For how we live.
A meta-analysis of 86 population-based studies estimated that about 236 infants per 100,000 live births develop epilepsy in the first two years, with developmental encephalopathies the largest share.
A Bayesian meta-analysis of 10 trials and 2,365 preterm infants tied drug treatment of the patent ductus arteriosus to a higher risk of death before 36 weeks, with no offsetting fall in lung disease.
In 481 infants born before 28 weeks, making a three-strain probiotic routine halved the adjusted odds of necrotising enterocolitis and cut time to full feeds by two days. One baby developed probiotic sepsis.
In the REAL8 phase 3 trial, children born small for gestational age kept growing on weekly somapacitan — including those switched from daily injections — with most preferring the weekly shot.
A 210-youth randomised trial of a telehealth aerobic-exercise program found faster symptom recovery at three months than stretching — an edge that disappeared by six months and held only for recent injuries.
In 425 US adolescents followed with phone sensors and Fitbits across 7,591 nights, heavier-than-usual late-evening phone use tracked with later, shorter sleep — the association growing hour by hour toward midnight.
A case-control study of young children during a statewide whooping-cough outbreak found three or more DTaP doses cut the odds of pertussis by more than 25-fold against unvaccinated peers.
On 13 October the FDA extended Velphoro (sucroferric oxyhydroxide) to children aged 6 to 9 on dialysis and added a 250 mg chewable tablet, widening an iron-based binder previously limited to patients 9 and older.
The agency issued the tradable voucher to Ultragenyx for FAYUVI, an AAV gene therapy for the neurologic features of MPS IIIA that it approved on 17 September 2026. Such vouchers can be redeemed or sold.
Across 10 US children's hospitals and 697 patients, reoperation for recurrent twisting was rare either way — but laparoscopic repair carried lower odds of surgery for later bowel obstruction.
In the MONEAD cohort, six-year-olds whose mothers breastfed while taking antiseizure medicines scored no worse on language or adaptive behaviour — and longer breastfeeding tracked with slightly better scores.
An FDA advisory committee will meet on 30 October to review Sydnexis's atropine sulfate 0.01% eye drops, proposed to slow myopia progression in children aged 3 and older. The public docket closes 29 October.
A nationwide Brazilian cohort of 4.1 million children found that babies exposed to Zika in the womb but without congenital Zika syndrome had the same pneumonia-hospitalisation risk as unexposed children.
The PLUSS trial put a steroid directly into the lungs of 1,059 infants born before 28 weeks. Survival free of chronic lung disease barely differed from surfactant alone.
GUARDIAN offered parents of 4,000 babies a genomic screen for 156 treatable conditions on top of the standard heel-prick. Most said yes, and sequencing worked in 99.6% of cases.
A population-linked Australian cohort followed children to school entry after antenatal metformin. The adjusted relative risk of developmental vulnerability was 0.97 — no different from unexposed children.
In a 366-child phase 2b trial, the live attenuated nasal vaccine BPZE1 raised the mucosal antibody current shots miss, and did not blunt a co-given Tdap. The maker funded the study.
The FDA approved PTC Therapeutics' sepiapterin in July 2025. In the phase 3 APHENITY trial, responders saw a 63% fall in blood phenylalanine over six weeks against roughly no change on placebo.
The oral histone deacetylase inhibitor cleared the FDA in March 2024. In the phase 3 EPIDYS trial, boys on givinostat still lost function over 72 weeks — just less of it than those on placebo.
Rezzayo's once-weekly echinocandin can now be used in adolescents with candidaemia who have few other options. The expansion rests on adult data and modelling, not on studies in children.
A test-negative study across seven paediatric hospitals in Ontario and Quebec, run after a publicly funded rollout, estimated 78% effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed RSV and 97% against intensive-care admission.
A Spanish registry followed 166 patients with treatment-resistant epileptic encephalopathies for a year. Median seizure frequency fell 68.8%, though the design cannot match a placebo-controlled trial.
