Children's Health NPR reports on children's health and medical news including health insurance, new treatments for diseases, and child product safety recalls. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Children's Health

Gov. Spencer Cox signs two social media regulation bills during a ceremony at the Capitol building in Salt Lake City on Thursday, March 23, 2023. Cox signed a pair of measures that aim to limit when and where children can use social media and stop companies from luring kids to the sites. Trent Nelson/AP hide caption

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Trent Nelson/AP

Mora Leeb places some pieces into a puzzle during a local puzzle tournament. The 15-year-old has grown up without the left side of her brain after it was removed when she was very young. Seth Leeb hide caption

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Seth Leeb

Meet the 'glass-half-full girl' whose brain rewired after losing a hemisphere

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The extra SNAP benefits are gone now as the government winds down its pandemic assistance programs. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

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Spencer Platt/Getty Images

'Back to one meal a day': SNAP benefits drop as food prices climb

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Wanda Irving holds her granddaughter, Soleil, in front of a portrait of Soleil's mother, Shalon Irving, at her home in Sandy Springs, Ga., in 2017. Wanda is raising Soleil since Shalon died of complications due to hypertension a few weeks after giving birth. Becky Harlan/NPR hide caption

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Becky Harlan/NPR

Maternal deaths in the U.S. spiked in 2021, CDC reports

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Physicians say roughly half of all preterm births are preventable, caused by social, economic and environmental factors, as well as inadequate access to prenatal health care. ER Productions Limited/Getty Images hide caption

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ER Productions Limited/Getty Images

Law enforcement organizations are promoting a new film about children being exploited into sharing sexual images and videos. But many of the film's key claims lack context. Nicole Xu for NPR hide caption

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Nicole Xu for NPR

How law enforcement is promoting a troubling documentary about 'sextortion'

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Early mornings may still feel dark and wintry, but the season is about to change. This weekend most of the U.S. will "spring forward" — setting clocks forward one hour — as daylight saving time begins. Maja Hitij/Getty Images hide caption

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Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Researchers meeting in London this week concluded that techniques that have made it easier to manipulate DNA still produce too many mistakes for scientists to be confident any children born from edited embryos (such as these, photographed in 2018) would be healthy. Mark Schiefelbein/AP hide caption

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Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Ethical concerns temper optimism about gene-editing for human diseases

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A vial of the Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, Bivalent. Though the shots are free to pretty much anyone who wants one in the U.S. as long as federal stockpiles hold out, the next update of the vaccine might be costly for some people who lack health insurance. RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images

Moderna's COVID vaccine gambit: Hike the price, offer free doses for uninsured

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Biophysicist He Jiankui addressed the last international summit on human genome editing in Hong Kong in 2018. His experiments in altering the genetic makeup of human embryos was widely condemned by scientists and ethicists at the time, and still casts a long shadow over this week's summit in London. Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

Experts weigh medical advances in gene-editing with ethical dilemmas

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When Victoria Ferrell Ortiz had her daughter in 2017, she was covered by a limited form of Medicaid in Texas — which ended just two months after she gave birth. Losing insurance so soon was stressful. She supports a push for Texas to extend Medicaid coverage for a full year after childbirth. Yfat Yossifor / KERA hide caption

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Yfat Yossifor / KERA

In Texas, Medicaid ends soon after childbirth. Will lawmakers allow more time?

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John Buettner (front), a 5th grader at Glen Lake Elementary School in Hopkins, Minn., looks at drawings of playground designs while on a tour at Landscape Structures with his classmates in Delano, Minn. Caroline Yang for NPR hide caption

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Caroline Yang for NPR

These students raised hundreds of thousands to make their playground accessible

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After her pregnancy, Danielle Laskey discovered the hospital was out of network for her health plan, and her insurer said surprise-billing laws protecting patients from big out-of-network bills for emergency care did not apply Ryan Henriksen/KHN hide caption

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Ryan Henriksen/KHN

A surprise-billing law loophole? Her pregnancy led to a six-figure hospital bill

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Idaho removed nearly 10,000 people from Medicaid in the pandemic's first years when enrollees couldn't be reached. The episode previews what could occur in other states after April 1, when a COVID-era coverage mandate ends. Eric Harkleroad/KHN hide caption

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Eric Harkleroad/KHN
LA Johnson/NPR

How to help young people limit screen time — and feel better about how they look

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Meredith Draughn of B. Everett Jordan Elementary School was named 2023's School Counselor of the Year by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). Kimberly Lyddane hide caption

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Kimberly Lyddane

How grown-ups can help kids transition to 'post-pandemic' school life

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Child influencers have a huge following on social media. Now a new study from the University of Connecticut's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health finds these videos are frequently exposing young viewers to junk foods like candy, salty snacks and sugary drinks. Morgan McCloy/NPR hide caption

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Morgan McCloy/NPR