Giving our children the tools to move the world forward is the most valuable investment we can make
American musician and songwriter Louis Armstrong wrote, “I hear babies cry. I watch them grow. They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.” As an educator, parent and adult functioning in our society, I can think of no higher ideal than this. It’s an empowering, humbling…
The simple answer is no
Providing quality care for preschool children is a good thing. Children learn to socialize in groups beyond their family. They acquire the skills and readiness that will allow them to succeed in elementary school and later in life. With children well looked after, all parents are free to take jobs or pursue careers contributing to…
Each parent wants what is best for their child, but their version of what that is tends to differ
When a child is diagnosed with a terminal illness, it changes the family dynamic. For parents, it is devastating news, and regardless of the outcomes, they will never be the same again. These parents are expected to make difficult medical decisions about treatment for their child. However, they often don’t have the mental or emotional…
Immunology is at the centre of virtually every chronic disease
Two decades ago, Catherine Field’s University of Alberta nutrition lab showed that specific fatty acids in breast milk during the crucial first period of life could program how the immune system responds to food allergens. Her group looked at milk, egg and soy allergies – the ones babies tend to grow out of but can still…
Officials need to streamline and eliminate child-care regulations
The federal government has spotted another pretext to increase its intrusion in our lives: subsidized child care. Despite knowing economic lockdowns have caused massive job losses, federal officials argue that unaffordable child care impedes women from returning to the workforce. Subsidies are a shallow, top-down policy that would generate aid dependency from child-care centres and…
Half of children with cancer being treated with cisplatin suffer irreversible hearing loss
A University of Alberta research lab has helped identify a genetic variant that increases the risk of hearing loss in children with cancer who are treated with the widely used drug cisplatin. Amit Bhavsar, assistant professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology and Canada Research Chair in Functional Genomic Medicine, led the U…
Could potentially identify children at risk of neurodevelopmental disorders
Infant boys with a higher composition of a particular gut microbiota show enhanced neurodevelopment, according to a new study. The University of Alberta-led research followed more than 400 infants from the CHILD Cohort Study (CHILD) at its Edmonton site. Boys with a gut bacterial composition that was high in the bacteria Bacteroidetes at one year of age…
It’s time for Canada to regulate marketing food to kids. But regulating marketing is no cakewalk
Most people would agree that protecting children should be our country’s utmost priority. Protecting children from unhealthy food products and fast-food chains has been the subject of many conversations. Ads for sugary food products geared towards children have been contested for years and some countries have opted to ban them, one way or another. The…
Thanks to increase in virtual health care during pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic should make it easier for children with obesity and their families to connect with the specialized care they need, according to the authors of a new study in the academic journal Family Practice. The researchers examined referral records of 3,468 family physicians and 395 pediatricians in Alberta between January 2014 and December 2017.…
Research may eliminate the toxic side-effect of cispaltin in childhood cancer survivors
University of Alberta scientists have identified a receptor in cells that could be key to preventing permanent hearing loss in childhood cancer survivors being treated with the drug cisplatin. The researchers believe that, by inhibiting the receptor, they may be able to eliminate toxic side-effects from the drug that cause the hearing loss. Cisplatin is…