Do good manners make a difference to a child’s health? Writing in Tuesday’s Science Times, pediatrician Dr. Perri Klass believes they do.

The conversations that every pediatrician has, over and over, about “limit setting” and “consistently praising good behavior” are conversations about manners. And when you are in the exam room with a child who seems to have none, you begin to wonder what is going on at home and at school, and questions of family dysfunction or neurodevelopmental problems begin to cross your mind.

Dr. Barbara Howard, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an expert on behavior and development, told me that a child’s manners were a perfectly appropriate topic to raise at a pediatric visit.

“It has a huge impact on people’s lives — why wouldn’t you bring it up?” she said. “Do they look you in the eye? If you stick your hand out do they shake it? How do they interact with the parents; do they interrupt, do they ask for things, do they open Mommy’s purse and take things out?”

Dr. Howard suggested that the whole “manners” concept might seem a little out of date — until you recast it as “social skills,” a very hot term these days. Social skills are necessary for school success, she pointed out; they affect how you do on the playground, in the classroom, in the workplace.

To read more about what a child’s manners mean to the pediatrician, read the full article, “Making Room for Miss Manners Is a Parenting Basic.” And then join the discussion below.

What do you think? Should a pediatrician comment on a child’s manners?

Today’s PsychCentral.com highlights a recent study that found one in five teens are using cell phones and online technology to send sexually explicit pictures of themselves to others. The research is from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com. (Click here to read the original report.)

PsychCentral founder John Grohol, an expert in online psychology issues, says that the “online disinhibition effect,” the phenomenon that prompts people to say and do things in cyberspace that they wouldn’t ordinarily say or do in the real world, is strongly at work here. He notes that nearly one quarter of teens say that technology makes them personally more forward and aggressive. According to Dr. Grohol: Read more…

Worries about nut allergies are intense in some circles. (Lars Klove for The New York Times)

Every parent of a school-age child has heard the warnings about nut allergies. Some schools ban nuts entirely, while others set aside special nut-free tables. Parents are often quizzed about the ingredients and preparation methods for birthday treats they send to school. One parent told me she was asked whether a clean knife used to cut brownies had ever been used to spread peanut butter.

While nut allergies are clearly a risk to some children, often the response to this health concern represents “a gross overreaction to the magnitude of the threat,” argues Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, an internal medicine doctor and professor at Harvard Medical School, in a recent column in the British medical journal BMJ. Read more…

One of the most common childhood vision problems is amblyopia, or “lazy eye,” which occurs when one eye is significantly weaker than the other. But correcting the disorder can be hard, because kids often reject the treatment — a patch worn over the stronger eye.

This week, the journal Archives of Ophthalmology reports on a new study that compares patch therapy for amblyopia with another technique — a weekly regimen of medicated eyedrops that essentially work as a patch by blurring vision in the stronger eye. Read more…

How, when and where a child is born may all play a role in lifetime asthma risk, new studies suggest.

Asthma occurs when airways in the lungs spasm and swell, restricting the supply of oxygen. The incidence of asthma in the United States has risen steadily for more than two decades, and now affects about 6 percent of children, up from less than 4 percent in 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The reasons for the increase are not entirely clear. Genetics probably plays a role in risk for asthma, but an array of environmental factors — pollen, dust, animal dander, mold, cockroach feces, cigarettes, air pollution, viruses and cold air — have all been implicated in its development.

This month, The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine is reporting that children born in the fall have a 30 percent higher risk for asthma than those born in other seasons. The finding is based on a review of birth and medical records of more than 95,000 children in Tennessee.

A possible explanation is that autumn babies tend to be about 4 months old at the peak of cold and flu season. By that age, many babies are in day care, regularly exposed to the outside world.

And while their lungs are still developing, they have lost immunities conferred in the womb and have yet to develop their own strong immune systems. As a result, fall babies are at particular risk to contract a severe winter virus, which may in turn increase their risk for asthma. Read more…

In-vitro fertilization has given countless couples, rendered infertile by cancer, illness or nature, the chance to become biological parents. But as my colleague Denise Grady writes, many of them remain torn over the fate of frozen embryos that they no longer need.

