young athletes. Our findings suggest that impact location, as assessed by sideline observers/player report, is likely of little use in predicting clinical outcomes. (Read the full article)

Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke during pregnancy and infancy has been linked to development of asthma, rhinitis, and eczema in young children. It is unclear whether these risks persist into adolescence.

Exposure to second-hand smoke in utero or during infancy influences the development of allergic disease up to adolescence. Excess risks for asthma and rhinitis were seen primarily in early childhood, whereas those for eczema occurred at later ages. (Read the full article)

The World Health Organization recommends using vaccination contacts to deliver high-dose vitamin A supplementation (VAS) to children aged 6 to 59 months. The effect of this policy on overall child mortality has not been assessed.

In this first randomized controlled trial of VAS at routine vaccination contacts after 6 months, VAS had no overall effect on mortality but was associated with reduced mortality in girls and increased mortality in boys. (Read the full article)

There is a generational shift in social norms related to body weight among adult population; little is known about the secular change of paternal perceptions of their child’s weight.

A shift in body norms toward heavier weight statuses exists among parents of children, presenting a vast challenge to family-based childhood obesity prevention. Primary care providers can play a more active role in identifying the children with increased weight. (Read the full article)

Among US youth 6 to 15 years of age there are differences in strength by gender and age. Little is known about differences in strength by weight status in the US pediatric population.

This study provides current US nationally representative reference values for 4 measures of strength in youth 6 to 15 years old. Body weight was associated with strength, but the association varied depending upon the measure. (Read the full article)

Overweight and peer victimization are common in childhood and negatively affect health and well-being. Overweight may predispose children to peer victimization, but whether adiposity also increases the risk of bullying perpetration is unclear.

A high BMI at school entry predicts bullying involvement, according to reports of teachers and children themselves. Although trends were visible across the whole BMI spectrum, particularly obese children were victimized and likely to be bully perpetrators. (Read the full article)

Little is known about how pediatricians communicate with overweight Latino children and their parents regarding overweight and obesity.

Findings suggest that many overweight Latino children and their parents do not receive direct communication that the child is overweight, weight-management plans, culturally relevant dietary recommendations, or follow-up visits. (Read the full article)

Allostatic load (AL), a biomarker of cardiometabolic risk, predicts the onset of the chronic diseases of aging including cardiac disease, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke. Socioeconomic-related stressors, such as low family income, are associated with AL.

African American youth who grow up in neighborhoods in which poverty levels increase across adolescence evince high AL. The study also highlights the benefits of emotional support in ameliorating this association. (Read the full article)

The built environment may affect weight status by presenting opportunities or barriers for exercise and nutritious eating. Although there is substantial cross-sectional evidence linking neighborhood factors and childhood obesity, causal uncertainty remains, owing to conceptual and methodological challenges.

This prospective study examined neighborhood influences on obesity during the transition to adolescence, a sensitive period for excess weight gain. Girls living in neighborhoods characterized by physical disorder or increased access to food and service retailers exhibited higher obesity risk. (Read the full article)

Prophylactic indomethacin in extremely low birth weight infants decreases severe intraventricular hemorrhage and patent ductus arteriosus but it is unknown whether concurrent enteral feeding and prophylactic indomethacin is associated with increased risk of spontaneous intestinal perforation.

The combination of prophylactic indomethacin and enteral feeding during the first 3 days after birth does not increase the risk of spontaneous intestinal perforation. (Read the full article)

Preterm birth and faster infant growth have been identified as independent risk factors for autism-spectrum disorders (ASD). However, associations between prematurity and ASD-related traits as a continuum and effects of infant growth among those born preterm are still little studied.

VLBW young adults reported higher levels of ASD-related traits, particularly traits related to poorer social skills. Within the VLBW group, faster growth in weight, height, and head circumference from birth to term was associated with lower levels of ASD-related traits. (Read the full article)

There is variability in cerebral palsy prevalence estimates in low-resource countries, related to definitions, detection of milder cases, diagnosis age, and adequate training for clinicians. Thus, differences in prevalence and motor patterns between high- and low-resource countries remain unclear.

There were more children with dystonia and less with spasticity in Bangladesh compared with Australia (cerebral palsy diagnosis/motor classifications were consistent between settings). Differences in motor patterns between high- and low-resource countries have profound implications for early detection and appropriate interventions. (Read the full article)

Exclusively breastfed newborns lose weight daily in the first few days after birth. The amount of weight lost varies substantially between newborns, with higher amounts of weight loss increasing risk for morbidity.

This study presents nomograms demonstrating percentiles for weight loss by delivery mode for those who are exclusively breastfed. The nomograms have potential to be used for early identification of neonates on a trajectory for greater weight loss and related morbidities. (Read the full article)

Although we know breastfeeding is beneficial and infant weight gain can predict obesity later in life, the relationship between breastfeeding duration and infant weight gain patterns among populations exhibiting high risk for obesity is unexplored.

This study demonstrates the greater odds of increased infant weight gain for infants who breastfed for shorter durations among those exposed to a high number of maternal biopsychosocial risk factors for obesity. (Read the full article)

Light and intermittent smoking are harmful, but increasingly common, smoking patterns. It is unknown how adolescents perceive these smoking patterns, and whether these views differ by sociodemographic characteristics, and exposure to and use of tobacco.

US adolescents perceive light and intermittent smoking as significantly less dangerous than heavier smoking. One in 4 adolescents believes intermittent smoking causes little to no harm. Perceptions of relative safety were common among smokers. (Read the full article)