Health & Parenting News & Updates

July 28, 2025 — Doptelet (avatrombopag) is a prescription medicine that helps the body make more platelets (cells that help stop bleeding). First approved in 2018 for adults, it is now also approved by the FDA for children aged 1 year or older with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) who haven’t gotten good responses from earlier treatments.

July 8, 2025 — More and more research suggests that the key to protecting your child’s mental health is to promote healthy screen habits, not time limits.

January 30, 2025 — New recommendations say people ages 5 to 18 years old should drink mainly water and pasteurized milk. Basically, if a nutrition label mentions added sugar, they shouldn’t drink it.

January 9, 2025 — New research suggests that greater screen time is linked to greater sleep problems among preschoolers, and the two things are also linked to an increased risk of hyperactive behavior, attention issues, and emotional problems.

July 2, 2024 — In real life, households with teens must decide on the policies at home to strike that balance on the side of benefit. Here’s how a half dozen households do it, along with their vote on the warning label.

May 24, 2024 — More than 4,000 people die from unintentional drowning in the U.S. every year, an average of 11 people per day. The problem is especially serious in children between the ages of 1 and 4, in whom drowning is the single leading cause of death.

March 22, 2024 — Researchers found that teens emitted two steroid compounds the little ones did not because they’d entered puberty and their sweat glands had begun working.

December 15, 2023 — An estimated 9.4 million teens ages 15 to 19 years old said they have had sex, compared to 9.6 million who reported in 2002 that they were sexually experienced.

October 3, 2023 — Emotional abuse is now the most common type of child abuse experienced in the U.S., according to CDC data published this summer. About one-third of all U.S. adults reported experiencing emotional abuse during childhood, the CDC data show.

August 29, 2023 — While federal regulators investigate the safety of Prime Energy drinks, which have become quite the rage among children at home and school, parents want to know: Are these beverages OK for my kid to drink? Here's what to know.

August 23, 2023 — One-year-olds who had an hour or more of daily screen time were up to five times more likely to miss milestones for communication skills when they reached 2 years old, according to a new study from Japan.

August 7, 2023 — A study found that videos using motivational behavior often provide misleading information – or medical advice provided by a doctor for the influencer’s specific situation, not the public at large.

August 3, 2023 — Thousands of children are being exposed to the dangers of liquid nicotine in e-cigarettes each year. Contact with the vaping liquid, or liquid nicotine, can cause children to get dizzy, pass out, and suffer drops in blood pressure.

June 27, 2023 — The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act says that employers with at least 15 workers must make “reasonable accommodations” to those who need them because of pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions.

June 20, 2023 — A recent study of parents estranged from adult children found that about a quarter of respondents were estranged from their fathers.

June 6, 2023 — Breastfeeding in infancy could have an effect on academic test scores later in a child’s life, a new study suggests.

February 5, 2023 — Added sugars in school meals would need to be less than 10% of calories per meal by 2027. Reductions in sodium would be phased in. Salt in school breakfasts would need to be cut by 10% in 2025 and another 10% in 2027. Sodium in lunches would need to be cut 10% in 2025, 2027, and 2029.

January 23, 2023 — The majority of youngsters who play video games do so as a form of entertainment, but about 5% to 6% of video game users do so to the point where it interferes with their lives.

January 13, 2023 — If you only saw the headlines, you might think that when a youngster is a few pounds overweight, their pediatrician will prescribe a weight loss drug or bariatric surgery. The reality is much less alarming. The guidelines take a deep dive into evidence-based treatments at various levels.