Due to the U.S. opioid epidemic, hepatitis C is up among pregnant women, raising the risk for mother-to-child transmission of the virus, a new study reveals. Hepatitis C can be contracted via dirty needles used by opioid addicts. But just a fraction of newborns exposed to hepatitis C in the womb are screened for the… read on >
Teens love their cellphones, but that love affair can turn deadly when they climb behind the wheel of a car. But new research suggests that financial incentives and other measures might help to dissuade young drivers from texting while driving. Many teens who admit to texting while driving said they’d be receptive to cash rewards… read on >
What women eat might determine when they enter menopause, new research suggests. After tracking more than 35,000 British women for four years, investigators found that menopause tended to start earlier among those whose diets were heavy in refined carbs. In contrast, menopause tended to begin later among those who consumed a lot of fish and… read on >
Still having a hard time getting your kids to eat fruits and veggies? Studies show one solution is to grow your own. Kids get excited as they watch a garden yield fresh foods and are more motivated to eat what they helped grow. It gives kids a good understanding of what it takes to get… read on >
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns against taking pure or highly concentrated caffeine products, citing at least two overdose deaths among otherwise healthy people. Given possible difficulty in measuring the products in a safe dose, and the products’ resemblence to other beverages, it’s relatively easy to overdose, the agency says. One teaspoon of pure… read on >
Pregnant women may want to skip all soft drinks while they’re expecting if they want their child’s learning and memory skills to be sharper, new research suggests. The study found that when moms-to-be had more sugar, especially from sugar-sweetened sodas, their children had poorer nonverbal problem-solving abilities and verbal memory. These children also had poorer… read on >
How do you know if your child is maturing properly? It helps to know the developmental milestones and about when they typically occur. The American Academy of Pediatrics says: By 2 months: Tries to look at a parent and pays attention to faces. By 4 months: Mimics facial movements such as smiling or frowning, and… read on >
There’s been a steep decline over the past two decades in births to American girls under the age of 15, a new report finds. Overall, “the number of U.S. births to females aged 10 to 14 was a record low in 2016, dropping to 2,253 from 8,519 in 2000,” a team from the U.S. Centers… read on >
There’s new evidence that even moderate amounts of caffeine consumed by a mom-to-be might affect her child’s weight years later. The overall effect was small — an average of an extra pound by age 8. But children of women who consumed the most caffeine during pregnancy were 66 percent more likely to be slightly overweight,… read on >
How much a woman indulges in alcohol may have ties to her premenstrual syndrome symptoms, a new global research review suggests. “We estimate that 11 percent of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) cases may be associated to alcohol intake worldwide,” according to a team led by Bahi Takkouche, of the University of Santiago de Compostela, in Spain.… read on >
