 | | | | Children's Health Headlines | | | (USA TODAY) -- Getting a flu shot will be far easier this fall than last, with retailers already stocking millions of doses and free shots available through Medicare and private insurance, officials say.
DENVER (The New York Times News Service) -- Health officials are recommending that almost everyone get a flu shot this year.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Emergency room visits for school-age athletes with concussions has skyrocketed in recent years, suggesting the intensity of kids' sports has increased along with awareness of head injuries.
NEW YORK, N.Y. (Canadian Press) -- A new study shows that there's less smoking depicted in movies in recent years.
CHICAGO (AP) -- A stunning one in five teens has lost a little bit of hearing, and the problem has increased substantially in recent years, a new national study has found.
SAN DIEGO (USA TODAY) -- Men who say they had a good relationship with their father while growing up react less to day-to-day stress as adults than those whose relationship with their dad was poor, new research suggests.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- There's good news for parents who worry that their teenagers' sex lives are affecting their school performance: A provocative new study has found that teens in committed relationships do no better or worse in school than those who don't have sex.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- Health providers should routinely ask women of child-bearing age about their alcohol consumption as a first step in trying to prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in children, says the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization declared the swine flu pandemic officially over Tuesday, months after many national authorities started canceling vaccine orders and shutting down telephone hot lines as the disease ebbed from the headlines.
MUNICH (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Big brains are less susceptible to Alzheimer's, according to German researchers, who say that proper nutrition for infants could be a key to alleviating this dreaded dementia condition.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Fido's food may be making kids sick, a government report warns, detailing the first known salmonella outbreak in humans, mostly young children, linked to pet food.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pizzas and hamburgers in the school lunch line would be healthier under child nutrition legislation passed by the Senate Thursday, a key part of first lady Michelle Obama's campaign to end childhood obesity.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A government panel is recommending doctors steer clear of giving one brand of flu vaccine to young children this year because of convulsions and fever in kids who got the shot in Australia and New Zealand.
TAMPA (The New York Times News Service) -- A Brandon-area infant has died from a rare and devastating disease transmitted by mosquitoes that causes inflammation of the brain, health officials said Thursday. It was the second death in Hillsborough County this month from eastern equine encephalitis, prompting officials to issue a public health alert and step up mosquito spraying around the Tampa Bay area.
HANOI (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Vietnamese health experts have called for urgent action to promote breastfeeding, government officials said Friday.
CHICAGO (AP) -- More than 70,000 children and teens go to the emergency room each year for injuries and complications from medical devices, and contact lenses are the leading culprit, the first detailed national estimate suggests.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Prescription drugs have killed 1,200 people in Harris County since 2006 -- casualties in a deadly American drug war in which dealers are often doctors and pharmaceutical companies rather than narcotics cartels.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Trade Organization has launched a formal investigation into whether U.S. tobacco control laws are illegally preventing imports of clove-flavored cigarettes from Indonesia.
MONTREAL (Canadian Press) -- A study conducted at the Montreal Heart Institute has yielded a surprising result -- living with children is linked to a reduction in physical activity.
CHICAGO (AP) -- For the first time, a large study suggests a higher rate of childhood cancer among test-tube babies, but researchers say the reason probably has nothing to do with how the infants were conceived.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Dr. Mary Newport sees the symptoms more and more in the babies she treats: oddly stiff limbs, severe tremors, vomiting, diarrhea, insomnia, crying that never stops.
VIENNA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia need to reach out to street children and mothers infected with the AIDS virus if the region's epidemic -- the fastest growing in the world -- is to be reversed, a United Nations report said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- From counseling for kids who struggle with their weight, to cancer screenings for their parents, preventive health care will soon be available at no out-of-pocket cost under consumer rules the Obama administration unveiled Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democrats are moving forward on first lady Michelle Obama's vision for healthier school lunches, propelling legislation that calls for tougher standards governing food in school and more meals for hungry children.
(Associated Press) -- A Nestle subsidiary has agreed to stop advertising that its children's drink Boost Kid Essentials can prevent illness, increase immunity and reduce school absences, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday in announcing two settlements.
