https://medicalxpress.com/childrens-health-news/ en-us Latest health news and information about Children's Health New research from the University of Mississippi indicates that athletes with ADHD need even more scrutiny when head injuries are involved. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-athletes-adhd-higher-concussion-longer.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:40:01 EDT news703166930 It's been said that eyes are a window to the soul, but new research has found that an adolescent's brain response to a face might open a window to their social future. A new study at the University of California, Davis Center for Mind and Brain found that high activity in the amygdala when an adolescent looks at a face showing emotion predicts their social health two years later. Increased amygdala activity for girls predicted more involvement with their peers but less involvement for boys. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-adolescent-brain-reacts-social-future.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:20:08 EDT news703165622 Like other teenagers, teens on the autism spectrum are itching to exercise their social muscles. They hope for new friends, fun with people who share their interests, maybe even a romantic relationship. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-brains-teens-autism-tune-unfamiliar.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:00:06 EDT news703140918 In "Llama Llama Mad at Mama," a popular children's book from 2007, a little Llama Llama goes to the grocery store with his mama and becomes overwhelmed by all the sounds, sights, smells and shopping decisions happening around him. In a scene familiar to every parent, the cartoon animal has an epic meltdown in his shopping cart, screaming and throwing the contents of his mama's shopping list on the floor. Mama Llama gets down to his level and calms him down by turning shopping into a fun game. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-screens-calm-child-bad.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:59:04 EDT news703173493 A new study from researchers at LSU's Pennington Biomedical Research Center, FMOL Health | Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center and Metamor Institute demonstrates that metabolic and bariatric surgery can be delivered safely and effectively for adolescents and young adults living with severe obesity, offering promising improvements in weight loss and obesity-related health conditions. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-outcomes-bariatric-surgery-adolescents-young.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:40:07 EDT news703168442 Testosterone may play a bigger role in the emotional development of girls entering puberty than previously thought, according to new research from the University of Georgia published in Psychoneuroendocrinology. Greater changes in the hormone were linked to more emotional difficulties among girls ages 10–12, even when accounting for levels of other hormones. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-hormonal-puberty-linked-emotional-distress.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:40:01 EDT news703164002 A U.S. appeals court on Monday vacated the dismissal of hundreds of private lawsuits against Tylenol maker Kenvue that allege scientifically unproven ties between the painkiller and autism. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-appeals-court-revives-private-cases.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 14:20:03 EDT news703167392 In noisy environments, organisms differentiate sounds they want to detect from interfering noise to improve their perception of target sounds. This process is widely conserved across species, including birds, crocodiles, ferrets and human adults. But how early in life does this ability emerge? In a new JNeurosci paper, Farhin Ahmed, Qianxun Zheng and colleagues at the University of Washington explored whether infants also use this evolutionarily conserved mechanism to detect sounds in noisy environments. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-infants-voices-noisy-environments.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:00:03 EDT news702907912 Is your child addicted to their phone? Clinical psychologist Dr. Danielle Einstein reveals the warning signs to look out for—and four simple strategies to help you swap out screen time for family time. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-ways-teen-devices.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:20:02 EDT news703155272 Exposure to high temperatures during pregnancy and early infancy is associated with slower growth of the thalamus later in childhood, according to a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a center supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation. The findings, published in Environment International, suggest that heat exposure during the earliest stages of life may have lasting effects on brain development. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-exposure-pregnancy-infancy-children-brain.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:13:20 EDT news703159963 A new study from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) has found that children exposed to secondhand smoke have significantly poorer sleep quality and greater sleep fragmentation, independent of the severity of their breathing problems. The prospective clinical trial, published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports, uses objective sleep-lab data and biological markers to demonstrate that tobacco smoke directly disrupts pediatric sleep per se, rather than simply worsening existing airway blockages. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-secondhand-independently-disrupts-children.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:08:40 EDT news703159692 Making triage decisions in a busy emergency room is tough enough; making triage decisions based on a hurried call with emergency medical staff responding at the scene of an accident is all the more challenging. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-trauma-triage-ai-accuracy.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:00:03 EDT news703155001 Researchers from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have published new findings that improve understanding of secondary neutron exposure during pediatric ion beam therapy, an important area of study for enhancing the safety of advanced cancer treatments for children. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-safety-advanced-radiotherapy-cancer-treatments.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 08:20:12 EDT news703147982 Future therapies for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) must target both the virus and the immune response to ensure babies get the best possible outcomes, a new study by researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) finds. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-clues-treatment-rsv-babies.html Mon, 13 Jul 2026 05:00:03 EDT news702890283 A mother's warm, timely and appropriate responses to her child's needs support the child's development and help protect against emotional and behavioral difficulties later in life. New research shows that sensitive parent–child interactions help reduce risks associated with preterm birth. The large international study led by the University of Oulu in Finland and published in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology shows that early interaction between parent and child plays a key role in child development. