Top 10 Stories Of 2018
More than 1.5 million people visited checkupnewsroom.com. We thought we would take a look back at our most popular stories written in 2018. Let's start the countdown:
10. Couple Fights To Give Child Abuse Victim, Foster Chlid Forever Home: We begin our countdown with one of the most heartwarming stories of the year. Read about a wonderful family, their fight to make baby Jett their own and the help Cook Children's provided them.
9. Let's Learn Something About Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease!: Leave it to Dr. Diane to make "Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease" interesting. All of her "Let's Learn" About posts do well and this was no exception.
8. 5 Children Treated for Bath Drownings at Cook Children's in One Month: Sadly, we once again had to talk a lot about drownings in 2018. But we didn't just warn about the dangers of pools or lakes. In May of this year, we got an important message out: "Don't leave your child alone in the bathtub."
7. Father who nearly lost son to a Tide Pod reacts to ‘Tide Pod Challenge’: Remember the Tide Pod Challenge fad of 2018? One family did not think it was amusing. Chris and Heidi Slaydon know all too well the dangers of a child swallowing a laundry detergent pod.
6. What Is Guillain-Barré syndrome?: When we learned that Dallas Cowboys center Travis Frederick had been diagnosed with this rare neurological disorder, it gave us a chance to talk about GBS. Cook Children's neurologists see between 6 to 10 cases per year.
5. 'Is it RSV?': By the end of November, 178 kids had tested positive for RSV. Here's a quick look at what respiratory syncytial virus is.
4. Is That Blue Vein Across Your Child's Nose a Sugar Bug?/Here's What You Need to Know About Kanmushi and Sugar Bugs: Have you ever noticed a prominent blue vein across your child's nose? Our Doc Smitty wrote two posts about Sugar Bugs and they both made our Top 10.
3. Can Elderberry and Other 'Alternative' Medications Treat Colds and Flu?: We may have only scratched the surface in talking about Elderberry (look for more articles in 2019), but here's the first post we published on the topic.
2. Is It Strep Throat or The Flu?: We published this helpful overview to distinguish whether it's strep or flu in January of 2018 and it stayed in our top 10 throughout the year on its way to the No. 2 spot.
1. Juul, Other E-Cigarettes Called an 'Epidemic' by FDA Chief: With more than 75,000 views, this was our most read story we published this year. We reported on this topic a few times during the course of the year because new information came out about the dangers of e-cigarettes and kids. We talked to Don Wilson, M.D., an endocrinologist at Cook Children's, to learn more about this topic.
That wraps up another great year. Thank you for reading. We will be back with much more in 2019 and drop us a line in the comments below for any articles you would like to see our experts discuss.
