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Children's Health

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Sandi and Kyro McDonald.

The WA law that made Kyro’s ‘waiting game’ take longer

Transitioning affects both children and parents – but what options are out there for young people in WA? And should parents get the final say?

  • Indigo Lemay-Conway

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A paper note taped to a chair at the entrance of the Children’s Hospital at Westmead on Thursday.

‘It’s chaos’: Surgeries delayed, staff resort to pen and paper amid Sydney hospital IT outage

A paper note taped to a chair at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead on Thursday alerted staff and visitors to the code yellow emergency.

  • Angus Thomson
Olga Pavliieva and her son, Yehor, at the Lviv Clinical Centre for Children’s Healthcare.

Under Russian bombardment, this Ukrainian children’s hospital got an Australian lifeline

Lviv is safer than some Ukrainian cities, but it is not spared from attack – and desperately ill children still need treatment, regardless of the unrelenting war.

  • David Crowe
US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy J has long been a vaccine sceptic.

US cuts vaccine advice for every child, prompting outcry from doctors

The unprecedented step will undermine protections against a half-dozen diseases, leading medical groups say.

  • Ali Swenson and Lauran Neergaard
Illustration by Simon Letch

I wrote the book on anxious kids. It doesn’t matter if this ban isn’t perfect

The American author of The Anxious Generation writes that parents around the world are cheering on Australia as its pioneering social media law comes into effect today.

  • Jonathan Haidt
Liv Croagh felt the marketing on the supposedly natural and healthy snacks she and her partner gave toddler daughter, Audrey, made it impossible to know the food was actually ultraprocessed and unhealthy.

Foods that didn’t exist 10 years ago are putting baby and toddler health at risk

Parents are being hoodwinked by misleading marketing of ultra-processed snacks for babies and toddlers that claims the foods are healthy and natural.

  • Wendy Tuohy
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The new study identified a number of risks to health in pre-teens.

A smartphone before age 12 could carry health risks, US study says

Parents should think twice before letting younger children have a smartphone because of risks to long-term health and wellbeing, one of the largest-ever US studies on child brain development suggests.

  • Catherine Pearson
US President Donald Trump, right, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, US secretary of Health and Human Services, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in September.

US medicine regulator claims COVID jabs killed at least 10 children

A critic of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr described the internal memo an example of science “by press release”.

  • Christina Jewett
Amelia Davatzis.

Microplastics are everywhere. How worried should parents be?

Experts and peak health bodies are divided around how worried we should be about microplastics. What should parents make of this?

  • Lauren Ironmonger
Playing sport regularly primes children for learning, increasing the flow of oxygen to the brain and improving focus.

Sport helps kids do better at school. Here’s the best time to get them started

Academics and sport are often pitted against each other. But a study showing that sport can enhance rather than hinder school performance presents further evidence to incorporate both.

  • Tim Wigmore