Kids, Kids Health | featured news

Attention, germaphobes. Exposure to the microscopic bugs is crucial for keeping kids healthy, according to new research in the prestigious journal Science.

America’s intake of sugary foods and drinks has dropped in recent years, but U.S. kids are still consuming too much, government researchers say. Added sugars make up about 16 percent of a typical child's diet, regardless of family income.

Many states have expanded eligibility for, and simplified access to, the children's Medicaid program. This has helped shrink the number of uninsured children from 6.9 million in 2008 to 5.9 million in 2010. Experts say the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care overhaul that requires states to maintain income eligibility levels and discourages other barriers to coverage, has played a key role in the improvement.

If you wonder what kinds of beverages you should allow your kids to drink, a report published Monday morning in the journal Pediatrics makes things crystal clear: That’s just one of many useful nuggets of information from the report’s informative review of sports and energy drinks, the differences between the two and the way they should and, more important, shouldn’t be consumed.

It was one of those moments that you feel, rather than see, in excruciating, punishing slow motion: Four-month-old Tyler Glowacz fell from his bouncer, which was on the kitchen table, and landed on the ceramic floor. "I was only a couple of feet away, but his bouncer was on the table and he wasn't strapped in. Stupid mistake -- I know," admits his mom, LuAnn, of Austin, Texas.

Children are now eating 168 more calories from snacks than kids did in 1977, a new study shows.