Parenting, Kids Health | featured news

The real reason parents who would die for their children are comfortable feeding them from boxes and drive-thrus isn't due to a lack of love or concern. It's because society has been so firmly and conclusively duped into believing that doing so is both safe and healthful that it has become our new normal.

Parents taking infants on long flights are turning to medication to help their children sleep. But is the practice safe - or a dangerous abuse of parental power?

The menus offered to children by most U.S. restaurant chains have too many calories, too much salt or fat, and often not a hint of vegetables or fruit, according to a study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The group, which has agitated for everything from healthier popcorn at the movies to calorie labeling in supermarkets, found that among almost 3,500 combinations surveyed, kids' meals failed to meet nutritional standards 97 percent of the time.

Kids with higher levels of the widely used substance BPA in their bodies are more likely to be obese, according to the first large-scale, nationally representative study to link an environmental chemical with obesity in children and teens.

Finally, there’s good news on the child obesity front. A new study published online today suggests that inexpensive, community-based obesity intervention programs can work very well for kids who struggle with weight issues.

Colton and Abbygail are among three children successfully treated for their immune deficiency during an experiment detailed in Tuesday’s issue of the journal Blood. Ainslie says she never doubted her decision to have Abbygail, despite the risks.

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.

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.

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.