Study finds family members are most common perpetrators of infant and child homicides in the U.S., Analysis of 44 years of FBI data finds

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#childhomicide #familyviolence #FBIdata #infanthealth #youthsafety

Gut microbiome disruptions in infancy increase aggression later in life, including causing changes to aggression-related genes, according to a new study in mice who received a gut bacteria transplant from one-month-old human infants.

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#GutMicrobiome #InfantHealth #Aggression #MicrobiomeResearch #HealthStudies

Gut microbiota wellbeing index predicts overall health in a cohort of 1000 infants

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#GutMicrobiota #InfantHealth #WellbeingIndex #MicrobiotaResearch #HealthyBabies

New research shows that aid sanctions lead to sharp rises in infant and maternal deaths – undoing decades of health progress.

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#AidSanctions #InfantHealth #MaternalMortality #PublicHealthCrisis #ResearchMatters

Countries which consume more plant-based proteins (chickpeas, tofu and peas) have longer adult life expectancies 🌱. For under-5s, animal-based proteins and fats (meat, eggs and dairy) lowered rates of infant mortality 🍼. For adults, the reverse was true, plant-based proteins increased life expectancy 🌍.

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#PlantBasedDiet #LifeExpectancy #HealthyEating #InfantHealth #NutritionFacts

Frequent use of antibiotics in infants and young children before age 2 may increase risk for asthma, hayfever, food allergies and other conditions, finds study of more than 1 million UK babies. The drugs may disrupt the gut microbiome at a significant time in a child’s development. 🍼💊🌱🌍

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#Antibiotics #InfantHealth #GutMicrobiome #Allergies #ChildDevelopment

Babies can sense pain before they can understand it. The results suggest that preterm babies may be particularly vulnerable to painful medical procedures during critical stages of brain development. 🍼💔🧠

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#BabyDevelopment #NeonatalPain #PretermBabies #InfantHealth #PainAwareness

New research has shown how boys being overweight in early childhood 🍔 or having chickenpox 🦠 or another infectious disease in infancy may increase their risk of having chronic disease in later life ⚠️.

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#ChildhoodObesity #ChronicDisease #HealthResearch #InfantHealth #PublicHealth

New research reveals that tiny amounts of PFAS—widely known as “forever chemicals” 🧪🌍—cross the placenta and breast milk 🍼👶 to alter infants’ developing immune systems, potentially leaving lasting imprints on their ability to fight disease.

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#PFAS #ForeverChemicals #InfantHealth #ImmuneSystem #PublicHealth

Cannabis exposure in the womb can cause lower total brain volume in the first month of life 🧠🌿👶

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#CannabisAwareness #WombHealth #BrainDevelopment #InfantHealth #Neurodevelopment

Babies of pregnant women who drank well water that had flowed beneath a PFAS-contaminated site had 191% higher first-year infant mortality 📉 than babies born to women who drank water from wells upstream of PFAS sites, in study based on 10 years of births in NH 🍼.

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#PFASContamination #InfantHealth #WellWaterSafety #PublicHealthAwareness #EnvironmentalHealth

Community water fluoridation 💧 not linked to lower birth weight 👶, a widely accepted indicator of infant health and predictor of later-life outcomes 📈, large US study finds (11 million births over 21 years) 🗓️. The findings provide reassurance about the safety of fluoridated drinking water during pregnancy 🤰.

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#birthweight #fluoride #pregnancyhealth #infanthealth #waterquality

💡 New Study Links Prenatal Air Pollution to Infant Cognitive Delays
A study of 168 mother-child pairs in Spain (2018-2023) used eye-tracking to objectively measure infant cognitive development. Researchers found that increased exposure to air pollutants like NO2, BC, and PM2.5 during pregnancy was associated with decreased novelty preference in infants at 6 and 18 months, indicating potential cognitive deficits.

👁️ Eye-Tracking Reveals Air Pollution's Impact on Infant Brains
The research, published in Environmental Pollution (PMID: 41354286), employed a Visual Paired-Comparison (VPC) task to assess short-term memory in infants. The findings suggest that the prenatal period is a critical window where air pollution can negatively affect brain development, with possible stronger effects observed in boys.

📊 Quantifiable Impacts of Air Pollutants on Infant Cognition
For every increase in the most polluted quarter of exposure for NO2, BC, PM2.5, copper (Cu), and iron (Fe), infants showed a decline in novelty preference by specific percentages, highlighting a direct correlation between air quality and early cognitive abilities.

#AirPollution #InfantHealth #CognitiveDevelopment

Babies exposed to poverty show delays in motor development as early as six months, but reversal is possible, as the delays were no longer significant by eight months

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#EarlyDevelopment #PovertyImpact #InfantHealth #MotorSkills #ReversibleDelays

Millions of preterm births and thousands of infant deaths linked to plastic chemical

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#PretermBirth #InfantHealth #PlasticPollution

Immunization to prevent RSV in infants reduced ICU admissions by 97%. This is offered free to all infants through universal programs in Ontario and Quebec.

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#RSVImmunization #InfantHealth #OntarioQuebec

👶 New immunization for infants dramatically reduced ICU admissions by 97% due to RSV.

📈 The study, published in JAMA Network Open and led by the SPRINT-KIDS Network, evaluated nirsevimab's effectiveness in Ontario and Quebec during the 2024-2025 RSV season.

📊 Nirsevimab demonstrated 79% effectiveness against RSV hospitalizations and 97% against ICU admissions.

#RSV #InfantHealth #PublicHealth

Meta-analysis finds maternal RSV vaccination was 73.6% effective against hospitalization in infants under 6 months, but only 27.1% of 1.3 million US pregnancies were vaccinated in the 2023/24 season

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#RSV #MaternalVaccination #InfantHealth