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"Strep linked to OCD, tics, and other neurological changes, including anxiety, irritability, hyperactivity, anorexia and urinary problems."

2011-12-14T16:07:26Z

The Susan Swedo, Chief of Pediatrics and Developmental Neuroscience at the National Institute of Mental Health first linked strep throat in the mid-1990s to a host of "sudden onset of obcessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), tics, and other neurological changes, including anxiety, irritability, hyperactivity, anorexia, and urinary problems." Research is now expanding in the linkage between strep and its rare results through PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus).

About 1% of US children have OCD, whereas 20% may have transient tic disorders, but researchers don't know how many of those are related to strep. The Boston-based International OCD Foundation recommends "that any child who has such sudden OCD-like symptoms be tested for strep and or other active infections. 'Children don't go crazy overnight.'"

See The Wall Street Journal (December 13, 2011): D3.

"Ritaline and Adderall, along with other ADHD drugs, don't increase risk of heart disease!"

2011-12-14T15:57:16Z

Laura Habel, research scientist at Kaiser Permanente, and lead author of a recent study, notes that "We don't see any evidence they're increasing risk," after analysts evaluated the experience of some 500,000 adults in a study published on December 12, 2011. Habel's study reached the same conclusion as that of another one that analyzed the effects of ADHD medicines on 1.2 million adults and children. It is important to note that although the medicines are exonerated with regard to heart risk, concern still exists for the 2.7 million children who are prescribed these medicines for ADHD, with regard to other side effects, such as anxiety, and slow growth for children. More than 1.5 million adults also take the medicines, which enhance focus and help to reduce impulsive behavior. See The Washington Post (December 13, 2011): D1.

"Healthy eating by pregnant Moms starts babies off correctly"

2011-12-14T15:10:14Z

Georgetown University researchers from the nurse midwifery/women's health nurse practitioner program recently found that mothers eating a wide range of food during pregnancy could shape their children's food preferences after birth. These choices have the potential to reduce the risks of diabetes and obesity. The concept is called prenatal flavor learning, and it affects the flavor and odors of what mothers eat that are transmitted to the fetus, and which show up in breast milk as well. The Georgetown researchers found that fetal taste buds "are mature in utero by 13-15 weeks, with taste receptor cells appearing at 16 weeks." Kim Trout, director of the program, noted that "with flavor learning, you can train a baby's palate with repetitive exposure." See The Washington Post (November 24, 2011): A3.

ADHD Brains ARE Different! Do You Know Why?

2011-11-16T17:10:04Z

Neuroscientists reported Sunday, November 13, 2011 at the conference of the Society for Neuroscience that "a brain area that helps orchestrate mental activity works overtime in children with ADHD, reflecting the 'internal struggle to hold more than one thing in mind at a time.'" The study was led by Tudor Puiu, a Wayne State University biologist. lThese scientists used a functional magnetic imaging scanner (fMRI), the same as is used to check for concussions in more advanced facilities, "to track signs of neural activity among 19 affected children and 23 other children who were asked to remember a simple sequence of letters." It was found that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was forced to work much harder and "perhaps less efficiently" among children with attention problems. This "fundamental difference inbrain function might be an underlying cause of the inattentiveness, impulsivity and focus problems that make it hard for ADHD children to concentrate in the classroom," according to the study leaders at the annual gathering of some 31,000 brain science researchers in Washington, D.C.

The study is of considerable significance, as some two million children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with attention prolembs, broadly speaking.  The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration notes that the problem is apparently growing more common, perhaps as it is better diagnosed, or perhaps as a factor of growing environmental influences.

The researchers noted that these findings add to previous finds that suggest that the brain of an ADHD affected child actually matures normally, "but it may take up to three years longer to fully develop, especially in areas at the front of the brain's cortex, an outer layer of tissue important in controlling attention, reasoning, and planning."

In a separate finding earlier this month, researchers at New York University's Langone School of Medicine noted that chldren with ADHD "appeared to have significantly thinner cortex and less gray matter than other children in some areas involved in regulating attention and emotion."

Does Your Child Lack Social Skills?

