A new study of kids in the Los Angeles basin found that as air quality “improved dramatically” in recent years, so did the capacity of children's lungs. The study's attributes the gains to more stringent emissions standards. But can the air quality gains continue amid a resurgent economy?
Two high-profile studies came out this week with similar conclusions: Exposing kids to microbes and allergens may well lead to fewer allergies and better-adjusted immune systems. Tolerance of potential triggers, the studies suggest, is looking more and more like an acquired skill.
Technology to care for very sick and premature infants has improved dramatically over the past two decades. But these incredible measures also mean parents and neonatologists in the NICU face complex ethical questions when deciding how much care to provide and when to stop.
If you are a Californian having a baby for the first time, choose your hospital wisely. You might even wish to move. A recent report from the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Taskforce revealed alarming discrepancies in outcomes for low-risk pregnancies at high-performing and low-perform
A leading researcher on the ways in which doctors talk to parents about vaccines has a new suggestion for how we might boost immunization rates. Drawing on the theory of nudges, Dr. Douglas Opel suggests parents should have to "opt-out" of vaccinating their kids rather than "opt-in."
We know that kids who grow up with a lot of adversity are far more likely to suffer poor health and early death as adults. But how well do we understand the means by which early trauma is translated into health problems decades later? Researchers are still teasing apart the mechanisms at work.
One of the silver linings of the ongoing measles outbreak has been the attention it's placed on the controversial practice of vaccine exemptions. Smart, surprising coverage of Mississippi's tough policy on these exemptions shows why they matter, and how states differ.
If you write about children’s health or health policy more generally, there’s one topic you won't be able to escape this year: the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The program’s funding will expire in September 2015 unless Congress renews it. Advocates say the program fills a vital need.
From providing mental health care at the supermarket to training pediatricians in infant mental health, some in health care and social services are trying to apply the lessons of brain science and development to prevent problems that can threaten children’s health and well-being.
Last year we did a story on infant mortality in Rochester, NY. A few experts we talked to said toxic stress was one possible reason that babies born to black and Latina mothers died at such a high rate.
