Fathers' and mothers' responses to infant smiles and cries

Forty-eight mother--father pairs watched a 6-minute videotape presentation of an infant during which time their skin conductance and blood pressure (systolic and diastolic) were monitored. Mood scales were also administered. Half of the subjects saw a crying baby, while the other half viewed a smiling infant. The baby was labeled as "normal," "difficult," or "premature," to equal proportions of the sample. All parents completed standard questionnaires concerning their own child. The smiling infant triggered positive emotions and negligible changes in autonomic arousal, whereas a crying infant was perceived as aversive and elicited diastolic blood-pressure and skin-conductance increases. Skin-conductance increases were especially apparent when the infant was described as "premature." Mothers and fathers did not differ either in their responses to the stimulus baby or in their perception of their own child.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22718/1/0000273.pd

Associations between maternal physical activity in early and late pregnancy and offspring birth size: remote federated individual level meta-analysis from eight cohort studies.

OBJECTIVE: Evidence on the impact of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) in pregnancy on birth size is inconsistent. We aimed to examine the association between LTPA during early and late pregnancy and newborn anthropometric outcomes. DESIGN: Individual level meta-analysis, which reduces heterogeneity across studies. SETTING: A consortium of eight population-based studies (seven European and one US) comprising 72,694 participants. METHODS: Generalised linear models with consistent inclusion of confounders (gestational age, sex, parity, maternal age, education, ethnicity, BMI, smoking and alcohol intake) were used to test associations between self-reported LTPA at either early (8-18 weeks gestation) or late pregnancy (30+ weeks) and the outcomes. Results were pooled using random effects meta-analyses. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Birth weight, Large-for-gestational age (LGA), macrosomia, small-for-gestational age (SGA), %body fat and ponderal index at birth. RESULTS: Late, but not early, gestation maternal moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), vigorous activity and LTPA energy expenditure were modestly inversely associated with BW, LGA, macrosomia and ponderal index, without heterogeneity (all: I-square=0%). For each extra hour/week of MVPA, RR for LGA and macrosomia were 0.97 (95% CI: 0.96, 0.98) and 0.96 (95%CI: 0.94, 0.98) respectively. Associations were only modestly reduced after additional adjustments for maternal BMI and gestational diabetes. No measure of LTPA was associated with risk for SGA. CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity in late, but not early, pregnancy is consistently associated with modestly lower risk of LGA and macrosomia, but not SGA. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Includes MRC, Wellcome Trust and NIHR

Developmental and evolutionary assumptions in a study about the impact of premature birth and low income on mother–infant interaction

In order to study the impact of premature birth and low income on mother–infant interaction, four Portuguese samples were gathered: full-term, middle-class (n=99); premature, middle-class (n=63); full-term, low income (n=22); and premature, low income (n=21). Infants were filmed in a free play situation with their mothers, and the results were scored using the CARE Index. By means of multinomial regression analysis, social economic status (SES) was found to be the best predictor of maternal sensitivity and infant cooperative behavior within a set of medical and social factors. Contrary to the expectations of the cumulative risk perspective, two factors of risk (premature birth together with low SES) were as negative for mother–infant interaction as low SES solely. In this study, as previous studies have shown, maternal sensitivity and infant cooperative behavior were highly correlated, as was maternal control with infant compliance. Our results further indicate that, when maternal lack of responsiveness is high, the infant displays passive behavior, whereas when the maternal lack of responsiveness is medium, the infant displays difficult behavior. Indeed, our findings suggest that, in these cases, the link between types of maternal and infant interactive behavior is more dependent on the degree of maternal lack of responsiveness than it is on birth status or SES. The results will be discussed under a developmental and evolutionary reasonin

Correlates of mastery-related behavior: a short-term longitudinal study of infants in their second year.

The present study examined correlates of mastery-related behavior across the infant\u27s second year of life. Maternal control style was quantified on a control to support-of-autonomy continuum, infant-mother attachment was assessed in the Strange Situation, and mastery-related behavior was observed in a toy play session at 12 and 20 months. Infants whose mothers were supportive of their autonomy displayed greater task-oriented persistence and competence during play than did infants of more controlling mothers; securely attached and avoidant infants tended to exhibit greater persistence at tasks than anxious-ambivalent babies, and ambivalent babies were the most negative in affect

Infants of adolescent and adult mothers: two indices of socioemotional development.

This study compared infant-mother attachment and mastery motivation in one-year-old babies born to adolescent and adult mothers. In the laboratory, the infants\u27 mastery motivation was assessed in an experimenter-administered structured toy play session and infant-mother attachment was classified on the basis of the strange situation procedure. The results indicated that there were more, although not significantly so, securely attached infants among those born to adult than to adolescent mothers (70% as compared to 53%). The relatively low number of securely attached infants in the adolescent mother group may reflect the fact that in many cases the mothers were not the primary caretakers. Among the adolescents, the majority were living with their family of origin. Nevertheless, their infants\u27 motivation to master the environment, assessed independently, compared favorably with that of the adult mother group. Infants of adolescent mothers were significantly more persistent than were those born to adult mothers, although they were affectively less positive during the toy play. It is suggested that the socioemotional development of infants born to adolescent mothers may be buffered by a network containing multiple caretakers. Finally, the relationship between attachment and mastery motivation was examined. The results showed that infants with an avoidant or secure attachment relationship were more persistent as well as competent than were ambivalent infants during free play

Tocilizumab for the Treatment of Mevalonate Kinase Deficiency

Mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD) is a severe autoinflammatory disease caused by recessive mutations in MVK resulting in reduced function of the enzyme mevalonate kinase, involved in the cholesterol/isoprenoid pathway. MKD presents with periodic episodes of severe systemic inflammation, poor quality of life, and life-threatening sequelae if inadequately treated. We report the case of a 12-year-old girl with MKD and severe autoinflammation that was resistant to IL-1 and TNF-α blockade. In view of this, she commenced intravenous tocilizumab (8 mg/kg every 2 weeks), a humanised monoclonal antibody targeting the IL-6 receptor (IL-6R) that binds to membrane and soluble IL-6R, inhibiting IL-6-mediated signaling. She reported immediate cessation of fever and marked improvement in her energy levels following the first infusion; after the fifth dose, she was in complete clinical and serological remission, now sustained for 24 months. This is one of the first reported cases of a child with MKD treated successfully with tocilizumab and adds to the very limited experience of this treatment for MKD. IL-6 blockade could therefore be an important addition to the armamentarium for the treatment of this rare monogenic autoinflammatory disease