The risk of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) increased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period, especially in 2021, according to a new study led by researchers at the Penn State College of Medicine. Monthly increases in SUID in 2021 coincided with a resurgence of seasonal respiratory … Read more
One in eight newborn babies has a gene variant that almost completely protects against jaundice. The research, conducted at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, provides the opportunity to develop a treatment that can prevent severe cases of jaundice. Almost all newborn babies have jaundice in their very first few days of life. The babies … Read more
A new study suggests that neighborhoods with fewer educational, health, environmental, and socioeconomic resources may increase one’s risk for preterm birth and contribute to the racial gap in preterm birth in the Commonwealth. Preterm birth, defined as a live birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the second-leading cause of infant mortality in the United … Read more
Research from UC Davis Health found that 22% of adults and 10% of children who took part in an air-quality study in California’s San Joaquin Valley were breathing detectable levels of pesticides. That includes one chemical, chlorpyrifos, that is no longer permitted in California. The new findings are published in the Journal of Exposure Science … Read more
Newborn babies have one of three pioneer bacteria in their gut shortly after birth, one of which could be used to develop new personalised infant therapeutic probiotics, researchers show. In the largest study of UK baby microbiomes to date, researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University College London (UCL), and the University of Birmingham, used … Read more
Bats are considered a natural pesticide, widely relied on by farmers as an alternative to chemical pesticides to protect their crops from insects. But since 2006, many bat populations have collapsed in counties in North America due to an invasive fungus found in the caves bats use during the day and throughout winter that causes … Read more
Pesticides and herbicides are critical to ensuring food security worldwide, but these substances can present a safety risk to people who unwittingly ingest them. Protecting human health, therefore, demands sensitive analytical methods to identify even trace levels of potentially harmful substances. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Nano Letters have developed a high-tech imaging method to … Read more
Texas’ six-week abortion ban, a 2021 law whose GOP backers claimed would “protect innocent human life,” is linked to a staggering rise in infant deaths, a new study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found. The study, published on the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, … Read more
Researchers at University of Galway have created digital babies to better understand infants’ health in their critical first 180 days of life. The team created 360 advanced computer models that simulate the unique metabolic processes of each baby. The digital babies are the first sex-specific computational whole-body models representing newborn and infant metabolism with 26 … Read more
On the heels of a shortage of nirsevimab for infant respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) prevention, a new tool may help identify newborns at highest risk for developing serious RSV LRTI, according to research published at the ATS 2024 International Conference. “Timely identification of infants at highest risk of RSV-related morbidity … Read more
