Tag: paediatrics

Categories : Injury & Trauma PaediatricsTags :

Safety Commission Warns on Peloton Treadmill Hazard to Children

On By ModernMedia

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has put out a warning for owners of the popular Peloton Tread+ exercise machine following “multiple incidents of small children and a pet being injured beneath the machines.”

The warning comes weeks after Peloton CEO John Foley said a child died in an accident related to the machine. “While we are aware of only a small handful of incidents involving the Tread+ where children have been hurt, each one is devastating to all of us at Peloton, and our hearts go out to the families involved,” he said in a statement.

As a result, the CPSC launched an investigation into the treadmill, one that the commission says remains ongoing. The commission reported that it is aware of 38 other non-fatal safety incidents involving the device.
In the commission’s view, the Peloton Tread+ “poses serious risks to children for abrasions, fractures, and death” resulting from “children becoming entrapped, pinned, and pulled under the rear roller of the product.”

The announcement included a video of a child seemingly pulled underneath the treadmill while playing behind the machine.

The CPSC is advising those with children at home to stop using the Peloton Tread+ treadmill immediately and says that the hazard the machine imposes “cannot be avoided simply by locking the device when not in use.”

“Peloton has not yet agreed to do a recall or a stop sale,” Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesperson Joe Martyak told NPR. He continued, “We hope that will change.”

Generally, product recalls are done on a voluntary basis by companies, in concert with government.

Peloton responded to the CPSC, saying the warning was “inaccurate and misleading.”

“Like all motorized exercise equipment, the Tread+ can pose hazards if the warnings and safety instructions are not followed,” the company said. In response to further questions from NPR about a possible recall, a spokesperson for the company said “a recall has never been warranted.”

The spokesman added that, “The Peloton Tread+ is safe when operated as directed and in accordance with the warnings and safety instructions.”.

Source: NPR

Categories : Diet and Nutrition PaediatricsTags :

Junk Food Impacts Bone Growth in Kids

On By ModernMedia
Burger and chips. Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

A new study has found that ultra-processed foods (aka junk food) impacts bone quality, showing how damaging these can be especially in younger children.

The Hebrew University study provides the first comprehensive analysis showing the manner in which such foods impact skeletal development.  

Junk foods go through many processing stages, and contain non-dietary ingredients. They are easily accessible, can be eaten without preparation and fairly cheap, and their increasing presence in diets is contributing to worldwide obesity with its associated metabolic impacts.

Children tend to like junk food. As much as 70% percent of their caloric consumption are estimated to come from ultra-processed foods. While numerous studies have reflected on the overall negative impact of junk food, few have focused on its direct developmental effects on children, particularly young children.

Studying lab rodents with skeletons in post embryonic growth stages, they found that those exposed to ultra-processed foods suffered from stunted growth and compromised bone strength. With histological examination, high levels of cartilage were found in the epiphyseal plates at the end of bones. The RNA genetic profiles of cartilage cells exposed to ultra-processed food also showed signs of impaired boned development.

In order to understand how eating habits might impact bone development, the researchers replicated this kind of food intake for the rodents. “We divided the rodents’ weekly nutritional intake—30% came from a ‘controlled’ diet, 70% from ultra-processed foods,” said Monsonego-Ornan. They found that the rodents experienced bone density moderate damage though there were fewer signs of cartilage buildup in their growth plates. “Our conclusion was that even in reduced amounts, the ultra-processed foods can have a definite negative impact on skeletal growth.”

Children and adolescents eat junk foods in great quantities, with half of American minors eating junk food daily. Monsonego-Ornan added. “When Carlos Monteiro, one of the world’s leading experts on nutrition, said that there is no such thing as a healthy ultra-processed food, he was clearly right. Even if we reduce fats, carbs nitrates and other known harmful substances, these foods still possess their damaging attributes. Every part of the body is prone to this damage and certainly those systems that remain in the critical stages of development.”

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Janna Zaretsky et al. Ultra-processed food targets bone quality via endochondral ossification, Bone Research (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41413-020-00127-9

Categories : PaediatricsTags :

Parents can Transmit Periodontitis-causing Bacteria to Children

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A study conducted by the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) has found that adults can transmit the bacteria that cause periodontitis to their children, and even remain in the mouth when the children undergo various treatments. 

Periodontitis, which is preceded by gingivitis, is a bacterially caused inflammation of the periodontium, the tissue supporting the teeth. It is characterised by swollen and bleeding gums and halitosis, and can result in loss of teeth in severe cases.

Should the microorganisms responsible for the disease enter the bloodstream, they may trigger other kinds of inflammation in the body. The disease can be treated by cleaning the pockets around the teeth by a dentist or dental hygienist and administration of anti-inflammatory drugs or antibiotics.

“The parents’ oral microbiome is a determinant of the subgingival microbial colonization of their children,” the article’s wrote in their conclusion, adding that “dysbiotic microbiota acquired by children of periodontitis patients at an early age are resilient to shift and the community structure is maintained even after controlling the hygiene status”.

According to the first author of the article, dental surgeon Mabelle de Freitas Monteiro, she and her group have been researching periodontitis for ten years, and have observed both parents with the disease and their children, and noted the impact on their health.

“If the findings are applied to day-to-day dental practice, the study can be said to help design more direct approaches. Knowing that periodontal disease may affect the patient’s family is an incentive to use preventive treatment, seek early diagnosis and mitigate complications,” said Monteiro, who was supported by FAPESP via two projects.

The principal investigator for both of these projects was Renato Corrêa Viana Casarin, a professor at UNICAMP’s Piracicaba Dental School (FOP), who is the last author of the article .

In Prof Casarin’s view, parents’s care of their children’s dental hygiene should start when they are still infants.

“This pioneering study compares parents with and without periodontitis,” said Prof Casarin. “In children of the former, we found subgingival bacterial colonization at a very early age. However, ‘inheriting’ the problem doesn’t mean a child is fated to develop the disease in adulthood. Hence the importance of keeping an eye open for the smallest signs and seeking specialized help.”

According to the latest national dental epidemiological survey from 2010, 18% of children aged 12 had never been to the dentist and 11.7% had experienced bleeding of the gums. Of those in the 15-19 age group, 13.6% had never visited a dental clinic. The planned 2020 survey was postponed due to COVID. According to the São Paulo State Department of Health’s  latest oral health survey in 2019 revealed that 50.5% of adults aged 35-44 complained of toothache, bleeding gums and periodontitis.

In the FOP-UNICAMP study led by Casarin and Monteiro, the team colleclected samples of subgingival biofilm and plaque from 18 adults with a history of generalised aggressive (grade C) periodontitis, their children aged 6-12, and 18 orally healthy adults.

As well as a clinical analysis, the samples were also subjected to a microbiological analysis and genetic sequencing by Ohio State University researchers.

“Children of periodontitis parents were preferentially colonized by Filifactor alocis, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Streptococcus parasanguinis, Fusobacterium nucleatum and several species belonging to the genus Selenomonas even in the absence of periodontitis,” the article states. “These pathogens also emerged as robust discriminators of the microbial signatures of children of parents with periodontitis.”

Prof Casarin told Agência FAPESP that even with bacterial plaque control and vigorous brushing, children of people with the disease still had the bacteria in their mouths, whereas the effects of dental hygiene and prophylaxis were more significant in the children of healthy subjects.

“Because the parents had periodontitis, their children assumed this community with disease characteristics. They carried the bacterial information into their adult lives,” he said, adding that the analysis of bacterial colonisation indicated the transmission was more likely from the mother. The research group’s next step is working with pregnant women to prevent bacterial colonisation of their children’s mouths.

“We’ll treat the mothers during pregnancy, before the babies are born, and try to find out if it’s possible to prevent bacterial colonization from occurring,” Casarin said, adding that studies with patients will only go ahead when the pandemic is under control.

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal information: Monteiro, M. F., et al. (2021) Parents with periodontitis impact the subgingival colonization of their offspring. Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80372-4.

Categories : Cancer General Interest PaediatricsTags :

Donated Afro Hair Wigs Now Possible Thanks to UK Girl

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A silhouetted woman with afro hair reading a book by a window. Photo by Thought Catalog from Pexels

A British girl who was told her afro hair was too delicate to donate for wig-making prompted a new wig-making approach to use it, BBC News reports.

When eleven year old Carly Gorton wanted to donate her afro hair to the Little Princess Trust charity, which makes natural hair wigs for children who have lost theirs from cancer treatment and other causes, she was initially frustrated as the charity said the hair was too delicate. Undeterred, Carly had urged the charity to rethink, which it did.

Following research and a trial to make them possible, the charity described the new wigs as a “historic breakthrough”.

“It’s really beautiful,” said Carly, of one of the new wigs.

A BMJ study showed that wigs positively impact psychological wellbeing for people with alopecia, attributed to increasing their confidence of going out in public and the perception of fewer comments about hair loss.

At a special school assembly, Carly’s mother Anna Mudeka then cut her daughter’s hair and it was donated for use in the first new wigs to be worn by other children.

Phil Brace, The Little Princess Trust’s chief executive, said Carly’s “determination” to donate her hair had pushed them to find a solution.

The charity worked with the 120-year-old London company Raoul to develop a wefting method to weave and tie the donated locks.

Carly’s mother, Anna Mudeka, said: “History has been made and we are so proud of Carly.

“Through her sheer determination and everyone pulling together to hear her voice, children of black and mixed heritage can now donate their hair to the Little Princess Trust.”

Ms Mudeka, of Southburgh, added that children needing wigs through illness could now receive a wig “true to their heritage”.

Carly and her mother’s campaign had created a “fundamental change in wig manufacturing”, said Mr Brace. “The commitment and work that has gone on has shown just what is possible when groups of people get together and bring different skills to find a solution.”

Source: BBC News

Categories : PaediatricsTags :

New ADHD Drug Gets FDA Approval for Children

On By ModernMedia

US regulators have approved the first new ADHD drug for children in over a decade.

The Food and Drug Administration last week approved  viloxazine (Qelbree) for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children ages 6 to 17. It was developed by  Supernus Pharmaceuticals. The drug’s price was undisclosed but is likely to be higher than the generic ADHD pills.

In Europe, viloxazine was sold as an antidepressant for several decades, but never received FDA approval. It was discontinued nearly two decades ago, due to competition from popular pills like Zoloft and Prozac.

ADHD affects about 6 million American children and adolescents. For many, problems include trouble paying attention and completing tasks, fidgeting and impulsiveness.  

Earlier ADHD treatments like Ritalin, nearly all of which contain the stimulants amphetamine or methylphenidate, which create the potential for abuse. Viloxazine however is not a stimulant or a controlled substance. It carries a warning of potential for suicidal thoughts and behaviour, which occurred in fewer than 1% of volunteers in studies of the drug.

Qelbree could be an option for children with substance use disorders, who do not cope well with stimulant side effects or who need more therapy, said Dr David W. Goodman, director of Suburban Psychiatric Associates near Baltimore and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Goodman said that long-acting stimulants prescribed to ADHD patients currently are harder to abuse to get a high than the older fast-acting versions.

In a late-stage study, 477 children ages 6 to 11 took viloxazine for six weeks. Compared to placebo, Inattention and hyperactivity symptoms were reduced by about 50%. Symptom reduction was seen within a week in some participants. Its common side effects include sleepiness, lethargy, decreased appetite and headache.

Supernus is in late-stage testing for adults with ADHD, who represent a small but growing market as adult treatment of the condition expands.

Source: Medical Xpress

Categories : GenderTags :

Evidence for Puberty Blockers is ‘Very Low’ Says UK Guidance Body

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In an official review of studies, the UK’s National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said that the evidence for puberty blockers is “very low”.

In an assessment of the evidence for puberty blockers commissioned by NHS England, the guidance body said that existing studies of the drugs were small and “subject to bias and confounding”. The assessment forms part of a review into gender identity services for children and young people.

NHS England said the advice would be considered by the review and it would not be commenting further.

Gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues, popularly known as puberty blockers, are prescribed to some young people with gender dysphoria – distress caused by a discrepancy between a person’s gender identity (how they see themselves regarding their gender) and their sex at birth.

The NICE evidence review looked at what impact puberty blockers had on gender dysphoria, mental health – such as depression, anger and anxiety – and quality of life.

NICE, which provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care, said: “The quality of evidence for these outcomes was assessed as very low certainty.”

The review sought to find out how treatment with GnRH analogues compared in terms of clinical effectiveness with other interventions that may be offered to young people with gender dysphoria. These include psychological support, social transitioning to the desired gender – such as changing pronouns and clothes but without medication – or no intervention at all.

