Doctors from the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended that children get autism screenings at least twice upon reaching two years old. The group suggests that such practice will help identify early symptoms.

The doctors stated that autism's greatest danger is its capacity to damage the child even before the parents find out that something is wrong. They added that screenings must be done at 18 months, and again at 24 months, and must become as part of the routine as immunization and weighing, as reported by ABC News

A group of leading pediatricians in U.S. is urging parents and doctors to get children screened for autism twice by the age of two, in two separate reports published Monday.

In its annual meeting in San Francisco and in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics is advising parents to look sooner for symptoms of autism so that early therapy can lessen its severity

The first-of-its kind U.S. study tracking American children's health will soon be directed from 22 new centers across the United States, organizers said in a special news conference held Thursday.

Nearly $69 million has been allotted for the study which will open centers in Georgia, Texas and 18 other states to help researchers understand how children's environment and genes affect their health. The first participants enrolled in the National Children's Study should be recruited as early as next 2008

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) of Britain is warning parents over the rising number of measles cases in children this year.

The agency is also urging parents to make sure their children have both shots measles, mumps and rubella or MMR before they return to school

An Australian-developed set of tools designed to detect autism in young children has attracted international interest. The Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC) which sets 16 behavioral tasks for young children will assist doctors to detect autism at an age much earlier than now possible.

Designed at Flinders University, South Australia, the set of tasks will give health professionals the ability to screen children as young as 12 months for autism or autistic tendencies. Previously autism in children was not detected until children were three of four years of age