Children's Health

Linnea Sorensen attends Schaumburg High School in Schaumburg, Ill. Now that Illinois allows students to take up to five days off per school year for their mental health, she can stay home when she feels "not fully mentally there."

More states are allowing students to take mental health days off

5:00am June 10, 2022

by Giles Bruce

While a growing number of states are trying to address the increasing mental health crisis among youths, many schools are woefully short of therapists and the budget to hire them.

Live, laugh, lava: Yellowstone offers respite for teens struggling with mental health

5:32pm June 08, 2022

by Jess Sheldahl

A teacher concerned about her students' mental health takes them to Yellowstone National Park to relax, learn and experience the joy of nature.

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A baby receives care in the neonatal intensive care unit of the government hospital in Tripoli, Lebanon. Because of the lack of prenatal care amid the country's massive economic crisis, medical staff members say more newborns are born sick and weak. From

Health & Safety

Lebanon's hospitals are running out of medicine and staff in ongoing economic crisis

5:00am June 05, 2022

by Arezou Rezvani

Hospitals are running out of medicines. Staff members are leaving. And some parents will even leave a newborn stranded in the intensive care unit if they can't afford the fees for additional care.

Vaccinating young kids might finally be possible this month. But will it be easy?

4:27pm June 03, 2022

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, about the latest guidance on children under 5 getting the vaccine to protect against COVID-19.

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The label for a bottle of melatonin pills. Melatonin is a hormone that helps control the body's sleep cycle.

Health & Safety

Thousands of kids are getting sick from downing melatonin pills

1:38pm June 03, 2022

by The Associated Press

Last year, U.S. poison control centers got 52,000 calls about children consuming worrisome amounts of the dietary supplement, a popular sleep aid. Two children have died in the past decade.

Shelves normally meant for baby formula sit nearly empty at a store in downtown Washington, D.C., on May 22.

As the baby formula crisis worsens, it's also magnifying disparities in the U.S.

2:27pm June 02, 2022

by Jason Breslow

Empty store shelves. Frustrated parents. The formula shortage has upended life for millions of families across the nation and magnified longtime disparities in how infants receive nutrition.

Kids with hearing loss will now learn spoken English and ASL in Los Angeles schools

4:42pm June 01, 2022

by Kyle Stokes

Los Angeles schools will now teach both American Sign Language and spoken English to younger students. The policy change is meant to correct a history of suppressing ASL. But some say it goes too far.

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The baby-formula shortage has led some to question why the U.S. doesn't provide more support for breastfeeding. Here, a woman breastfeeds her son outside New York City Hall during a 2014 rally to support breastfeeding in public.

The baby formula shortage is prompting calls to increase support for breastfeeding

7:26am May 30, 2022

by Scott Horsley

As parents scramble to find scarce baby formula and the government races to boost production and imports, some advocates say the U.S. should do more to encourage breastfeeding.

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Workers unload a FedEx cargo plane carrying 100,000 pounds of baby formula at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Wednesday.

More baby formula shipments arrive from overseas in an effort to ease the shortage

3:00pm May 28, 2022

by Emma Bowman

Australia is sending the equivalent of more than 27 million 8-ounce bottles of goat's milk and other baby formulas, as the U.S. government works to replenish store shelves during the shortage.

The trauma of gun violence affects all children, not just the ones who were there

5:10pm May 27, 2022

NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer talks with Washington Post reporter John Woodrow Cox, author of the book Children Under Fire, about the immediate and long-term affects of gun violence on children.