At least 400,000 embryos are frozen at clinics around the country, with more being added every day, and many people who are done having children are finding it harder than they had ever expected to decide the fate of those embryos.

A new survey of 1,020 fertility patients at nine clinics reveals more than a little discontent with the most common options offered by the clinics. The survey was published Thursday in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Among patients who wanted no more children, 53 percent did not want to donate their embryos to other couples, mostly because they did not want someone else bringing up their children, or did not want their own children to worry about encountering an unknown sibling someday.

Forty-three percent did not want the embryos discarded. About 66 percent said they would be likely to donate the embryos for research, but that option was available at only four of the nine clinics in the survey. Twenty percent said they were likely to keep the embryos frozen forever.

Embryos can remain viable for a decade or more if they are frozen properly but not all of them survive when they are thawed.

Smaller numbers of patients wished for solutions that typically are not offered. Among them were holding a small ceremony during the thawing and disposal of the embryos, or having them placed in the woman’s body at a time in her cycle when she would probably not become pregnant, so that they would die naturally.

To read the full story, click here. And please join the discussion below. Have you considered or opted for in-vitro fertilization? What decision did you make about how to dispose of unneeded frozen embryos?

Exercising away labor pain? (Lars Christensen/iStock)

Moderate exercise during pregnancy appears to markedly lower a woman’s need for epidural pain relief when she delivers her baby, a new study suggests.

Many women hope to have natural childbirth without pain drugs but find labor so difficult they end up requesting an epidural, which provides pain relief through injection of a painkiller into the epidural space at the base of the spine. Ideally, the epidural only dulls the pain, and women remain alert and can still play an active role in labor.

However, there is a downside. Epidural pain relief may also slow labor and may make the pushing stage longer and more difficult because women lose sensation in their lower body. Even when very little drug is administered, some hospitals won’t let women walk around once they’ve had an epidural.

A small study published in the medical journal Reproductive Health suggests that women can influence their risk for needing pain relief long before labor starts. Read more…

(Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

A friend recently stumped me with a health-related trivia question. Who was the first president to be born in a hospital?

The answer, posted below, left me thinking about what a relatively new phenomenon hospital births really are. My colleague Julie Scelfo explores the issue further in today’s Home section, finding that the home birth appears to be making a surprising comeback. Since the 1950s, she explains, the overwhelming majority of American women have chosen to give birth in hospitals, the place the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says is one of the safest places for childbirth.

But midwives and childbirth educators don’t always agree and have embarked on a national campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of certified professional midwives. They argue that birth doesn’t have to be a medical event, and that when women do opt for hospital births, they often lose control of the process and many end up with unnecessary C-sections.

“In your home you’re able to move around,” said Élan McAlister, founder of Choices in Childbirth, a four-year-old non-profit educational group that publishes The New York Guide to a Healthy Birth. “If you believe birth is not a medical emergency, it is the ideal place because it’s the place you can really let go and follow what your body wants you to do.”

To learn more about the new trend toward home births, read the full story, “Baby, You’re Home” and be sure to check out the slideshow on home birth.

And to answer the trivia question: The first U.S. president born in a hospital was Jimmy Carter.

What do you think about giving birth at home rather than a hospital? Please join the discussion below.

If you think you’re doing a better job than your parents at child rearing, think again. A new study shows children are less likely to be injured when they are in the care of grandparents.

The study is important because grandparents are a growing source of child care for working and single parents. Some health researchers have speculated that grandparents may be out of touch with modern safety practices, and as a result, they worried that children being cared for by grandparents might be at higher risk for injury.

But the opposite appears to be true. Read more…

A scene from The CW Network’s “Gossip Girl.” (Giovanni Rufino/The CW)

A new study making headlines today suggests teenage girls and boys who watch a lot of steamy television are more likely to become pregnant or cause a pregnancy.

