Parenting, 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.

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.