(Associated Press) -- About 137,000 pieces of children's jewelry sold at two stores popular with pre-teen girls -- Justice and Limited Too -- have been recalled for high levels of the toxic metal cadmium.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- Major league teams are standing watch over their pitchers. Not only are pitch counts studied, but a hurler's mechanics are monitored by a computer to see if he puts too much stress on his body.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The health care overhaul passed earlier this year will help many uninsured get coverage starting in 2014. But until then, Americans who lose employer coverage may find buying insurance on their own unaffordable.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Giving teens 30 extra minutes to start their school day leads to more alertness in class, better moods, less tardiness, and even healthier breakfasts, a small study found.
BERLIN (AP) -- Embryos created during in vitro fertilization can be screened for genetic defects before being implanted in the womb, a German high court said in a landmark ruling Tuesday.
TORONTO (Canadian Press) -- Exercise has been linked to possible benefits in staving off dementia in numerous studies in the past decade, but a new look at the topic suggests the earlier the better.
LONDON (AP) -- Human fetuses cannot feel pain before the age of 24 weeks, a British medical association said Friday -- delivering a setback for anti-abortion activists campaigning to lower the country's 24-week time limit.
THE ACREAGE, Fla. (The New York Times News Service) -- On an MRI, a glioblastoma brain tumor looks like a ghost, a soft gray outline of an early death.
LONDON (AP) -- Children whose mothers lived close to a mobile phone tower while pregnant did not appear to be at any higher risk of cancer than children whose mothers lived farther away, a new study finds.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- A new report on the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals says 10 African countries have halved their poverty rates but that child mortality has increased in six sub-Saharan nations.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Doctors always said allergies and asthma were behind Laura Mentch's repeated lung and sinus infections. Only when she turned 50 did she discover the real culprit - a disease notorious for destroying children's lungs.
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization on Friday issued its first-ever guidance on how to use more than 240 essential medicines for children under 13.
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) -- More than 100 members of a Christian religious sect have barricaded themselves in an abandoned building in southern Malawi over their refusal to give their children the measles vaccine, a regional health official said Wednesday.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Thirty-five years after the Vietnam War, a $300 million price tag has been placed on the most contentious legacy still tainting U.S.-Vietnam relations: Agent Orange.
(USA TODAY) -- The punishment is brutal -- three push-ups -- each time one of the children kicks a soccer ball into a cone.
(USA TODAY) -- As Lance Somerfeld learned, babies are excellent teachers.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Donovan Johns was 3 years old when he was diagnosed with autism after his parents noticed he struggled with speaking, expressing his needs and interacting with others.
BERLIN (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Mothers who smoke not only damage their children during pregnancy but can also negatively affect their development in the breast-feeding phase. Nicotine and other dangerous substances contained in tobacco enter breast milk and then the child's system, according to a new report from the German Cancer Research Centre.
(Associated Press) -- We fret about airport scanners, power lines, cell phones and even microwaves. It's true that we get too much radiation. But it's not from those sources -- it's from too many medical tests.
YARGALMA, Nigeria (AP) -- Mound after tiny mound of red clay earth dots the cemetery on the outskirts of this impoverished Nigerian village where grieving parents come to pray.
DARETA, Nigeria (AP) -- As masked Nigerian environmental experts examined a communal well in a village where more than 60 children were killed by lead poisoning, barefoot kids streaked with dust sat on the contaminated ground, running their hands through the silt and sucking on their fingers.
(Daily Mail) -- A simple test that would revolutionise the diagnosis of autism could be available within just three years.
LONDON (Canadian Press) -- Officials urged Bristol-Myers Squibb not to shut down a plant in France which makes AIDS drugs, saying the move will jeopardize the lives of thousands of babies.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Oil has now washed up on the beaches of three Gulf states. How dangerous is it?
LONDON (AP) -- For children in Bangladesh, losing a mother -- but not a father -- can be deadly, a new study says.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- School lunches that are good for kids -- and kids will actually eat? That's a job for America's top chefs.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Cadmium has been discovered in the painted design on "Shrek"-themed drinking glasses being sold nationwide at McDonald's, forcing the burger giant to recall 12 million of the cheap U.S.-made collectibles while dramatically expanding contamination concerns about the toxic metal beyond imported children's jewelry.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A new report shows one in five high school students have taken a prescription drug that they didn't get from a doctor.
ATLANTA (AP) -- A growing number of teen girls say they use the rhythm method for birth control, and more teens also think it's OK for an unmarried female to have a baby, according to a government survey released Wednesday. The report may help explain why the teen pregnancy rate is no longer dropping.
