Low-birth-weight children should have blood pressure checked

A recent study in the medical journal Pediatrics suggests that children who were born with very low birth weights should have their blood pressure checked. Evidence has shown that low-birth-weight children are at risk for developing hypertension in later life, but doctors often have not checked blood pressure in infants and toddlers because doing so was seen as impossible or the results were deemed unreliable. Now researchers say checking these children's blood pressure would allow medications and other treatments to be introduced as soon as possible, which would help them avoid later hypertension-related complications.  Read full story >