If your child is going to be home alone, it’s a good idea to have the child check in periodically, says the American Red Cross. For older children, ground rules about having friends over and cooking should also be established. The Red Cross mentions other steps parents should take: Post an emergency phone list where… read on >
After months of delay, the Trump Administration is expected to announce this week that it will ban mint-, fruit- and dessert-flavored e-cigarette cartridges, while allowing the continued sale of menthol- and tobacco-flavored vapes. The White House originally proposed a ban on flavored e-cigarettes — thought to be especially enticing to teens — back in September.… read on >
Obesity can increase your child’s risk of cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and prediabetes, says Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. With minor changes, you can help your child maintain a healthy weight. To help your child safely shed pounds, the hospital encourages parents to: Reduce or eliminate sweetened beverages, including soda. Add more vegetables… read on >
Having dense breast tissue raises a woman’s odds for breast cancer, so many states require providers to notify women if a mammogram finds they have dense breast tissue. But a new study suggests that the notifications may be having little impact in alerting women to their added breast cancer risk. The goal of dense breast… read on >
Childhood obesity is such a crisis in America that officials have been updating recommendations for how early intervention should begin. Obesity now affects as many as 20% of the nation’s children. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reviewed the literature on kids between 2 and 18 years of age and now recommends that kids over… read on >
Breast cancer screenings are important tools to find cancer before symptoms are noticeable, says the American Cancer Society. The society provides these screening guidelines for women: Women aged 40-to-44 should consider screenings and mammograms. Women aged 45-to-54 should get yearly mammograms. Women age 55 and older should get bi-yearly mammograms. Some women, due to family… read on >
Air pollution from vehicles increases the risk of dangerously high blood pressure in pregnant women, U.S. government researchers report. Scientists from the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ (NIEHS) National Toxicology Program analyzed published studies on the links between traffic-related air pollution and preeclampsia. The analysis was reviewed by experts from academia and industry,… read on >
Microbes that live in a child’s upper airway could be linked to severe asthma attacks, new research suggests. For parents, it’s an all-too familiar scene: A child’s seemingly harmless cough quickly escalates to wheezing, gasping and an urgent need for emergency treatment. Asthma is the leading chronic disease in kids and third-most common cause of… read on >
Smartphones, tablets and laptops are everywhere, and young children are fascinated by them. Now, new research suggests that parents might be able to harness that curiosity and use apps on the devices to boost early learning. The review found that apps could be particularly useful for teaching early math and language skills. “Screen time is… read on >
If your child is obese, new research suggests that those extra pounds can alter the results of routine blood tests. “We performed the first comprehensive analysis of the effect of obesity on routine blood tests in a large community population of children and found that almost 70% of the blood tests studied were affected,” said… read on >
