Long-term study of children's health has been largely ignored, said Dr. Scott Williams, a pediatrician who works for HealthInsight and is not directly involved in the National Children's Study.

For many years, even clinical trials of potential treatments that might be used on children only enrolled adult participants, as if children were just small-scale adults. Now drugs and other treatments that might be used by children must have a child component to the testing.

And while there have been many short-term studies focused on treating diseases in children, Williams said, a longitudinal study like the planned study provides long-term, cause-and-effect information that is difficult to piece together any other way.

"We have this concern: There are things in our environment that may contribute to diseases long-term," Williams said. Such a study could provide some answers; it could perhaps even help sort out questions of nature v. nurture.

"I'm very disappointed this was defunded," Williams said.

Clark said the expected cost — about $70 million this coming year to get going and another $150 million a year to carry it out, seems like a small amount compared to the billions that are spent each year on children's health problems. "I really think a country that fails to invest in its children is morally bankrupt," he said.

Fleischman acknowledged unusual financial challenges this year, such as hurricanes like Katrina that have dramatically impacted the federal deficit. "But this was really an outrageous directive," he said.

And there is apparently some money available for research. A study to be conducted by the Human Genome Institute appears in the president's budget with an allocation of $68 million — an allocation almost identical to the amount previously expected for the children's study.

"That is not a study about children," said Fleischman. "It's about adults. Children are again being ignored, and it's short-sighted to ignore children who, of course, become adults. Our study could answer questions about predisposition to disease by managing factors that impact on future health."

The genetic study, proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services, says it will look at genetic and environmental factors of diseases, with only a small component concerning children, Fleischman said.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com