News & Updates

Contrary to current assumptions, being born just two to four weeks premature can put a child at risk for minor delays in development, according to a study by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Only 13.5 percent of girls and 36.3 percent of boys age 12 to 19 in the United States get the recommended daily amount (RDA) of calcium, placing them at serious risk for osteoporosis and other bone diseases, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The latest in a series of studies on secretin has failed to show that giving the digestive hormone to children with autism alleviates symptoms of the disorder, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

A series of fact sheets describing the latest research findings on autism is now available from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

New recommendations from an NICHD study question current standards for determining whether a semen sample is normal or abnormal.

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), a common virus that is apparently harmless in adults, appears to prevent a form of the AIDS virus from reproducing in laboratory cultures of human tissue, according to a study published in the November issue of Nature Medicine.

A sharp drop in stress hormones after giving birth to a child may predispose some women to develop certain conditions in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health.

A study appearing in the October 2001 issue of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics reported that premature infants who sleep on their backs gain the ability to lift their heads at a slightly slower rate than do premature infants who sleep on their stomachs.

The "master" hormone that commands the body's response to stress is also directly involved in the process that prevents a mother's immune system from destroying an embryo that has implanted in her uterus, according to the results of a study by researchers at the the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and several other Institutions.

A short cervix early in the second trimester of pregnancy appears to be a warning sign of impending premature birth among women who have previously given birth prematurely, according to a study by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's (NICHD) Maternal Fetal Medicine Units (MFMU) Network.

In collaboration with their European colleagues, scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have come one step closer to determining the genetic basis for autism.

Using the drug metronizadole to treat pregnant women who have the sexually transmitted disease trichomoniasis does not reduce the women's chances for giving birth prematurely, and may actually increase them, according to a study appearing in the August 16 New England Journal of Medicine.

Contrary to what had previously been reported, epidural analgesia, used to relieve women's pain during labor, does not appear to increase a woman's chances of having a Cesarean section, according to an analysis of hospital records by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and Tripler Army Medical Center, in Hawaii.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) will fund three sites to conduct research to increase understanding of how infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) affects adolescent and adult women.

Lawrence Nelson, MD, a fertility researcher at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, has received "The Art of Listening Award" from the Genetic Alliance for his ability to listen carefully to his patients when evaluating their conditions.

The well-being of America's children has improved on several fronts, according to the Federal government's fifth annual report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2001.

Infants are most likely to drown in bathtubs, toddlers in swimming pools, and older children in other freshwater sites such as rivers and lakes, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Breast feeding appears to be a minor factor in reducing the likelihood of childhood overweight, according to a study by the National Institute of Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and two other Federal agencies.

Episodes of prolonged cessation of breathing or prolonged slowing of heart rate in infants-- believed to be potential signs of risk for SIDS--primarily occur before the developmental age when most SIDS deaths occur, according to a study funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Scientists at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have developed and tested the first vaccine capable of protecting children from ages 2 to 5 against typhoid fever.