Now and Zen: Lower prenatal stress reduces risk of behavioral issues in kids
Study finds mothers who experience significant prenatal stress may be increasing their child's risk for behavioural issues
August 16, 2017
Science Daily/University of Ottawa
Expectant mothers may want to consider adopting today's trend towards stress management, in light of new research pointing to its ability to lower the risk of problematic behavior in their offspring. Researchers found that mothers who are exposed to high levels of stress during pregnancy have kids who are more than twice as likely to have chronic symptoms of hyperactivity and conduct disorder.
Parenting is a complicated journey full of questions, and when a beloved child begins to show signs of a behavioural disorder, a parent's challenges become even more difficult to navigate.
Expectant mothers may want to consider adopting today's trend towards stress management, in light of new research from the University of Ottawa pointing to its ability to lower the risk of problematic behaviour in their offspring.
Dr. Ian Colman, associate professor at the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine, led a team of researchers in examining data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The team found that mothers who experience significant prenatal stress may be increasing their child's risk for behavioural issues.
"Mothers who are exposed to high levels of stress during pregnancy have kids who are more than twice as likely to have chronic symptoms of hyperactivity and conduct disorder," Dr. Colman said of the team's recently published findings.
"Hyperactivity is a symptom of ADHD, and about 10% of school-age children are affected by ADHD or conduct disorder," he said. "These disorders can lead to poor results in school and difficulties in their relationships with family and friends."
Behavioural disorders such as those seen by the researchers are characterized by aggressive or antisocial behaviour, high activity levels, and difficulty inhibiting behaviour. They are also associated with school failure, substance use/abuse, and criminal activity, according to the paper.
A mother's stress can alter brain development in the fetus, and it is believed these changes may be long-lasting or permanent, said Dr. Colman.
The team was unique in its approach: it studied the effects of specific stressors on participants, as opposed to gauging overall stress levels. Participants reported stressful events, such as problems at work, the illness of a relative, or an argument with a partner, family or friend. "Generally speaking, we found that the higher the stress, the higher the symptoms," Dr. Colman said. "We can't avoid most stressful events in our lives and since we can't always prevent them, the focus should be on helping mothers manage stress in order to give their children the best start in life."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170816110136.htm
High-fat diet in pregnancy can cause mental health problems in offspring
Study is first to document causal relationship in study of nonhuman primates
July 21, 2017
Science Daily/Oregon Health & Science University
A high-fat diet during pregnancy alters the development of the brain and endocrine system of offspring, new research in an animal model suggests. The new study links an unhealthy diet during pregnancy to mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression in children.
"Given the high level of dietary fat consumption and maternal obesity in developed nations, these findings have important implications for the mental health of future generations," the researchers report.
The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.
The study, led by Elinor Sullivan, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Neuroscience at Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU, tested the effect of a maternal high-fat diet on nonhuman primates, tightly controlling their diet in a way that would be impossible in a human population. The study revealed behavioral changes in the offspring associated with impaired development of the central serotonin system in the brain. Further, it showed that introducing a healthy diet to the offspring at an early age failed to reverse the effect.
Previous observational studies in people correlated maternal obesity with a range of mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. The new research demonstrates for the first time that a high-fat diet, increasingly common in the developed world, caused long-lasting mental health ramifications for the offspring of non-human primates.
In the United States, 64 percent of women of reproductive age are overweight and 35 percent are obese. The new study suggests that the U.S. obesity epidemic may be imposing transgenerational effects.
"It's not about blaming the mother," said Sullivan, senior author on the study. "It's about educating pregnant women about the potential risks of a high-fat diet in pregnancy and empowering them and their families to make healthy choices by providing support. We also need to craft public policies that promote healthy lifestyles and diets."
Researchers grouped a total of 65 female Japanese macaques into two groups, one given a high-fat diet and one a control diet during pregnancy. They subsequently measured and compared anxiety-like behavior among 135 offspring and found that both males and females exposed to a high-fat diet during pregnancy exhibited greater incidence of anxiety compared with those in the control group. The scientists also examined physiological differences between the two groups, finding that exposure to a high-fat diet during gestation and early in development impaired the development of neurons containing serotonin, a neurotransmitter that's critical in developing brains.
