As a child, I enjoyed keeping pet turtles, frogs, lizards, and snakes (and many, more cuddly, pets). But some children who handle these pets are at risk for serious illness or even death. According to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (...
U.S. News featured an article on lead poisoning. Most people aren't aware that lead is the most significant environmental health hazard for US children. More than one in 25 American children have blood lead levels high enough to lower IQ or to...
Dick Tracy, move over!
A watch just approved by FDA advisors is even cooler than a wrist-phone. The Gluco Watch uses painless skin sensors to measure blood sugar every 20 minutes without a poke or a prick. An alarm sounds if the glucose is out of...
How tragic to be expecting a child - one of life's great joys - and to discover that you have breast cancer. This nightmare happens during about one in 3,500 pregnancies. We know that chemotherapy works by killing the rapidly growing cancer cells....
The December 9th, 1999 edition of the Journal of Pediatrics featured the pooled results of 10 studies involving children in 9 countries. When zinc-deficient children received zinc supplements, childhood infection rates plummeted. We've known that in...
Without a newborn hearing test, the average age at which congenital deafness is diagnosed is 2 years old! Children whose deafness is treated in the first months of life gain critical time and perform far better on developmental tests than those...
Like sucking on pacifiers and thumbs, grinding the teeth (called bruxism) is a common habit that usually disappears on its own as young children grow. The two peak periods of bruxism are as the baby teeth arrive in very young children and again at 5...
How tragic for a child's parent or grandparent to be snatched away by sudden cardiac death (SCD). An exciting study in the December 16, 1999 New England Journal of Medicine offered good news. Until now, well over a quarter million people each year...
Children have received vaccines for many years. But in 1991, for the first time, newborns began receiving a vaccine. Has this caused an increase in SIDS or in vaccine-related deaths? Since 1991 over 86 million doses of the Hepatitis B vaccine have...
Scrumptious treats are a fun part of the holiday season. Parties and family gatherings often feature tables full of holiday food. But these delights often lead to tummy problems for unsuspecting revelers. When food is refrigerated (below 40 F), most...
Some children who are thought to have ADHD don't have significant attention problems at all - short-term memory deficits can produce the ADHD-like behavior. Some children with ADHD also have separate short-term memory problems in addition to their...
Genentech announced that it received FDA approval for its new drug, Nutropin Depot, the first long-acting dosage form of hormone replacement therapy for the tens of thousands of children with growth hormone deficiencies.
No more polio? The World Health Organization was on target to eliminate polio by the end of the year 2000. This wonderful achievement also changes the risks vs. benefits for polio vaccines. For that reason, in 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics...
Children's health issues are just the same as adult health issues -- only smaller. In adults, back pain is a common musculoskeletal problem. In children, back pain should be taken seriously. When children under age 10 have back pain that lasts...
Infections can be avoided both by decreasing the exposure to germs and by boosting your child’s immunity. Click here for 6 powerful ways to decrease germ exposure.
