Find general advice and specific resources for parents who are trying to help a child who has learning differences or disabilities.

Topics: Patient's Own Decision-Maker

Pediatricians have been warning parents of toddlers about the choking hazards of hot dogs for quite a few years.
A hot dog is about the same size as a toddler’s esophagus. No one, until now, has called for the redesign of the hot dog to make it safer.
Given the data on choking, any item which raises [...]

Topics: Patient's Own Decision-Maker

Parents pick lower calorie foods for their kids when calories are posted on fast food menus, says a study.

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The manufacturer has issued a recall of Vicks DayQuil Cold & Flu 24-count LiquiCaps Bonus Pack.

Topics: Patient's Own Decision-Maker

National Public Radio
“Intensive reading programs can produce measurable changes in the structure of a child’s brain, according to a study in the journal Neuron. The study found that several different programs improved the integrity of fibers that carry information from one part of the brain to another. (Emphasis added)
“That helped areas of the brain work [...]

Topics: Patient's Own Decision-Maker

News/Commentary
Is there anyone disinterested in how to age well? If so, you can go now.
One of the finest studies in 20th century medicine was the Harvard Study on Adult Development.
A second fine outcome of this study was a book by George Vaillant, M.D., the last director of the decades-long study. This book examined what had [...]

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The general view of physicians and other experts has been that the spike in obesity among teenagers had to do with too little exercise and too much TV-watching.
This new study says the opposite is true.
Kids have been at least as active in the last 10 years as they were earlier while TV viewing has decreased. [...]

Topics: Patient's Own Decision-Maker

This study shows that 20% of kids ages 1-11, the ages when bones form, don’t get enough Vitamin D.
But wait! Many adults are vitamin D deficient also. Broken bones are the end result of that.
For adults, lifestyle changes may mean working through lunch, skipping the walk outside to lunch in the sunshine. That is valuable [...]

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Is an unhappy child a future obese adult?
There are some important limitations to an interesting study about this issue, noted by the researchers.
1.Reliance on self-report of BMI at age 30. (BMI, body mass index, is a measurement for obesity.)
Self-reports are the weakest kind of information, especially decades after events.
2.”A strength of the study — [...]

Topics: Patient's Own Decision-Maker

Tara Parker-Pope’s Well blog offers a great Q and A for parents who want to know “how worried to be” about the pandemic flu.
This is most helpful.
Parents need to know when to call the doctor.  This blog should be a big help and reduce the stress which goes with not knowing what to do.
New York [...]

Topics: Patient's Own Decision-Maker