About This Site

Welcome to AboutKidsHealth! Our goal is to provide families with reliable, current information about all areas influencing child health and family quality of life in a format that is easy to understand. We launched this site in the summer of 2004 with an extensive collection of information on child development, common health problems, and health care, as well as regular expert columns, news, and features on the latest in child health research. Our Resource Centres provide comprehensive information for families whose children have a medical condition such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diabetes, brain tumours, heart conditions, pain or epilepsy. We also feature complete guides to Pregnancy & Babies and Premature Babies. More resource centres are in development, including Learning Disabilities. Our Just for Kids section has age-appropriate animations for kids on many different health topics. The site is updated frequently, so please visit often.

AboutKidsHealth is an initiative of The Hospital for Sick Children, known to many as SickKids. SickKids is one of the largest paediatric teaching hospitals in the world. The hospital has an international reputation for excellence in health care, research, and teaching. SickKids is committed to improving the health and well-being of children and youth across Canada and around the world.

AboutKidsHealth has been made possible by the generous support of our founding sponsor, TD Securities.

How AboutKidsHealth content is created

The information and articles on AboutKidsHealth are based on current medical evidence. They have been developed by the AboutKidsHealth writers, editors, illustrators, and designers in close collaboration with expert health care professionals from SickKids, the University of Toronto, and other centres. The content goes through several stages of review by members of our Editorial Review Board. The Editorial Review Board comprises health care professionals from all disciplines and parents of children living with various conditions.

Some of the content in the News & Health A-Z section of the site has been adapted from The Pediatric Advisor (McKesson Health Solutions) by paediatricians and other experts from The Hospital for Sick Children.

Advertising policy

AboutKidsHealth does not display advertisements for products, services, or other websites. We do not receive funding from advertising or the display of commercial content. Our content selection and creation process is not influenced by sponsors.

Feedback

We welcome any comments or suggestions you may have about the content and design of our site. Your feedback will help us to provide families with the information that will help them the most. Please send your comments or suggestions to: about.kidshealth@sickkids.ca.

Help us spread the word!

Become an AboutKidsHealth supporter and help us spread the word by linking to us on your website or blog. AboutKidsHealth banners and badges are available for download here.

Visit the AboutKidsHealth Family Resource Centre

The TD Securities gift has also made possible the renovation and equipping of the AboutKidsHealth Family Resource Centre, a site on the hospital's Main Street area. The resource centre is managed by a registered nurse, and provides information for patient families to support medical decision making, disease management, and safe, healthy living.

In addition to a library of books and multimedia materials, 12 Internet-enabled computers are available for families to access online information and remain connected with their community while their children are inpatients. Facsimile, photocopying, and local telephone services are also available for these families.

The centre contains a tranquil lounge area for parents and two private multimedia-equipped consulting rooms for viewing audiovisual material or clinician-family meetings. The public health outreach of AboutKidsHealth.ca will be integrated with and supported by the work of the AboutKidsHealth Family Resource Centre within Sick Kids.

AboutKidsHealth Family Resource Centre
Main Floor, Room M200
The Hospital for Sick Children
555 University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M5G 1X8

Hours
Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Closed weekends and holidays

The AboutKidsHealth Team

Danielle Bader, MScBMC
Medical Illustrator

Ming Chen
Senior Developer

Sherene Chen-See
Project Coordinator

Nira Datta
Medical Writer/Editor

Tania Haas
Medical Writer/Editor

Ross Hetherington, PhD
Director and Editor-in-Chief

Andrew James, MBChB, MBI, FRACP, FRCPC
Chief Medical Editor

Marc Keelan-Bishop
New Media Designer

Jonathan Link
Medical Writer/Editor

Robin Marwick
Media & Editorial Coordinator

Sarah McBain, BA, MISt
Manager, AboutKidsHealth Family Education & Resource Centre

Steve McGuire
Visual Designer/Information Architect

Hide Miyagawa, RN
Biomedical Multimedia Web Developer

Tawnya Pancharavski
Intern Medical Writer/Editor

Jennifer Polk, HBSc, MScBMC
Medical Media Design Coordinator

Cathryn Schmidt
New Media Designer

Dianna Sherlock
Family Education & Resource Centre Assistant

Mary Sims, MScBMC
Media Coordinator & Medical Illustrator

Jenny Wells
In-House Producer & Writer/Editor

AboutKidsHealth Advisory Board

Sean Wise, MBA, LLB
Wise Mentor Capital
Board Chair

Brett Turner
Partner, The Caldwell Partners International
Business Development

Salima Valji
Vice President, Digital
Edelman Canada

Titch Dharamsi
Pinnacle Public Affairs
Government Relations and Strategy

Matt Weinstein
Director, Business Development and Partnership Management
Canwest Global Communications Corp

Greg McLelland
Vice President National Sales
Canwest Global Communications Corp

Judith John
Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs
The Hospital for Sick Children

Scott Affleck
Director, Business Development
SickKids Foundation

AboutKidsHealth is the Patient Education Group for The Hospital for Sick Children. AboutKidsHealth is in the portfolio of Dr. Susan Tallett, Chief of Education.

Technical requirements for this site

The AboutKidsHealth has works best with Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0 and later. This browser can be downloaded free from the Microsoft website. We also support Safari version 1.2 running under OS X on the Mac platform and Firefox 2.x and later(PC).

We do not recommend use of Netscape 4.7 and earlier or Internet Explorer 5.0 and earlier. Problems with these browsers may include pictures, animations, or navigation buttons that do not appear or work, and slow speed. To find out which browser you are using, look under Help in your browser's top menu bar and scroll down to the "about" link.

This site uses Flash to display many of its images. If you can see the rotating circle on the right, you have Flash
If not, you may download the Flash player from the Adobe website.

Disclaimer

We hope you find the information on this site useful. Please be aware that the content on this site is meant for educational purposes only, and should only be used as a guide. Every child's situation is unique. If you have specific questions about your own child's care, please speak to your child's doctor. Please refer to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy pages for further information about the policies of this site.

Link disclaimer

Links to other websites are provided for reference purposes and convenience only. Although we make every effort to link to reliable sites, no link on the AboutKidsHealth website is a referral or endorsement of either the linked-to entity or any product or service. Please refer to our linking policy for more information.