Children's Health News

June 11, 2025

Top Headlines

Burning for Beauty: How TikTok Skin Trends Are Harming Young Girls

June 9, 2025 — Teens are diving into intense skincare routines inspired by TikTok, often slathering on six or more products daily, sometimes over ten in just minutes, chasing beauty ideals that favor lighter, flawless skin. But new research warns this digital ...

Singing to Babies Improves Their Mood

May 30, 2025 — Singing to your infant can significantly boost the baby's mood, according to a recent study. Around the world and across cultures, singing to babies seems to come instinctively to caregivers. Now, new findings support that singing is an easy, safe, ...

Earlier Measles Vaccine Could Help Curb Global Outbreak

May 29, 2025 — The global measles outbreak must trigger an urgent debate into whether a vaccine should be recommended earlier to better protect against the highly contagious disease during infancy, a new review ...

Significant Declines in Maternal Mental Health Across US

May 27, 2025 — A new study reveals a concerning decline in self-reported mental health among mothers in the United States between 2016 and 2023. The study also found modest but measurable declines in self-reported physical health during the same ...

Boys Who Are Overweight in Their Early Teens Risk Passing on Harmful Epigenetic Traits to Future Children

May 27, 2025 — A new study suggests that boys who become overweight in their early teens risk damaging the genes of their future children, increasing their chances of developing asthma, obesity and low lung ...

Wilms Tumors: How Genes and Imprinting Pave the Way for Cancer

May 27, 2025 — A biobank for pediatric kidney tumors plays a key role in identifying hereditary causes of Wilms tumors. New insights gained with its help enable better risk assessment for affected families and could form the basis for targeted screening and ...

Why After 2000 Years We Still Don't Know How Tickling Works

May 27, 2025 — How come you can't tickle yourself? And why can some people handle tickling perfectly fine while others scream their heads off? Neuroscientists argue that we should take tickle research more ...

Good News for People With Migraine Who Take Drugs Before or During Pregnancy

May 21, 2025 — There's good news for people with migraine who take common drugs before or during pregnancy -- a new study found no increase in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD in their children. ...

Landmark Report Reveals Key Challenges Facing Adolescents

May 20, 2025 — Poor mental health, rising obesity rates, exposure to violence and climate change are among the key challenges facing our adolescents today, according to a global ...

Selenium Exposure During Pregnancy May Reduce Childhood Streptococcal Infections

May 20, 2025 — Higher maternal selenium levels during pregnancy were associated with a lower risk of streptococcal infections in children, suggesting a potential protective ...

New Study Shows AI Can Predict Child Malnutrition, Support Prevention Efforts

May 14, 2025 — A multidisciplinary team of researchers has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model that can predict acute child malnutrition in Kenya up to six months in advance. The tool offers governments ...

School Dinners May Encourage Picky Teenagers to Eat Better, Says New Study

May 15, 2025 — Having school dinners rather than packed lunches could encourage picky eating 13-year-olds to eat a wider variety of foods, according to a new ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:18am EDT

Increased Risk of Psychopathology Found in Offspring of People With Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder

May 21, 2025 — A new study confirms that children of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder have a higher risk of developing psychopathology compared to ...

Early Puberty Increases Risk of Overweight Later in Life for Girls

May 19, 2025 — Unique Danish longitudinal study with over 136,000 measurements reveals the connection between pubertal development and weight throughout ...

Study Reveals a Deep Brain Region That Links the Senses

May 15, 2025 — Humans perceive and navigate the world around us with the help of our five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. And while scientists have long known that these different senses activate ...

Recessive Genes Are Subject to Darwinian Selection

May 15, 2025 — As a group, carriers of recessive disorders are slightly less healthy and have a reduced chance of having offspring. This disadvantage is greatest for carriers of a recessive gene for intellectual ...

New Study Raises Concerns About the Safety of Long-Term ADHD Medication Treatment in Children

May 14, 2025 — A recent study reveals that the average duration of ADHD medication for children and adolescents is more than three years. However, reliable, ...

Cyberbullying in Any Form Can Be Traumatizing for Kids

May 15, 2025 — New research shows that cyberbullying should be classified as an adverse childhood experience due to its strong link to trauma. Even subtle forms -- like exclusion from group chats -- can trigger ...

Infant With Rare, Incurable Disease Is First to Successfully Receive Personalized Gene Therapy Treatment

May 15, 2025 — A research team has developed and safely delivered a personalized gene editing therapy to treat an infant with a life-threatening, incurable genetic ...

The Key to Spotting Dyslexia Early Could Be AI-Powered Handwriting Analysis

May 14, 2025 — A new study outlines how artificial intelligence-powered handwriting analysis may serve as an early detection tool for dyslexia and dysgraphia among young ...

Postpartum Depression and Bonding: Long-Term Effects on School-Age Children

May 14, 2025 — Postpartum maternal mental health and mother-to-infant bonding are well-established as critical factors in a child's psychosocial development. However, few studies have explored the combined impact ...

