Poor countries fail to check undernutrition

Developing nations must do far more for their undernourished children to meet a longtime United Nation’s goal of halving the world’s underweight infants by 2015, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said recently. Despite steady progress in many poor countries, the pace has lagged in others, threatening to cripple related UN initiatives aimed at controlling disease, boosting education rates and spurring economic growth. Among steps it recommended were promoting breast-feeding as the exclusive source of nutrition for the first six months of life, improving the diet of pregnant women to push up birth weights and ensuring adequate supplies of iodized salt, iron, Vitamin A and other vital micronutrients in children’s diets. Well over half of the world’s undernourished children live in south Asia and China, the report said.

Teacher’s abuse ruins psyche

Herbal abuse by a kindergarten teacher triggered by a child’s inattention or disruptive behaviour can produce a “vicious cycle” that boosts the risk of delinquency and learning problems later on, a study in Pediatrics suggests. The findings are not intended to put the blame on teachers, given that a child’s behaviour is also a factor, but instead underscore the need for better support of classroom teachers in dealing with problem children, Dr Mara Brendgen of the University of Quebec in Montreal told Reuters. She found that children who showed antisocial behaviour and inattention problems in kindergarten, were the most frequent targets of teacher abuse.

Steroid therapy for eczema

Fluticasone lotion may be safely used as short-term treatment of eczema ? or more precisely, atopic dermatitis ? in children three months of age or older, says a report in Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Fluticasone creams and ointments are already known to work well, but a lotion formulation may make it easier to treat young children with extensive disease and to use in difficult to treat areas, the authors based at Children’s Hospital and Health Center ? San Diego explained. “Lotions offer good spreadability, cooling effects, moisturisation, and low irritancy,” the authors conclude. “These features may make fluticasone lotion a useful addition to the range of therapies available for the treatment of atopic dermatitis.”

‘Eclipse of love’ in the West

Growing number of loveless relationships may be behind declining birthrates in the developed world, says Pope Benedict. An “eclipse of love” and lack of moral guidance threatens the intellectual and spiritual development of future generations of children. “It is children who are often the first to experience the consequences. Instead of feeling loved, they appear to be merely tolerated.”