Children's Health

Dr. Eric Ball examines a healthy 5-day-old patient in his office in Ladera Ranch, Calif. Ball and colleagues decided this week to take only patients whose parents follow the recommended vaccine schedule.

Pediatricians Pressured To Drop Parents Who Won't Vaccinate

8:15am February 05, 2015

by Patti Neighmond

The pressure, doctors say, is mostly coming from other parents who don't want their infants exposed to measles, whooping cough or other serious illnesses in the pediatric waiting room.

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California is one of 20 states that allow parents to opt out of vaccination requirements for reasons of "personal belief." About 10 percent of students in the Santa Monica-Malibu school district are not immunized.

Measles + Low Vaccination Rates = Big Headaches For Schools

8:25pm February 04, 2015

by Kirk Siegler

California allows parents to opt out of vaccination requirements. Amid Southern California's measles outbreak, many schools are struggling with how best to deal with students who aren't vaccinated.

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The Psychology Behind Why Some Kids Go Unvaccinated

7:40am February 04, 2015

by Shankar Vedantam

As the country grapples with a growing outbreak of measles, Morning Edition delves into what works and what doesn't — and what might get people to vaccinate their kids.

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A Vietnamese boy is treated for measles in a state-run hospital in April 2014.

Measles Is A Killer: It Took 145,000 Lives Worldwide Last Year

1:31am February 04, 2015

by Jason Beaubien

The uproar over the U.S. outbreak glosses over a bigger problem: Measles takes a tragic toll in poor countries. But a vaccine can effectively stop this deadly — and highly contagious — disease.

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Rhett Krawitt outside his home in Marin County, Calif.

A Boy Who Had Cancer Faces Measles Risk From The Unvaccinated

1:24am February 04, 2015

by Lisa Aliferis

The father of a young child who had leukemia has a plea for other parents: Please vaccinate your children, because people with compromised immune systems, including his son, can't be vaccinated.

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Writer Roald Dahl and his wife, actress Patricia Neal, with two of their children, Theo and Chantel Sophia "Tessa." The photo was taken a few years after oldest daughter, Olivia, died of measles.

Beyond Rash And Fever: How Measles Can Kill

5:24pm February 03, 2015

by Michaeleen Doucleff

It happened to Roald Dahl's daughter in 1962. It still happens today, in the U.S. and around the world. In rare cases, measles becomes an incurable disease.

Acupuncture May Help With Nasal Allergies, Doctors Say

4:48pm February 03, 2015

by Nancy Shute

Over-the-counter remedies can help a lot if your stuffy, drippy nose is caused by allergies, new guidelines say. Acupuncture might help, too, but there's no evidence that herbal remedies do a thing.

The U.K. could become the first country to legalize the production of a human embryo from three donors. Here, the freezing platform for an embryo, top, also known as a straw, is seen at an in vitro fertilization lab.

'3-Parent Baby' Law Moves Forward In Britain

12:36pm February 03, 2015

by Bill Chappell

While the technique is often referred to by the shorthand "three-parent baby," the controversial process uses nuclear DNA from two parents and the mitochondrial DNA of a third donor.

Emily Neblett, a patient at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., demonstrates circuit pieces from the mobile maker space that are connected by magnets.

'Maker Space' Allows Kids To Innovate, Learn In The Hospital

11:04am February 03, 2015

by Noah Nelson

At a children's hospital in Nashville, Tenn., a mobile maker space allows patients to share materials and tools to build new things, while also teaching them about math and science.

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Dr. Frances Jensen is a professor and chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Why Teens Are Impulsive, Addiction-Prone And Should Protect Their Brains

1:26pm January 30, 2015

New research shows that teenagers' brains aren't fully insulated, so the signals travel slowly when they need to make decisions. Neuroscientist Frances Jensen, who wrote The Teenage Brain, explains.

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