The new findings suggest that diet is at least as important as genetic predisposition to neurodevelopmental disorders such as anxiety or depression, said an OHSU pediatric psychiatrist who was not involved in the research.
"I think it's quite dramatic," said Joel Nigg, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and behavioral neuroscience in the OHSU School of Medicine. "A lot of people are going to be astonished to see that the maternal diet has this big of an effect on the behavior of the offspring. We've always looked at the link between obesity and physical diseases like heart disease, but this is really the clearest demonstration that it's also affecting the brain."
Sullivan and research assistant and first author Jacqueline Thompson said they believe the findings provide evidence that mobilizing public resources to provide healthy food and pre- and post-natal care to families of all socioeconomic classes could reduce mental health disorders in future generations.
"My hope is that increased public awareness about the origins of neuropsychiatric disorders can improve our identification and management of these conditions, both at an individual and societal level," Thompson said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170721164037.htm
Why some women are more likely to feel depressed
New study links duration of estrogen exposure with increased vulnerability to depression: Longer exposure to estrogen shown to provide protection
July 19, 2017
Science Daily/The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)
It's no secret that the risk of depression increases for women when their hormones are fluctuating. Especially vulnerable times include the menopause transition and onset of postmenopause. There's also postpartum depression that can erupt shortly after childbirth. But why do some women feel blue while others seem to skate through these transitions? One answer is provided through new study results.
The article "Lifelong estradiol exposure and risk of depressive symptoms during the transition to menopause and postmenopause" includes data from a study of more than 1,300 regularly menstruating premenopausal women aged 42 to 52 years at study entry. The primary goal of the study was to understand why some women are more vulnerable to depression, even though all women experience hormone fluctuations.
Previous studies have suggested a role for reproductive hormones in causing an increased susceptibility to depression. This study focused largely on the effect of estradiol, the predominant estrogen present during the reproductive years. Among other things, estradiol modulates the synthesis, availability, and metabolism of serotonin, a key neurotransmitter in depression. Whereas fluctuations of estradiol during the menopause transition are universal, the duration of exposure to estradiol throughout the adult years varies widely among women.
A key finding of this study was that longer duration of estrogen exposure from the start of menstruation until the onset of menopause was significantly associated with a reduced risk of depression during the transition to menopause and for up to 10 years postmenopause. Also noteworthy was that longer duration of birth control use was associated with a decreased risk of depression, but the number of pregnancies or incidence of breastfeeding had no association.
"Women are more vulnerable to depressive symptoms during and after the menopause transition because of fluctuating hormone changes," says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, executive director of NAMS. "This study additionally found a higher risk for depression in those with earlier menopause, fewer menstrual cycles over lifespan, or more frequent hot flashes. Women and their providers need to recognize symptoms of depression such as mood changes, loss of pleasure, changes in weight or sleep, fatigue, feeling worthless, being unable to make decisions, or feeling persistently sad and take appropriate action."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170719084710.htm
Restless legs syndrome linked to poor sleep quality, impaired function in pregnancy
New study shows relationship between RLS and sleep-wake disturbances
July 14, 2017
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
A new study of pregnant women shows that restless legs syndrome (RLS) is common and is strongly associated with poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and poor daytime function, which are frequent complaints during pregnancy.
Results show that 36 percent of women in their third trimester had RLS, and half of the women with RLS had moderate to severe symptoms. Compared with pregnant women without RLS, those with RLS were twice as likely to report poor sleep quality and poor daytime function, and they were also more likely to have excessive daytime sleepiness. Additionally, the study found a positive dose-response relationship between RLS severity and the sleep-wake disturbances.
"While we expected that RLS would be relatively common in pregnant women, we were surprised to observe just how many had a severe form," said lead author Galit Levi Dunietz, PhD, a T32 post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Center in Ann Arbor. "These women experienced RLS symptoms at least four times per week."
