Does breast-feeding protect against infections in infants less than 3 months of age?

To determine whether breast-feeding protects infants from infections, a case-control study was conducted. The cases were previously healthy children who were admitted to Yale-New Haven Hospital for an infectious illness at or before 90 days of age. The controls were chosen from the log of births and matched to the cases for five important demographic variables.

Effect of passive smoking on birth-weight.

500 consecutive Danish women who had full-term babies were interviewed on the third or fourth day post partum and asked about smoking in all household members. Exposure to smoking by the mother was found to reduce birth-weight, and indirect or passive exposure to smoking by the father had nearly as large (66%) an effect. On average, birth-weight was reduced by 120 g per pack of cigarettes (or cigar/pipe equivalent) smoked per day by the father.

Studies of breast-feeding and infections. How good is the evidence?

We assessed the extent to which studies of the association between breast-feeding and infection met four important methodological standards that relate to both the scientific validity and the generalizability of the studies. Of the 20 studies (14 cohort, six case-control), only six met three or four of the methodological standards. Four of these six studies found that breast-feeding was not protective against infections and two found that breast-feeding was protective against infections.

The effect of anesthetic agents on human immune system function. I. Design of a system to deliver inhalational anesthetic agents to leukocyte cultures in vitro.

A novel system for exposing purified human mononuclear leukocyte subsets or any cultured cell to inhalational anesthetic agents has been devised. Monocytes and lymphocytes are purified by counter-current centrifugal elutriation and put into culture vessels with and without appropriate functional activators. The culture vessels are placed into one of four anesthetic agent exposure chambers, each containing a different concentration of the anesthetic agent to be tested.

Clinical data used by pediatric residents to assess parenting.

To determine how pediatricians assess parenting at well-child visits, pediatric residents were interviewed following the well-child visit of a child less than 24 months of age. Using a structured format, the residents were interviewed about their judgments concerning the characteristics of the mother just seen and the data used to make these judgments. In addition, ratings were made of the quality of the descriptions of the parents.

Educational intervention by computer in childhood asthma: a randomized clinical trial testing the use of a new teaching intervention in childhood asthma.

To affect asthma-related knowledge, behavior, and morbidity, researchers tested a new educational intervention for children with asthma: an asthma-specific computer game called Asthma Command, which was specifically designed for this study. Sixty-five children with moderately severe asthma were randomly assigned to one of two groups, and 54 completed the study. Both groups were seen approximately six times during the 1 year of the study.

Problems of early infancy, formula changes, and mothers' beliefs about their infants.

Problems of early infancy are sometimes managed by changing an infant's formula from a cow milk formula to a soy protein or casein hydrolysate formula ("special formulas"). This study was designed to determine the frequency of formula changes, mothers' reports of problems that lead to such a change, and mothers' beliefs about the causes of these problems. Mothers of 189 breast-feeding (BF) and 184 formula-feeding (FF) infants were enrolled postpartum.

Mothers' perceptions of problems of feeding and crying behaviors. A prospective study.

During early infancy, problems of crying, colic, spitting, and feeding difficulties often provoke anxiety and lack of self-confidence in parents. We studied prospectively what proportion of mothers felt that their infants had problems of this type and determined risk factors for perceived problems identified in the early postnatal period. The mothers of 189 breast-fed and 184 formula-fed infants completed questionnaires post partum and responded to a follow-up interview at four months.

Reassessment of the relationship of perinatal risk factors and child abuse.

We performed a case-control study to examine the relationship of child abuse to several perinatal risk factors. Cases were children who had been born at Yale-New Haven (Conn) Hospital and were reported for physical abuse to the Hospital's Child Abuse Committee. For each case, a control was chosen from the hospital's log of births and matched according to five demographic variables.

Marital adjustment to chronic childhood illness: a critique of the literature.

Thirty-four studies of marital adjustment were selected from the literature on family adjustment to chronic childhood illness. Studies were reviewed to determine whether divorce rates were elevated or marital adjustment was poorer compared with that of families of healthy children. Of 23 studies reporting divorce rates, only six used a group of families without a chronically ill child for comparison.

Clinical predictors of pneumonia as a guide to ordering chest roentgenograms.

To develop criteria for a more efficient approach to the ordering of chest roentgenograms, patients with fever or respiratory symptoms who were being evaluated with this diagnostic test were prospectively monitored. During a six-month period, residents working in a pediatric emergency room collected data on 136 children, 3 months to 15 years of age. Pneumonia, defined by appropriate abnormal chest roentgenographic findings, occurred in 19 per cent.

Synthesis of acid-soluble spore proteins by Bacillus subtilis.

The major acid-soluble spore proteins (ASSPs) of Bacillus subtilis were detected by immunoprecipitation of radioactively labeled in vitro- and in vivo-synthesized proteins. ASSP synthesis in vivo began 2 h after the initiation of sporulation (t2) and reached its maximum rate at t7. This corresponded to the time of synthesis of mRNA that stimulated the maximum rate of ASSP synthesis in vitro.

The pediatric prenatal visit: a questionnaire survey.

A questionnaire was sent to 83 pediatricians to determine which issues they considered important in the pediatric prenatal visit. Of the 64 respondents, 58 do prenatal interviews. Approximately half of the mothers of newborns entering these practices had prenatal visits.