Pets can double as asthma antidote

Medical X-Press – Len Canter

Two Swedish studies that tracked 650,000 children found that exposure to farm animals and even dogs can have this kind of beneficial effect. Living on a farm cut kids’ asthma rate by half. Just having a dog in baby’s first year was linked to a 13 percent lower risk of asthma later on, the researchers reported. (more)

Boys identify more strongly with their peers than others

Medical X-Press – Staff Writer

Trying to get your teenage boys to behave at the dinner table? Chances are they will respond better if you get one of their peers to model the behaviour for them, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto. The study, published recently in the Cognitive Development journal, looks into how children and youth engage in “self-other matching” – the ability to look at another person’s body and relate it to an understanding of their own body. (more)

Milk allergy affects half of U.S. food-allergic kids under age one

Medical X-Press – Staff Writer

Although parents often focus on peanuts as the food allergy they need to worry about most, cow’s milk is the most common food allergy in children under the age of 5. New research being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting found that over two percent of all U.S. children under the age of 5 have a milk allergy, and 53 percent of food-allergic infants under age 1 have a cow’s milk allergy. (more)

Juice displaces milk and fruit in high school lunches

Medical X-Press – Staff Writer

High school students participating in school meal programs are less likely to select milk, whole fruit, and water when fruit juice is available, which on balance may decrease the nutritional quality of their lunches, according to a new study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the University of Connecticut. (more)