Between 2009 and 2010, one million more children in America fell below the poverty line, bringing the total to an estimated 15.7 million poor children living in the country.

This is an increase of 2.6 million since the recession began in 2007, according to researchers from the University of New Hampshire.

The researchers estimated that nearly one in four children now live in poverty. Poverty has been associated with a number of negative effects in children, including less education and more health problems.

Since 2007, 38 states have witnessed a significant increase in child poverty. Mississippi has the highest rates of children living in poverty at 32.5 percent, followed by D.C. (30.4 percent) and New Mexico (30 percent).

At the opposite end of the spectrum, New Hampshire has the lowest rates of child poverty (10 percent) followed by Connecticut (12.8 percent) and Alaska (12.9 percent).

By region, the South has the most child poverty at an estimated 24.2 percent and the Northeast has the least at 17.8 percent.

Young children living in the rural South have been the hardest hit, with more than one in three young children living in poverty.

“Rural poverty is particularly striking in this region, where nearly 36 percent of children under age 6 were poor,” the researchers said.

The study was based upon U.S. Census Bureau estimates from the 2007, 2009, and 2010 American Community Survey.

Early childhood nutrition can have a lasting impact on health, a new study suggests.

Researchers say that nutrition during the first days or weeks of life can program a person’s metabolism and health for the future.  This phenomenon is called the metabolic programming effect.

In a study, researchers compared growth, body composition and blood pressure in three groups of healthy, full-term newborns.  One group received only breast milk for the first four months of life while the two other groups were randomized to receive either a low-protein formula or a high-protein formula.

After four months, the formula-fed infants continued to receive the same formula, and the breastfed infants were assigned to the low-protein formula, if needed.

Three years later, the researchers observed that children who had been breastfed exclusively during the first weeks of life showed a specific pattern of growth and a specific metabolic profile, which appeared to differ in formula-fed infants.

During the course of the study, various differences arose, including differences in blood insulin levels (which were lower in breastfed infants) and growth patterns.  Over the course of the three years, however, these differences disappeared.  However, others persisted.

Specifically, after three years, diastolic and mean blood pressures were higher in the infants who had been fed the high-protein formula compared to the breastfed infants. However, these levels were still within the normal range.

Study author Guy Putet, MD, believes the protein content in infant formula may be a key factor in inducing these differences.

“It appears that formula feeding induces differences in some hormonal profiles as well as in patterns of growth compared with breastfeeding,” Dr. Putet said. “The long-term consequences of such changes are not well-understood in humans and may play a role in later health. Well-designed studies with long-term follow-up are needed.”

Dr. Putet recommended that if breastfeeding was not possible, infants should be fed formulas that allow a growth pattern and a metabolic profile similar to that of breastfed infants.

A new study is creating controversy with its claim that children with working mothers are more likely to be overweight, CTV.ca reported.

The results of the study indicated that for every five months a child’s mother worked away from home, there was an 10 percent higher increase in the child’s BMI compared to other children the same age.

According to researchers, this is the equivalent of gaining nearly one pound more than what a child typically would every five months.  Over time, these pounds can add up and eventually lead to obesity.

“We want to emphasize that this is not a maternal employment issue; this is a family balance issue,” said lead researcher Taryn Morrissey.

Morrissey and other researchers from American University, Cornell University and the University of Chicago compiled data from more than 900 children in 10 U.S. cities, with emphasis on children in grades 3, 5 and 6.

They speculated that the reason that these children gain more weight is because families in which both parents work tend to eat out more often, eat more fast food, and are more likely to skip breakfast.

The effect was seen most strongly in fifth and sixth grade children, who were more likely to gain weight than any other age group.  This may be because children at this age tend to have more independence in their food choices than younger children, the researchers said.

The study was published in Child Development.

Click here to read more from CTV.ca.

1. Stand in front of a mirror, shoulders straight, hands on hips. Are your breasts evenly shaped, with no distortion or swelling? Do you see any redness or dimpling, or feel any soreness? Has your nipple changed position or been inverted? If so, tell your doctor.

2. Raise your arms, one at a time, and look for the same changes as in step 1.

3. Check for nipple discharge by gently squeezing each nipple between your thumb and index finger.

4. Now lie down and feel your breasts, using your right hand for your left breast and left hand for your right breast. With the first few fingers of each hand go over the entire surface area of your breast, feeling all of your breast tissue just underneath your skin and again deeper down with a firmer touch. If you locate any lumps or hard spots, notify your doctor.

5. Repeat step 4 while standing, perhaps while you are in the shower; it’s easier to feel what’s under the surface when your skin is wet and slippery.

Once breast cancer is suspected, whether it’s on a diagnostic mammogram or otherwise, other tests will follow—usually a biopsy, because this is probably the only way to make sure you have or don’t have cancer. Biopsies involve removing a small sample of the suspect tissue for further examination under a microscope by a pathologist. Not only do pathologists look for the cancer, they also seek to determine what kind of receptors—estrogen or progesterone—the cancer tissue has. The receptors help determine what type of therapy you will receive for the cancer; there are specific therapies directed at each type of receptor that improve the outcome.

The “stage” or location of the cancer is also determined during the diagnosis. If it’s located in a lobule or duct of the breast, the cancer is at Stage 0. If the tumor is less than 2 centimeters but has not spread beyond the breast itself, it’s Stage 1.

Stage 2 involves tumors that are less than 2 centimeters and have migrated beyond the breast to the lymphatic nodes, or are greater than 2 centimeters and haven’t spread outside the breast.

Stage 3 involves more advanced breast cancers, greater than 5 centimeters, that have spread to the lymphatic nodes under the arm.

Stage 4 is metastatic cancer, meaning that it has spread outside the breast to other organs.

Surgery plays a major role in the treatment by essentially removing as much of the cancer as possible. For the very early stages of breast cancer, the treatment is called a lumpectomy, which is the removal of the tumor and a little bit of normal tissue around the tumor. A lumpectomy is usually combined with radiation therapy.

Partial mastectomies involve removing a larger piece of the breast.

More advanced cancers are treated with modified radical mastectomies, meaning that the entire breast and the lymph nodes are removed. Most women who have total breast removal get reconstructive surgery in order to create a substitute breast mound. Those with high stages of cancer often also receive chemotherapy, with surgery or without surgery, in order to decrease the risk of the cancer’s recurrence, though the side effects of chemotherapy can be considerable.

Similarly, radiation therapy, which uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells, is often used to reduce the risk of recurrence and to kill tumor cells that may be living in lymph nodes. Depending on whether the tumor expressed estrogen or progesterone receptors, patients may also receive hormonal therapy. Patients whose tumors expressed estrogen, for example, may receive an estrogen-blocking drug called tamoxifen for five years after their surgery.