This randomized clinical trial compares apnea and other adverse events in preterm infants following 2-month vaccinations vs those with no vaccinations.

This cross-sectional study of English-language movies produced from 1970 to 2020 explores how violence reflected in dialogues has changed over time, whether the observed trends are limited to crime movies, and how the trends differ for male and female characters.

The article by Taylor et al summarizes the results of the systematic review and meta-analysis that investigated the associations between fluoride exposure and children’s IQ scores in epidemiological studies for the US National Toxicology Program’s (NTP’s) “NTP Monograph on the State of the Science Concerning Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopment and Cognition: A Systematic Review.” Among 74 studies, 64 were cross-sectional studies and 10 were prospective cohort studies; they rated 52 as having high risk of bias and 22 as having low risk of bias. For meta-analyses, 59 had group-level measures of fluoride exposure and 13 had individual-level measures of it. Analyses were conducted both with all studies regardless of risk of bias and limited to studies with lower risk of bias. Taylor and colleagues reported “inverse associations and a dose-response association between fluoride measurements in urine and drinking water and children’s IQ” and “limited data and uncertainty in the dose-response association between fluoride exposure and children’s IQ when fluoride exposure was estimated by drinking water alone at concentrations less than 1.5 mg/L.”

This quality improvement study explores whether the benefit of detecting open neural tube defects outweighs the harms of practicing race-based medicine.

To the Editor We passionately read the article by Oltman et al, which discusses patterns among neonates and their prediction value in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The large cohort of this case-control study provides data on 12 clinical characteristics and 38 mean concentrations of metabolic markers, obtaining an association between several variables and SIDS by rigorous analysis. Although the study seems reliable and convincing, we still have some queries about the interpretability of this study and the future direction of SIDS research.

This systematic review and meta-analysis estimates the global prevalence of lifetime and past-year sexual violence against children using data from 165 national-level population-based studies.

The dual goals of childhood obesity treatment are to reduce weight and comorbidities that occur with obesity during childhood and prevent adult obesity and associated diseases. While research has clearly shown that reducing obesity during childhood improves short-term cardiometabolic outcomes, there is no research to indicate whether treating obesity during childhood and adolescence alters the trajectory of the development of cardiometabolic disease into young adulthood. The article by Putri and colleagues provides evidence for reduction of risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, bariatric surgery, and mortality at ages 18 to 30 years, based on the amount of weight change after at least 1 year of treatment in 6- to 17-year-old youth. The study included a very large sample of 6713 Swedish youth matched to the general population (N = 35 402), which included youth with obesity who did not meet their treatment criteria, using a ratio of 1:5 on sex, year of birth, and geographical area.

The most common infectious cause of life-long disability in newborns is congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection. The birth prevalence of cCMV is highly variable globally and is directly proportional to the maternal seroprevalence in the population being examined. The birth prevalence of cCMV is reported to be 0.36% to 2.45% in the US and 0.42% to 0.55% in Canada. Fetal infection with CMV, particularly infection occurring in the first trimester, can injure the developing brain, leading to neuronal migration defects, microcephaly, intracranial calcifications, and other manifestations of end organ damage. A wide range of attendant neurological and neurodevelopmental disabilities can ensue, including cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, developmental delay, visual impairment, and autism spectrum disorders. The most important long-term disability is sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), occurring in 12.6% of all newborns with cCMV. Importantly, SNHL onset is delayed in 43% of infants with cCMV, and hence cCMV-associated hearing loss, in many cases, will be missed by relying solely on newborn hearing screening. Overall, 20% of SNHL cases at birth and 25% of SNHL cases that occur by age 5 years of age are caused by cCMV.

This randomized clinical trial compares first-time success of peripheral intravenous catheter insertion using ultrasound guidance vs standard technique (palpation and visualization) in a pediatric population in Australia.

This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the psychosocial variables most strongly associated with condom use among US adolescents.

This study evaluates the comparative effectiveness of cyclophosphamide vs calcineurin inhibitors (tacrolimus or cyclosporine) for childhood nephrotic syndrome relapse prevention.