NICE found it was difficult to draw conclusions from existing studies because they were “all small” and lacked control groups. They found other issues with the studies too, such as not describing what other physical and mental health problems a young person may have alongside gender dysphoria.

The review said there was “very little data” on any additional interventions, such as counselling or other drug treatments, that the young people may have received alongside taking puberty blockers, leading to possible bias in results. Impacts of puberty blockers on bone density were another concern.

However without a “comparator group”, it was not known whether bone density changes observed “are associated with GnRH analogues or due to changes over time”.

It is argued by some that it is difficult to withhold support to create a comparator group because it would mean unfairly disadvantaging some. NICE accepted this, but said offering psychological support to compare puberty blockers “may reduce ethical concerns in future trials”.

No evidence of cost-effectiveness of treatment was found by the review.

NICE also reviewed the evidence base for gender-affirming hormones, which can be given to young people with gender dysphoria from age 16 in the NHS. These start the development of the physical sex characteristics of the gender with which they identify with the aim of improving mental health, quality of life and body image.

The review found the evidence of clinical effectiveness and safety of gender-affirming hormones was also of “very low” quality.

“Any potential benefits of gender-affirming hormones must be weighed against the largely unknown long-term safety profile of these treatments in children and adolescents with gender dysphoria,” NICE said.

Source: BBC News

Categories : Neurology PaediatricsTags :

Boy’s Brain Rewires After Stroke as a Newborn

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Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Researchers have reported the case of a boy whose brain was able to rewire after a severe stroke that damaged much of his brain.

In the seventh grade, 13-year old Daniel Carr amazed his baseball coach with his ability to throw with his left hand, saying that it was the fastest he’d ever seen. However, he was unable to properly catch with his right hand.

Hearing this from the coach, Kellie Carr, Daniel’s mother, realised that his son had a number of quirks, such as favouring his left side when he was an infant, and his left-handedness emerged well before the normal age of two or three. However, she was unable to get any explanation for this until she met Nico Dosenbach, MD, PhD, who informed her that her son had had a stroke when he was a newborn.

MRI scans revealed large, bilateral voids in Daniel’s brain, but incredibly, he had no cognitive, behavioural or motor problems other than a lack of strength and dexterity in his right arm.
“The extent of Daniel’s injuries may be on the edge of what’s compatible with life,” Dosenbach said.

Dainel’s remarkable recovery can be explained by his young age at the time the stroke.

“The brain can compensate more quickly and completely for strokes sustained in early childhood,” he said. “By contrast, large strokes in adults often cause death or severe functional impairment with little chance of recovery. However, the mechanics behind this are only beginning to be understood.”

More MRI scans were done on Daniel’s brain to determine its structure and pathology. Dosenbach and Laumann conducted high-resolution functional MRI scans to understand how Daniel’s brain had reorganised itself.
With his mother’s consent, Daniel was further tested over a period of six years, including batteries of neurological tests, and more scans done. Timothy Laumann, MD, PhD, now a fourth-year psychiatry resident at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, had the expertise to analyse the data.

Looking at his medical records, the physician-scientists noted that he had an infection as a newborn, and was hospitalised with an IV drip. However, none of the physicians had suspected a stroke, which happens to one in every 4000 newborns. Daniel was sent home after a week, the doctors having suspected a viral infection.

“The risk of having a pediatric stroke greatly increases with a medical problem, especially an infection during the newborn period,” Dosenbach said. “However, usually there are more obvious signs that a stroke occurred. I can understand how no one suspected it.”

The researchers compared the images of Daniel’s brain to others of young adults, as well as Dosenbach’s own brain, which he had imaged and studied extensively.

“Part of Daniel’s brain structure is gone,” Laumann explained, referring to their analysis of the MRI data. “He’s missing almost a quarter of his cortex.”

The dead tissue was replaced by pockets of cerebrospinal fluid, which acts as a shock absorber, as well as delivering nutrients and removing waste. The surviving neurons formed interconnected islands that restored cognitive and motor functions, and neighbourhoods of healthy tissue were again reconnected.

“Our findings illustrate the brain’s tenacity at reorganizing and recovering functions damaged by a massive stroke affecting both sides of his brain,” Dosenbach said. “Future studies of functional remapping relative to tissue loss may provide additional insights. Our results raise the possibility that variability in outcomes may depend on specific features unique to an individual’s brain.”

