THURSDAY, Aug. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Insured children in the United States are much more likely than uninsured children (91 percent vs. 69 percent) to visit a doctor's office and to have a regular annual check-up (77 percent vs. 45 percent), according to new data released Thursday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The study, conducted by University of Minnesota researchers who analyzed U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2005-07, also found that:

• About 10 million American children have chronic illnesses and 3.6 million of those children are covered by Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Chronically ill children covered by public insurance receive the same level of health services as those with private insurance, but chronically ill children with no insurance receive far less care.
• Uninsured children with chronic needs are far more likely (41 percent) to have their care delayed or to receive no care, compared to insured children with chronic needs (10 percent).
• Eight percent of children with chronic health conditions enrolled in SCHIP or Medicaid don't have a personal doctor, compared to 21 percent of uninsured children.
• Sixteen percent of children with special needs who are enrolled in SCHIP or Medicaid don't receive mental health care services, compared to 43 percent of uninsured children.

The findings highlight the importance of government insurance programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP, the study authors said.

"SCHIP and Medicaid provide an important safety net for America's families, especially for families with chronically ill children. These programs allow kids to get the care they need, so they can feel better, grow stronger and thrive in school," Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said in a news release.

"When children who need care do not receive it, their conditions worsen and are harder and more expensive to treat later. Because of Medicaid and SCHIP, millions of kids can get regular check-ups, take the medications they need to stay well and see a doctor when they are sick. Parents of any uninsured child should find out if their family is eligible for low-cost or free insurance before sending their kids back to school," Lavizzo-Mourey added.

Currently, more than nine million children in the United States are uninsured, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Most uninsured children live in families where at least one parent works full-time.

More information

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more about children and health insurance.

THURSDAY, Aug. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Having two or more servings of dairy products a day starting as a preschooler may lead to better bone health as an adolescent, a new report says.

The study, expected to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics, found higher levels of bone mineral content and bone density in teens who consumed dairy at least twice a day since the ages of 3 to 5. These adolescents' average bone mineral content was 175 grams higher than adolescents who had consumed less than two dairy servings a day, even after researchers adjusted the results for factors that affect normal bone development, such as the child's growth, body size, and activity level.

The study highlights the significant role dairy plays in childhood as "a key source of proteins, calcium, and other micronutrients including phosphorus and vitamin D," study researcher Lynn Moore, of Boston University School of Medicine, said in a news release issued by the journal.

The researchers also found that children who combined their 2 or more servings of dairy with 4 ounces of meat or other nondairy protein during a day had bone mineral contents more than 300 grams higher than those children with lower intakes of both dairy and other proteins.

The findings come from analyzing data and family food diaries from the Framingham Children's Study, which gathered information from 106 children, 3 to 5 years of age at the beginning of the study, over a 12-year period. Information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture was also used to determine the children's average daily intake of dairy and other foods.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about bone health.

THURSDAY, Aug. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Damage caused by chronic ear infections in children may alter their sense of taste, making fatty and sweet foods more desirable and increasing the risk of obesity.

That's the conclusion of four new studies presented Thursday at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in Boston.

In the first study, Kathleen Daly, a professor of otolaryngology at the University of Minnesota, found that "middle ear nerve damage may play a role in affecting taste in children with recurrent ear infections or chronic ear disease who get [drainage] tubes. This damage may increase intake of fattening foods."

For the study, Daly's team followed children from birth to 2 years of age who had been treated with tubes for ear infections.

"There was a trend, but not significant, for recurrent ear infection to lead to overweight," Daly said. "Other studies have reported a similar relationship between ear infections and overweight. We did not find evidence for the reverse hypothesis: larger and heavier children were more prone to ear infections and tubes than smaller and lighter children."

In the second study, led by John Hayes of Brown University, researchers found that among 110 middle-aged women with a sense of taste consistent with nerve damage, those who preferred sweet and high-fat foods tended to have larger waists.

"Surprisingly, we found that the single best predictor of body weight was not how much saturated fat they took in and not how often they ate high-fat foods, but was how much they liked high-fat and sweet foods," Hayes said.

Hayes noted that taste can vary genetically, but also through exposure to environmental changes. "Particularly with damage to the taste system and we think this happens from ear infections," he said.

