Category Archives: Children’s health

Ms Rachel says she’ll risk career to advocate for children in Gaza

Posted on by

The popular YouTuber has received pushback for speaking out on behalf of children affected by war and famine

Ms Rachel, the children’s entertainer and educator whose YouTube videos have been watched by millions of families around the world, said she is willing to risk her career to keep advocating for suffering children in Gaza.

In an interview with WBUR, a Boston-based public radio station, Ms Rachel, whose full name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, said she had received pushback for speaking out to raise awareness of the situation in Gaza, where more than 54,000 people have been killed in Israel’s ongoing military assault.

Continue reading...

Being shouted at by parents can alter child’s brain, experts tell UK MPs

Posted on by

Meeting will hear how exposure to verbal abuse leads to biological changes and can make mental ill-health likelier

Being shouted at by their parents reshapes children’s brains and makes them more likely to have mental ill-health and struggle to maintain friendships, MPs will hear on Monday.

Verbal abuse by adults can leave children unable to enjoy pleasure and seeing the world as threatening, experts in child development and mental health will tell a meeting at Westminster.

Continue reading...

‘Children with cancer cannot wait’: the human cost of clinical trial delays after Brexit

Posted on by

Exclusive: Price of importing drugs for a Paris and Birmingham study has almost quadrupled to £175,000

British clinical trials of revolutionary cancer treatments are being derailed by red tape and extra costs caused by Brexit, according to a report obtained by the Guardian.

These two examples illustrate how the UK’s departure from the EU is harming UK cancer research, leaving patients in limbo and unable to access pioneering treatments.

Continue reading...

Big brands send out barrage of junk food ads before obesity rules bite

Posted on by

Advertising on snacks rises 26% compared with last year, months before restrictions on promoting unhealthy food come into force

Big food brands dramatically increased their spending on advertising last year, months before new junk food regulations aiming to curb Britain’s obesity crisis are due to come into force, the Observer can reveal.

Food companies spent an extra £420m in 2024, an increase of 26% year on year that coincided with a bumper 12 months for sales of snack foods. Shoppers bought an extra 45.4m packs of chocolate, cakes and crisps from the top-selling brands.

Continue reading...

Bog standard? Study seeks most effective toilet training methods

Posted on by

UCL team is inviting parents to share their experiences, as age at which children in west acquire the skill rises

Storybooks about potties, underpants featuring superheroes, rewards for doing a wee: toilet training is a rite of passage for any child. But with the average age of toilet training steadily creeping upwards, scientists are now hoping to crack the question of which methods are most effective.

A team at University College London is inviting people from across the world to share their experiences and techniques as part of the Big Toilet Project. The ultimate aim is to uncover evidence that could help parents toilet train children earlier and reduce the massive contribution that disposable nappies make to landfill waste.

Continue reading...

Long-term effects of Gaza war could quadruple Palestinian death toll, warn UK doctors

Posted on by

Surgeons who worked in Gaza fear disease, malnutrition and eradication of healthcare will reverberate for decades

British doctors who worked in Gaza during the war have issued dire predictions over the long-term health of Palestinian civillians, warning that large numbers will continue to die.

The prevalence of infectious disease and multiple health problems linked to malnutrition, alongside the destruction of hospitals and killing of medical experts, meant mortality rates among Palestinians in Gaza would remain high after the cessation of Israeli shelling.

Continue reading...

Sibling rivalry: parents favour older children and daughters, study finds

Posted on by

International research also reveals conscientious or agreeable children are likely to receive preferential treatment

As Philip Larkin once noted, your mum and dad have a lasting effect on you. Now, researchers have revealed which siblings in a family are more likely to be favoured: it is bad news for sons.

Researchers have found daughters, older children and those who are more conscientious or agreeable are likely to receive preferential treatment.

Continue reading...

FDA issues new guidelines to reduce lead levels in baby foods

Posted on by

Guidelines for food manufacturers are voluntary and cover packaged processed food for children under two years old

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued some new voluntary guidelines for baby food manufacturing companies in an effort to reduce levels of lead in some processed baby foods.

The new guidelines state that baby food manufacturers should include no more than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of lead in foods such as yoghurt, custard, pudding and a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains and meats. For single-ingredient root vegetables and dry cereals, the guideline is set at no more than 20ppb.

Continue reading...

‘We live on Pot Noodles’: rickets hits homeless families with no kitchen

Posted on by

Families placed in hotels in England are being forced to live on snack foods, putting young people’s health at risk

Homeless children placed in hotels are developing rickets and other diet-related health problems because their parents lack anywhere to cook.

The Magpie Project, which works with homeless mothers in the east London borough of Newham, where more households are living in temporary accommodation than anywhere in the country, said families living in hotels were eating an unhealthy diet of takeaways and snack foods because they had no cooking facilities or anywhere to store fresh produce.

Continue reading...

Australian-style social media ban for under-16s ‘a retrograde step’, say UK charities

Posted on by

Child safety experts say similar move in Britain would penalise young people for the failings of tech companies

Child safety experts have warned the UK government against enacting an Australian-style social media ban for children under 16, which they called a “retrograde step” that would “do more harm than good”.