Despite the extensive damage, Daniel completed tertiary education and now works as a diesel mechanic.

“His stroke still shocks me,” Kellie Carr said. “How could I have not known? But looking back, maybe it was better that way. I might have babied Daniel and been afraid to let him be a regular kid. Maybe the best thing for him was living normally.”

Daniel agreed: “I think about my right hand daily because I have to constantly think five steps ahead to figure out how to compensate for not being able to use it properly, like I did with the baseball glove. But the last thing I want is for people to act like something is wrong with me. I’m fine.”

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Timothy O Laumann et al. Brain network reorganisation in an adolescent after bilateral perinatal strokes, The Lancet Neurology (2021). DOI: 10.1016/S1474-4422(21)00062-4

Categories : Implants and Prostheses PaediatricsTags :

Lab-made Heart Valves That Can Grow With The Recipient

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In a new study, lab-made heart valves were shown to grow along with their recipient when implanted into lambs for a year, making a new alternative possible for thousands of paediatric patients who need replacement heart valves. 

Researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities’ College of Science and Engineering and the Medical School published the results in Science Translational Medicine. The production procedure for the valves has also been patented and licensed to the University of Minnesota startup company Vascudyne, Inc.

Compared to currently used animal-derived valves, these new valves also showed reduced calcification and improved blood flow when tested in the same growing lamb model. Current solutions for children involve prosthetic valves, but these calcify over time and cannot grow with the patient. This requires up to five open-heart surgeries to replace them as the children grow towards adulthood, involving considerable risk and expense, as well as demanding lifelong anticoagulation therapy.

“This is a huge step forward in paediatric heart research,” commented senior researcher Robert Tranquillo, a University of Minnesota professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. “This is the first demonstration that a valve implanted into a large animal model, in our case a lamb, can grow with the animal into adulthood. We have a way to go yet, but this puts us much farther down the path to future clinical trials in children. We are excited and optimistic about the possibility of this actually becoming a reality in years to come.”

Using a combination of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, they were able to grow the heart valves. Implementing a tissue engineering technique they had previously developed, they grew tube-like structures out of skin cells. This involved combining the skin cells in fibrin, and providing nutrients in a bioreactor. After washing the skin cells out with detergent, the researchers were left with a collageneous matrix which would not provoke an immune response when implanted. They then sewed and trimmed three of these tubes together to make a 19mm diameter heart valve-like structure.

“After these initial steps, it looked like a heart valve, but the question then became if it could work like a heart valve and if it could grow,” Tranquillo said. “Our findings confirmed both.”

The valves grew from 19mm to 25mm over a year, and showed little of the calcification or clotting associated with prosthetic valves, while performing better than animal-derived valves.”We knew from previous studies that the engineered tubes have the capacity to regenerate and grow in a growing lamb model, but the biggest challenge was how to maintain leaflet function in a growing valved conduit that goes through 40 million cycles in a year,” said lead researcher Zeeshan Syedain, a University of Minnesota senior research associate in Tranquillo’s lab. “When we saw how well the valves functioned for an entire year from young lamb to adult sheep, it was very exciting.”

The next steps are to implant the valve into the right ventricle of the heart to see how it performs, and apply for FDA approval to proceed to human trials. 

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Zeeshan H. Syedain et al, Pediatric tri-tube valved conduits made from fibroblast-produced extracellular matrix evaluated over 52 weeks in growing lambs, Science Translational Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abb7225

Categories : Cancer PaediatricsTags :

Delaying Lumbar Puncture Cuts Relapse in Childhood Leukaemia

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Commencing chemotherapy several days before the first lumbar puncture for diagnosis and treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) may lower the risk of central nervous system (CNS) relapse in children, according to a study from St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and collaborators in China. 

“This study identified factors to help us predict and better manage the risk of CNS relapse that will be useful for treating ALL patients worldwide, in both resource-rich and resource-limited countries,” said corresponding author Ching-Hon Pui, MD, chair of the St. Jude Department of Oncology. Dr Pui pioneered paediatric ALL treatment that has achieved 94% long-term survival for St. Jude patients that did not receive brain irradiation.

