Health, Parenting | featured news

For some kids, the price of controlling severe asthma is half an inch of adult height. Those who use the inhaled steroid drug budesonide (marketed under brands including Rhinocort and Pulmicort) see a permanent stunting of growth, new research shows.

Declining rates of circumcision among infants will translate into billions of dollars of unnecessary medical costs in the U.S. as these boys grow up and become sexually active men, researchers at Johns Hopkins University warned.

Researchers announced Tuesday the beginning of a FDA-approved clinical trial that uses umbilical cord blood stem cells to ‘cure’ autism. Dr. Michael Chez, director of pediatric neurology at Sutter Neuroscience Institute in Sacramento, Calif., said he and his colleagues have been processing the trial for more than a year now, and they have high hopes it will succeed.

New research sheds light on what clinicians don’t worry about enough: the fact that doctors and patients don’t always communicate well, even in dire situations, writes Dr. Tyeese Gaines of theGrio.com.

Fever is the most common reason parents bring children to emergency rooms, especially in the middle of the night. It’s responsible for 1.6 million pediatric ER visits and nearly one-third of pediatrician office visits.

Back-to-school time means shopping for school or dorm room supplies, picking classes and savoring summer's waning days.

Babies who spend their first year in homes with dogs have fewer colds and ear infections and need fewer antibiotics than babies in pet-free homes, a new study from Finland shows. Babies who live with cats also seem to have a health advantage, but it's not as big.

Finally, some good news for older dads. A new study hints that their children and even their grandchildren may get a health benefit because of their older age. It's based on research into something called telomeres - tips on the ends of chromosomes.

Walt Disney Co. will stop accepting some junk-food ads on TV programs, radio shows and websites aimed at children, according to sources with knowledge of the plan.

... That makes it all the more exciting to find one policy that does seem to be working: California’s strict school nutrition standards — soda bans, low calorie foods in cafeterias and limits on fat content — appear to have had a significant impact on what teens there eat.