Study results are published in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
The study involved 1,563 pregnant women with an average age of 30 years, each of whom was in her third trimester. RLS was diagnosed using the standardized criteria of self-reported symptoms and frequency. Demographic and pregnancy data were extracted from medical records, and sleep information was collected with questionnaires. The study found no evidence for any association between RLS and delivery outcomes.
According to the authors, health care providers often dismiss patient complaints of poor sleep and daytime sleepiness during pregnancy.
"These sleep-wake disturbances are considered common symptoms in pregnancy and are frequently attributed to physiological changes that occur in normal pregnancy, but our data suggest that RLS is an additional contributor to these symptoms," said Dunietz.
The authors suggest that the identification and treatment of RLS in pregnancy -- using non-pharmacological approaches -- may alleviate the burden of these symptoms for many women.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170714183056.htm
Children prenatally exposed to alcohol more likely to have academic difficulties
March 24, 2017
Science Daily/Research Society on Alcoholism
Despite greater awareness of the dangers of prenatal exposure to alcohol, the rates of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders remain alarmingly high. This study evaluated academic achievement among children known to be prenatally exposed to maternal heavy alcohol consumption as compared to their peers without such exposure, and explored the brain regions that may underlie academic performance.
Researchers assessed two groups of children, eight to 16 years of age: 67 children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure (44 boys, 23 girls) and 61 children who were not prenatally exposed to alcohol (33 boys, 28 girls). Scores on standardized tests of academic areas such as reading, spelling, and math were analyzed. In addition, a subsample of 42 children (29 boys, 13 girls) had brain imaging, which allowed the authors to examine the relations between the cortical structure (thickness and surface area) of their brains and academic performance.
The alcohol-exposed children performed significantly worse than their peers in all academic areas, with particular weaknesses found in math performance. Brain imaging revealed several brain surface area clusters linked to math and spelling performance. The children without prenatal alcohol exposure demonstrated the expected developmental pattern of better scores associated with smaller brain surface areas, which may be related to a typical developmental process known as pruning. However, alcohol-exposed children did not show this pattern, possibly due to atypical or delayed brain development, which has been observed in other research studies. These results support previous findings of lower academic performance among children prenatally exposed to alcohol compared to their peers, which appear to be associated with differences in brain development, and highlight the need for additional attention and support for these children.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170324192315.htm
One in four elderly Australian women has dementia
At least a quarter of Australian women over 70 will develop dementia according to study
March 17, 2017
Science Daily/University of Queensland
At least a quarter of Australian women over 70 will develop dementia according to researchers. Australian policymakers previously had to rely on dementia rates from international studies, or extrapolated from clinical assessments made on small groups of people. The researchers used a technique borrowed from ecologists to provide an up-to-date estimate for dementia in the Australian population
The researchers used a new technique to provide an up-to-date estimate for dementia in the Australian population. Dr Michael Waller from the UQ School of Public Health said the nation's population was aging, but there was conflicting information being presented.
"On one hand we expect the number of women living with dementia to increase, but on the other hand there is international research suggesting rates might be decreasing," Dr Waller said.
"Having an up-to-date, local estimate of dementia rates is important so that policy makers and the health care and aged care industries can meet the needs of older Australians.
"There's no national registry for dementia, so Australian policy makers have had to rely on dementia rates from international studies, or extrapolated from clinical assessments made on small groups of people.
"We needed a new approach so we used a method ecologists call 'capture-recapture'.
"Where an ecologist works with animals, we work with data.
"So instead of capturing, tagging, releasing and then recapturing animals to estimate a population size we are applying the same technique to health data to estimate the number of cases.
"The prevalence of dementia is often underestimated and this technique allows us to compare different data sources and estimate the number of cases that may have been missed."
The researchers looked at data from 12,000 Australian women born between 1921 and 1926 who participated in the Women's Health Australia study (also known as the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health).
For the past 20 years participants answered detailed surveys on their lifestyle, activities, and physical and mental health.
Survey data was linked to aged care assessments, the National Death Index, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and hospital admissions data to find any instance where the women participating in the study were diagnosed with dementia by a doctor.
