Infants

Newborns arrive in this world somewhat half-baked or, in the more measured words of evolutionary anthropologist Wanda Trevathan of the University of New Mexico, "a little unfinished, if you will. " Parents declare them beautiful, these wailing bundles of wrinkles. But upon arrival, far more than their physical appearance needs work. Indeed, human newborns are the least neurologically developed primates on Earth, their brains a mere 25% developed, compared with about 50% among others in the animal kingdom.

Newborns arrive in this world somewhat half-baked or, in the more measured words of evolutionary anthropologist Wanda Trevathan of the University of New Mexico, "a little unfinished, if you will. " Parents declare them beautiful, these wailing bundles of wrinkles. But upon arrival, far more than their physical appearance needs work. Indeed, human newborns are the least neurologically developed primates on Earth, their brains a mere 25% developed, compared with about 50% among others in the animal kingdom.

Hormonally speaking, becoming a father may make you less of a man, according to new research that finds testosterone levels drop in men after they become parents. But fear not for manhood — the results show that men are evolutionarily wired to help raise their children and that testosterone may get in the way, scientists say. Testosterone is a hormone associated with perceived hallmarks of masculinity such as libido, aggression and musculature. Those can be useful qualities when competing for a mate, but less so when raising a child — an endeavor that requires calm, attentiveness and an even temper.

Hoping to reduce the number of infant deaths, Los Angeles County officials unveiled a campaign Wednesday to educate parents about how to safely put their babies to bed. Over the last four years, 278 babies in the county have died from suffocating while they were sleeping - more than all other accidental deaths of children under age 14, officials said. The deaths are more common among Latino and black babies, officials said. "Accidental suffocation poses the greatest risk for babies from 1 day to the age of 1," said Deanne Tilton Durfee, executive director of the county Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Babies wise up fast. By the time infants are 3 months old, their unfinished brains are laced with a trillion connections, and the collective weight of all those firing neurons triples in a year. But the indecipherable babbling and maladroit wiggling so beloved by parents just leave scientists in baby labs scratching their heads. What do those little people know, and when do they know it? A team of French neuroscientists who compared brain waves of adults and babies has come up with a tentative answer: At 5 months, infants appear to have the internal architecture in place to perceive objects in adult-like ways, even though they can't tell us. "I think we have a pretty nice answer," said Sid Kouider of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, whose findings were published Friday in the journal Science.

Giving acetaminophen to young children is not as straightforward as parents might think, or hope. So on Tuesday and Wednesday, federal officials will weigh whether to add new dosing information to Tylenol and other over-the-counter acetaminophen medications. The Food and Drug Administration committees will consider instructions for children under age 2 as well as instructions based on weight, in addition to age, for children ages 2 to 12. Currently, instructions on acetaminophen packages say to consult a doctor for children under 2. But that advice might not match reality, according to an FDA background package on the meeting: “Despite the fact that over-the-counter (OTC)

Bravo to Orangewood and other shelters that receive with love the abandoned babies, and a curse on society's hypocrites who see the mothers (and sometimes fathers) of these infants as "pigs" and drive them underground when they become pregnant. When these girls and women are treated with even a fraction of the reverence shown to women who are married and expectant, then we might see an end to the abandonment of helpless infants by their equally helpless mothers. JAN KNOWLTON Anaheim

With the constant drumbeat of reminders to put sunscreen on your skin, it might be confusing to consider what to do about that especially vulnerable skin of an infant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administrationrecommends that, generally, babies younger than 6 months old should not have sunscreen put on their skin. "The best approach is to keep infants under 6 months out of the sun, and to avoid exposure to the sun in the hours between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when ultraviolet (UV)

A meningitis vaccine already in use has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for children as young as 9 months old.  The two-dose vaccine, Menactra, which produces antibodies against a strain of meningococcus bacteria, was approved in 2005 for 11- to 55-year-olds and in 2007 for 2-year-olds. Though meningitis cases are relatively rare - about 1,000 to 2,600 cases per year - the disease can be deadly. The FDA announcement states: “Meningococcal disease is a life-threatening illness caused by bacteria that infect the bloodstream (sepsis)

In an attempt to replicate the early experiences of infants, researchers in England have created a robot that can learn simple words in minutes just by having a conversation with a person. The work, published this week in the journal PLoS One, offers insight into how babies transition from babbling to speaking their first words. The 3-foot-tall robot, named DeeChee, was built to produce any syllable in the English language. But it knew no words at the outset of the study, speaking only babble phrases.

Babies wise up fast. By the time infants are 3 months old, their unfinished brains are laced with a trillion connections, and the collective weight of all those firing neurons triples in a year. But the indecipherable babbling and maladroit wiggling so beloved by parents just leave scientists in baby labs scratching their heads. What do those little people know, and when do they know it? A team of French neuroscientists who compared brain waves of adults and babies has come up with a tentative answer: At 5 months, infants appear to have the internal architecture in place to perceive objects in adult-like ways, even though they can't tell us. "I think we have a pretty nice answer," said Sid Kouider of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, whose findings were published Friday in the journal Science.

A Sacramento County woman was arrested this week after an infant found dead under a bed. The woman, identified as 24-year-old Courtney Addington, was examined in January by personnel at Mercy General Hospital for excessive bleeding. Although hospital staff said she showed signs of recently giving birth, Addington reportedly denied those claims, officials said. The hospital contacted Sacramento County sheriff's deputies, who stopped by Addington's home later that night.

Infant mortality in the U.S. has declined 12% since 2005 after holding steady for many years, according to data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The infant mortality rate in 2011 was 6.05 deaths per every 1,000 live births, down from 6.87 in 2005, according to the report from the National Center for Health Statistics. Some of the biggest gains were seen in Southern states, though the region still has the highest infant mortality rates overall.

JERUSALEM -- A new U.N. report suggests that the Nov. 14 killing of an 11-month-old Gaza baby and two adult relatives during the eight-day clash between Israel and the militant group Hamas was likely caused by an errant Palestinian rocket and not an Israeli airstrike as widely reported. Photos of distraught father Jehad Misharawi holding the body of his son, Omar, became one of the symbols of the conflict's toll on civilians. A March  6 report from the U.N. Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights said the three were killed “by what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel.” It offered no details about how it reached the conclusion.

On March 1, 1957, a 7-month-old girl named Jeaneen Marie Klokow died at home. Sheboygan, Wisc., investigators ruled that she'd fallen off her mother's couch by accident. For decades, that was that. Except she'd been killed. And decades would separate the medical advances and nagging consciences that resulted in her mother's guilty plea to second-degree murder in Sheboygan on Monday morning. “It's really an incredible thing,” Sheboygan County District Atty. Joe DeCecco said by phone on Monday, and he would know: Prosecuting someone nearly 56 years after the fact required improvisation.

SEATTLE -- An Oregon man who conducted Internet searches for the phrase “father hates infant” and had a violent child abuse video game on his computer was convicted Friday of murdering his 11-month-old twin son. A jury in Washington County, Ore., deliberated about two hours before convicting Kaliq Mansor, 34, who had called 911 in June 2011 to report that his infant son Bryan was not breathing. By the time the child arrived at the hospital, he could no longer breathe on his own, and doctors pronounced him brain dead.

The joy of a new baby starts wearing a tad thin when the little bundle is still waking three or four times a night at 9 months of age. In fact, your infant may be toying with you. A new study shows that infants have the ability to sleep "through the night" by 3 months of age. Most textbooks, and pediatricians, will tell parents that infants should sleep through the night by 12 months of age. The new study investigated whether infants really could...

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.

Amid at least 95 reports of babies falling out of the popular Bumbo baby seats -- including 19 who suffered skull fractures -- the company said it is recalling nearly 4 million seats in the U.S. But instead of returning the seats to stores, South Africa-based Bumbo International Trust said customers should order a free repair kit that includes a restraint belt as well as a warning sticker cautioning against placing the seat on raised surfaces....

LONDON - Jamel Herring waited more than 10 years for his chance to get in an Olympic boxing ring. Once he was there, however, his stay proved agonizingly short, as he lasted only three one-sided rounds against Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan, who won their opening round light-welterweight bout, 19-9, Tuesday. But although he may have lost the fight, Herring didn't lose his perspective. War, it seems, has a way of doing that to a person. "It's not the end of the world," he said, tugging at his dark blue boxing trunks.