Another study by Hayes' group found that preschoolers with a history of severe ear infections ate fewer vegetables, more sweets and tended to be heavier.

In the third study presented Thursday, led by Howard Hoffman, an epidemiologist at the U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, researchers found that removing the tonsils had an effect on whether children would be overweight.

"Taste does have an impact on selection of food and diet," Hoffman said. "A tonsillectomy may damage one of the nerves that carry taste information. In addition, ear infections can also alter taste. Altering taste does have an effect on the preferences for food," he said.

Hoffman's team reexamined data on 13,887 children who took part in the National Health Examination surveys during the 1960s. The researchers found that children who had had their tonsils removed were at greater risk of being overweight. Among children aged 6 to 11 who'd had a tonsillectomy, they were 40 percent more likely to be overweight at the time of the survey, compared with children who did not have a tonsillectomy.

What's more, teenage girls who'd had a tonsillectomy were 30 percent more likely to be overweight, the researchers found. Hoffman noted that tonsillectomies were a common treatment back in the 60s for chronic ear infections, which can alter the taste buds and affect eating habits.

"This data is not conclusive, but it's suggestive," he said.

In the final study, Linda Bartoshuk, of the University of Florida College of Dentistry, and colleagues collected data on 6,584 people who attended a lecture series. These men and women, between 16 and 92 years old, were asked about their history of ear infections. The researchers found that those with a history of moderate to severe ear infections were 62 percent more likely to be obese.

Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Yale University School of Medicine Prevention Research Center, thinks that alteration in taste only plays a small part in the overall obesity epidemic in the United States.

"It certainly makes sense that variations in taste, due to many factors including a history of ear infections, could influence food preferences, total food intake and weight," he said.

However, despite variation in taste perception, variation in dietary preference, and variation in the history of ear infections, researchers have projections forecasting all but universal obesity among U.S .adults within several decades should current trends persist, Katz noted.

"So while the link between taste buds and vulnerability to obesity is worthy of further exploration, the simple fact is that the entire population is vulnerable to obesity," Katz said. "The major causes of the obesity epidemic reside in the 'obesigenic' environment, rather than on our tongues."

More information

For more on obesity, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

MONDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- A Swiss study of 50 children found that almost half of those who were small at birth -- about 5.5 pounds or less -- had a significant increase in blood pressure when they ate a high-salt diet, a condition known as salt sensitivity.

"Salt sensitivity in children is low and rises with increasing age through adulthood," study author Dr. Giocomo D. Simonetti, a fellow in the division of pediatric nephrology at the Children's Hospital, University of Bern, said in an American Heart Association news release. The finding suggests that restricting salt intake in these children could improve their blood pressure.

"During adolescence, about 18 percent to 20 percent of adolescents in the general population have the condition. However, in the study, salt sensitivity was present in 37 percent of all low-birth-weight [LBW] and in 47 percent of the children ... who were small-for-gestational-age [SGA]."

The children in the study, average age of 11, included 15 who had normal birth weights and 35 who were LBW or SGA babies. Some were born prematurely and others were born at full term but were small due to growth restriction inside the womb. Causes of intrauterine growth restriction include maternal high blood pressure and maternal smoking during pregnancy.

During the study, the children ate a controlled sodium diet for a week and then a high-sodium diet for a week. The finding that children who were small at birth are more likely develop salt sensitivity is important, because high blood pressure can damage the kidneys, brain and heart.

"These children should be followed for signs of reduced renal function and also for an elevated blood pressure," study co-author Dr. Markus Mohaupt, head of the division of hypertension, department of nephrology/hypertension, University of Bern, said in the AHA news release.

"There's nearly a 50 percent chance of favorably affecting blood pressure by simply reducing salt intake in children born SGA and nearly a 40 percent chance for those born with LBW. These individuals can be determined very easily if their family physician just gets data on their births," Mohaupt said.

Among the other important study findings:

• Salt sensitivity was inversely correlated to kidney size -- that is, smaller kidney size was associated with higher blood pressure. However, there was no association between kidney size and the organ's filtering abilities.
• Kidneys in LBW children tended to be shorter and hold smaller volume compared to kidneys in normal birth weight children.
• LBW children tend to be shorter than children of normal birth weight.

The study was published in the current issue of Hypertension.

More information

The Nemours Foundation has more about children and high blood pressure  .