News & Updates

It may be trendy, but a new study has concluded there are no benefits to eating the placenta. In this NICHD podcast, the study author explains the rationale behind this controversial practice and describes what the science has found.

Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced today that Della M. Hann, Ph.D., has been named NICHD Associate Director for Extramural Research. Dr. Hann joins NICHD from the NIH Office of Extramural Research, where she has served as deputy director since 2010.

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered how a major pathway that initiates protein synthesis does so by using an enzyme as a go-between to activate the body’s internal clock.

When animals are present, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have lower readings on a device that detects anxiety and other forms of social arousal when interacting with their peers.

How soon after a baby is born should the practitioner wait to cut the umbilical cord? That simple question has no easy answer.

The more time mothers spend participating in activities with their adolescent children, the less likely these kids engage in delinquent behavior, such as skipping school or shoplifting, according to a study published in the April 2015 issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

A large-scale, multicenter study has shown that emergency body cooling does not improve survival rates or reduce brain injury in infants and children with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest more than normal temperature control.

Growing up poor affects the brain. That’s the conclusion of researchers from nine universities across the country who’ve completed the largest study of its kind to date.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, adults who were physically abused as children were no more likely to abuse their own children than were other adults their age. That’s the conclusion of researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Lack of vitamin E may contribute to cognitive disorders by robbing brain cells of a substance important for their structure, according to a study of zebrafish funded by the National Institutes of Health.

An intervention to teach mothers of preterm infants how to interact with their babies more effectively results in better weight gain and growth for the infants, according to a study funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

​​Most children with HIV who have low levels of a key immune cell eventually recover levels of this cell after beginning treatment, according to a study by researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. ​

Parents who took part in a program to learn parenting skills during their first pregnancy had children who were better adjusted than parents who didn’t participate in the program. That’s what researchers concluded after evaluating the program 5 to 7 years later.

Our guest today has shown over and over again that a comparatively small investment in children can have a substantial payoff when those children reach adulthood.

A new study has found that extremely overweight or obese children are slower than healthy-weight children to recognize when they have made an error during an ongoing activity, and are slower to correct the error.

Children whose mothers were sensitive to their needs tended to grow up into adults who reached higher levels of academic achievement and to have the most enduring romantic relationships. That’s the conclusion of researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health after analyzing data collected over the course of 30 years.

The National Institutes of Health has dedicated $41.5 million for an initiative to understand and monitor the development of the human placenta during pregnancy. The funding will support the development of new technologies to assess the health of the placenta as it grows and matures, with the ultimate goal of improving the health of mothers and children.

About 22% of school-age children speak a language other than English at home, according to the US Census Bureau. The percentage is even higher, 64%, among Hispanic children. Still, it is commonly believed by some that teaching more than one language to children confuses them. Now, new research shows that in fact, bilingualism actually boosts the brain.

Women who deliver a stillbirth—but who have no history of depression—may be at a higher risk for long-lasting depression, conclude researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The depression may last beyond the six months most people require to recover from a major loss and persist for as long as 36 months.

The National Institutes of Health has launched a subsite of DS-Connect: The Down Syndrome Registry for researchers, clinicians, and other professionals with a scientific interest in Down syndrome to access de-identified data from the registry.