Getty Images

How Long Do the Effects of Being Born Premature Last? Until Adulthood

The longest-running U.S. study of the effects of being born premature is a mixed bag of bad and good news: while the effects of prematurity can persist into adulthood, babies born too early are largely evolving into children and adults who are remarkably resilient.

Could Lack of ‘Tummy Time’ in Babies Hurt School Performance in Teens?

Design Pics/Kelly Redinger via Getty Images

The national Back to Sleep campaign prompted parents to put infants to sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or “crib death,” and it successfully cut the rate of SIDS deaths by 50%, since its launch in 1994. But, according to a fascinating recent article on Slate, the [...]

Study: Some Autistic Brains Really Are Wired Differently

307_Brain

Too many tight connections in frontal-lobe circuits and too few long-distance links between the frontal lobe and the rest of the brain may cause some of the language,  social problems and repetitive behavior seen in autism spectrum disorders, according to a new study published in Science Translational Medicine.

Routine bedtimes linked to improved child development

Young children who have consistent, early bedtimes may perform better academically than peers who get less routine rest, according to new research presented this week at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in San Antonio. The analysis, conducted by investigators at the independent, non-profit research institute SRI International, examined sleep habits and [...]

No benefit to delaying childhood vaccinations

In all the time I’ve covered health and medicine issues, nothing has been more polarizing than the debate over childhood immunizations. And while scientific evidence continues to mount against a causal connection between vaccines and developmental disorders such as autism, there was one concern voiced by some parents that seemed to make some sense to [...]

Baby Einstein Refund: Kids Too Much Like Real Baby Einstein

Disney’s recently announced decision to offer a refund to parents who purchased its popular “Baby Einstein” videos vindicates researchers who had been attacked by the company. Their study, published in the prestigious journal Pediatrics, showed that each daily hour of viewing of these kinds of “educational” videos by children aged 8-16 months was associated with [...]