Children S Hospital Boston

Is severe childhood obesity a life-threatening form of abuse that justifies removing a child from his or her parents? Doctors, lawyers and child welfare experts have grappled with this question in recent years, and the debate was renewed this summer by a high-profile commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston, and Lindsey Murtagh, a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health, argued that when children are near death due to morbid obesity, state intervention should be considered.

Infant weight and height are faithfully charted at each pediatrician's visit to make sure the child is growing properly. But nowadays doctors are more likely to see babies who are growing too fast rather than ones lagging behind. A new study shows that rapid growth on these charts foretells obesity in childhood. Researchers looked at the weight-for-length charts that show how a baby's weight compares to that of other babies of the same length. For example, babies on the 5th percentile growth line have a weight that puts them among the smallest 5% of all babies their length.

For the first time, scientists have used cloning techniques — inserting genetic material from adult cells into unfertilized human eggs — to create embryonic stem cells. The advance, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature , moves scientists one step closer to their goal of developing therapies to treat maladies including diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, researchers said. In the world of stem cell research, the achievement marks an important step, but only a step.

For the first time, scientists have used cloning techniques — inserting genetic material from adult cells into unfertilized human eggs — to create embryonic stem cells. The advance, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature , moves scientists one step closer to their goal of developing therapies to treat maladies including diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, researchers said. In the world of stem cell research, the achievement marks an important step, but only a step.

Infant weight and height are faithfully charted at each pediatrician's visit to make sure the child is growing properly. But nowadays doctors are more likely to see babies who are growing too fast rather than ones lagging behind. A new study shows that rapid growth on these charts foretells obesity in childhood. Researchers looked at the weight-for-length charts that show how a baby's weight compares to that of other babies of the same length. For example, babies on the 5th percentile growth line have a weight that puts them among the smallest 5% of all babies their length.

In a decade when some schools have banned the game of tag for its potential to cause physical and emotional damage, a recent study suggests the game may have an upside when it comes to fighting obesity. Scientists from Children's Hospital Boston and the University of Massachusetts recently tracked the energy expenditures and enjoyment levels of 28 third-graders as they played 30 common playground games. When the numbers were crunched, the "tag-type games" ranked highest in both calories burned and enjoyment, according to the study published last month in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Solid foods should not be given to infants before 4 months of age, according to guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics. A new study lends support to that advice, especially for bottle-fed infants. Those who were introduced to solid foods before 4 months of age had a six-fold increase in the odds of being obese at age 3. Child obesity is an alarming problem in the United States. Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General issued recommendations to encourage breastfeeding for the first six months of life.

At least 1 in 5 U.S. children aged 1 to 11 don't get enough vitamin D and could be at risk for a variety of health problems including weak bones, a national analysis suggests. By a looser measure, almost 90% of black children that age and 80% of Latino kids could be vitamin D deficient -- "astounding numbers" that should serve as a call to action, said Dr. Jonathan Mansbach, lead author of the analysis and a researcher at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston. The analysis was released online today by the journal Pediatrics.

Dr. George "Skip" Gay, 77, who pioneered drug treatment at San Francisco's Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, died Feb. 13 in Anchorage after a heart attack, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Gay, an anesthesiologist, worked with concert promoter Bill Graham in 1973 to start Rock Medicine, an aid organization caring for drug- and alcohol-impaired fans at Grateful Dead concerts in Golden Gate Park. A native of St. Louis, Gay served in the Navy in a unit that rescued downed pilots in the Korean War, the Chronicle reported.

Researchers have identified a chemical in urine that is closely associated with appendicitis in children and are working to develop a simple test that could be used to diagnose the condition -- a test that would both increase the likelihood of performing surgery before the appendix bursts and prevent unnecessary surgery.

Is severe childhood obesity a life-threatening form of abuse that justifies removing a child from his or her parents? Doctors, lawyers and child welfare experts have grappled with this question in recent years, and the debate was renewed this summer by a high-profile commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston, and Lindsey Murtagh, a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health, argued that when children are near death due to morbid obesity, state intervention should be considered.

Solid foods should not be given to infants before 4 months of age, according to guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics. A new study lends support to that advice, especially for bottle-fed infants. Those who were introduced to solid foods before 4 months of age had a six-fold increase in the odds of being obese at age 3. Child obesity is an alarming problem in the United States. Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General issued recommendations to encourage breastfeeding for the first six months of life.

In a decade when some schools have banned the game of tag for its potential to cause physical and emotional damage, a recent study suggests the game may have an upside when it comes to fighting obesity. Scientists from Children's Hospital Boston and the University of Massachusetts recently tracked the energy expenditures and enjoyment levels of 28 third-graders as they played 30 common playground games. When the numbers were crunched, the "tag-type games" ranked highest in both calories burned and enjoyment, according to the study published last month in the Journal of Pediatrics.

At least 1 in 5 U.S. children aged 1 to 11 don't get enough vitamin D and could be at risk for a variety of health problems including weak bones, a national analysis suggests. By a looser measure, almost 90% of black children that age and 80% of Latino kids could be vitamin D deficient -- "astounding numbers" that should serve as a call to action, said Dr. Jonathan Mansbach, lead author of the analysis and a researcher at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston. The analysis was released online today by the journal Pediatrics.

Researchers have identified a chemical in urine that is closely associated with appendicitis in children and are working to develop a simple test that could be used to diagnose the condition -- a test that would both increase the likelihood of performing surgery before the appendix bursts and prevent unnecessary surgery.

Dr. George "Skip" Gay, 77, who pioneered drug treatment at San Francisco's Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, died Feb. 13 in Anchorage after a heart attack, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Gay, an anesthesiologist, worked with concert promoter Bill Graham in 1973 to start Rock Medicine, an aid organization caring for drug- and alcohol-impaired fans at Grateful Dead concerts in Golden Gate Park. A native of St. Louis, Gay served in the Navy in a unit that rescued downed pilots in the Korean War, the Chronicle reported.

An extract from sharks seems to fight a broad array of viruses, according to a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The chemical, called squalamine, was discovered in 1993 by Dr. Michael Zasloff, now at Georgetown University Medical Center and the lead investigator of the paper. He's been studying it ever since, mostly for its immune properties. Working with a variety of scientists at Georgetown, UCLA and elsewhere, Zasloff and his colleagues tested the ability of squalamine to fight off infections by a variety of viruses including dengue virus, yellow fever and hepatitis A, B and D. Some of the experiments were done in tissue culture cells of various types: human liver cells for the hepatitis viruses, for example, and human blood vessel cells for the dengue virus.  In other cases, such as yellow fever and cytomegalovirus, the tests were done in hamsters and mice.

Happy National Pancake Day! Perhaps you’re planning to celebrate by swinging by an IHOP Tuesday (if you haven’t done so already) --  the restaurant chain is offering free short stacks to all comers until 10 pm. This IS a health blog, so we can’t help relaying the following information, courtesy of the IHOP Nutritional Information website. A short stack of 3 Original Buttermilk pancakes contains: 490 calories 18 grams of fat (including 8 grams of saturated fat and 1 gram of trans fat)