2011-11-16T16:36:11Z

A national survey of 3,500 early childhood educators concludes that 46% of their students have difficulty following directions. They link this to poor social skills for todays entering children, and contrast their experience to that of previous generations, when children arrived at school with many more unstructured, unsupervised play hours each day. As such, it is suggested that children in previous generations had a "better grasp of how to work in groups and regulate selfish or destructive impulses." See "Schools Apply New Tools for Early Learning," in The Washington Post (November 14, 2011) B1.

Dyslexia, Does your Child Have it?

2011-11-16T16:10:35Z

The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity reveals the following markers that suggest that dyslexia might be troubling a child:

In the Preschool Years

If the child has/is ...

º trouble learning nursery rhymes such as "Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill ..."

º difficulty learning and remembering names, letters, and numbers

º mispronouncing familiar words, and or exhibits persistent "baby talk"

º difficulty recognizing rhyming patterns

º a family history of reading and or spelling difficulties

Kingergarten and First Grade

º reading errors that show no connection to the sounds of letters on a page; if he/she says "puppy" instead of the written word "dog" on a page with a picture of a dog

º does not understand that words come apart

º complains about how hard reading is

º cannot sound out even simple words such as cat, rat, map, nap

º does not associate letters with sounds, such as the letter "b" with "b" sounds

Second Grade and Beyond

º very slow in acquiring reading skills; reading is slow, awkward

º trouble reading unfamiliar words, often making wild guesses

º avoids reading out loud

º pauses, hesitates and or uses "um" a lot when speaking

º confuses words that sound alike, such as "tornado" or "Volcano"

º mispronounces unfamiliar, complicated words

º seems to need extra time to respond to questions

º trouble with remembering dates, names, telephone numbers, and random lists

º trouble finishing tests on time

º extreme difficulty learning a foreign language

º messy handwriting

Deep Belly Laughs Good for Health!

2011-10-25T16:30:58Z

University of Maryland Professor of Medicine Michael Miller says that "We don't have any clinical outcome evidence to show that laughter will reduce heart attacks or improve overall survival. However, we do have a number of studies that have shown that there is a potential upside, in terms of vascular benefits and also overall health." Oxford University researchers have recently found that "laughter triggers an increase in endorphins, the brain chemicals that can help you feel good, distract you from pain and maybe deliver other health benefits." Lead author Robin Dunbar, an evolutionary anthopologist, notes that "these results back up prior research suggesting that people who laught need less pain medication after surgery..." The authors all note that "a snicker here and there" is not what triggers the reaction; instead the Oxford study reveals that "endorphins are released only when 'we laugh till it hurts,'" or until "we end up running out of breath or physically exhausted," according to Dunbar. See "Laughing is Good for your Health? It's No Joke," The Washington Post (October 25, 2011): E4. See also "Laughter: A Scientific Investigation," Robert R. Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Aggressive, hyperactive girls linked in vitero to BPA

2011-10-25T16:16:31Z

Several clinical research studies have tied high levels of bisphenol A (BPA) to serious behavioral problems in children. A research study published online on Monday, October 24, 2011 in the journal Pediatrics, and led by Joe M. Braun of Harvard University's School of public Health, revealed that children of mothers with high levels of BPA in their urine "were more likely to report that their children were 'hyperactive,' aggressive, anxious, depressed, and less in control of their emotions than mothers with low levels of the chemical." This study was characterized as the first to indicate that a "young girl's emotional well-being is linked to her mother's exposure during pregnancy rather than the child's exposure after birth." It was also noted that "girls were more sensitive to the chemical in the womb than boys, maybe because BPA mimics the female hormone estrogen, which is thought to play a role in behavioral development." The study involved 244 Cincinnati-area mothers and their three year old children. The authors, led by Braun, noted that their study's results might be skewed, or adversely affected, by the "eating habits of the mothers observed ... It's possible that mothers who ate a lot of packaged foods simply didn't eat enough nutrients essential for brain development." Braun also went on to say that "none of the children exhibited behavior outside the normal range," although they "behaved worse than children whose mothers had relatively low traces of BPA in their urine." See also "Study Links BPA Exposure in Womb to Bad Behavior," in The Washington Post (October 25, 2011): A12.

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2011-10-24T15:46:04Z

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