Using an adapted paediatric protocol from St Jude Hospital, 7640 children and adolescents across 20 Chinese hospitals were enrolled in the trial. However, there was a great disparity across the hospital settings. For example, just three of the hospitals offered total intravenous anaesthesia for children undergoing spinal taps, while only two had flow cytometry for the diagnosis of leukaemia cells in cerebrospinal fluid.

The five-year overall survival rate was 91% for study patients, and the cancer-free survival rate was 80%, which is a dramatic improvement over previous clinical trials in China. But 1.9% of patients relapsed in the CNS alone, and in another 2.7% of patients the relapse involved the CNS. In comparison, a Canadian study reported a 6.6% rate for CNS-involved relapse in paediatric ALL patients followed over 10 years.

According to Dr Piu, in order to increase the survival rate of paediatric ALL patients requires identifying those at risk for CNS relapse, along with increasing their quality of life. Three factors reduced the risk of CNS relapse. First, commencing dexamethasone a few days before the spinal tap, prevents leukaemia cells entering the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Second, intravenous anaesthesia reduced bleeding risk during lumbar punctures, and improved  intrathecal therapy. Third, flow cytometry enables more accurate diagnosis of leukaemia cells in CSF, and reduced CNS relapse.

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Jingyan Tang et al. Prognostic Factors for CNS Control in Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated Without Cranial Irradiation, Blood (2021). DOI: 10.1182/blood.2020010438

Categories : Mental Health PaediatricsTags :

Playing with Ultra-thin Dolls Skews Girls’ Ideal Body Size

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A small-scale study led by Durham University in the UK, has shown that play with ultra-thin dolls may negatively affect body image in girls as young as five years old.

The researchers warn that the dolls, combined with exposure to ‘thin ideals’ in the media, could lead to body dissatisfaction in young girls, which has been shown to be a factor in the development of eating disorders. A Dutch study showed that girls randomised to receive an ultra-thin doll to play with ate less than those who received a realistic adult doll.

The study had 30 girls aged between 5-9 years old play with an ultra-thin doll, a realistic childlike doll or a car. Before and after each play session, the girls were asked about their perceived own body size and ideal body size via an interactive computer test using pictures.

Playing with the ultra-thin dolls reduced girls’ ideal body size immediately after play. There was no improvement even when they subsequently played with the childlike dolls or cars afterwards, demonstrating that playing with other toys cannot quickly counteract the effects. The realistic children’s dolls had a neutral effect on body ideals.

Lead author Professor Lynda Boothroyd, from Durham University’s Department of Psychology, said: “Body dissatisfaction is a huge problem, particularly amongst young girls. It can have serious consequences for girls’ wellbeing and lead to eating disorders and depression.

“The results from our study indicate that playing with ultra-thin dolls, which are sold in the millions each year, could have a real negative impact on girls’ body image. This is on top of all the images of unrealistic body sizes they see on TV, in films and on social media. This is something that needs to be addressed in order to reduce the pressure on girls and women to aspire to a ‘thin ideal body’.”

The psychologists had found in previous research that the more TV we watch, the more we prefer thinner female bodies. Of the girls who took part in the study, 80% said they had ultra-thin dolls at home or with their friends, and nearly all watched films which tend to portray very thin female bodies. Dolls available in shops tend to have a projected BMI of 10 to 16 (underweight). The study used realistically proportioned dolls resembling healthy children of 7 and 9.

Dr Elizabeth Evans, from Newcastle University’s School of Psychology, said: “This study isn’t intended to make parents feel guilty about what’s in their child’s toy box, and it certainly isn’t trying to suggest that ultra-thin dolls are ‘bad’.

“What our study provides is useful information that parents can take into account when making decisions about toys. Ultra-thin dolls are part of a bigger picture of body pressures that young children experience, and awareness of these pressures is really important to help support and encourage positive body image in our children.”

The study, though small, tested the children before and after doll play, an unusual approach which nevertheless adds to growing evidence that doll play affects young girls’ beauty ideals.

Professor Martin Tovee, from Northumbria University’s Department of Psychology, said: “Our study shows how perception of ideal body size and shape is moulded from our earliest years to expect unrealistic ideals. This creates an inevitable body image dissatisfaction which is already known to lead towards disordered eating.”

Source: Medical Xpress

Journal information: Can realistic dolls protect body satisfaction in young girls?, Boothroyd et al, Body Image, 11 March 2021.