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico is looking to battle the bulging waistlines of its children by banning the sale of junk food in its schools, including many of the traditional treats generations of kids have grown up with.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health regulators are investigating hundreds of consumer complaints involving children's medicines recalled by Johnson & Johnson last month, according to a congressional memo.
VIENNA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Children might have a higher risk of certain skin rashes if their parents have an advanced education, researchers at the Medical University of Vienna said Tuesday.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials say one reason so many American kids are overweight is that few have a nearby place to play and exercise.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- The effects of abuse, poverty and neglect that some kids carry with them to school can be like an extra backpack weighing heavily on weak shoulders.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The nation's largest pediatricians group is relaxing its stance against swimming lessons for children younger than 4.
(The New York Times News Service) -- With prescription drug abuse and deaths making headlines all over the state, the public outcry for action is louder than ever.
CHICAGO (AP) -- Children in the most rural areas of the United States are as likely to die by gunshot as kids in the biggest cities, a new analysis of nearly 24,000 deaths finds.
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's top medical group banned a doctor who was the first to publish peer-reviewed research suggesting a connection between a common vaccine and autism from practicing in the country, finding him guilty Monday of serious professional misconduct.
LONDON (AP) -- Child deaths worldwide seem to have fallen faster than officials thought, as a new study estimates far fewer children are dying every year than previously guessed by the United Nations.
GENEVA (AP) -- Measles is making a rapid comeback in African, Asian and even some European countries despite being easily avoided through vaccination, the World Health Organizations said Friday as countries pledged to sharply cut infections and deaths worldwide by 2015.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health officials knowingly used flawed data in a study that calmed public fears about lead in the District of Columbia's drinking water in 2004, according to a congressional investigation released Thursday.
LONDON (AP) -- The European Medicines Agency said the unexpected presence of a pig virus in GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix vaccine poses no threat and should continue to be used, the drugmaker said Friday.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Ardi Rizal, 2, throws a tantrum when his parents refuse him a cigarette. His father gave him his first when he was just 18 months old.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Health officials say many public swimming pools aren't as clean as they should be.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Wal-Mart said Wednesday it is pulling an entire line of Miley Cyrus-brand necklaces and bracelets from its shelves after tests performed for The Associated Press found the jewelry contained high levels of the toxic metal cadmium.
GENEVA (AP) -- For years, the world has been on the brink of wiping out polio, the deadly disease that can paralyze and kill children.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jewelry branded by Miley Cyrus and sold exclusively at Walmarts nationwide contain high levels of the toxic metal cadmium, an Associated Press investigation shows.
GENEVA (AP) -- A global vaccine group says the World Health Organization will pass an important resolution later this week to step up efforts against pneumonia.
CHICAGO (AP) -- A new analysis of U.S. health data links children's attention-deficit disorder with exposure to common pesticides used on fruits and vegetables.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The number of children hospitalized with dangerous drug-resistant staph infections surged 10-fold in recent years, a study found.
(The New York Times News Service) -- A proposal by Governor Deval Patrick's administration to ban baby bottles and toddler sippy cups containing a chemical suspected of hampering childhood development drew scrutiny yesterday from public health regulators, who expressed worries that the plastic ingredient might be replaced with something more dangerous.
(The New York Times News Service) -- Children diagnosed with sickle cell disease once were expected to live barely into their 20s, but medical breakthroughs have more than doubled that lifespan, and now researchers are focused on a new dilemma -- decades of living with the condition may lead to poor brain function.
GULERIA, India (AP) -- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates traveled by boat Wednesday to a remote village in eastern India to check on the progress of a government campaign to eradicate polio that the billionaire is helping to fund.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Federal regulators are expanding their investigation into children's jewelry that contains the toxic metal cadmium, promising that a recall announced Monday of "Best Friends" charm bracelets will not be the last.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bone marrow transplants are undergoing a quiet revolution: No longer just for cancer, research is under way to ease the risks so they can target more people with diseases from sickle cell to deadly metabolic disorders.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Federal regulators announced another recall of children's jewelry with high levels of the toxic metal cadmium Monday, also saying they've expanded their investigation in an effort to keep dangerous items off store shelves in the first place.