New Survey Shows Privacy and Safety Tops List of Parental Concerns About Screen Time

May 13, 2025 — As kids spend more time on screens, a new national survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of The Kids Mental Health Foundation, founded by Nationwide ...

Evidence of Mother-Offspring Attachment Types in Wild Chimpanzees

May 12, 2025 — A team of researchers has identified distinct mother-offspring attachment types in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus). Drawing parallels with human psychology, the study provides compelling ...

Music Therapy Helps Brain-Injured Children

May 8, 2025 — Music could provide a breakthrough in assessing consciousness levels in children who have suffered significant brain injuries, according to new ...

Non-Inherited Genes Affect Children's Development

May 7, 2025 — Parents' genes -- even when not directly inherited by a child -- may play a role in their educational and mental health outcomes, finds a new ...

Losing a Parent May Increase Children's Risk of Being Bullied

May 7, 2025 — A new study surveyed 21,000 children in China and found that the association between parental bereavement and school bullying varied by sex of the child and deceased parent, age when the death ...

Scientists Discover the Genes That Influence When Babies Start Walking

May 7, 2025 — The age at which babies take their first steps is strongly influenced by their genes, according to new research. Scientists analyzed the genetic information of more than 70,000 infants. They ...

Climate Change: Future of Today's Young People

May 7, 2025 — Climate scientists reveal that millions of today's young people will live through unprecedented lifetime exposure to heatwaves, crop failures, river floods, droughts, wildfires and tropical ...

Teens Driving Older Vehicles Have Increased Risk for Fatal Crashes

May 7, 2025 — Researchers reviewed US national fatal crash data (2016-2021) and examined the vehicle age and driver assistance technologies of vehicles driven by teen and middle-aged drivers, and their ...

A Healthy Diet in Childhood Is Linked to Starting Menstrual Periods Later, Regardless of BMI or Height

May 6, 2025 — Eating a healthy diet as a child is linked to girls having their first menstrual period at an older age than those who consumed a less healthy diet, according to a new study. The findings remained ...

How Individuals Grasp an Object May Offer Simpler Diagnosis for Autism Spectrum Disorder

May 5, 2025 — Getting a timely diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is a major challenge, but new research shows that how young adults, and potentially children, grasp objects could offer a simpler way to ...

Neighborhood Stress May Impact Kids' Brains -- And Increase Depression Risk

May 5, 2025 — Children who grow up in disadvantaged neighborhoods -- areas with higher levels of crime and deprivation, and lower access to community resources -- are at risk of developing depression, and new ...

How Is Handedness Linked to Neurological Disorders?

May 5, 2025 — The fact that left-handedness resp. mixed-handedness are strikingly common in patients with certain neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorders is a frequently reported observation in ...

Spanking and Other Physical Discipline Lead to Exclusively Negative Outcomes for Children in Low And Middle-Income Countries

May 5, 2025 — Physically punishing children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has exclusively negative outcomes -- including poor health, lower academic performance, and impaired social-emotional ...

Study Links Childhood Trauma to Increased Substance Use and Unexpected Effects on Heart Rate and Blood Pressure in Adolescents

Apr. 30, 2025 — Childhood trauma significantly increases the likelihood of engaging in harmful alcohol consumption, smoking and illicit drug use, by the age of ...

Age, Previous Sports Experience, Stronger Predictors of Performance in Children Than Previous Concussions

Apr. 29, 2025 — A new study may offer reassuring news for parents whose children have a history of concussion, but want to get back to playing sports. Researchers spent more than a decade scouting fields, rinks and ...

Teenage Years Crucial for Depression Intervention

Apr. 29, 2025 — Depression in young teens could be easier to treat than in adulthood due to the symptoms being more flexible and not yet ingrained, a study ...

High Blood Sugar in Adolescence Tripled the Risk of Premature Heart Damage Affecting Females Worse Than Males

Apr. 28, 2025 — Persistently high blood sugar and insulin resistance significantly increased the risk of worsening functional and structural heart damage during growth from adolescence to young adulthood, a new ...

Artificial Intelligence Tool Helps Predict Relapse of Pediatric Brain Cancer

Apr. 24, 2025 — Researchers trained and validated a deep learning model that can detect subtle changes across post-treatment brain scans and forecast glioma recurrence with up to 89 percent ...

How a Smartphone App Could Transform Mental Health Care

Apr. 23, 2025 — Smartphones may often feel like a source of stress, feeding us an endless stream of bad news and social comparison. But what if they could also be the solution? A team of researchers believes they ...

Parts of Our DNA May Evolve Much Faster Than Previously Thought

Apr. 23, 2025 — A team of researchers has used advanced DNA sequencing to develop the most comprehensive atlas yet of genetic change through generations, laying the foundations for new insights into the roots of ...

New Research Points out a Promising Strategy for Treating Metastatic Medulloblastoma

Apr. 22, 2025 — Researchers reveal a strategy that helps medulloblastoma, the most prevalent malignant brain tumor in children, spread and grow on the leptomeninges, the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal ...