News & Updates

As part of an NICHD-supported study, researchers found that the outcomes of orphaned and abandoned children in low- and middle-income countries are similar whether they live in group homes or family-based settings.

Infants exposed to more than one language may be better able than their monolingual counterparts to see a situation from another point of view, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

NICHD has appointed Daniel S. Johnston, Ph.D., as Chief of its Contraception Research Branch.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered the cellular switch that boosts the activity of sperm cells so that they can travel to the egg. The finding may lead to new options for male contraception as well as treatments for infertility resulting from problems with sperm mobility.

A two-drug preventive treatment greatly reduces the severity of malaria during pregnancy, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. The treatment provides an alternative for many parts of Africa where the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum has grown resistant to standard treatment.

Researchers may now add data from NICHD-funded studies directly to the NICHD Data and Specimen Hub (DASH).

A ring that continuously releases an experimental antiretroviral drug in the vagina safely provided a modest level of protection against HIV infection in women, a large clinical trial in four sub-Saharan African countries has found.

Following advice to sleep in the same room with their infants —but not in the same bed—does not appear to discourage new mothers from breastfeeding, as some experts had feared, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Recent NICHD-funded studies show in mice that only 3 genes are needed for sperm production, and the Y chromosome is not needed to make sperm precursors called spermatids. The findings may yield insight on potential treatments for male infertility.

The National Institutes of Health today announced its research priorities for studies to investigate how Zika virus infection affects reproduction, pregnancy and the developing fetus.

Prenatal steroid therapy reduces the chance of respiratory complications among infants born at 34-36 weeks, so-called “late” preterm infants, according to a study by a National Institutes of Health research network.

A program that helps lower-income parents interact more effectively with their infants and toddlers through reading and play improves children’s attention and decreases rates of problem behaviors by age 3 years, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

NICHD needs your input for NIH’s All of Us program.

If someone offends you and you’re not sure whether they intended to, it’s best not to retaliate and to assume they meant no harm. That’s the takeaway message from an international study of how children react to a provocation.

NICHD researchers speak about a recent study testing the drug lithium in children. For years, doctors have prescribed the drug to treat adults with bipolar disorder, but until now, it has not been studied in children.

The National Institutes of Health has launched a new initiative to identify biomarkers and track the progression of Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome.

Many U.S. hospitals may be missing the chance to find out if babies and toddlers have been physically abused. Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health found a large difference in whether hospitals followed long-standing guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics to order additional x-rays for children suspected of being victims of abuse.

The recommendation to delay delivery of otherwise healthy infants until at least the 39th week of pregnancy does not appear to have increased stillbirths in the United States, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions.

The drug-susceptible form of Staphylococcus aureus, a common bacterium that inhabits the body, may account for a greater number of infections among hospitalized newborns than the antibiotic-resistant form, according to researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

HIV-infected children exposed in the womb to nevirapine, a drug used to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, can safely and effectively transition to efavirenz, a similar drug recommended for older children and adults, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health.