On Thursday, Australia became the first country in the world to ban under-16s from using social media platforms. The move was supported by a large majority of the Australian public – but academics, politicians and child rights groups said it could backfire, driving teenagers to the dark web, or make them feel more isolated.

Continue reading...

Lucy Letby likely to have harmed other babies, doctor tells inquiry

Posted on by

Consultant who raised concerns says there could have been earlier victims she has not been convicted of killing

Lucy Letby was likely to have harmed more babies than those she has been convicted of murdering on a hospital neonatal unit, a senior doctor has told a public inquiry.

Dr Stephen Brearey, a consultant paediatrician who raised concerns about the nurse, told the Thirlwall inquiry he believed Letby “didn’t start becoming a killer” in June 2015 and that she may have had earlier victims.

Continue reading...

Call to ban cakes and biscuits at school lunchtimes in England

Posted on by

Campaigners want ministers to overhaul rules to outlaw snacks that contain up to 12 teaspoons of sugar

Schools in England should be banned from giving pupils cakes or biscuits as part of their lunch because they contain so much sugar, food campaigners say.

They want ministers to overhaul the rules that guide schools on the nutritional content of the meals they serve to outlaw such sugary snacks.

Continue reading...

Unlicensed medicines may lead to more baby deaths in England, coroner warns

Posted on by

Contaminated feed inquest conclusions highlight concerns over lack of requirement for providers to report problems

More babies in England could die from issues caused by unlicensed medicines if providers are not required to report problems, a coroner has warned.

The conclusions were reached at the end of an inquest held after three infants died due to receiving contaminated feed.

Continue reading...

Asthma linked to memory problems in children, research suggests

Posted on by

Condition appears to affect episodic memory but researchers did not assess how it caused deficits

Children who have asthma can experience memory problems, according to research in the USthat is the first to link the two conditions.

The research also found that the earlier a child developed asthma, the greater the damage to their memory. The findings highlight the need to view asthma as a potential source of cognitive difficulty in children, the study’s lead author said.

Continue reading...

Tax unhealthy foods to tackle obesity, say campaigners

Posted on by

Health and children’s groups urge UK ministers to impose levies on products containing too much salt or sugar

Dozens of health and children’s groups have urged ministers to tackle obesity by imposing taxes on foods containing too much salt or sugar.

New levies based on the sugar tax on soft drinks would make it easier for consumers to eat more healthily by forcing food manufacturers to reformulate their products, they claim.

74% think food firms are not honest about the health impact of their products.

61% worry about the amount of sugar and saturated fat in what they eat.

Only 13% believe producers will make their food more nutritious without government intervention.

72% worry about high levels of processing used in food production.

Continue reading...

Special educational needs bill in England hits record £10bn a year

Posted on by

National Audit Office report finds no signs of improvement in lives of pupils despite record spending

The bill for special needs education in England has hit £10bn a year, with the number of children and young people entitled to government support in the form of education, health and care plans set to double to 1 million within a decade, a landmark report has found.

The investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that despite record levels of spending there had been no signs of improvement in the lives of children with special educational needs (SEN).

Continue reading...

Albanese government to launch storybook to teach children from culturally diverse backgrounds about consent

Posted on by

My Superhero Voice, which will be available online, is careful not to single out a particular religion or culture

The Australian government will launch a storybook aimed at teaching children from multicultural backgrounds about body safety and consent on Wednesday, but experts say “there is still more to do”.

The book, titled My Superhero Voice, is part of the government’s One Talk at a Time campaign, aimed at preventing child sexual abuse. It was developed by the National Office for Child Safety and consulting agency Cultural Perspectives.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer ready to face down ‘nanny state’ jibes in radical public health drive

Posted on by

Junk food ad ban, age limit on energy drinks and expanded water fluoridation among measures planned to help NHS

Plans to ban junk food ads and to stop children buying high-caffeine energy drinks are among radical public health measures being drawn up by ministers to prevent illness and so ease pressure on the NHS.

The government made clear it would face down “predictable cries of ‘nanny state’” because Keir Starmer was convinced this was the way to fix the service.

Continue reading...

Australians urged to get whooping cough vaccination as infections rise more than tenfold in year

Posted on by

Health authorities say infants are at greatest risk so pregnant women, parents and others in close contact with babies should be vaccinated

Health authorities across Australia are urging people to get vaccinated as cases of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, continue to surge.

The latest national data shows more than 26,700 cases reported so far in 2024, compared with 2,451 cases for all of 2023. The numbers are being driven by cases in Queensland and NSW.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Lucy Letby inquiry should be postponed or changed, experts say

Posted on by

Group including neonatal experts and statistics professors question its setup amid concerns about conviction

A group including some of the UK’s leading neonatal experts and professors of statistics is calling on the government to postpone or change the terms of a public inquiry over concerns about the conviction of the neonatal nurse Lucy Letby.

In a private letter to ministers, seen by the Guardian, the 24 experts said they were concerned that the inquiry’s narrow terms could prevent lessons being learned about “possible negligent deaths that were presumed to be murders” in the neonatal ward of the Countess of Chester hospital (CoC).

Continue reading...