Health & Parenting News & Features

The new internet dare, broadcast widely on teen-friendly TikTok, urges kids to overdose on the over-the-counter antihistamine Benadryl to achieve a hallucinatory state.

Does Having a Dog Make for Well-Adjusted Kids? By Serena Gordon HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, July 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- If you've hesitated to get a dog because your kids are very young, new research suggests that the preschool years might be a good time to add a furry friend to the family. The study found that preschoolers with dogs at home had fewer problems with their peers or other behavior problems compared to youngsters without a family dog. Tots who walked and played with their dog more often were likely to be more social, too.

See which vaccines your child will need before heading back to school.

Parents have to be comfortable talking about disparities -- not just differences -- and these conversations need to happen early and often.

Are boys innately better at math and science? That question has generated debate for decades, and new research looking at the brains of children while they do math may help answer the question.

For parents hoping their "picky" eater will grow out of it, a new study may be unwelcome news.

A child psychologist advises parents to address the threat of internet challenges with continual, preemptive conversations with kids -- and with special phone settings.

Clinicians and educators are turning to Mother Nature for help in addressing widespread obesity, chronic illness, depression, and behavioral problems among youth.

A purse, backpack or diaper bag can contain a hodgepodge of medications and supplements, cosmetics, hand sanitizers, candy, coins and other items that attract little hands. That can also set the stage for accidents, sometimes deadly.

Researchers tested nearly 100 19-month-olds and found that even when they were hungry, many retrieved a piece of fruit dropped by someone they didn't know and offered it to them.

The trillions of bacteria that inhabit your gut and other bodily regions can have a critical impact on your overall health. The same holds true for babies, new research shows.

Parents did seek alternatives to the standard pediatrician sick visit, including treatment at urgent care and retail clinics as well as telemedicine consults. These visits accounted for about half of the decrease in pediatric sick visits, the study found.

The potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to benefit our kids is real. For many of us, it's already integrated into our children's daily routines.

The authors estimate that nearly one-quarter of young women aged 15-20 have received a pelvic exam in the last year. That’s 2.6 million girls. More than half of the exams -- 1.4 million -- may not have been needed.

In a national survey of U.S. high school students, 14% said they had ever "misused" a prescription opioid such as Vicodin, OxyContin or Percocet.

The review found that apps could be particularly useful for teaching early math and language skills.

New research suggests that teaching our children how to give their money away makes them more financially savvy adults.

That's nearly 1 million teens taking a potentially deadly weapon to school. But researchers say universal background checks can put a dent in those numbers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on its first dietary guidelines for babies from 0 to 2 years old. Here's the advice the founder of a child health advocacy group would like to see in those guidelines.

The U.S. birth rate declined again in 2018, falling to its lowest in more than three decades, the CDC said.

Regulations, more education about choking hazards and guidelines from organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics have likely all played a role in the downward trend, said study author Dr. John Cramer.

The nationwide poll of 819 parents with at least one child in middle school, junior high or high school found that while one-third were confident they could detect depression in their children, two-thirds said certain things would make it difficult.

RSV can cause serious breathing problems in infants, so parents need to be able to recognize the signs. Find out how the labored breathing that can come with this virus might look and sound.

Nearly every social worker said leaving a child 6 years or younger home alone for four or more hours represented neglect. More than 80% agreed if the child was 8 or younger, as did more than half if the child was 10 or younger. Fewer described the scenario as neglect if the child was 12 or older.

Researchers at New York University found that between 1991 and 2017, there was an increase in the number of black teenagers who said they'd attempted suicide in the past year.