The lack of health-care workers in schools is nothing new.
We saw the impact when Big Guy was in kindergarten and cooled his heels in the office for half a day after a snooty secretary diagnosed …

There are two types of warning labels in this world:

The types that tell us that what we’re about to do or consume will shorten our lives, harm our health or turn us into crazed killers. …

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – and if you have a chronic medical condition, you probably have.
One drug works so-so, or not at all to control your symptoms. This is the one …

So it turns out that the number of people going to emergency rooms as the result of food allergies might have been dramatically underestimated, according to new research.
Reuters reported this week that an article in …

Note to Sara Palin: Michelle Obama is free to stop by my house any evening and tell my kids they can’t have dessert. After seven-plus years of this war, I’m battle fatigued. Michelle would probably …

Big Guy was looking over my shoulder last night as I was writing a post about 13-year-old Katelyn Carlson, the peanut-allergic Chicago girl who died from anaphylaxis after a party at school.
He often does that, …

There’s egg-free, and then there’s the kind of egg-free that led Big Guy to puke up his pastries despite a donut shop owner’s assurances that he didn’t use egg. It was true as far as …

It was near the top of my pre-mommy list of things I’d never do.
I’d never yell at the kids. I’d never say, “because I’m the mom, and I said so.” And I’d never make them …

Everyone loves to look at the military’s health insurance with envy. It’s free! They don’t pay an arm and a leg like civilians do!
And when the budget recommendations come, implementing Tricare premiums, deductibles or co-pays …

It’s been a while – nearly three years, in fact – since Big Guy has had a major asthma episode. He’s done well, thrived even, despite a change in primary doctor and specialist that had …

Four things my kids know about marketing and commercials:

Fruit snacks are neither fruit nor snacks.
Blowing up a juice bag and stomping on it won’t launch you into the air, though they have tried.
The toy is …

I was about Big Guy’s age when apples again became the forbidden fruit.
I’m not sure where it happened, but I can guarantee you it wasn’t  in our town. I didn’t spend my childhood in Mayberry, …

There are more than 17,000 football players each year in the NCAA’s top two divisions. Anyone know how many have been diagnosed in the past year with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease typically found in …

Calm down, folks. Uncle Sam isn’t going to bang in your door and confiscate your salt shaker. Though it’s really not a bad idea.
According to a very poorly phrased Rasmussen poll, 55 percent of the …

Foods made with white sugar, fructose, corn syrup, or any thing ending in “-ose” are banned – presumably, this doesn’t apply to lactose – but peanut butter laced with honey is OK.
Crackers …

Here’s another one from the files marked “eat real food, please”:
Two separate studies at Princeton University found that lab animals fed high fructose corn syrup – presumably the mercury-free variety – gained more weight than …

Back when my job involved actually leaving my house, there wasn’t a lunchbox in the world big enough for me.
I usually ran out the door without breakfast, triggering the need to pack snack one. The …

Here’s a tricky one to tackle:
According to an article in March’s edition of Pediatrics, nearly 30 percent of overweight teens don’t know that they’re overweight. And if they don’t know they’re overweight, they’re less likely …

Yes, I eat the occasional burger and fries. Ice cream and cookies, too.
Now that first lady Michelle Obama has stepped into the confessional and admitted as much herself, I feel safe in going public as …

I’ve been eeking out just enough minutes of activity to meet the government’s fitness recommendations – they’re not as demanding as you think – though my gymophobia holds me back on weeks too wet to …

It’s kind of awkward that the Federal Trade Commission wants the health-care bill to include a ban on settlements between drug companies that keep generic drugs off the market – delays the commission says costs …

From the state that led the battle against transfat comes the latest assault on manufacturer-induced nutrition nightmares: New York City wants companies to cut down on the amount of sodium in food.
Good luck on that …

With a callous eye toward the bottom line, insurance companies unhesitantly ax coverage for medications asthmatic children need. Don’t deny it. It’s happened to us.
If executives won’t shell out $300 to prevent an emergency room …

Bacteria are normal. Bacteria are good. Bacteria can even help the immune system.
So say researchers at the University of California, San Diego.  According to an article in The Guardian, the very same staphylococci that causes …

Are you walking around humming a happy tune, blue birds over one shoulder and a rainbow over the other?
You better find something to worry about and fast. It turns out that, while walking around in …

It took me a while, but I finally figured out where I’d previously seen the scam the drug companies are trying to pull off on health care reform.
It was about this time last year, at …

The best parenting advice I ever heard was from an older co-worker who’d raised three daughters.
“Don’t try to ban junk food,” he said. “It will backfire. They’ll sneak it on the sly anyway and wind …

If you have a chance to pass a law that would reduce by almost half the chance that a kid would be injured in a car accident, how quickly would you ask, “where do I …