The NIH-funded STArT trial in children and young adults was halted for futility: time to crisis resolution was 60.8 hours with arginine versus 65.8 with placebo, well within the range of chance.
The PROPOSITIS trial put babies on high-flow oxygen face-down or on their backs. Escalation of care was 15% versus 21% — a difference that did not reach significance, and the authors call the study inconclusive.
In GASTRIC-PICU, 4,700 ventilated children were randomised to routine gastric residual checks or none. Dropping the checks was non-inferior for survival and ventilator-free days, and improved nutrition.
In a single-arm trial, children with vanishing white matter given guanabenz kept walking longer than matched historical controls. The design was uncontrolled and hallucinations were common early on.
An 840-child US trial gave the antibiotic to toddlers with moderate-to-severe wheezing in the emergency department. Symptom scores were no better than placebo, and the study was stopped for futility.
Positional flat head affects nearly half of two-month-olds and is usually mild. In the one randomised trial, moulding helmets matched the natural course — and every parent reported a side effect.
Topical antibiotics beat placebo in pooled trials, but UK guidance now recommends hydrogen peroxide cream first for mild cases — a deliberate move to spare antibiotics.
There is no single number. A US expert panel sets wide bands — 12 to 16 hours for infants down to 8 to 10 for teenagers — and warns that regularly falling short is linked to attention, behaviour and learning problems.
Up to a third of children get the label, but a review of 145 studies shows doctors do not agree what growing pains are — not even that they involve the legs. Here is what the evidence supports, and the warning signs.
England's scarlet fever rate tripled after 2014 and a more toxigenic strep A lineage emerged, culminating in the deadly 2022 wave of invasive infections in children.
Insecticide shampoos increasingly meet resistant lice. Trials favour physical treatments — a silicone lotion and methodical wet combing — that lice cannot evolve around.
The system sorts feverish under-5s into red, amber and green. Validation studies find it misses serious illness and over-refers the well — a prompt, not a reliable test.
Fever is often the only clue in a young child, a properly collected urine sample confirms it, and most cases clear on a short antibiotic course. Preventive antibiotics cut recurrences but breed resistant bugs.
From January 2026 children in England are offered varicella vaccine as MMRV at 12 and 18 months. Pooled trial data put one dose near 81% effective against any chickenpox and 98% against severe disease.
Most newborn jaundice needs no treatment. The reason clinicians watch it is a rare progression to brain injury — a burden that falls overwhelmingly on poorer countries.
In the 2,137-participant PrEggNut trial, mothers who ate a diet rich in eggs and peanuts through pregnancy and breastfeeding had infants with the same allergy rate as the comparison group.
Children reach words at different ages, and many late talkers catch up. But a wait-and-see approach can miss those who need help, so certain milestones and warning signs are worth acting on early.
Occasional snoring is common in young children and often harmless. Loud, habitual snoring with pauses in breathing can mean obstructive sleep apnoea — a treatable problem that surgery can improve.
Bringing up milk is normal in healthy babies: it peaks around four months and usually fades by the first birthday. Most infants need no medicine, and the evidence for acid-suppressing drugs in simple reflux is weak.
Milk is a useful source of calcium, protein and vitamin D for young children, but too much crowds out iron-rich food and can cause deficiency. Around two cups a day suits most toddlers.
Croup gives young children a barking cough and noisy breathing. It is usually mild and self-limiting, and a single dose of oral steroid shortens it — with a low dose working about as well as a high one.
Regular moisturisers and short courses of topical steroids are the mainstays, with modest trial support. Most children improve with age, and popular add-ons like bleach baths are no better than plain water.
It is a surgical emergency in which a twisted cord cuts off the testicle's blood supply. Salvage rates fall from over 90% inside six hours to single digits after two days, so speed to surgery is the whole game.
