Health Library A to Z

W

• Home Wound Care
Your child may come home with unhealed areas that still require dressing changes. You will be instructed on how to change dressings before you leave the hospital.

• Transient Tachypnea of the Newborn
Transient tachypnea of the newborn is a term for a mild respiratory problem of babies that begins after birth and lasts about three days.

• Warmth and Temperature Regulation
Premature and low birthweight babies may be too immature to regulate their own temperature, even in a warm environment. Even full-term and healthy newborns may not be able to maintain their body temperature if the environment is too cold.

• Warts in Children
Detailed information on the most common types of warts, including foot warts, flat warts, genital warts, and filiform warts

• Watch that Backpack Load
When your child acts as if she’s carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, maybe you should check her backpack.

• Water Safety and Teens
Encourage your adolescent to take swimming, diving, and water safety or rescue classes to give him/her the skills needed to swim and dive safely.

• Water Safety for Children
Preventive steps parents can take to protect their children from drowning.

• Water Safety--Identifying High-Risk Situations
Water hazards in and around the home include buckets, diaper pails, toilets, ponds, and fountains.

• Water Safety--Injury Statistics and Incidence Rates
More than half of childhood drownings in pools occur in the child's home pool. Most of the victims are between ages 1 and 4.

• Water Safety--Prevention
If your children are around bodies of water on a regular basis, learn CPR. CPR can save lives, reduce the severity of injury, and improve the chance of survival.

• We Can Head Off Teen Tragedies
Preventing teen turmoil starts at birth. Parents set examples in the way they interact, express anger, and treat substance abuse.

• Weather Worries Can Threaten a Child's Mental Health
Psychologist offers advice for coping with tragedies like the Oklahoma tornado

• Weekend 'Catch-Up' Sleep May Cut Young Drivers' Crash Risk
Study found 21 percent higher chance of accident among those who slept less than 6 hours a night

• Weight Room No Longer Off-Limits to Kids
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Sports Medicine now say that strength training is fine for kids, as long as they are supervised and don't try to lift too much weight.

• Weight Training for Teens
Once children hit puberty, and hormones make it possible to build muscle, weight training can become a part of a healthy exercise program for youths. Research suggests strength training has a lot to offer some teenagers in terms of health, fitness and fun.

• West Nile Virus in Children
Detailed information on West Nile virus, including symptoms, prevention, and treatment

• What About Energy Drinks for Kids?
As some schools ban colas from vending machines, ads are hyping a source of even more caffeine: energy drinks.

• What Do You Know About Birth Defects?

• What Doctors Don't Know About Treating Kids With Epilepsy
Survey finds significant gaps in knowledge

• What Every Parent Should Know About Vaccinations
Where can you as a parent turn to for the facts about vaccine safety? The first place to go is your child's doctor.

• What Is Exercise-Induced Bronchospasm?
Exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) used to be called exercise-induced asthma. The term bronchospasm means tightening and narrowing of the tubes that bring air in and out of your lungs.

• What Is Pertussis?
Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious infection of the respiratory tract.

• What Is Rotavirus?
Rotavirus is a viral infection that causes severe diarrhea in children. A vaccine is now available to help protect youngsters against this illness.

• What Is Scalp Ringworm?
Scalp ringworm isn’t caused by a worm. The infection is the result of a fungus, the same one that leads to athlete’s foot.

• What Kids Drink Is Important, Too
Just what should kids be drinking? "I think good old H2O,'' says the director of the Nutrition Information Center in New York. But you can add pizzazz: Buy flavored water or make your own with lemon or lime.

• What Tests Does Your Newborn Baby Need?
You may think your child's first test will come in school, but it will actually happen before leaving the hospital's newborn unit. Early screening tests for babies can find problems before symptoms arise, prompting early treatment.

• What to Do if Your Child Needs Surgery
If having surgery makes you nervous, imagine how it can seem for a child. By helping the youngster anticipate and face those fears, you can ease the trauma and smooth the way for a quicker, easier recovery.

• What to Do When the Family Feels Claustrophobic
There comes a time when even the closest families find themselves too close together.

• What You Can Do About Dog Bites
Dogs are responsible for 85 to 90 percent of all animal bites. But, many incidents can be avoided.

• What You Can Do For Baby's Teething
Teething occurs when baby teeth start coming through the child's gums, usually between ages 6 months and 3 years.

• What You Can Do to Prevent Child Abuse
Child abuse can happen in any family and in any neighborhood. Studies have shown that child abuse crosses all boundaries of income, race, ethnic heritage and religious faith.

• What You Need to Know About AIDS
Homosexuals and heterosexuals alike are at risk. Infected people can pass HIV on to anyone with whom they have intimate contact. Men can infect female or male partners, as can women.

• What You Need to Know About Heroin
Until recently, heroin was not considered a problem among children of middle-class parents. But lately, it has been showing up in new places.

• What You Need to Know About Hives
Hives occur when something prompts cells to release histamine, a chemical found in the skin.

• What You Need to Know About STDs
Your body usually tells you when you are in danger -- your heart races, you breathe hard, your palms sweat. But when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), you may not have any warning signs.