To the Editor We read with interest the article by Beets et al, which highlights the benefits of summer day camps for children, including opportunities for physical activity, social interaction, and educational engagement. However, it is important to remember that access to these programs is not universal. For children in low-income households, financial barriers often make summer programs inaccessible, which may leave them in sedentary home environments with excessive screen time and limited access to nutritious food. Studies reveal that lower-income neighborhoods have a higher prevalence of fast food outlets, contributing to worse dietary habits during summer breaks and impacting children’s overall health.

This cross-sectional study examines temporal trends and disparities in specific causes of infant death in the US from 1999 to 2022.

This study used various machine learning approaches to identify and comparatively characterize groups of individuals with delayed autism diagnosis.

To the Editor We read with interest the data-linkage article by Blaabæk et al looking at associations between mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) before age 10 years and involvement in criminal justice between ages 15 and 20 years. They report an increased risk of crime in children with mTBI, with this effect becoming nonsignificant after comparing mTBI-exposed and nonexposed siblings or twins, suggesting other social, environmental, or genetic causation. We have concerns about their conclusion that childhood mTBI histories should be viewed as predictive and not causally contributing to adolescent criminal behavior and that this finding should influence policy.

This study explores the barriers and facilitators to pediatricians discussing safely navigating police interactions with Black youth and their caregivers.

In Reply We thank McMillan et al for engaging with our research. Analyzing longitudinal data on more than 340 000 Danish individuals, we found that the positive association between first-reported mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in childhood and juvenile crime is greatly reduced and statistically insignificant after controlling for family-level confounding. This indicates no evidence for a causal effect of childhood mTBI on juvenile crime. McMillan et al caution that our finding should not inform policy due to our narrow focus on childhood mTBI and the risk of mTBI underreporting. We addressed both concerns in our article and add further considerations here.

In Reply We are thankful for the opportunity to address the points raised by Zhang and colleagues and to clarify aspects of our work. First, regarding our choice of matching factors, we selected gestational age and birth weight based on their associations with sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) risk, as well as their significant association with metabolite concentrations. Both factors are well-documented influencers of the metabolic environment in newborns, which directly impacts the metabolites we measured. By matching on these variables, we aimed to control for key confounders that are closely tied to both the exposure (metabolites) and the outcome (SIDS). This approach allowed for a more precise evaluation of the associations between abnormal metabolic markers and SIDS, while minimizing bias.

This study evaluates the long-term effect of different responses to pediatric obesity treatment on critical health outcomes in young adulthood.

This cohort study evaluates the 6-month cardiovascular and noncardiovascular outcomes in individuals younger than 21 years diagnosed with multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 infection.

This cohort study presents the experience gained and lessons learned from the first 4 years of a universal screening program for congenital cytomegalovirus infection among newborns in Ontario, Canada.

In 2015, the US Public Health Service lowered the recommended concentration of fluoride in drinking water, from a range of 0.7 to 1.2 mg/L to 0.7 mg/L, to reduce the risk of dental fluorosis while conserving its protective effect against dental caries. In that same year, the US National Toxicology Program (NTP), a federal program established to study the health effects of chemicals, began a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the association between fluoride exposure and children’s IQ scores. Nine years later, after taking exceptional steps to manage bias and ensure transparency, Taylor and other NTP scientists report their findings in JAMA Pediatrics.

It has been nearly 50 years since the start of the revolution in our understanding of sexual violence. In 1974, a professor of nursing, Anne Burgess, and sociologist, Lynda Holmstrom, published a scientific study, Rape: Victims of Crisis. It detailed the experience of sexual violence survivors and their encounters with the medical and justice system. In 1975, the journalist Susan Brownmiller published her trade book Against Our Will—Men, Women and Rape, which inspired thousands of women to come forward with their own stories of sexual violence. These 2 books, and others that followed, catalyzed an expanding awareness of how widespread sexual violence was, how badly it was misunderstood, how many different forms it took, and how much trauma it caused.

This cross-sectional study explores the receipt of gender-affirming medications among transgender and gender-diverse adolescents in the US, analyzing these rates by age and sex assigned at birth.