Heena Sharma Blog

According to a recent study, having a fixed bedtime and getting sufficient amount of sleep from early childhood may lead to a healthy body weight in adolescence. The results of the study were published in the journal 'Sleep'. The researchers at Penn State identified groups of children by bedtime and sleep routines and tested longitudinal associations for each group with adolescent body mass index (BMI). The findings suggest that childhood bedtime and sleep routine groups predict adolescent sleep patterns and BMI. In a national study of urban households, one-third of children consistently adhered to age-appropriate bedtimes for ages five through nine. Those who had no bedtime routine at age of nine had shorter self-reported sleep duration and higher BMI at age of 15 when compared to those children with age-appropriate bedtimes (after adjusting for age 3 BMI). "Parenting practices in childhood affect physical health and BMI in the teenage years. Developing a...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) celebrates World Prematurity Day every year on November 17, to put the spotlight on premature babies. Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is a dynamic, time-bound disease that is not present at birth. The condition afflicts the eyes of pre-term babies that have typically received intensive neonatal care (with or without oxygen therapy) that helps to save their life, but severely affects their eye development. The condition is characterised by the development of abnormal blood vessels in the retina of the eye, resulting in scarring and retinal detachment. ROP can be mild and may resolve spontaneously, but in serious cases, may progress rapidly and lead to blindness. ROP typically starts only two-three weeks after birth, providing a window for screening and activating treatment at the right time, while the baby is still under neonatal care at the hospital. Read Complete Article Business Standard

While it's a known fact that there are many physical and mental health benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and babies, according to the latest research, this might be due to genetic changes induced by breastfeeding. Dr Lester, one of the lead researchers said, "What we found is that maternal care changes the activity of a gene in their infants that regulates the infant's physiological response to stress, specifically the release of the hormone cortisol." " Breastfeeding was associated with decreased DNA methylation and decreased cortisol reactivity in the infants. In other words, there was an epigenetic change in the babies who were breastfed, resulting in reduced stress than those who were not breastfed," said Dr Lester. Read Complete Article Business Standard

Breastfeeding is majorly correlated with positive health outcomes in infants, but it might not be the causal mechanism. Researchers from the University at Buffalo found that the benefits of breastfeeding, reported in the vast majority of prior research, could be influenced by the mother's characteristics, such as what they know about health and nutrition. "It's important to understand that we are not trying to imply that just intending to breastfeed is what's leading to these health outcomes," said Jessica Su, co-author of the study. "What we found is that intending mothers had more information about nutrition and diet; they more frequently consulted their physicians; and had better access to information related to infant health than those moms who did not intend to breastfeed." Read Complete Article Article Source >> BS

Turns out, women who breastfeed their first child for five months or longer are more likely to have more children as compared to women who breastfeed for shorter durations or not at all. Cornell University professor of sociology Vida Maralani, with Hunter College professor Samuel Stabler, reported that women who initiate breastfeeding did not differ in how many children they expected to have before they started their families. Rather, the number of children women actually bear differs by how long they breastfeed their first child. Women who breastfeed for shorter durations are more likely to have fewer children than they expected, while women who breastfeed longer are as likely to achieve their expectations to exceed them. Read Complete Article Article Source >> Business Standard