Why do some preschoolers refuse naps while others have a meltdown without an afternoon snooze? Researchers suspect it may have a lot to do with a specific memory-related part of the brain. While young children all need a lot of sleep, they do vary widely in when they stop napping during the day: Some leave… read on > read on >
Pediatricians’ offices, children’s hospitals, urgent care centers and emergency rooms across the United States are being overwhelmed by an early, heavy surge of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) among infants and young children. Reported cases of RSV started rising dramatically in September, and by mid-October were at their highest levels in at least two years, according… read on > read on >
School-age kids who spend hours a day playing video games may outperform their peers on certain tests of mental agility, a new study suggests. Researchers found that compared with children who never played video games, those who regularly spent hours gaming had higher scores on two standard cognitive tests: one measuring short-term memory and another… read on > read on >
Child tax credits had a huge impact in U.S. households that struggle to afford food. And after those credits ended, many low-income American families with children had trouble getting enough to eat. Food insufficiency increased substantially, by about 25%, between January and July after the Child Tax Credit payments stopped on Jan. 15, 2022. Black… read on > read on >
Getting into prescription or over-the-counter medicines at home is a major source of accidental poisoning for young children. Yet, nearly half of parents say they have leftover prescriptions at home, a new poll shows. “We found that it’s common for parents to keep medicines long after they are expired or no longer needed, which creates… read on > read on >
Experts studying kids’ sleep and eating habits have learned more about a potential reason for childhood obesity. Kids who are deprived of sleep tend to eat more calories the next day, researchers found. And some of those extra calories come from less-healthy, sugar-laden snacks or treats. “When children lost sleep, overall they ate an extra… read on > read on >
When young adolescents strongly identify with a gender that does not match their gender at birth, one option is to offer a reversible treatment that can delay the onset of puberty. If the desire to transition endures, that delay can be followed with a second step: hormone treatments designed to trigger physical changes that match… read on > read on >
Pregnant women addicted to opioids have both a compelling reason to change and a harder time getting medications to battle their substance use disorder. Now, a new plan from the Biden administration would expand the use of medications to treat addiction in pregnant women through federal court and health programs. “This is a bold statement,… read on > read on >
The pandemic brought about a lot of changes in people’s lives. For many, that included a new baby. The United States saw a “baby bump” in 2021 described in a new study as “the first major reversal in declining U.S. fertility rates since 2007.” It was the opposite of what early forecasts predicted. “There was… read on > read on >
“Location, location, location” works in real estate, and a new study argues that the location of your hospital room could save your life after surgery. Patients are more likely to die after surgery if they are placed in certain types of rooms to recover, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Medicine found. Specifically,… read on > read on >