TAIJI, Japan (AP) -- Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary "The Cove" have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said Sunday.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ---A 15-year-old boy has died of diphtheria in Haiti, but there is no evidence the bacterial disease is spreading in the earthquake-ravaged country, U.N. health officials said Sunday.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) -- What can you learn from four babies in four different countries engaged in 89 minutes of dialogue-free interaction with the world? A lot, it turns out.
(Associated Press) -- The most valuable college graduation gift your child receives this spring might come from a health insurer.
(Associated Press)-- More than 30 states allow parents to extend their health insurance coverage to dependents beyond the typical cut-off ages of 19 or 22. But these are not blanket extensions. Many come tailored for that state.
CHICAGO (AP) -- What's the magic in Oregon that keeps kids lean? It's a mystery health officials would like to solve as they admit all states are failing -- by a mile -- to meet federal goals for childhood obesity.
SAN FRANCISCO (The New York Times News Service) -- One April day after weeks of rain, Daniel Jiminez took a detour on his way to class: Dolores Park in San Francisco.
BORUNGO KHOLA, Bangladesh (AP) -- A pinch of salt. A fistful of sugar. A half liter of water.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New federal rules are in the works to limit the amount of mercury and other harmful pollutants released from boilers and solid waste incinerators.
GENEVA (Canadian Press) -- The World Health Organization says 32 cases of polio have been confirmed in Tajikistan as health workers are setting up a nationwide vaccination campaign.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Fears of swine flu helped boost vaccination for ordinary seasonal flu last year, with a record 40 percent of adults and children getting the vaccine, federal health officials said Thursday.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- County officials in Silicon Valley trying to curb childhood obesity voted Tuesday to ban restaurants from giving away toys and other freebies that often come with high-calorie meals aimed at kids.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- An African bank, communications giant and popular chicken restaurant chain are taking on malaria, saying their business expertise might be the missing weapon in the fight against a disease that kills 1 million annually.
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- When this city of 8.7 million awoke one year ago to confusing news of a new virus, it sent the world on a wild six-month roller-coaster ride of fear and frantic action.
(USA TODAY) -- A year ago today, Lyn Finelli, chief of flu surveillance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gathered her team and advised them to prepare for the worst.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- School lunches have been called many things, but a group of retired military officers is giving them a new label: national security threat.
GOLDEN, Colo. (The New York Times News Service) -- Ricky Heilbron is racing a timer as he shoves metal pegs into a wooden board. The 9-year-old wears blue-tinted glasses and a buzzer on his left ear -- visual and audio stimulation for the right side of his brain.
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Returning from Mexico, Michelle Obama made a brief stop Thursday in San Diego to visit a community garden farmed by international refugees that she called a model for building healthy communities across the nation and around the world.
LONDON (AP) -- A new autism disease identified in a flawed paper linking a common children's vaccine to autism, may not exist, new research says.
GENEVA (Canadian Press) -- The head of the World Health Organization says she wants a "frank and critical" review of its handling of the swine flu pandemic.
(USA TODAY) -- Pediatricians need to work hard to discourage children and teens from drinking alcohol because it damages their developing brains, increases their risk of addiction and can cause accidents that lead to early death, a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics says.
(The New York Times News Service) -- San Francisco -- Too many young people with serious eating disorders are being given "catch-all" diagnoses that could underestimate the severity of their illness and prevent them from getting the best possible treatment, a Stanford researcher says.
LONDON (AP) -- British doctors say they successfully separated conjoined Irish twins in a London hospital.
CHICAGO (AP) -- One hour of moderate to vigorous exercise a day can help teens beat the effects of a common obesity-related gene with the nickname "fatso," according to a new European study.
CHICAGO (AP) -- The lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved each year, along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of U.S. women breast-fed their babies for the first six months of life, a cost analysis says.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The sun is out. The water level is falling. Traffic is starting to flow again. While things appear to be looking up in Rhode Island, the state hit hardest this week by three days of rain and record flooding, health and environmental officials warn there's still danger below the surface.
ATLANTA (AP) -- Small taxes on soda do little to reduce soft drink consumption or prevent childhood obesity, but larger levies probably would, according to new research.
(The New York Times News Service) -- ALBANY, N.Y. -- Teaching your kids about how to take care of their bodies can be the most important lessons you teach them -- and also the hardest.
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