How does parental depression effect a child’s language development?

In the latest issue of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Dr. James Paulson and colleagues published a large epidemiological study of parental depression 9 and 24 months after the baby’s birth. They were interested in examining the effect of parental depression on parent-child reading activities and the baby’s language development. The authors used a large national study of early development, which included 4,109 families with both father and mother living together. The participants completed a depression screening 9 and 24 months after the baby’s birth, a measure of the baby’s vocabulary, and a measure of parent-to-child reading behaviors. Read More

The New England Journal of Medicine just published a placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind study of a vaccine (recombinant CMV envelope glycoprotein B with MF59 adjuvant) in the prevention of maternal infection with with cytomegalovirus (CMV) during pregnancy.

Infection with CMV is major cause of auditory and cognitive impairment in newborns. CMV is actually very common, but when acquired during pregnancy the risk to the developing fetus is very high. Approximately 27,000 CMV infections among pregnant women occur in the United States each year Read More

The Atlantic magazine just published an article written by Hanna Rosin questioning the general perception that research strongly supports that breast-feeding is better than formula. Read More