Spring is officially here — and that means young pitchers and catchers are reporting to baseball fields all across Louisville and Southern Indiana. Youth baseball is a fun and healthy spring and summer sport for boys and girls. But as youth sports get more competitive and kids specialize in a single sport or position at…
The Kentucky Poison Control Center of Norton Children’s Hospital has been working to reduce illness and death from poisoning in Kentucky for 65 years. The center provides 24/7 free and confidential access to specially trained nurses, pharmacists and physicians. The nurses are nationally certified specialists in poison information, and the physicians are board certified in…
Brain tumor symptoms in kids will depend on things such as the age of the child and the location of the tumor in the brain. The general symptoms in kids vary, but include: Behavior changes Blurry vision or crossed eyes Drowsiness and fatigue that’s unexplained, even coma Headache Poor balance Seizures Unexplained vomiting or nausea…
¿Es contagiosa la hiedra venenosa? ¿Cómo se propaga? Poison ivy isn’t contagious and the oil that causes the rash and blisters can be washed off the skin quickly while the reaction lasts for a few weeks. Pets can carry the oil from the plant’s sap in on their fur, but the oil typically doesn’t transfer…
Anytime a child or teenager faints, “passes out” or loses consciousness, family members — as well as the child or teen — often worry there might be something terribly wrong. The good news is that fainting or syncope (pronounced sin-koh-pee) in most older children and teenagers who are otherwise healthy does not automatically mean that…
If you were a second-grader in Jefferson County after 1993, chances are you took a field trip to Safety City. For 25 years, nearly 150,000 second-grade students from private, public, parochial and home school programs in Metro Louisville have visited Safety City, a model city located behind Bates Elementary School on Bardstown Road in Fern…
How does your heart beat? Your heart beats because of the actions of a highly specialized electrical system. It listens in to what’s going on with you at the time and triggers the muscular walls of the heart to contract in an organized fashion and at the right heart rate, either slow or fast, and…
Bahaaldin Alsoufi, M.D., says that the road to becoming a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon is a long one. He started his journey at 16, when he first vowed to become a heart surgeon. After earning his medical degree in Syria, he spent 24 years training and building his career at universities and hospitals in the United…
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, backover crashes cause approximately 210 deaths and 15,000 injuries each year. Driveway accidents, including backover and frontover incidents, are more common in warm weather, when children begin playing outside. Children under 5 are at the greatest risk, due to their small size, of likely being in a…
Enuresis refers to urine leaking in kids old enough to have developed bladder control. Enuresis can happen during the day (daytime wetting) or at night (nighttime wetting). Biofeedback training uses video games to help teach kids how to control the muscles used for holding urine and going to the bathroom. What is biofeedback? Biofeedback is…
Normal heartbeats can be slow when an individual is resting or asleep, fast when running, excited or upset, and somewhere in between at other times. Even at rest, young children have faster heartbeats than older children, who have faster heartbeats than teenagers or adults. The variability in heart beats is due to the heart’s electrical…
Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) isn’t life-threatening for otherwise healthy children if they receive proper care. Infants and children with various types of other heart disease are most at risk of fast heartbeats due to SVT. SVT treatment includes short-term methods to stop the episode, and long-term treatment to prevent future spells. “Home remedies” for SVT There…