A multivitamin is not the fix for fussy eating, and picky eating rarely dents growth. But UK guidance recommends a specific supplement for nearly all under-fives — and iron and zinc are the nutrients that matter.
For most children with gastroenteritis, the treatment is oral rehydration fluid at home — not a drip, and not stopping fluids. Here is what the evidence shows works, and the warning signs that mean a doctor now.
The WHO sets clear screen-time limits by age: none under two, an hour or less from two. The evidence behind them is real but modest — and the direction of cause and effect is not as simple as it sounds.
Tantrums are normal development, not a failure of discipline. The evidence favours calm, consistent responses and structured parenting programmes, and advises against smacking and shouting.
Iron shortfall is the leading cause of anaemia in young children and is linked to poorer development. Yet the evidence that screening symptom-free toddlers or routinely supplementing them helps their brains is thin.
Colic is intense crying in a healthy, well-fed baby that peaks in the first six weeks and eases by three months. Most remedies do little; the best evidence is modest and mainly for breastfed infants.
The childhood infection clears on its own in most children and has no specific antiviral. The evidence that matters is about the rare severe case — and where it happens.
Most constipation in children has no underlying disease. Guidelines say the treatment that works is a laxative — clearing the backlog, then a maintenance dose for weeks — not simply adding fibre or fluid.
There is no established safe amount, and UK and US authorities advise not drinking at all. Heavy drinking clearly causes fetal alcohol harm; the data on light drinking are genuinely sparse, not reassuring.
A child with a suspected concussion should be removed from play and not return the same day. But prolonged strict rest is no longer advised, and light activity within days can speed recovery.
Guidelines now ask for an objective test before an asthma label is fixed to a child, and inhaled steroids remain the mainstay of control. Their benefit is real; so is a small, mostly temporary effect on growth.
The main randomised trial found babies who fed themselves were no slimmer, no more iron-deficient and no more likely to choke than spoon-fed babies — provided parents were coached to offer safe, iron-rich foods.
Paediatric bodies advise formal autism screening at 18 and 24 months; a US task force found the evidence for universal screening merely insufficient, not against it. Large studies find no link to vaccines.
Commercial software reads an X-ray for breaks about as well as a radiologist. A prospective paediatric emergency study found that accuracy did not translate into fewer missed-fracture recalls.
AIROPLANE enrolled 1,818 newborns at 32 to 35 weeks across 26 Australian hospitals. Starting with 30% oxygen instead of room air left the same share still on respiratory support leaving the delivery room.
Enuresis alarms have the best evidence for a lasting cure, working in about two-thirds of children who use them. Desmopressin acts faster but the wetting tends to return when it stops.
Most acute ear infections settle on their own, and antibiotics barely change symptoms in the first day. Their benefit is real but modest, which is why guidelines allow a short period of watchful waiting.
Intensive family-based behavioural programmes produce small, real cuts in children's BMI; the newer weight-loss drugs produce much larger ones, but the weight returns when they stop.
A 740,744-child natural experiment tested a decade-old hypothesis that rotavirus vaccine might prevent type 1 diabetes. It found no protective effect — and no evidence of harm either.
Its guideline says antipyretics should be considered when a feverish child appears distressed, not to lower a temperature. In critically ill adults, paracetamol for fever changed nothing.
US and UK guidelines converge: a brief seizure during a fever in a young child rarely needs scans or blood tests, and paracetamol and ibuprofen do not stop them recurring.
Most childhood lead exposure traces to deteriorating paint in pre-1978 housing and the dust it sheds. The damage to a child's developing brain is steepest at the lowest measured levels.
PRoMPT BOLUS, a 9041-child trial across 47 emergency departments, found kidney-injury events at 30 days in 3.4% on balanced fluid and 3.0% on saline (P=0.85) — no meaningful difference.
In the COSPIRIT-JIA trial, most children with two stubborn forms of juvenile idiopathic arthritis responded to ixekizumab by week 16 — but the main result had no control group.