"Previously, an elderly participant with dementia would have just dropped out of the survey, but by linking to additional health records we can find out what happened to them and their contribution isn't lost," Dr Waller said.
"The women in the study have been very loyal over the years and I think that they, and their families, would appreciate that their contribution to women's health research will continue despite their diagnosis."
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170317082500.htm
Positive father-child relationship can moderate negative effects of maternal depression Crucial role for partners of depressed mothers
Crucial role for partners of depressed mothers
May 11, 2017
Science Daily/Bar-Ilan University
A new study has examined for the first time whether fathering can moderate the negative effects of maternal depression on family-level functioning. The results of the study are the first to describe the family process by using direct observations of mothering, fathering, and family patterns in homes where mothers suffer clinical depression during the child's first years of life.
Maternal depression negatively impacts children's emotional and cognitive development and family life. Studies have shown that a home in which the mother suffers from depression exhibits lower cohesion, warmth, and expressiveness and higher conflict, rigidity, and affectionless control. Since 15-18% of women in industrial societies and up to 30% in developing countries suffer from maternal depression, it is of clinical and public health concern to understand the effects of maternal depression on children's development.
A family affair
A new study, published in Development and Psychopathology, by Prof. Ruth Feldman and colleagues at the Department of Psychology and Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan University has, for the first time, examined whether fathering can moderate the negative effects of maternal depression on family-level functioning. The results of this study are the first to describe the family process by using direct observations of mothering, fathering, and family patterns in homes where mothers suffer clinical depression during the child's first years of life.
Feldman conducted a longitudinal study of a carefully selected sample of married or cohabiting chronically depressed women with no comorbid contextual risk, who were repeatedly assessed for maternal depression across the first year after childbirth and when the child reached age six. The families were home-visited when the child reached preschool age in order to observe and videotape mother-child, father-child, and both-parent-child interactions.
Sense and sensitivity
During the first years of life, sensitivity marks the most critical component of the parental style that affects the child's emotional and social development. Sensitive parents are attuned to their child's needs and attend to them in a responsive and nonintrusive manner. Parents who act intrusively tend to take over tasks that children are, or could be, performing independently, imposing their own agenda without regard for the child.
In Feldman's study depressed mothers exhibited low sensitivity and high intrusiveness, and children displayed lower social engagement during interactions with them. Partners of depressed mothers also showed low sensitivity, high intrusiveness, and provided little opportunities for child social engagement, so that the family unit was less cohesive, harmonious, warm, and collaborative. However, when fathers were sensitive, nonintrusive, and engaged children socially, maternal depression no longer predicted low family cohesion.
Feldman: "When fathers rise to the challenge of co-parenting with a chronically depressed mother, become invested in the father-child relationship despite little modeling from their wives, and form a sensitive, nonintrusive, and reciprocal relationship with the child that fosters his/her social involvement and participation, fathering can buffer the spillover from maternal depression to the family atmosphere."
According to Feldman, because rates of maternal depression appear to increase each decade, and paternal involvement in child care is constantly increasing in industrial societies, it is critical to address the fathers' potential contribution to family welfare by providing interventions for the development of a sensitive parenting style and other compensatory mechanisms, in order to enhance their role as buffers of the negative effects of maternal depression.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170511095154.htm
Sleep disorders affect men and women differently
Women are more likely to feel tired and depressed than men
May 23, 2017
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
A new study suggests that men and women are affected differently by sleep disorders. Results show that women are more likely than men to have more severe symptoms of depression, trouble sleeping at night, and excessive daytime sleepiness. Women also have a higher degree of difficulty concentrating and remembering things due to sleepiness or tiredness. In contrast, male snoring was more likely than female snoring to force bed partners to sleep in different rooms.
Results show that women are more likely than men to have more severe symptoms of depression, trouble sleeping at night, and excessive daytime sleepiness. Women also have a higher degree of difficulty concentrating and remembering things due to sleepiness or tiredness. In contrast, male snoring was more likely than female snoring to force bed partners to sleep in different rooms.
