Health
Rotavirus in Children: What to Expect and How to Care for Your Child
Before 2013, rotavirus was one of the most common reasons young children were admitted to hospital in the UK. Almost every child contracted it before...
4 min read
Health
Comprehensive health guidance for your growing family.
Health
Pyelonephritis in Children: When a Urine Infection Reaches the Kidney
Most childhood urine infections are confined to the bladder and clear with a short course of antibiotics. A smaller subset reaches the kidney — pyelon...
6 min read
Health
Protecting a Newborn from Colds and Respiratory Illness
The vulnerability of a newborn to colds and respiratory illness is real, but it is also manageable — and the protective steps that work are simple and...
6 min read
Health
Pharyngitis in Young Children: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
A sore throat in a young child -- painful swallowing, refusal to eat, a flushed and miserable appearance -- is one of the most common presentations to...
3 min read
Health
Nighttime Teething: What's Real, What's Not, and What Actually Helps
A baby is suddenly inconsolable at 2 a.m. for three nights running. The natural assumption is teething. Sometimes that's right. Often it isn't — teeth...
7 min read
Health
Why Newborns Sneeze So Much (And When It's Not a Cold)
Newborns sneeze a lot — sometimes four or five times in a row, often during or right after a feed, and almost always to the alarm of new parents. In a...
5 min read
Health
Newborn Skin Colour: What's Normal, What's Not
A newborn is not the smooth, uniform pink baby on the formula tin. In the first weeks expect bluish hands and feet, a yellow tinge across the face and...
5 min read
Health
The Newborn Tracking Log: What Actually Matters in the First Six Weeks
At 3 a.m. on day 4, you genuinely cannot remember whether the last feed was 90 minutes ago or three hours ago. A simple log — a notebook by the bed, a...
5 min read
Health
The Moro Reflex and Other Newborn Reflexes: How They Work
Newborns come with a set of automatic responses that are sometimes startling to first-time parents — a hand reflexively gripping a finger with surpris...
8 min read
Health
A Paediatrician's Guide to the First Month with a Newborn
The first month at home is one of the more disorienting stretches of life. Information is everywhere, much of it contradicts itself, and every parenti...
8 min read
Health
How to Tell If a Baby Has a Cold: Recognising Illness in Young Infants
The hardest part of the first few months of parenting is not the broken sleep — it is being asked to assess medical situations on a brain running on 4...
6 min read
Health
Meconium and Vernix in Newborns: What They Are and Why They Matter
Two things show up at almost every birth that nobody really explains to you in advance: a tar-black first nappy, and a white, waxy coating on the baby...
5 min read
Health
Household Allergies in Toddlers: Dust Mites, Pets, and Mould
A toddler with a runny nose every day of the year, eczema that won't quite settle, or recurrent night cough that gets blamed on "another bug" may have...
9 min read
Health
Hay Fever in Children: Symptoms, Triggers, and Treatment
Hay fever is among the most common allergic conditions in the UK. For affected children, the spring and summer months bring a predictable deterioratio...
3 min read
Health
Normal Growth and Weight Standards for Children Under Three
Growth is among the most objective and measurable aspects of a child's development. It is also among the most anxiety-provoking, because weight in par...
4 min read
Health
Formula Milk Allergy: How to Recognise and Manage It
Formula milk is derived from cow's milk and contains cow's milk proteins that a small but significant proportion of infants cannot tolerate. Cow's mil...
4 min read
Health
Food Poisoning in Children: What to Watch For, What to Do
A child who has been eating happily and is now vomiting and miserable is alarming. Most of the time it's a self-limiting infection that will be over i...
9 min read
Health
Your Newborn's First Examination (NIPE): What They're Actually Checking
In the first three days of your baby's life, a clinician will do a careful, structured examination of them — the NIPE. It looks like a relaxed top-to-...
7 min read
Health
Burns and Scalds in Children: First Aid That Actually Works
Childhood burns are frighteningly fast — a pulled-down mug of tea, a grab at a hair straightener, a trip into a hot bath. The peak age is 1 to 3 years...
6 min read
Health
Fever Without Other Symptoms in Infants: When to Be Concerned
A fever in a baby with a runny nose, a cough, and a recent infectious contact is, paediatrically, a fairly comfortable problem: the cause is obvious,...
10 min read