Behind the Headlines

Fast-food 'link' to child asthma and eczema

Tuesday Jan 15 2013

'Teenagers more likely to have severe asthma and eczema if they eat fast food more than three times a week,' The Guardian reports. The claim is based on wide-ranging research looking at the dietary patterns of children across the world…

Wrong fat in pregnancy diet 'may make kids fatter'

Friday Jan 11 2013

Pregnant women who eat too much of the ‘wrong’ type of fat are likely to have fatter children' the Daily Mail advises. The advice is based on a UK study that found a link between maternal consumption of omega 6 fatty acids and the child’s weight…

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Jabs 'more upsetting' for babies of first-time mums

Wednesday Jan 9 2013

"Babies with anxious mothers 'feel more pain' during jabs," was today's headline in The Daily Telegraph. The story comes from a study looking at whether a baby's "pain behaviours"...

Is children's asthma made worse by inhalers?

Tuesday Jan 8 2013

Genetic tests could pave way to 'personalised' asthma drugs The Guardian reports while warning that current treatments may make symptoms worse. They report on a study which found that children with certain genes responded better to specific treatments…

Pollen in pregnancy could be linked to infant asthma

Tuesday Jan 8 2013

'Pregnant women exposed to pollen shortly before birth are more likely to have children with severe asthma,' is the somewhat alarmist headline in the Daily Mail. The news is based on a large Swedish study...

Dubious claims that crying babies 'self-soothe'

Friday Jan 4 2013

'Want a good night's sleep? Let the baby cry' is the deeply misleading headline in the The Daily Telegraph as they report on a study that presented absolutely no new evidence on whether leaving a baby to cry was either good or bad for the baby…

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Family meals 'help kids get their five-a-day'

Thursday Dec 20 2012

'Family meals aid five-a-day: Eating together at the table boosts children's intake of fruit and vegetables,' the Daily Mail reports. The news is from a study that aimed to explore the influence that the home...

Secondhand smoke increases childhood meningitis risk

Friday Dec 14 2012

"Meningitis link to smoking in pregnancy: Cigarettes can treble child's chance of developing the disease," the Daily Mail reports. The headlines follow the publication of a review that has looked at whether children exposed...…

One primary school child in three 'too fat'

Thursday Dec 13 2012

Obesity in children was in the headlines today, with most papers reporting that, among children in their final year at primary school, one child in three is overweight or obese. The stories come from the latest figures on children’s weight…

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Parents 'need to drink less' in front of their kids

Monday Dec 10 2012

A study into the impact of parental drinking habits was in the papers today, with the Independent reporting that parents “should drink alcohol less in front of the children” and the Daily Mail claiming that women drinkers “pass on bad habits...