"We found that females were more likely to have sleeping disorders associated with daytime sleepiness," said co-author Dr. John Malouf, founder of SleepGP sleep clinic in Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia. "Females were also likely to feel more affected by the burden of their symptoms."
The main purpose of the study was to understand the differences in functional status between the sexes when they present to primary care providers with sleep problems.
"What was surprising about the results was that while men and women tended to present at a similar age, their symptoms and the effect on their lives differed markedly," said lead author Allegra Boccabella, research associate at SleepGP clinic. "We didn't expect there to be differences across the board in terms of the different aspects of people's lives."
Study results are published in the May 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
Boccabella and Malouf conducted a retrospective clinical audit of 744 patients who received sleep-related health care from 7 private general practices in Australia between April 2013 and January 2015. Patients completed a variety of sleep-related questionnaires, including the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Snoring Severity Scale (SSS), and the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire 10.
According to the authors, understanding how the symptoms reported by women differ from those of men can help medical professionals manage sleep disorders more holistically.
"If we can identify the ways that their lives are affected, we can help produce better outcomes for the patient," said Boccabella.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170523081838.htm
Mindfulness-focused childbirth education leads to less depression
May 24, 2017
Science Daily/University of Wisconsin-Madison
A new study shows mindfulness training that addresses fear and pain during childbirth can improve women's childbirth experiences and reduce their depression symptoms during pregnancy and the early postpartum period.
"Fear of the unknown affects us all, and perhaps none more so than pregnant women," says lead author Larissa Duncan, UW-Madison professor of human development and family studies. "With mindfulness skills, women in our study reported feeling better able to cope with childbirth and they experienced improved mental well-being critical for healthy mother-infant adjustment in the first year of life."
The study also suggests that pregnant women who practice mindfulness may use less medication for pain during labor. Many women and their healthcare providers are concerned about the use of medications during pregnancy, labor and while breastfeeding because of the potential risks to infants. Yet, left untreated, maternal mental health problems also pose a significant risk to infants.
"A mindfulness approach offers the possibility of decreasing the need for these medications and can reach women who may not know they are at risk for perinatal depression or can't access mental health services," Duncan says.
The new study, published in the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, is a randomized, controlled trial called Prenatal Education About Reducing Labor Stress (PEARLS), compares mainstream childbirth education with childbirth education that includes mindfulness skills focused on reducing fear among first-time mothers. Fear of childbirth has been shown in previous studies to be linked to poorer labor-and-delivery outcomes and to depression.
While many consider childbirth education classes a primary resource for pregnant women and their partners to learn information and strategies for the birthing process and remedies for coping with labor pain, there is limited data that demonstrates they achieve these goals for the more than 2 million pregnant women who attend them each year in the United States.
In fact, Duncan says, "sometimes women report that the information in childbirth education actually increases their fear of childbirth."
For the study, considered a pilot because funding limited participation to 30 women and their partners, first-time mothers late in their third trimester of pregnancy were offered either a standard childbirth preparation course lacking a mind-body focus or an intensive weekend workshop called Mind in Labor: Working with Pain in Childbirth.
The workshop was based on the Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting education course developed by study co-author, Nancy Bardacke, a certified nurse-midwife and senior mindfulness teacher at UCSF. It focused on practices like mindful movement, walking meditation, and pain coping strategies. Previous research shows that mindfulness training can be an effective way to manage both chronic and acute pain.
Participants represented a diversity of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. They completed self-reported assessments before and after taking part in a childbirth education course and after giving birth. The mindfulness group also received handouts and guided audio materials so they could practice mindfulness on their own. The study team collected medical record data from each woman.
The researchers found a reduction in depression symptoms in the mindfulness group, which continued through their post-birth follow up at approximately six weeks. In contrast, depression symptoms worsened among women who participated in the standard childbirth education courses.
While mothers in the mindfulness group sought epidurals at similar rates to those in the control group and retrospectively reported similar levels of perceived pain during labor, the study did see a trend toward lower use of opioid-based pain medication during labor. While these results were not statistically significant, the rate of narcotic use during labor was around 62 percent in the control group and just 31 percent in the mindfulness group. A larger study is needed to better understand this effect.
