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Aim: Studies of children's early ability to communicate have mainly focused on mother-child dyads. That is why this study analysed the long-term effects of triadic interactions involving both parents.Method: This prospective pilot study monitored child-mother-father communication in 19 families from the general population in Sweden using the standardised Lausanne Trilogue Play method in a video studio. The families and their first-born child were initially followed from three months to 48 months of age. Preschool teachers assessed the children at the age of four using the Preschool Behaviour Questionnaire and then their teachers assessed the subjects at the age of 15 using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Early communication was analysed in relation to the children's social competence at the age of 15.Results: The child's skills in initiating turn-taking sequences and their parents' responses to this correlated with the child's social competence at the age of four, as reported in a previous study from our group, and at the age of 15, as reported here.Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that stimulating children's capacity to initiate turn-taking sequences in infancy improved their social competence at the age of 15, confirming positive results at four years of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To examine socio-economic factors, smoking, coffee consumption and exclusive breastfeeding duration.Methods: This study was part of a prospective cohort study of children born between 1 October 1997 and 1 October 1999 (the All Babies in Southeast Sweden (ABIS) study). Eleven socio-economic characteristics (parental employment, civil status, whether parents were born in Sweden, parental education, residence at birth and during child's first year, crowded living), maternal smoking, coffee consumption, infant sex, siblings, parental age, and maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy were analysed using logistic regression and Cox's proportional hazards method. All data were obtained through questionnaires distributed at infant birth and at 1 y of age. Exclusive breastfeeding duration<4 mo and actual breastfeeding duration were our main outcome measures.Results: Out of 10205 infants, 2206 (21.6%) were exclusively breastfed for less than 4 mo ("short exclusive breastfeeding"; SEBF). Backward stepwise regression analysis identified the following risk factors for SEBF: maternal smoking (95% confidence interval for adjusted odds ratio, 95% CI AOR 2.00-2.82), low maternal education (95% CI AOR 1.45-2.19), maternal employment less than 3 mo during pregnancy (95% CI AOR 1.17-1.54), paternal ageConclusion: This study indicates that socio-economic factors and smoking may be of importance to the risk of breastfeeding exclusively for less than 4 mo, while coffee consumption is not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: Serum ferritin and serum transferrin receptor concentrations, growth and food habits were studied in healthy Swedish boys (n = 103) and girls (n = 124) at the age of 17 y and compared with those in the same adolescents at age 15. Between these ages, serum transferrin receptor increased significantly in both boys and girls. Serum ferritin increased significantly in boys but not in girls. The transferrin receptor/ferritin ratio increased significantly in girls but not in boys, indicating insufficient iron stores in the 17-y-old girls in relation to erythropoiesis and iron needs. Between 15 and 17 y the boys' frequency of consumption of milk and bread decreased, while they more often consumed pasta, cheese and coffee. The girls decreased their frequency intake of fat products, milk and meat. The frequency of meat consumption emerged as the single significant predictor for serum ferritin <12 microg/L in girls, but not in boys. The median daily iron intake, determined in a subsample, decreased in boys from 18.7 to 13.6 mg and in girls from 14.1 to 8.8 mg, and the decrease was to a large extent due to cessation of iron fortification of flour.Conclusions: The results indicate insufficient iron stores in the 17-y-old girls in relation to erythropoiesis and iron needs, but more favourable iron stores in the boys. The absence of a significant decrease in mean serum ferritin despite rapid growth suggests that the earlier iron fortification of flour only marginally contributed to the iron status of Swedish adolescents of this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]