Premature Birth :: Low maternal cholesterol tied to premature birth

Pregnant women who have very low cholesterol may face a greater risk of delivering their babies prematurely than women with more moderate cholesterol levels, a team led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reported today.

Infant :: New approach to improving diarrhea in infants with probiotics

Each year more than half a million infants worldwide, primarily in developing countries, die from diarrhea caused by rotavirus. Even in industrialized countries management of the infection costs economies about $1 billion a year. Now a study in the online open access journal, BMC Microbiology demonstrates that with the addition of probiotic bacteria, preventative measures can potentially be made far cheaper but just as effective.

Infant :: California warns consumers to stop giving Baby’s Bliss gripe water apple-flavored to children

Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), today warned consumers, especially parents of infants, to immediately stop giving Baby’s Bliss Gripe Water – Apple Flavored to children because it may be contaminated with a parasitic microorganism called Cryptosporidium, a parasite that can cause intestinal infections.

Gripe Water :: Risk of Cryptosporidium Illness from Baby’s Bliss Gripe Water

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to consume Baby’s Bliss Gripe Water, apple flavor, with a code of 26952V and expiration date of October 2008 (shown as “10/08” on the label), distributed by MOM Enterprises, Inc., of San Rafael, Calif.

Cerebral Palsy :: Repeat steroids to premature infants linked to cerebral palsy

Repeated courses of a drug that is used to improve the survival of unborn premature babies also may increase the risk of cerebral palsy in those children, according to results from a multi-center study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and led by Ronald Wapner, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Columbia University Medical Center and attending obstetrician and gynecologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia.