Children's Health
our child's health includes physical, mental and social well-being. Most parents know the basics of keeping children healthy, like offering them healthy foods, making sure they get enough sleep and exercise and insuring their safety.
It is also important for children to get regular checkups with their health care provider. These visits are a chance to check your child's development. They are also a good time to catch or prevent problems.
Other than checkups, school-age children should be seen for
- Significant weight gain or loss
- Sleep problems or change in behavior
- Fever higher than 102
- Rashes or skin infections
- Frequent sore throats
- Breathing problems
- 800,000 doses of kids' swine flu vaccine recalled 12.15.09 Health officials are recalling hundreds of thousands of doses of swine flu vaccine after tests indicated they may not be potent enough to protect against the virus.
- Report: 13 million babies worldwide born premature 10.09.09 They call it kangaroo care: A premature baby nestles skin-to-skin against mom’s bare, warm chest. In Malawi, mothers’ bodies take the place of too-pricey incubators to keep these fragile newborns alive.
- The perils of public potties require some care 08.03.09 Mixed in with the book order forms and the crafts from the day, I got a notice in my daughter's school bin that several children had come down with scarlet fever.
- Depression diagnoses decline after FDA warning 06.02.09 Researchers have come to understand that social groups can influence health in people of all ages.
- Healthy Teen Relationships 03.10.09 Young love can seem so innocent, but it’s not immune to issues of emotional and physical abuse, unhealthy patterns and conflict.
- Juvenile Diabetes 03.10.09 Her job as an RN with Northern Michigan Regional Hospital and her bachelor’s of science degree complemented her mother’s intuition, and she made an appointment for her son with his pediatrician.
- Panel: Adopting from abroad? Get hepatitis A shot 02.26.09 A 51-year-old adoptive grandmother’s hospitalization from hepatitis has helped spur new vaccination recommendations for people in close contact with children adopted from other countries.
- When toddlers point a lot, more words will follow 02.13.09 Don’t just talk to your toddler — gesture, too. Pointing, waving bye-bye and other natural gestures seem to boost a budding vocabulary.
- Studies: Steroids do not help wheezing kids 01.22.09 Steroid drugs, a common treatment for young children prone to wheezing and colds, do not help and may even be harmful, according to new research.
- MRSA rising in kids’ ear, nose, throat infections 01.20.09 Researchers say they found an “alarming” increase in children’s ear, nose and throat infections nationwide caused by dangerous drug-resistant staph germs.
- Largest-ever study of U.S. child health begins 01.13.09 Scientists begin recruiting mothers-to-be in North Carolina and New York this week for the largest study of U.S. children ever performed — aiming eventually to track 100,000 around the country from conception to age 21.
- First U.S. count finds 1 in 200 kids are vegetarian 01.13.09 A recent study provides the government’s first estimate of how many children avoid meat. That’s about 1 in 200.
- Mission: Impossible? Keeping kids healthy in sick season 12.22.08 Figuring out when a child is contagious is tough. Many children are the most contagious in the very early stages of illness even before they appear to be sick.
- Adoption Awareness Month 12.19.08 Each year, National Adoption Month brings attention to adoption, the families who welcome children into their home and the birthparents who provide new hope for their infants.
- Young girl faces heart surgery 12.10.08 A Petoskey girls story of trumping tragedy
- Disruptive behavior by autistic kids stirs furor 11.17.08 Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the U.S.1 But many of these deaths can be prevented. Placing children in age- and size-appropriate car seats and booster seats reduces serious and fatal injuries by more than half.
- Bedwetting: More common than you think 10.22.08 When children are wetting their bed well into the adolescent and even early “tween” years, it can mean added stress on a family and a great deal of embarrassment for the child.
- Got milk? Breast-feeding best — unless you can’t 10.22.08 Bente White was willing to try almost anything to breast-feed her infant son.
- CDC Study Finds 3 Million U.S. Children have Food or Digestive Allergies 10.22.08 The number of young people who had a food or digestive allergy increased 18 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- CDC Releases New Infant Mortality Data 10.17.08 The United States ranked 29th in the world in infant mortality in 2004, compared to 27th in 2000, 23rd in 1990 and 12th in 1960, according to a new report from CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
- Child Passenger Safety: Fact Sheet 10.15.08 Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the U.S.1 But many of these deaths can be prevented. Placing children in age- and size-appropriate car seats and booster seats reduces serious and fatal injuries by more than half.
- Pediatricians double vitamin D recommendations 10.13.08 The nation’s leading pediatricians group says children from newborns to teens should get double the usually recommended amount of vitamin D because of evidence that it may help prevent serious diseases.
- FDA issues safety and risk assessment of melamine in infant formula 10.06.08 FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns.
- Avoid foodborne illness when baby arrives home 10.06.08 Foodborne illness is a serious health issue, especially for your new baby and any other children in your home. Each year in the U.S., 800,000 illnesses affect children under the age of 10.
- Hearing and vision screening underway for school children 09.16.08 Local health department’s Hearing and Vision Screening Program are working with local school districts and preschools to provide screening to more than 15,000 children, identifying problems early before they can interfere with children’s academic succ
- Childhood obesity is an ever increasing issue for today’s families 08.29.08 Researchers have come to understand that social groups can influence health in people of all ages.
- Instances of Autism on the Rise 08.22.08 In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report that raised many an eyebrow across the country.
- Physical Activity Drops From Age 9 to 15 08.15.08 The activity level of a large group of American children dropped sharply between age 9 and age 15, when most failed to reach the daily recommended activity level according to the NIH.
- Fat Cell Numbers in Teen Years Linger for a Lifetime 08.15.08 Researchers have found that the number of fat cells in your body is set during adolescence and remains constant through adulthood, regardless of whether you gain or lose weight.
- SIDS: A heart-breaking killer 08.07.08 The latest for parents about the still-unexplained mystery of crib death.
- Sex education: Safeguarding teens from becoming parents 07.24.08 Health officials claim the keys to keeping teens from becoming moms are education and persistent parents.
- Noise Pollution: A Different Environmental Problem 07.24.08 Too much noise not only pollutes the environment; it can permanently damage your hearing.
- How Social Networks Affect Your Health 07.24.08 Researchers have come to understand that social groups can influence health in people of all ages.
- FDA Clears biospace med's SterEOS 2D/3D Workstation For Pediatric Use In Spine biospace med announced today that it has received 510(k) clearance from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to market the Company's sterEOS 2D/3D workstation for pediatric use in spine applications. The Company's EOS ultra-low-dose imager previously has been FDA-cleared for use in pediatrics and adults, while sterEOS has previously been FDA-cleared for adult use in spine...
- ECG Screening Of Hyperactive Children Borderline Cost-effective Evaluating children for underlying heart problems before prescribing stimulant medications can identify children at risk for sudden cardiac death, but electrocardiogram (ECG) screening is of borderline cost-effectiveness compared to current practice, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association...
- Need For Broader Use Of Individualized Learning Plans For Physicians Physicians would be better prepared for the accelerating rate of scientific discovery-and more in step with the latest in patient-care-if they added an important tool to their medical bags: a plan for how to keep pace with emerging health-care advances...
- Researchers Find Exposure To BPA May Cause Permanent Fertility Defects Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have discovered that exposure during pregnancy to Bisphenol A (BPA), a common component of plastics, causes permanent abnormalities in the uterus of offspring, including alteration in their DNA. The findings were reported in the March issue of Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB J.). Led by Hugh S. Taylor, M.D...
- The Prevalence Of Cyberbullying And Its Psychological Impact On Nonheterosexual Youth Revealed By New Study Schools are typically on guard against students who bully by inflicting repeated violence on other students. But technology has given rise to a relatively new form of bullying which inflicts emotional harm in a stealth manner, working through Web sites, chat rooms, e-mail, cell phones and instant messaging...
- American Academy of Pediatrics 08.04.08 AAP.org website devoted to children's health.
- WebMD Children's Health Center 08.04.08 Children's health information at WebMD
- Medline Plus: Children's Health 08.04.08 Children's Health links provided by the NIH.
- KidsHealth 08.04.08 KidsHealth website from the Nemours Foundation.