Your doctor and/or nurse will probably: 1. Check your child's weight and height, calculate body mass index (BMI), and plot the measurements on a growth chart. 2. Check your child's blood pressure ...

What Does the Heart Do? The heart is a pump, usually beating about 60 to 100 times per minute. With each heartbeat, the heart sends blood throughout our bodies, carrying oxygen to every cell. After ...

Doctors use certain milestones to tell if a toddler is developing as expected. There's a wide range of what's considered normal, so some children may gain skills earlier or later than others. Toddlers ...

We see and hear about hearts everywhere. A long time ago, people even thought that their emotions came from their hearts, maybe because the heart beats faster when a person is scared or excited. Now ...

What Does Inducing Labor Mean? Inducing labor (or labor induction) is when doctors use medicines or other medical methods to bring on labor before a woman goes into labor on her own. Usually, it's ...

Did you ever wonder what all those complex body systems do? These Body Basics articles explain just how each body system, part, and process works. Use this medical library to find out about basic ...

What Should I Do if My Child Is Choking? If your child is choking, call 911 right away or have someone else call. If you are trained to do abdominal thrusts (also known as the Heimlich maneuver), do ...

Baths do more than keep your baby clean. They also give you a chance to bond. With a little planning and practice, both you and your baby will look forward to bath time. Here are the basics about ...

What Does it Mean to Be Overweight? We see the words "overweight" and "obesity" a lot. Did you know that they have actual medical meanings? Doctors use them to define the amount of extra fat some ...

When your child feels warm or seems out of sorts, knowing if a fever might be the cause can be helpful. Here's how to take your child's temperature, safely and accurately. Check the manufacturer's ...

Doctors use certain milestones to tell if a baby is developing as expected. There's a wide range of what's considered normal, so some babies gain skills earlier or later than others. Babies who were ...

If your daughter is pregnant and planning to have the baby, many changes await your family. And though it's certainly not what most parents expect, it happens every day: nearly 250,000 teenage girls ...