Highlights in this issue

Abstract

Children who were born large for gestational age (LGA) entered puberty earlier than children born appropriate for gestational age, according to an Italian study by Ilaria Di Giovanni et al 1. They collected longitudinal growth data from 70 children and also reported that children who were born LGA experienced longer growth duration. The results highlight the importance of monitoring pubertal growth in children born LGA. Yun Wang et al 2 recruited 368 smoking fathers, whose children were five to six years of age, in the city of Changsha, China. Urine samples were collected from the children, and the fathers were interviewed face to face. The cotinine content in the children's urine correlated with the mean duration of environmental tobacco smoke exposure at home. This seemed to be due only to the smoking of the fathers. In the accompanying commentary Matteo Vitali and Carmela Protano ask how relevant fathers who smoke at home are to the passive smoking exposure of their children 3. The World Health Organization recommends that children should accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) per day. Andreas Fröberg et al explored the physical activity levels provided for 149 Swedish schoolchildren during physical education (PE). On average, only 10–15 minutes of each PE lesson was spent in MVPA. Notably, 13% of the PE lessons were cancelled due to other school events, such as theatre visits or school information sessions 4. Michail Tonkonogi and Emma Hawke comment on the findings 5. Deedee Kommers et al had previously reported that suboptimal bonding impaired hormonal, epigenetic and neuronal development in preterm infants, but that these impairments could be reversed 6. In this issue, the Dutch group assessed the feasibility of measuring salivary oxytocin in preterm infants receiving Kangaroo care. Saliva was collected unobtrusively from 21 preterm infants before and during 30 Kangaroo care sessions, and oxytocin was detected in both sets of samples. The authors concluded that this method could be a useful tool for evaluating the bonding process in preterm infants 7. This issue contains a new study from Rebecca Slykerman, who won our International Young Investigator Award in 2015 8. She and her co-authors found that antibiotic use in the first year of life was associated with differences in cognitive, behavioural and mood measures in children 9. These findings support the theory that there is a link between disruption to the gut microbiota in early life and later neurocognitive outcomes. Keith Fluegge comments on the paper 10. Still on the subject of antibiotics, Chandima Madhu Wickramatilake et al 11 ask whether antibiotics are overprescribed to children with acute lower respiratory tract infections in Sri Lanka. Similarly, Jim Runesson et al 12 reported in our previous issue that antibiotics are being misused to treat diarrhoeal disease in children in Central Asia.