Parents always face this dilemma: “half a teaspoon” or “one tablespoon” of medicine for their child. But it’s fairly obvious that spoons now come in all shapes and sizes, so perhaps your child isn’t getting the correct dose. Now, a new study shows that there is a lot of variability in those spoons, enough so …

Every once in a while, children and adults feel a lot of pressure or pain in their ears, and thick wax clogs their ear canal and needs to be removed. Doctors can try to scoop or rinse it out, but many over-the-counter drops can soften it up. But which one works best? This was reviewed …

Food allergies in children, as a diagnosis, are more common than before. But are we over-diagnosing? The main issue is that the tests we perform, especially the blood tests for allergens, may show a positive “in vitro” allergy but “in vivo”, AKA in real life, there may not be a clinically significant allergy. This growing …

People may not realize that there have been amazing advances in technology that can help deaf children hear again. It’s called a cochlear implant, a surgical implant that amplifies sound waves directly into a child’s brain — and allows them to hear again. A study in the current Otolaryngology, discussed in the New York Times …

It’s a bit, um, difficult to make air pollution a cool subject for kids. Even my recent slide show on air pollution left a few high-schoolers eyes glazed. Fortunately, I spread out a couple fun internet games to perk up the group. Fun and educational! Throw in free and you have an instant hour or …

One of most popular posts last year was a slide show on air pollution in China. Now, I have created a trimmed-down version that I’ve started to give to high school classes. This slide show is now available below for teachers and parents to use all over China (I hope!). You don’t even need to …

Many parents have been concerned about the alleged links between the MMR vaccine and a possible link to autism. As I’ve mentioned before, all medical societies continue to state that there has never been convincing proof of this, and now there is even less. The esteemed medical journal Lancet, which started this whole issue in …

The following is a first post from a guest contributor, Dr Nathanael Goldman. He is a pediatrician at Beijing’s United Family Hospital and also runs his own website, kidschina.org. During the winter many more children come to the consultation with skin complaints than during warmer months. Something in then happening during the winter, which may …

Circumcision has always had a lot of cultural and religious baggage around it, and the last few years saw more of a medical trend against the procedure. I personally didn’t feel that there was much benefit more than fitting a cultural norm, and since the harm and pain outweighed the benefits, I tended not to …

Local Beijing expat and holistic nutrition coach Olivia Lee has recently set up her own blog at nutritioneer.net. She has occasional classes for nutrition information, and I wanted to pass along information on her next class: Introducing Solid Foods to Babies. The class is on Saturday, January 23rd. You can find out more on this …

Here’s a fun new study which kids everywhere can show their parents; chocolate milk is good for your heart! This study, just mentioned in this New York Times column, describes how the study group given skim milk plus cocoa powder had lower levels of inflammatory markers as well as higher levels of the good cholesterol, …

There’s a very provocative new study in Lancet which may change my clinical practice. As parents know, vaccines are not a fun time for their children, and many doctors recommend pain medicines like Tylenol or Motrin with the vaccines. Now, unfortunately, there is good data from this new study that Tylenol (AKA acetaminophen, Panadol) may …