By Kathleen Doheny
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) -- Children and teens are gulping down more sugary beverages and fruit juices than ever before, a new study has found.

Children aged 2 to 19 now take in up to 15 percent of their total daily calories from drinks that contain sugar, a finding that confirms previous research and suggests consumption is rising.

Boston’s Children’s Hospital bills itself as the hospital for children — and now it’s also the hospital for children who want a sex change, a procedure some critics are calling “barbaric.”

Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatric specialist at the hospital, has launched a clinic for transgendered kids — boys who feel like girls, girls who want to be boys — and he’s opening his doors to patients as young as 7.

TUESDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) -- A new gene therapy that involves injecting a harmless virus into the brain shows promise as a safe and effective way to slow Batten disease, a rare neurological disorder that usually becomes fatal between the ages of 8 and 12.

By Serena Gordon
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- Only about 5 percent of people with multiple sclerosis are diagnosed when they're children, but like adults with MS, the disease can affect cognitive function, causing memory and attention problems, and possibly low IQ scores.

CHILDHOOD SCHIZOPHRENIA
By: Amie Peters