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-mother-sensitivity-children-born-preterm.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:20:04 EDT news702901070 Social prescribing, which connects people to arts and exercise activities and other sources of support, may help adolescents waiting for specialist mental health services by improving their resilience, behavior and relationships with others, a new study by a UCL team suggests. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-social-young-people-awaiting-mental.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:00:01 EDT news702899522 Rare DNA changes are most strongly linked to cognition in early childhood, but the link fades as children age, while common DNA changes show stronger links later in childhood, a new study finds. The research was reported July 10 in Nature Human Behaviour by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, who analyzed data from U.K. birth cohorts to investigate how genetic makeup affects cognitive ability across early life. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-links-genetics-cognition-childhood.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 10:50:01 EDT news702896207 The ongoing legalization of cannabis in the United States has elicited cheers, boos and a host of questions. How much is safe? Isn't it just a plant? What are the long-term effects of chronic use? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-adolescents-cannabis-disorder-higher-psychiatric.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 10:00:01 EDT news702895502 An innovative experimental procedure that uses high-energy sound waves to treat a rare and serious pregnancy condition called twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) is safe, according to an early-stage research trial involving U.K. and European patients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-invasive-treatment-twin-pregnancy-complications.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 09:40:05 EDT news702894062 New research, led by scientists from the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai and published in Autism Research, has estimated that Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) affects approximately 1 in 7,300 people, making it far more common than previous estimates suggested. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-autism-phelan-mcdermid-syndrome-affect.html Fri, 10 Jul 2026 07:40:01 EDT news702882302 The rate of a life-threatening gut disease called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) has decreased by 38% in very premature babies who received donated breast milk from Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, according to research published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. The study is the first in Australia to look at the benefits and risks of donated breast milk for very preterm babies born less than 32 weeks. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-liquid-gold-breast-donations-life.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 22:40:02 EDT news702809132 When schools closed in the spring of 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of children and adolescents receiving mental health treatment in the United States fell by more than half. By 2022, that number had not only rebounded, it exceeded pre-pandemic levels, according to a new national study by researchers from Penn State College of Medicine. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-kids-mental-health-treatment-pandemic.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 19:40:01 EDT news702826201 Eating disorders are often associated with teenage girls from socioeconomically advantaged families. However, a new study from the University of Copenhagen challenges this perception, suggesting that eating disorders are just as likely to affect young people from less advantaged backgrounds. The researchers analyzed data on eating disorder diagnoses from more than 500,000 people born in Denmark between 1996 and 2003. For a subgroup of 44,000 young people, they also had information on self-reported symptoms of eating disorders. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-young-people-advantaged-backgrounds-undiagnosed.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 18:00:09 EDT news702809165 Walk into a crowded coffee shop, and what catches your eye as you take in the scene could say as much about you as the spirals on your fingertips or the mutations in your DNA. Eye movements are so unique, in fact, that they could be used to identify you through objects that have personal meaning, according to a new study by Dartmouth researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-eye-movements-reveal-personal-fingerprints.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:20:06 EDT news702832812 A new systematic review has found that both the way a baby is born and exposure to antibiotics around the time of birth could be linked to differences in the development of the infant gut microbiome. The review also found that exclusively breastfeeding babies born by cesarean section or exposed to antibiotics may reduce these differences. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-birth-method-antibiotics-babies-gut.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 16:30:01 EDT news702822125 More children younger than 5 should be able to be vaccinated in pharmacies from January 2027 under a range of measures designed to boost vaccine coverage announced in this year's federal budget. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-pharmacists-vaccinate-children.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 14:00:14 EDT news702810661 A new therapy helps achieve a healthier BMI in people whose weight has become dysregulated following treatment for a brain tumor, a clinical trial has found. The results of the trial have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The new drug, setmelanotide, offers hope for improved health and quality of life for children and adults with hormonal and metabolic dysfunction caused by a brain tumor. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-treatment-healthier-bmi-people-weight.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:00:09 EDT news702807912 Trust between nurses and parents plays a central role in effectively caring for medically fragile infants (MFIs) and supports parental well-being and infant development, according to a new study led by Lyndsay MacKay, an assistant professor in the Texas A&M University College of Nursing. Published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, it explores how parents build and maintain trust with nurses while their medically fragile infant is hospitalized for extended periods. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-relationship-nurses-parents-plays-vital.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 11:40:03 EDT news702808742 The Baggarrook Yurrongi or "Women's Journey" model ensures women having a First Nations baby are cared for by a known midwife throughout pregnancy, birth and the early postnatal period. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-culturally-tailored-maternity-healthy-birth.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 10:20:05 EDT news702802107 From 2021 to 2025, the overall proportion of emergency department (ED) visits for suspected suicide attempts among all ED visits for any reason decreased, with the largest declines seen among adolescents and females, according to research published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-07-proportion-ed-suicide.html Thu, 09 Jul 2026 09:40:03 EDT news702802014