If money is always low and stress or depression is always high, moms may be overfeeding their babies - and thereby increasing their kids' risks of obesity. A recent unpublished study being presented at a conference found that the unhealthy practice of adding cereal to babies' bottles tends to occur more often among low-income mothers who are single and/or showing symptoms of depression or high stress. Don't add cereal to your baby's bottle. Lead author Candice Taylor Lucas, MD, a an associate professor of pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital...

Breast is best… but what about pacifiers? It's commonly been thought that giving a baby a pacifier might cause problems with breastfeeding.

Researchers are learning more about how obesity develops from complex factors beyond just eating too much. One factor may be a fear of not having enough food for one's children. A recent study reveals that food insecurity, or the anxiety about whether a person will have enough food to be sure their family is well fed, might play a part in why some children go on to become severely overweight. Follow your doctor's recommendations on feeding your baby. Rachel Gross, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Children's...

If you remember asking your math teacher, "When are we ever going to need this stuff," the answer might be more important than you think: when you're measuring medication for your kid. A recent unpublished study has shown that poor math skills among parents are strongly linked to errors in measuring out the correct dosage of a medication for their children. Have a nurse, doctor or pharmacist show you how to measure your child's medication. Lead author Christine Marrese , MD, of the New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital, and colleagues wanted to find out wh...

Every pregnant mom wants to receive quality care from doctors and nurses. According to a new study, delivering your baby at a hospital that’s recognized for nursing excellence can impact your baby’s health. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing studied more than 72,000 very low-birth-weight ( VLBW ) infants (less than 3.3 pounds at birth).   They found that that babies born at hospitals recognized for nursing excellence ( RNE ) were less likely to suffer certain complications, compared to babies at hospitals that haven’t been recognized for nursing...

Making sure that your child is protected from seasonal flu is important. Text message reminders may give parents that extra push to get their child vaccinated.

A newly developed monitoring test may provide surgeons with real time data about a child's brain health during heart surgery to repair congenital defects.

Each year's flu vaccine is a different gamble: a combination of the three influenza strains that scientists believe are most likely to circulate that year. But the odds could improve.

When the H1N1 influenza blew through in the flu season of 2009-2010, some worried about an additional flu vaccine to get. Pregnant mothers who got jabbed may have helped their babies.

Watching your child whimper in pain can break your heart, so pediatric visits for immunizations can stress out the whole family. But there are ways to reduce the pain without meds.