Today countries around the world start celebrating World Breastfeeding Week, which this year emphasizes the importance of breastfeeding in the first hour of life.

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) 2007 is encouraging breastfeeding in the first hour of life because research shows that early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for six months can save lives. This is the reason behind this year's WBW catchphrase: "Breast Feeding the 1st Hour - Save One Million Babies".

World Breastfeeding Week is supported by a number of global and national organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), who are keen to promote awareness about the importance of breastfeeding soon after birth because of the lifelong health benefits of receiving a mother's first milk, colostrum, the "perfect food for every newborn".

The numbers of overweight children are increasing, and many parents are rightly concerned about their children's weight and how it affects them.

The good news is that parents can help their children live healthy, active lives.

"Sometimes it's best to change your vocabulary." That's what pediatrician Peggy Supple, M.D., of Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove often has to remind the parents of children struggling with obesity.

"I find that overweight children respond better to the word 'activity' than to the term 'exercise,'" Supple explains. "I think it's because some children associate exercise with sweat and work, things they may feel are negatives. To really make an impact with overweight children, you must help them increase their level of activity throughout the day."

With the number of Americans overweight and obese at an all-time high, the diet choices of young people are of concern, especially as they prepare to leave home for the first time in the fall and fend for themselves at college.

College is a time of tremendous change in lifestyles and routines, so it can be difficult for students to establish or maintain healthy eating habits. In some cases, tight time schedules, limited budgets and other influences can lead to weight problems. And patterns of gradual weight gain over the course of college can trigger health problems well beyond your college years.

A new study of US and Canadian teenagers suggests that not getting enough essential nutrients in their diet is linked to risk of developing respiratory conditions such as asthma and poorer lung function. The study is published in the July issue of the journal Chest.

Lead author, Dr Jane Burns of the Harvard School of Public Health, said in a prepared statement that:

"Our study, as well as other research, suggests that higher intakes of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory micronutrients are associated with lower reports of cough, respiratory infections, and less severe asthma-related symptoms."

Using the same database that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses to confirm the rise in obesity rates, researchers have concluded that 100 percent juice is not associated with young children being overweight or at risk for becoming overweight

The research abstract, presented today at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Toronto, looked at dietary intakes of 3,618 children ages 2-11 using the well-known National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

According to Dr. Theresa Nicklas, "We did not find a relationship between 100 percent juice consumption and overweight among children." She adds, "Even among the children who consumed the most juice, we found no association at all with the children being overweight or at risk for overweight." Dr. Nicklas, a child nutrition researcher at the USDA Children's Nutrition Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, found that 100 percent juice consumption also did not decrease the amount of milk consumed in children's diets, which appears to be a common misconception.

Parents who want their kids to consume fewer calories and eat more vegetables might find a healthy solution with "stealth vegetables." A Penn State study shows that decreasing the calorie density of foods by adding vegetables and other lower-calorie ingredients leads to a reduction in children's calorie intake and an increase in vegetable consumption.

"To combat the epidemic of childhood obesity, the World Health Organization recommends reducing children's consumption of calorie-dense foods. Many children are not eating enough foods that are low in calorie density, such as fruits and vegetables," said Dr. Barbara Rolls, who holds the Helen A. Guthrie chair of nutritional sciences at Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. "Parents often find it difficult to get their kids to eat vegetables."

Fathers may be more important than mothers in determining whether a child becomes overweight or obese, according to a ground-breaking new Australian study by the Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute.

The study looked at nearly 5,000 4 to 5 year olds and investigated the relationship between their body mass index (BMI) status and the parenting styles of their mothers and fathers. The study's findings will be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Toronto between May 4 and 9.

The study found that fathers who had permissive (allowing children freedom without limits) or disengaged parenting styles were more likely to have heavier children. Conversely, fathers whose parenting was more consistent (setting clear limits, following through with instructions etc) were less likely to have a child with a higher BMI. Mothers' parenting behaviours and styles were not associated with a child's risk of having a higher BMI.

Parents need feeding alternatives when newborns are not able to breastfeed. However, one method leads to longer hospital stays and possible health hazards for premature infants, according to a new review by Australian researchers.

Traditionally, hospitals and parents have used bottles or tubes to feed infants when breastfeeding is not possible. In some cases, hospitals have turned to cup feeding, in which a baby sips or laps milk in a small cup placed beneath the upper lip.

Professional curiosity prompted the researchers to take a closer look at the practice. "We were all employed in the neonatal nursery at the time and the discussion about cup feeding would often occur," said lead researcher Anndrea Flint, a nurse manager at the Centre for Clinical Nursing of the Royal Women's Hospital in Brisbane.

Breastfeeding newborn babies lying down or in a semi-reclined position may boost the chances of success, according to new research being unveiled at the Royal College of Nursing's 2007 International Research Conference on Wednesday 2nd May in Dundee.

Dr Suzanne Colson, senior midwifery lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, based her research on 40 healthy mothers and their healthy full-term babies, all of whom were breastfeeding at six weeks, as well as 14 bottle feeding mother-baby pairs. She found that those mothers who breastfed their infants lying down or semi-reclined in positions that mirrored the feeding positions of other mammals had the greatest success.

It's one of those things that all parents want to provide for their children and one of those things that many feel they do not know how to do: raise a self-confident child.

Self-esteem oftentimes seems like a fragile, distant thing that we all know what it is but don't know how to develop. Your self-esteem is a compilation of how you feel about yourself. It encompasses everything from your confidence in relationships, to your body image, to your work life. So how do you foster this "thing" in your children?We teach our children "honesty is the best policy." This applies to how we deal with our children as much as it does expecting them to be honest with us. When it comes to your child's self-esteem, he or she will know or be able to sense if you are not being honest. For example, if art is not your child's top skill, don't say that his or her drawing is the best you've ever seen. Your child will know it's not, and will not believe you the next time you say something meant to be positive, no matter how honest it is. Instead, tell your child something genuine about the piece or the effort. Make non-judgmental statements such as, "You really used your imagination in making the flowers many different colors." This simply states your observation, rather than a false statement.