Diabetes Options for Children
    Diabetes Options for Children

    On Tuesday, August 27, 2002, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had approved the Glucowatch for use in children and teens with diabetes. (It had been approved for adults in 20…

    Who Will Smoke?
    Who Will Smoke?

    Researchers at Brown Medical School studied over 20,000 adolescents to look for clues as to which teens would experiment with smoking, and which would progress to occasional and then regular smokers. …

    Teens, Migraines, and Finger Temps
    Teens, Migraines, and Finger Temps

    Migraines affect at least 8 million children in the United States alone, resulting in more than one million missed school days each year. These headaches can be debilitating. Nevertheless, they are of…

    Higher Fiber, Later Periods
    Higher Fiber, Later Periods

    Girls who eat foods rich in fiber can reduce their risk of having their first period early by almost 50 percent, according to a study published in the April 2002 issue of Public Health Nutrition. (mor…

    Vegetarian Kids
    Vegetarian Kids

    I often hear from parents who are concerned because their children will not eat meat, for one reason or another. A study published in the May 2002 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Me…

    Secondhand Smoke Blunts Learning!
    Secondhand Smoke Blunts Learning!

    At the May 2002 meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital reported their research showing that secondhand smoke damages learning abilities, weakening…

    Dyslexia - Changing the Way the Brain Works
    Dyslexia – Changing the Way the Brain Works

    Scans that detect brain activity show that when people read, a part of the brain called the left superior temporal gyrus (STGp) becomes very active. However, in children with dyslexia, there is little…

    Teen Alcohol Consumption Shockingly High
    Teen Alcohol Consumption Shockingly High

    Even though the legal drinking age in the United States is 21, more than a quarter of all alcohol consumed here is drunk by people under the age of 20! Experts at Columbia University's National Center…

    Body Art
    Body Art

    Tattoos and body piercing continue to become more popular. The largest study yet of this subject, published in the January 2002 issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, reports that now most university u…

    Role Models Pave the Way
    Role Models Pave the Way

    One of the most powerful ways that children learn is through imitation. I'm not surprised that a study appearing in the January 2002 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine suggest…

    Teen Depression More Likely When Parents Are Depressed
    Teen Depression More Likely When Parents Are Depressed

    Teens whose parents are depressed are 6 times more likely than their peers to become depressed themselves - but there are ways to prevent this. The general rate of depression in adolescents is 3% to 8…

    8 Recommendations For School Safety
    8 Recommendations For School Safety

    Preventable injuries cause about two thirds of all deaths among school-aged children and adolescents. Motor-vehicle injuries lead the pack, causing 70% of unintentional injury deaths. Other unintentio…

    Peers Shape Attitudes About Sex
    Peers Shape Attitudes About Sex

    When people think of peer pressure, they usually think of someone being pressured to go against their conscience to engage in unhealthy behavior. That does happen, but peer pressure is far stronger th…

    Do Graduated Driver's Licenses Work?
    Do Graduated Driver’s Licenses Work?

    Automobile collisions remain the leading cause of death among US teens. The youngest drivers are the most likely to crash, so a number of states have experimented with graduated driver licensing (GDL)…

    Let's Give Nicotine to Kids!?
    Let’s Give Nicotine to Kids!?

    Because nicotine is both dangerous and addictive, physicians have been reluctant to use it in young children to help them quit smoking. It has not been studied in children younger than 16 -- leading t…

    Teens and Tragedy
    Teens and Tragedy

    You may have been heard warnings about exposing young children to too much of the televised re-tellings of the tragic events. Teenagers, though, are at a different point in their lives. While some may…

    Cookies n' Creatine?
    Cookies n’ Creatine?

    Many children would like to build muscle, improve their appearance, and enhance their athletic performance. Supplement marketers are convincing them that they can do it all by taking creatine. And it'…

    Measuring the Effect of Ecstasy
    Measuring the Effect of Ecstasy

    I spoke with a health conscious high school student last week who told me that she did not smoke, drink, or use drugs. She mentioned that she did use Ecstasy, but she thought it was so healthy that sh…

    College and Meningitis
    College and Meningitis

    When your child first packs up and heads off for college, it is a bittersweet moment. How horrible if meningitis were to make the separation permanent. The first year is the critical time. Freshmen li…

    When Teens Can’t Sleep
    When Teens Can’t Sleep

    Anxiety (which is often brought on by a stressful event) is probably the most common cause of difficulty falling asleep. This is called "stress-related insomnia." It is a self-limited problem that usu…