• What You Need to Know About Strep Throat
Strep bacteria pass from one person to another through nose and throat fluids when an infected person coughs or sneezes or touches another person or object with a hand contaminated by these fluids.

• Wheat Allergy Diet for Children
Detailed information on wheat allergy, a type of food allergy, including how to read a label for a wheat-free diet

• When a Child’s Tonsils Need to Come Out
While it doesn't take long -- about 20 to 30 minutes -- for an ear, nose and throat specialist to remove a child's tonsils, a tonsillectomy should be recommended only after careful consideration.

• When a Reward for Kids Becomes a Bribe
A reward usually doesn't need to be extra large to modify a child's behavior, says a Vermont professor of psychiatry. An extravagant promise, however, "suggests that there's a struggle between parent and child."

• When Adults Smoke in Cars, Child Passengers Suffer: Study
Even with window open or air conditioner on, kids still exposed to secondhand smoke

• When Children Say 'No' to New Foods
When it comes time to eat vegetables, do your children do the Brussels-sprout pout? Well, don't give up. It can take eight to 10 tries before children accept a new food, experts say.

• When Kids Want to Buy, Buy, Buy
Don't argue about cost. Do talk with your children about money management and media messages.

• When to Call the Doctor for Childhood Illnesses
Many childhood illnesses are mild enough to be treated at home. But what about when the symptoms are more severe?

• When to Call Your Child's Physician
These are reasons to call your child's doctor: signs of infection, uncontrollable itching, a scar that cracks open or splits.

• When to Call Your Physician
Detailed information on when to call your baby's physician

• When to Keep Your Child Home From School
Here are some tips for deciding what to do when a child awakens with a health complaint and you must determine whether the complaint is serious enough to warrant a sick day.

• When to Worry About Your Child's Fever
A temperature is 'often a friend,' doctor says

• When You Think Your Child Is Faking an Illness
School avoidance syndrome, as described by doctors, is the most common cause of vague, unverifiable symptoms in school-age children and is triggered by stress, says a clinical professor of pediatrics.

• When Your Child Has a Fever
Most medical professionals agree a fever by itself is not an illness; it is a symptom of an underlying problem. Fevers actually can be a positive sign the body is fighting an infection. However, a fever can cause discomfort for a child.

• When Your Child Has Type 1 Diabetes
With knowledge, practice and a supportive health care team, you can take care of your child without diabetes taking over your lives.

• When Your Child Says, 'I'm Sick'
Do you keep her home or send her off to school?

• Where's the Wisdom in Wisdom Teeth?
Often these teeth are troublemakers that decide to turn crooked, refuse to grow in completely, or become misshapen.

• White House to Challenge Ruling on Unlimited Access to 'Morning-After' Pill
Move follows FDA decision that only women 15 or older could get emergency contraceptive without prescription

• Whole Grains in the Teen Diet
Better health for your teen could be as close as your breadbox. The more whole grains teenagers eat, the leaner they are and the less likely they are to develop diabetes.

• Whooping Cough (Pertussis)
Whooping cough, or pertussis, mainly affects infants and young children. It is characterized by intense coughing spells that end with a characteristic whoop as air is inhaled.

• Whooping Cough Vaccine for Pregnant Women Among New Recommendations
U.S. experts also say egg allergy is no longer reason to avoid the flu vaccine

• Why Calcium Is a Children's Health Priority
Calcium is one of the most important minerals in the body, and childhood is the critical period in life when calcium stores are laid down.

• Why Childhood Immunizations Are Important
Vaccinations not only protect your child from deadly diseases such as polio, tetanus, and diphtheria, but they also keep other children safe by eliminating or greatly decreasing dangerous diseases that used to spread from child to child.

• Why Children Get Carsick -- and What to Do
Carsickness isn't really about the car. It's about the brain's ability to interpret a message based on what it senses.

• Why Johnny Can't Run
Most states fall short of recommended physical education guidelines, researchers say

• Why Measles Remains a Threat
Children still need immunization because measles remains a significant threat abroad. Worldwide, more than 800,000 children die each year from measles.

• Why Some Mothers (Wrongly) Let Kids Try Alcohol
Early introduction may lead to problem drinking in teen years, researchers say

• Why the Family Meal Is Important
When a family sits down together, it helps them handle the stresses of daily life and the hassles of day-to-day existence.

• Wilms Tumor
Detailed information on Wilms tumor, including causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment

• Wisdom Teeth Extraction in Children
Detailed information on a wisdom teeth extraction procedure

• With Bullying, What's a Parent to Do?
What to look for and how to help if your child is being victimized

• Without Laws, Many Tanning Salons Would Allow Kids: Study
Missouri survey found operators often misrepresent indoor tanning as safe, even healthy

• Women Abused in Childhood at Higher Odds of Having Child With Autism: Study
Researchers speculate that effect on immune system, stress response might explain why

• Women Born Preterm May Face Pregnancy Risks
Obstetricians should take history of premature birth into account, study suggests

• Working While Pregnant Won't Harm the Baby, Study Finds
Employment didn't raise risk of preterm, low birth-weight baby, researchers report