Children who are exposed to pet dogs, cats or other furry friends at home can develop problem snoring when they grow up, a new study has revealed. Heavy snoring has been linked to early death, heart disease and stroke, not to mention the obvious problems of sleep deprivation for the snorer and their partner.

Karl Franklin, the study's lead author and a physician at University Hospital here, analyzed sleep habits and other childhood hospitalizations of men and women aged 25 to 54 -- all residents of Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Estonia -- and got responses from 15,556

Early research suggests that children with a history of severe ear infections or tonsil trouble are at an increased risk of becoming overweight later in life.

Children who get recurrent otitis media suffer damage to the nerves controlling taste and such infections may affect food choices, the researchers said at the 116th annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston

The use of a pacifier or 'dummy' by babies has been identified as a risk factor for acute otitis media (AOM), a type of common ear infection, new study says.

The researchers from University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands studied almost 500 Dutch children who used dummies or pacifiers. The study spanning five years found that the pacifiers almost double the risk of recurrent ear infections in those who used it as compared to the non-users

The U.S. will soon have the largest measles outbreak in more than seven years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday.

In 2008, measles outbreaks in several states have led to more than 70 cases so far, the worst in six years, health officials added

An additional dose of vaccine for tetanus, diphtheria and pertusis (Tdap) will be required for North Carolina students. The Commission for Public Health authorized the new rules and also designates that all children before enrolling in school, college or university should get a second dose of vaccine for mumps. Immunization rules also encourage additional vaccine coverage for mumps and pertussis or whooping cough.

Most children are vaccinated against whooping cough before going to kindergarten but the immunity declines after 10 years. Outbreaks of mumps still happen in United States and other parts of the world and it was reported that 2006 Iowa and other Midwestern states outbreak begins on a college campus