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October 19, 2012 A German regional court effectively banned circumcision this summer after ruling that the ancient practice amounts to assault. That fueled accusations of religious intolerance in a country still haunted by its Nazi past. Now lawmakers are pushing through a bill to make circumcision legal.

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October 18, 2012 Kids exposed to laundry detergent pods appeared more likely to have vomiting, drowsiness or lethargy than those who were exposed to other forms of laundry detergent. An analysis of reports of poisoning by detergent pods finds they represent "an emerging public health hazard."

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October 16, 2012 During the early 20th century, polio killed thousands of American children each summer and paralyzed many more. Now, as the world fights to eradicate the virus globally, we look back at the development of the polio vaccine and its successful deployment around the world.

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October 16, 2012 New research presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting suggests that teens are not necessarily wired to be impulsive. Researchers are also learning more about why it's important to treat problems like depression in teens early.

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October 12, 2012 Kids with autism who did a yoga routine at school every morning for 17 minutes behaved better, researchers at New York University found.

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October 6, 2012 During the financial crisis, gold prices hit record highs as people looked for somewhere safe to park their money. In West Africa, that's had a devastating, deadly effect on children.

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October 4, 2012 NPR's global health correspondent Jason Beaubien just returned from a remote region of northern Nigeria, where he was reporting on the tragic lead poisoning of thousands of children. Beaubien chatted yesterday on Twitter about this crisis and his reporting from this rural corner of Nigeria.

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October 4, 2012 For over a decade, peanut butter paste supplements like Plumpy'Nut have saved children around the world from malnutrition. Now health officials want to use the packets not just to save starving kids, but to keep them healthy in the first place. But will it work?

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

October 3, 2012 In northern Nigeria, some miners use crude methods to extract raw gold ore — a practice fueled by rising gold prices. But the gold here is embedded in lead, and the dust kicked up by this dirty and illegal mining has killed hundreds of children and sickened thousands more. Experts say this may be the worst case of lead poisoning in recent history.

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October 2, 2012 Medicaid is likely to undergo a major change regardless of whether President Obama is re-elected or replaced by Republican Mitt Romney. Democrats support a much bigger program. Republicans have plans to scale it back.

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October 1, 2012 The typical child in the U.S. is exposed to nearly four hours of background TV a day, a national survey finds. The youngest kids are exposed to the most, yet should watch the least, according to guidelines from pediatricians.

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September 30, 2012 Gold ore mined in northern Nigeria is mixed with lead. When the ore is dug up, crushed and processed, the lead escapes into the air and settles on the ground. Children are being poisoned when they swallow lead-contaminated dust and dirt.

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September 24, 2012 The new drug reversed changes in blood vessels that usually lead kids with the rare genetic disease progeria to have heart attacks and strokes. Research on the toxic protein responsible for progeria is also changing scientists' understanding of how normal cells age.

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September 24, 2012 A leading group of pediatricians is out with a sterner warning than ever about trampolines. They say the risk of injury to kids remains too high, despite some safety measures. Use of trampolines at home "is strongly discouraged."

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September 24, 2012 With local hospitals in Durban, South Africa, strained by the AIDS epidemic, city leaders are trying to restore and reopen a historic children's hospital shut down in the 1980s during apartheid. The hospital originally opened in 1931 with a mandate to serve kids of all races.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist