With Christmas right around the corner, many procrastinating parents, aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas are madly scrambling to find last-minute gifts for the kids on their holiday gift lists. Should you choose educational toys? Video games? Electronic gadgets? Old-fashioned toys? If you’re one of those procrastinating parents, don’t despair. Here are some guidelines for choosing the right toys this holiday season.  

Kids drink as many or more sugary drinks when schools ban only soda – and not other sugar-sweetened beverages – as in schools that do nothing to decrease children’s access to high-calorie beverages. Even more discouraging, comprehensive policies banning sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda in school are only slightly more effective. Schools that ban all beverages with caloric sweeteners – including soda (sometimes referred to as soft drinks or pop), sweetened tea, sport drinks, energy drinks, juice and juice beverages, and others – reduce kids’ access to the drinks during school hours.

Influenza and its complications killed 115 children and teens in the United States during 2010-2011, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported on September 16. Many of those deaths could have been prevented if the children had been vaccinated against the flu, the CDC said in a separate press release.

New research suggests that women who sleep less may live longer than their well-rested counterparts – and as an added bonus, reduce their risk of stroke.

On Monday, October 18, the American Heart Association (AHA) released new guidelines for performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.