But a closer look at the data shows the relationship between television, sexual content and teen pregnancies is complex. The same study, published today in Pediatrics, also found that teens who watch a lot of television in general are less likely to become pregnant. Read more…

Who is more likely to cheat? (Lauren Fleischman for The New York Times)

When it comes to adultery, middle-aged men often are portrayed as cheaters, while women are viewed as victims.

But new research shows the marital landscape is changing. Infidelity appears to be on the rise, particularly among older men and young couples. And notably, women appear to be closing the adultery gap: younger women appear to be cheating on their spouses nearly as often as men do.

To learn more about fidelity trends and why cheating rates are so tough to measure, read the latest Well column, Love, Sex and the Changing Landscape of Infidelity. You can share your thoughts on the column below.

Barack Obama with his maternal grandparents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, in the early 1980s. (Obama for America, via Associated Press)

Political pundits are debating whether Senator Barack Obama’s decision to spend time with his gravely ill grandmother poses a political risk.

But anyone who has ever had an ailing family member knows about another type of risk: the risk of regret. Read more…

Can nature walks help kids with A.D.H.D.? (Chris Cummins for The New York Times)

Parents of children with attention deficit problems are always looking for new strategies to help their children cope. An interesting new study suggests that spending time in nature may help.

A small study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at how the environment influenced a child’s concentration skills. The researchers evaluated 17 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, who all took part in three 20-minute walks in a park, a residential neighborhood and a downtown area. Read more…

When Addie Swartz was shopping with her 9-year-old daughter and friends, one of the girls noticed a scantily clad model at an Abercrombie & Fitch store. “Why do they have to do that?” one of the girls asked.

Lake Rescue offers inspiration to overweight girls.

Ms. Swartz describes it as an “aha” moment when the idea for a new book series came to her.

“It made me feel like the world is making them grow up so, so fast,” says Ms. Swartz. “It felt like there were so many messages out there that were bombarding her and her friends and girls her age.”

As a result, Ms. Swartz created the Beacon Street Girls book series. The stories, which revolve around five middle-school girls in Brookline, Mass., are shaped by leading experts in adolescent development, with the goal of helping girls build self-esteem and coping skills. Topics include the problems of an overweight girl and cyber bullying. This month the series will launch its latest book, “Green Algae and Bubblegum Wars,” a novel aimed at encouraging girls in science. The book is the result of a collaboration with Sally Ride, an astronaut who was the first American woman to orbit Earth.

But can expert health advice wrapped up as fiction really make a difference for the books’ young readers? A surprising new study suggests that for some girls, it can. To learn more, read my full Well column here.

And if you don’t know what your daughters are reading, check out this story from Naomi Wolf about the current crop of teen fiction.

What do you think of the current crop of teen literature? Has your child read a book from the Beacon Street Girls series? Please join the discussion and post your comments below.

Babies who sleep in rooms with a fan have a dramatically lower risk for sudden infant death syndrome, a new study shows.

The finding is the latest evidence to suggest that a baby’s sleep environment is a critical factor in the risk for SIDS, which is diagnosed when the sudden death of an infant can’t be explained by other health concerns.

Since 1992 the rate of SIDS deaths has dropped by 56 percent, from 1.2 deaths per 1,000 live births to about 1 death per 2,000 live births. The decline is linked to a national “Back to Sleep” campaign that promotes putting babies on their backs instead of the stomach, which has been shown to lower risk for sudden death. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends that parents avoid soft bedding, allow a baby to use a pacifier if he or she wants, and avoid overheating a baby’s room as ways to lower the risk for SIDS.

Despite the gains, SIDS continues to be the leading cause of death among infants in the first year of life, and researchers are looking for additional measures to lower risk.

The latest study compared the sleeping circumstances of 185 babies who died of SIDS with another 312 randomly selected babies who were matched by race, ethnicity, country of origin and age. Read more…