The hottest Pediatric health Substack posts right now

Public health officials and media pushed strong messaging that encouraged parents to vaccinate children by emphasizing COVID risks and downplaying natural immunity.
A new study is said to show negative COVID vaccine efficacy for kids and an increased risk of myocarditis, suggesting the shots may have underperformed in that age group.
Officials largely maintained the same pandemic policies even after vaccines underperformed in adults, which likely led to unnecessary child vaccinations and potential harms.

Influenza is surging nationwide: outpatient ILI and test positivity have climbed sharply, many states now show high activity, and hospitalizations and pediatric deaths are rising. If you haven't had a flu shot yet, it's still the best way to reduce severe illness.
COVID-19 and RSV remain at relatively low levels overall but are inching upward, with small increases seen in wastewater, ED visits, and hospitalizations in some regions. RSV is below average for the season but slowly rising and continues to hit young children hardest.
There are multiple food recalls and a recalled infant formula tied to a botulism outbreak was still found for sale in many stores, contributing to numerous infant hospitalizations. Officials are also reportedly considering changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that could alter routine recommendations.

The federal health department removed the universal recommendation that all children get COVID vaccines starting at six months. Some state health agencies said they would keep recommending the shots despite the federal change.
The change prompted strong criticism from many medical experts, and the controversy is framed as politically charged with distrust of prior expert guidance.
The piece argues COVID vaccines for healthy kids were largely unnecessary, claiming they prevented few child deaths and that proponents often didn’t closely examine the actual effectiveness data.

Because COVID deaths in people under 20 are extremely rare, proving a vaccine is safer than the disease would require an enormous randomized trial—about 7.5 million children followed for a year—which was never done.
Without that level of evidence, recommending or mandating the vaccines for healthy children lacked the necessary statistical and ethical justification and represents a failure of regulatory oversight.
Some countries quietly scaled back or restricted pediatric vaccine recommendations, but authorities largely avoided openly admitting or taking accountability for the earlier decisions.

Mainstream media and regulators are said to be acknowledging that COVID vaccines may have caused harm, including deaths, in some children.
Because children faced very low risk from COVID, vaccinating them is argued to have offered minimal benefit while exposing healthy kids to potential side effects.
Public health officials, political leaders, and the media are accused of promoting universal vaccination, dismissing dissenting views, and gaslighting critics, with a recent FDA memo and a large study presented as vindication.

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The new American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines make dangerous claims about eating disorders in relation to pediatric weight management interventions, raising concerns about misdiagnosis and harmful treatment recommendations.
The guidelines suggest that structured weight management programs can reduce eating disorder symptoms, but fail to address serious risks associated with weight cycling, dieting, and other harmful practices that could lead to eating disorders.
Research citations provided in the guidelines do not strongly support the claims made, and there are concerns raised about conflicts of interest, incomplete data analysis, and lack of consideration for the long-term impacts of weight management interventions on children's mental and physical health.

The CDC narrowed universal childhood vaccine recommendations to a core set of consensus vaccines (about ten plus chickenpox) and reclassified others—like flu, rotavirus, RSV, hepatitis A, and some meningococcal vaccines—for high‑risk groups or shared clinical decision‑making to align more with peer nations.
All vaccines will remain available and fully covered by ACA and federal programs so families won’t pay out of pocket, and the new schedule emphasizes flexibility and informed choice over broad mandates.
The shift aims to rebuild public trust and strengthen safety evidence by reducing early‑life vaccine load where possible, promoting individualized decisions, and funding more rigorous trials and long‑term safety studies.

mRNA COVID-19 vaccines cut hospitalizations by only a few cases per 100,000 children, with almost no measurable benefit in 6–11-year-olds and a modest reduction in 12–17-year-olds.
Serious outcomes like hospitalizations, MIS‑C, and myocarditis were rare overall, and while heart inflammation was uncommon, it was not clearly lower in vaccinated adolescents.
Because absolute benefits are tiny and uncertainty is wide, the findings support shifting away from universal pediatric vaccination toward individualized, risk‑based recommendations.

All nine studies show that vaccinated children have worse health outcomes compared to unvaccinated children.
The studies cited are peer-reviewed, meaning experts in the field examined the work before publication.
There is a claim that no studies exist that show vaccinated children are better off, raising questions about the evidence supporting vaccination.

As COVID-19 restrictions relax, pediatricians are sharing optimistic views on the progress made, including the availability of effective vaccines and the decreasing severity of the virus over time.
Children who have recovered from COVID-19 tend to develop lasting immunity, with studies showing a strong immune response, even greater than adults, in some cases.
The potential harms of prolonged mask wearing on children's development, combined with the psychological impacts of the pandemic, highlight the importance of considering the overall well-being of children when making decisions about COVID-19 precautions.