Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

How is deli meat made? – Arabelle, 17, Brooklyn, New York

If you’ve ever eaten a ham or turkey sandwich for lunch, then you’ve probably eaten deli meat. Sometimes ...Read more

You notice someone close to you has lost a lot of weight. You also notice that they’re skipping meals and talking more pessimistically about food and their body. You feel concerned but worry that commenting on their body might do more harm than good.

So what should you do? Where is the line between showing concern and being harmful?...Read more

Smoking and vaping continued to decline among middle school and high school students in 2025, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey, released in July 2026. This annual, school-based survey has been tracking smoking and other nicotine product use in American youth ages 11 to 18 since 1999....Read more

A child left in a hot car — or who gets into an unlocked vehicle unnoticed — can die of heat stroke very quickly. Tragically, dozens of U.S. children lose their lives this way each year. These deaths are preventable with some simple actions by parents and caregivers.

Here's what the American Academy of Pediatrics says about the danger of ...Read more

HOT SPRINGS, S.D. — Two of the nation’s most powerful health officials predict artificial intelligence will play a key role in solving rural America’s health challenges.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a panel of U.S. senators that AI nurses can provide “concierge care” to rural patients. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers ...Read more

Last year, Baltimore had three mass overdose incidents in the span of three months in its Penn North neighborhood.

In one incident, more than two dozen people were hospitalized after many were found unresponsive, lying in the streets or on sidewalks. No one died, but some came close.

Follow-up testing found that the street drugs contained high...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Health officials in California are defending the traditional childhood vaccination schedule against efforts by the Trump administration to weaken it.

The long-standing childhood vaccine schedule is safe, California's top health official said, and continues to be recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics — the nation's ...Read more

Parents are all too familiar with the ongoing battle to get their kids to eat a vegetable or two.

This summer, they’ve been fighting it themselves.

Just weeks ago, every bite of greens came with the fear of exposure to cyclosporiasis, a parasite many of us were blissfully unaware of until it began triggering stomach problems that leave no ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Six years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world, experts in California say the disease appears to be becoming more of a summer rather than a winter phenomenon.

The shift was noted over the past couple of years and has become even clearer in 2026, prompting health officials to refocus their prevention efforts. The U.S. ...Read more

“It’s all in your head.”

By the time many people with functional neurological disorder arrive in our clinic, they have heard these five words more times than they can count. They are told their brain scan was normal. Their electroencephalogram, a test that measures the brain’s electrical activity, is reassuring. “The good ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has begun searching for new members for a vaccine advisory committee it is quietly reshaping to look at alternatives to vaccinations, a move that has drawn worries from outside groups.

The National Vaccine Advisory Committee, created in 1987, has worked across agencies to advise the Health and Human ...Read more

NEW YORK — Two more people have died of Legionnaires’ disease, raising the death toll from this summer’s Upper East Side outbreak to nine, officials announced Friday.

“I’m saddened to share that 2 more people have died in connection with the UES Legionnaires’ disease cluster,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin said in a ...Read more

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear believes he’s done everything possible to demand more transparency surrounding Sen. Mitch McConnell’s absence.

In a Friday interview on MS Now’s State of Play, host Peter Alexander asked Beshear if he has “done everything in your power to sort of move the ball forward on this, to try to ...Read more

A longtime ally of Sen. Mitch McConnell said Kentucky’s senior senator is aware of and seems frustrated by the intense public scrutiny about his health condition.

Scott Jennings, a former McConnell adviser and conservative political commentator on CNN, said he spoke with McConnell on Tuesday about political races and the attention he’s ...Read more

Scientists designed self-policing T cells to stop the immune system from attacking insulin-producing cells in mouse trials, suggesting a way to reverse diabetes.

People with Type 1 diabetes rely on supplemental insulin to survive as their immune system destroys their body’s insulin-producing cells. Clinical trials from the Medical University ...Read more

Pennsylvania will not change its immunization guidelines in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order this week calling for states to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccinations and separate a combination shot protecting against measles, mumps, and rubella.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said his administration will “...Read more

It’s 2 a.m., and a teenage girl, worrying about a friend issue, lies awake. Rather than wake her parents, she picks up her phone, opens an AI app and types, “I’m so stressed out, I can’t sleep.”

A reply arrives swiftly: “I’m sorry you’re dealing with this. Want to tell me a bit about what is stressing you?” The ...Read more