Intrauterine exposure to caffeine and inattention/overactivity in children.

AIM: To determine the association between intrauterine exposure to timing and sources of caffeine and inattention/overactivity, suggesting ADHD in the child. METHOD: This study used prospectively collected data from the large population-based study, The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Participants were 25 343 mothers and their 18-month-old children. Mothers reported on consumption of a number of caffeine sources at the 17th week and 30th week of gestation, as well as child inattention/overactivity at 18 months. Data were analysed using univariate analyses of covariance (ancova). RESULTS: Once we controlled for confounders, there was a small effect of caffeine intake at 17th week of gestation on inattention/overactivity combined, and both 17th and 30th week of gestation on overactivity, when investigated separately from inattention. Surprisingly, the caffeine effect was only found for soft drinks, not tea or coffee. CONCLUSION: Intrauterine exposure to soft drinks rather than coffee, the traditional focus, is associated with maternal reports of overactive behaviour in children aged 18 months.

Youth-parent consistencies on ratings of difficulties and prosocial behavior: exploration of an at-risk sample.

Low informant agreement is of particular concern in clinical settings, since diagnoses and interventions are largely based on reports from parents and/or youths. This study explores youth-parent consistencies in an at-risk sample of youths (n = 42), several from immigrant and refugee families, all with stressful background experiences. Data from a community sample (n = 165) was used to contrast the clinical results. Results showed that correlations between clinical youths and parents were within the same range as those in the community sample. Consistencies concerning absolute level of behavior were higher in the clinical sample. However, interesting differences in informant consistencies were found on difficulties and resources between the two samples. This study adds to the picture that there is no simple relationship between severity of behavior deviance and informant agreement. Asking about behavioral resources as well as difficulties may provide valuable additional information regarding differences in the perspectives of at-risk youths and parents.

[Recurrent pain in children and parents--no factual evidence of familial pain clustering]. / Gjentatte smerter hos barn og foreldre--få holdepunkter for familiaer smerteopphopning.

Recurrent pain in children is a universal phenomenon, which occurs in about 50 percent of all children. The most prevalent pain areas are the stomach, head, back and neck/shoulders. A somatic cause of the symptoms is seldom found, but the pain is often related to other discomforts, problems or lack of family functioning. There has been a common belief that "pain runs in families". In our investigation of 358 mother-father-child trios, where the members reported on their own symptoms, we found little support for this hypothesis. There is a need for further research on these problems, where the study design and measure instruments should be carefully validated.

Recurrent pain symptoms in children and parents.

UNLABELLED: Recurrent pain in five different areas (stomach, arms & legs, head, back and neck & shoulders) in a population of 348 school children and their parents has been investigated. The study presented here is restricted to 229 mother-father-child trios. Forty-four percent of the children reported pain in at least one area compared to 60% of the mothers and 51% of the fathers. Headache and pains in arms and legs were most common in boys. The most frequent pain sites for girls were head and back. Overall, girls complained more than boys. No significant associations between complaints in parents and their children were demonstrated, analysed by logistic regression analysis. Furthermore, there was no significant association between the reported pain in the mother and father. CONCLUSION: Children's pain did not associate with parental pain in this study. The results do not support previous hypotheses that recurrent pain clusters in families.

Developmental pathways of behavior problems in the young child: factors associated with continuity and change.

The continuity and discontinuity of behavioral problems from age 4 through age 7 until 10 were examined in 120 children. The mothers rated childhood behavior problems at the three age points. Problems were defined as above 80th percentile. Individual transition classification of problematic and non-problematic children showed that 7% had stable behavior problems, 60% stable non-problematic behavior and the rest displayed transitions related to either onset or offset of problems. The mechanisms involved in onset were different from those involved in offset. Children showing onset of problems had fewer friends, participated less often in organized leisure activities and were more passive in class than the well-functioning children. Maternal characteristics such as continued education, current employment and high educational ambitions for the child were associated with having children changing their pathway from risk to an adaptive one.

Development of stomach-ache and headache during middle childhood: co-occurrence and psychosocial risk factors.

Development of somatic symptoms and associations with psychosocial risk factors were investigated in a longitudinal study of Norwegian children aged 4-10 years. Complaints of stomach-ache only were associated with emotionally well-adapted children, and mothers with low education and high emotional support. Children complaining of headache only behaved well as preschoolers, showed a tendency towards high achievement motivation at school and their mothers were employed outside the home. Children with the co-occurrence syndrome seemed to constitute a separate entity. They differed from the others as the syndrome was associated with previous behavioural and emotional problems, current emotional disturbances and mothers with less support. Family demographic stability, further child health problems and school factors were not associated with the co-occurrence syndrome.

Prevalence and persistence of stomach ache and headache among children. Follow-up of a cohort of Norwegian children from 4 to 10 years of age.

Results from a prospective cohort of 136 children, from 4 to 10 years of age, indicated that stomach ache was almost as prevalent among preschool children as children of school age. Headache was almost absent among 4-year-olds but prevalent at 10 years of age. Generally, early pain complaints were persistent. The co-occurrence of stomach ache and headache increased from 4% of children at 4 years of age to 20% when they reached 10 years of age.

Temporal and regional trends in fatal childhood injuries in Norway 1971-1989.

The paper focuses on how mortality due to injuries among Norwegian children has varied over time and throughout the country over the last two decades. The temporal trends are compared to those of the other Nordic countries. Individual data on date of birth and death, county of residence at death, sex and cause of death were obtained from the Norwegian Death Registry on all children aged 0-14 who died during the time-span 1971-1989. Denominators were the number of persons alive in the corresponding age, year, sex and county groups. There has been a decline in fatal injuries from 25 to 9 deaths per 100,000 person-years in, respectively, 1971 and 1989. The decline is less distinct in the late 1980's. The rate of fatal injuries have throughout the period been lowest in the county of Oslo and highest in Northern Norway with fatal injury rates in Finnmark 3 times that of Oslo. The declining time trend was present for all types of injuries except bicyclists and passengers, but with the sharpest decline for pedestrians and drowning injuries. The regional variation was strongest for drowning and showed a different profile from the overall pattern for bicyclists, passengers and falling injuries. The incidence of fatal injuries in Norway is comparable to those of Denmark, Finland and Iceland, but considerably higher than in Sweden. In all Nordic countries the rates have declined to about one third from 1971 to 1988.