Child & Teen Health Archive

Research suggests that super-sizing our meals doesn’t just create problems for adults–– when we increase the amount of food that infants and children eat, they gain weight. This weight gain during infancy can lead to over-weight children, and over-weight children are more likely to become over-weight adults. In order to make sure infants and children are a healthy weight, keeping the portion sizes kid-friendly is key.

Just about every new parent has wrestled with the idea of whether to comfort a baby who cries during the night or whether to let him or her “cry it out.” A recent study adds more evidence to what researchers (and our own parents and grandparents) have long known: It’s okay to let your baby cry it out. It won’t harm them — and you’ll get a much better night’s sleep, too!

If you’ve looked up from your phone recently — or even if you haven’t! — you may have noticed that many children and teens are glued to their devices. While experts aren’t quite ready to call this an “addiction,” a new survey of parents and teens confirms that many of them suspect they’re too dependent on their devices. We’ve discussed the potential implications of this, plus suggested some “ground rules” for when to ignore those devices.

You may have noticed that many playgrounds are now “safer” than they used to be. It’s great to think about safety, especially since there are hundreds of thousands of playground-related injuries every year, and a significant chunk of those are brain injuries like concussions. But it’s also important not to get overprotective — some life lessons about risk and self-confidence are best learned in a fun, stimulating, well-supervised environment like a playground.

A new law in North Carolina prevents transgender people — people who feel very strongly that their biological sex does not match their true gender — from using the public restroom of the gender they identify with. But the American Academy of Pediatrics has denounced this law for discriminating against transgender children and children with certain genetic disorders. As they say, what all children need the most is unconditional acceptance and support.

We know that overweight teens have a higher risk of heart disease throughout their life, which is why pediatricians make sure to discuss healthy lifestyle choices with their patients. However, a recent study reveals that the weight ranges currently considered acceptable for teens might be too high, and therefore still putting them at risk. We’ve summarized the results and given you some ideas to help your teen lead an active, healthy lifestyle.

Awareness of the effects of concussions in children and adolescents has risen, along with the frequency of diagnosis. Researchers and other medical professionals are attempting to develop tools such as a risk grading scale, that might be used to better manage the injury and provide the most effective treatment.

Rice has an unusually high arsenic content — and high amounts of arsenic in the body can increase the risk of cancer and learning difficulties. The FDA has recently proposed an upper limit on the amount of arsenic in infant rice cereal, but it hasn’t yet been adopted. In the meantime, we’ve listed steps you can take to reduce your — and your child’s — consumption of arsenic.

Ninety percent of smokers had their first cigarette before turning 18. A movement to raise the legal age to buy tobacco in the United States to 21 hopes that making it more difficult for young people to start smoking may lead to a healthier population overall.

The development of vaccines for many once-fatal illnesses has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in the United States. While some parents may have concerns about the side effects of a vaccine, the decision not to vaccinate a child extends the risk of illness to the larger community.