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Many kids are picky eaters but new research suggests the trait is even more common in autistic children who tend to refuse more foods and are more likely to restrict their diets to a smaller variety of foods than other children.

Such habits in both autistic and non-autistic children may put them at nutritional risk.

“If children are not eating foods from each of the food groups in sufficient amounts they may be at risk for nutrient inadequacy,” Dr. Linda Bandini, of the E. K. Shriver Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School and Boston University told Reuters Health in an email.

At the same time, Bandini is quick to remind parents who may be concerned about their own children’s eating habits that picky eating is not a “core symptom of autism.”

“Autism is diagnosed in children who have limitations or difficulties in several key developmental areas such as language, communication, social interaction, and rigid behavior. They may or may not be picky eaters, so this behavior alone is not at all indicative of having autism,” Bandini said.

Bandini and colleagues wanted to know if children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) had different eating habits than “typically developing” children (as anecdotal evidence suggested) and whether such differences, if they existed, had an effect on nutrition.

The resulting Children’s Activity and Meal Patterns Study (CHAMPS) enrolled 111 children aged 3 to 11 - 53 with ASD and 58 typically developing children. The children were weighed and measured. Parents were asked about their child’s dietary habits and kept a food diary for three days.

The act of selective eating was divided into three patterns - refusing certain foods, a limited variety or repertoire of foods consumed, and restricting consumption almost exclusively to one food item, which is eaten frequently throughout the day.

Picky eaters were found in both the ASD and typically developing children although the children with ASD “displayed more food refusal and exhibited a more limited food repertoire,” the authors report in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Contrary to popular perception, picky eating habits did not appear to be tied to a child’s age. Levels of food refusal and food repertoire in typical children were similar across age groups.

In addition, reports from only 4 of 53 parents of ASD children that their child ate a single food 4 or 5 times a day prompted the authors to conclude this most extreme example of selective eating “does not occur as commonly in children with ASDs as might be assumed based on anecdotal reports.”

Although the number of children studied was small, the research suggested the greatest nutritional risk came not from refusing certain foods but rather from diets with a limited variety or repertoire of foods. Because autistic children in the study were more likely to limit the variety of foods they ate, a larger number of them came up short in requirements for vitamins A, C, D, as well as zinc, calcium and fiber compared to the typically developing kids, Bandini and colleagues note.

More research is now needed, they say, to study eating patterns over time to confirm whether food selectivity lasts into adulthood and in the same way in ASD and typically developing children, and what impact prolonged food selectivity has on nutritional status.

SOURCE: The Journal of Pediatrics.

A cold winter followed by a sudden and sustained warming trend, not to mention the botanical blossoming that global warming has brought, has boosted pollen counts to near-record highs across the United States this spring, experts say.

All of that has led to one of the most miserable allergy seasons in recent memory for the 50 million Americans who find themselves suffering itchy eyes, runny noses and scratchy throats this time of year.

“In Atlanta, we recently saw the second highest pollen count ever — 5,733. A level of 1,500 is considered very high, so this was off the charts,” explained meteorologist Carl Parker, from The Weather Channel. Pollen counts are measured in grains of pollen per cubic meter in a sample that’s collected over a 24-hour period.

As so often happens, weather is largely to blame.

“Timing is everything and, in a lot of years, you might have bouts of warm followed by cold. This year, across a lot of the country, we were cold for a long time, and then the air pattern warmed and it was like we flipped a switch,” Parker said.

Adding to the problem “is the same system that’s bringing in the warm air has also been blocking rainstorms from coming in, and normally, rain comes through and knocks the pollen down, clearing things out,” he said.

The pollen problem is primarily affecting areas east of the Rocky Mountains, said Parker. In the west, he noted, there are still areas that are getting snow.

Another factor in the increased pollen counts is climate change. Parker said that concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) have increased in the past 100 years, and plants thrive on increasing levels of CO2. “Some types of pollens have doubled because of climate change,” said Parker.

“CO2 is good for plants and they’re making more pollen,” agreed Dr. David Rosenstreich, director of the division of allergy and immunology at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. In addition, he said, “Pollen seasons are lengthening a little bit because of global warming.”

Still, Rosenstreich said that counts will vary from year to year, and although they’re particularly high right now, they may not stay that way for the whole allergy season.

One bit of good news for allergy sufferers is that the allergy season is “on fast-forward,” he said. “It’s all happening right now.” Most of the tree pollens should start to decrease in the next couple of weeks.

Whatever the pollen count, Rosenstreich stressed that there’s no need to suffer through allergy symptoms. “We have medicines that can help,” he said.

If you’re taking preventive medications for your allergies, Rosenstreich said that it’s important to take them in advance and as directed by your doctor.

“Most allergy medicines work better to prevent allergic symptoms than to treat them when they’re in progress,” he explained.

Both Rosenstreich and Parker had other tips for those with allergies on high pollen count days:
Stay indoors as much as possible. But, be sure to keep your windows closed so the pollen doesn’t get in. Parker said that if you must go out, it’s best to avoid the morning hours because pollen is much worse then.
Keep your windows closed and run your air conditioner. It doesn’t need to be set to cool, just to filter the air. Make sure the filters for your air condition are clean, however.
Use the air conditioning in your car to filter the air.
If you have to do yard work, Parker suggested wearing a mask to help cut down on the amount of pollen you’ll breathe in.

And, finally, with a suggestion that’s sure to make mothers across America happy, Parker said he’d recently heard that eating certain vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts might lessen allergy symptoms.

SOURCES: Carl Parker, on-air meteorologist, The Weather Channel, Atlanta; David Rosenstreich, M.D., director, division of allergy and immunology, Montefiore Medical Center, New York City.

Robotic aids can help stroke patients make small but significant improvements in their ability to move their limbs, and gain a better outlook on life, new research finds.

The study, by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and published online April 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine, offers the strongest evidence yet that stroke sufferers can regain limb movement long after an injury, through “intensive therapy with specially trained personnel and newly created robotic aids,” the researchers said.

The study included 127 veterans who had experienced a stroke that resulted in moderate to severe disability in an arm. The strokes had occurred at least six months earlier and, on average, five years earlier, according to the report.

While some research has suggested that long-term physical therapy doesn’t help patients if it’s given more than six months after a stroke, recent research has contradicted those findings.

In this new study, the participants were divided into three groups: one group was assigned to upper-limb therapy aided by robots designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; a second group participated in similar upper-limb exercises with a therapist; and the third group received general health care but no special stroke therapy for their arm (”usual care”).

Those who underwent 12 weeks of therapy using the robotic device reported statistically significant improvements in their quality of life, and greater improvements in their upper-limb function compared with those receiving usual care, the researchers found.

The patients in the robot-assisted therapy group were seated at a table with their stroke-affected arm attached to the device, and were prompted to move a cursor on a screen. The robot sensed if they had trouble performing the task, and assisted their movements. These assisted body movements helped the stroke-damaged brain learn to compensate for the lost function and begin to “rewire” itself, the study authors explained in a news release from Brown University.

“We believe that by gaining more function and better control of their affected arms, patients were able to get out and do more, translating their motor benefits into additional meaningful social activity and participation,” study lead author Albert Lo, assistant professor of neurology at Brown University, said in the news release.

“There are about 6.4 million stroke patients in the U.S. with chronic deficits. We’ve shown that with the right therapy, they can see improvements in movement, everyday function and quality of life,” Lo added. “This is giving stroke survivors new hope.”

SOURCE: Brown University, news release.