"The encouraging results of this small study point to the possibility that mindfulness skills can transform the way expectant parents prepare for this profound life change," says Bardacke. "In addition to supporting moms and babies, we may also be benefiting fathers, who are themselves experiencing the birth of their child and becoming parents. While more research is clearly needed, the larger public health implications of this work are motivating."
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170524131122.htm
Mom and baby sleeping in same room associated with less sleep, unsafe sleep habits
June 5, 2017
Science Daily/Penn State College of Medicine
Room sharing between babies and mothers beyond the first four months is associated with less sleep for babies and unsafe sleeping practices.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends parents keep babies in the same room with them to sleep for the first year to prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). But room sharing between babies and mothers beyond the first four months is associated with less sleep for babies and unsafe sleeping practices the AAP is hoping to prevent, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.
While room sharing can be justified for the first six months based on the fact that 90 percent of SIDS cases happen in this timeframe, Dr. Ian Paul, professor of pediatrics, said evidence was lacking for the 6 to 12 month recommendation made by the AAP, which also conflicts with infant sleep expert guidance. This lack of evidence led the researchers to address the question of the effects of parent-baby room sharing on sleep habits and quality for infants 6 to 12 months old.
"Inadequate infant sleep can lead to obesity, poor sleep later in life and can negatively affect parents," Paul said. "Many pediatricians and sleep experts question the room-sharing recommendation until one year because infants begin to experience separation anxiety in the second half of the first year, making it problematic to change sleep locations at that stage. Waiting too long can have negative effects on sleep quality for both parents and infants in both the short and long term."
To study the association between room-sharing and sleep outcomes, researchers used data they had already collected from the INSIGHT study, which included 279 mothers who delivered at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and their babies. A questionnaire was completed by mothers when their babies were 4 and 9 months old and assessed sleep duration, location, night waking, night feedings, bedtime routines and sleep behaviors. Sleep duration, location and patterns were also assessed at 12 and 30 months. Paul and colleagues report their findings in Pediatrics.
At 4 months, children who already slept independently in their own room averaged 45 minutes longer stretches of continuous sleep than those who shared a room with a parent. At nine months, the gap widened: those who learned to sleep independently by 4 months had sleep stretches that averaged 1 hour and 40 minutes longer than babies who were still sleeping in their parent's room, 542 minutes vs. 442 minutes respectively. Total sleep over the night was also greater for the babies who were in their own room.
These early decisions by parents had lasting effects. At 30 months, babies who had room shared at 9 months slept, on average, 45 minutes less per night than those who were independent sleepers at 4 and 9 months.
Room sharing also affected sleep safety. Babies who shared a room at 4 months were more likely to have a blanket, pillow or other unapproved object that could increase chances of SIDS in their crib than those who slept in their own room. Additionally, babies who shared a room were more likely to be moved into their parent's bed overnight at both 4 and 9 months old.
"Perhaps our most troubling finding was that room-sharing was associated with overnight transitions to bed-sharing, which is strongly discouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics," Paul said. "Bed-sharing overnight was more common in our sample among 4- and 9-month-olds who began the night on a separate surface in their parents' room."
Paul said the study questions the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation to room-share for the entire first year.
"Our findings showing poorer sleep-related outcomes and more unsafe sleep practices for babies who room-share beyond early infancy suggest that the American Academy of Pediatrics should reconsider and revise the recommendation pending evidence to support it."
Paul said that parents should discuss this study and safe sleep guidance with their pediatrician and noted that breastfeeding outcomes were not different between groups at age 4 months and beyond.
Limitations of this study include the study population being mostly white with a lower number of low-income participants. The recommendations may not translate into lower income homes that may not have a separate bedroom for baby.
Other researchers on the study are Patricia Carper, clinical trial coordinator, Penn State College of Medicine; Emily Hohman, research associate, Jennifer Savage, associate director and Michele Marini, research technologist, Center for Childhood Obesity Research, Penn State; Eric Loken, University of Connecticut, Storrs; Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, University at Buffalo, and Leann Birch, University of Georgia.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170605102137.htm