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Iconic ads like those for Gerber Baby Foods have helped contribute to the belief that chubby babies are the ideal, but researchers at Children's are finding reasons to rethink that notion. A new study, led by Elsie Taveras, MD, MPH, co-director of Children's One Step Ahead Program, examined how weight and body length in infancy can influence later obesity. What they found was striking: Rapid weight gain relative to length during the first six months of life may place a child at risk for obesity by age 3. "The mounting evidence suggests that infancy may be a critical period during which to prevent childhood obesity and its related consequences," says Taveras.
Appendicitis is notoriously difficult to diagnose, and many children go through unnecessary surgery or are only diagnosed because their appendix has already burst. Now, Hanno Steen, PhD, director of Children's Proteomics Center, and emergency physicians Richard Bachur, MD, and Alex Kentsis, MD, PhD, have located a "biomarker" for appendicitis that can be picked up in a matter of minutes in a patient's urine. They are now developing a urine test for clinical use under a Technology Development grant from the hospital. Steen predicts that this method will reveal diagnostic markers for many more diseases in the future.
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Researchers at Children's, in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab, have created a new iPhone application that allows users to track and report outbreaks of infectious disease such as H1N1 (swine flu), called Outbreaks Near Me. The application features alerts that will notify a user by e-mail when new outbreaks are reported in their proximity, and allows them to upload their own reports and photos into the system. The app is an extension of HealthMap, a real-time online disease tracking tool developed in the Children's Hospital Informatics Program.
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High-deductible health plans are increasingly popular among healthy people, but a new study finds that these plans also enroll many low-income families with sick children. The researchers, led by Alison Galbraith, MD, MPH, of the Children's Hospital Primary Care Center, and Tracy Lieu, MD, MPH, of General Pediatrics, studied a group of Massachusetts families who initially had traditional health maintenance organization plans, but were later switched to a high-deductible plan by their employers—as their sole option for coverage. They found that a third of these families had a child with a chronic condition, 13 percent lived in neighborhoods with high poverty and 36 percent had an above-average burden of illness. Clinicians and policymakers worry that high out-of-pocket costs may force families to forego recommended care.
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