Sexual violence can emerge in adolescence, yet little is known about youth perpetrators, especially those not involved with the criminal justice system. Ybarra and Mitchell studied a national sample of 1058 youth aged 14 to 20 years and found that 1 in 10 youths reported some type of sexual violence perpetration in their lifetimes, and 4% reported rape or attempted rape. Perpetrators reported greater exposure to violent X-rated content. Victim blaming appears to be common, whereas experiencing consequences does not.
While the deleterious effects of poverty on child development have been well established, to date, there have been little neurobiological data in humans to inform the mechanisms of these relationships. Luby and colleagues followed a group of preschoolers for 3 to 6 years and performed magnetic resonance imaging scans on them at school age. Poverty was associated with smaller white and cortical gray matter and hippocampal and amygdala volumes, and the effects of poverty on hippocampal volume were mediated by caregiving support/hostility, as well as stressful life events. Charles A. Nelson, PhD, commented in an editorial on the importance of this link and the need for interventions for high-risk families that begin even before birth.
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Hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (HPS) is common but its etiology remains unknown. McAteer and colleagues conducted a population-based case-control study to determine whether bottle feeding after birth is associated with the development of HPS. Bottle feeding was associated with a more than 2-fold increased risk for HPS, although the effect was only present in older women. In an accompanying editorial, Douglas C. Barnhart, MD, MSPH, discussed the implications of these findings in light of other, including genetic, risk factors for HPS.
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Continuing Medical Education
Clinical Review & Education
Excessive infant crying is common and distressing, but without proven effective prevention management options. Sung and colleagues conducted a systematic review of the effectiveness of probiotics in the prevention/management of colic in infants aged 3 months or younger. Three of the 5 management trials concluded that probiotics effectively treated colic in breastfed babies; 1 suggested possible effectiveness in formula-fed babies with colic, and another suggested their ineffectiveness in breastfed babies with colic. However, they found there is still insufficient evidence to support the general use of probiotics in all infants with colic or to recommend its use in preventing colic.