Vikki Ortiz Healy

Mike Stock, dean of students at Naperville Central High School, interacts with students during a passing period Feb. 13, 2018. Since the school year began, several students have been caught using e-cigarettes each week.

From Naperville to Chicago, officials wrestle with how to curb teen vaping: ‘We don’t know what we’re doing yet’

December 12, 2018 at 11:25 p.m.

School administrators in the Chicago area praised the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s launch this week of a new campaign warning kids about the dangers of vaping, arguing that local...

Kaiden Whittman, 3, receives a flu shot from medical assistant Gigi Hernandez at Advocate Children's Hospital on Sept. 29, 2016.

5 things to know about getting your child’s flu vaccine

August 19, 2019 at 8:58 a.m.

As flu season approaches, with varying vaccine recommendations for children, what’s a parent to do? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the green light to the nasal spray...

Congregation Am Chai's historic Torah, loaned to the synagogue from its late rabbi who rescued it from concentration camp survivors in Poland after World War II, rests inside the congregation's ark at St. Raymond de Penafort Catholic Church on Sept. 9, 2018, in Mount Prospect.

‘The wandering Jews’ of northwest suburbs to close Hoffman Estates synagogue after more than 45 years

December 12, 2018 at 10:28 p.m.

In a community room of a church in Mount Prospect, members of Am Chai Synagogue hung the Star of David banner, set up the ark and positioned rows of chairs...

Students weighed down by heavy backpacks, ‘text neck’

December 12, 2018 at 10:09 p.m.

Students’ heavy backpacks are a perennial problem, but the strain on children’s bodies has worsened in recent years, thanks to bad posture from texting and playing video games, according to...

Pete Conry stands with his peach tree in the backyard of his Oak Park home on Monday, Aug. 27, 2018. While the Conrys were out of town earlier this month, a thief stole about 100 peaches from the tree.

Oak Park peach caper continues as more residents come forward with tales of pillaged trees

December 13, 2018 at 2:06 a.m.

A local orchard owner has promised free apples to an Oak Park man who had 100 peaches stolen from his backyard tree just days before their peak ripeness. The kind...

Kristen and Pete Conry stand with their peach tree in the backyard of their home on Aug. 27, 2018, in Oak Park.

Oak Park man miffed by thief who stole 100 peaches from backyard tree

December 13, 2018 at 2:01 a.m.

An Oak Park man is questioning his faith in humanity — or at least in the fruit-eating public — after a thief sneaked into his backyard and stole nearly 100...

School nurse Linda Vollinger takes a call while working at Stagg High School in Palos Hills on Aug. 22, 2018.

Teens are anxious and depressed, and turning to the school nurse for help. But most Illinois schools don’t have one.

December 12, 2018 at 9:53 p.m.

A few hours into the first day of school, a young man entered the nurse’s office at Libertyville High School complaining of stomach pains. The school nurse began asking him...

A day care center with Chicago locations banned Cheerios after the Environmental Working Group reported that the cereal and a number of other popular breakfast foods contain dangerous amounts of cancer-linked glyphosate, the main ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.

Making sense of food scares: Day care bans Cheerios following report, but doctors urge parents not to panic

December 13, 2018 at 1:48 a.m.

A North American day care company with nine Chicago-area locations has stopped serving Cheerios in response to a recent report from an advocacy organization showing potentially dangerous amounts of an...

Posting a first-day-of-school pic online? Here’s what you need to know

December 13, 2018 at 1:07 a.m.

I signed onto Facebook this week and quickly realized it’s that time of year — when photos of smiling, backpack-wearing, sign-holding schoolkids off to class get posted faster than I...

First-time mother Christine Escobar holds her 15-month-old child at their Chicago home Aug. 8, 2018. She said she agreed to participate in the study because she knew that doctors had mixed opinions on the risks of labor induction.

Inducing labor at 39 weeks leads to fewer C-sections, Northwestern study finds

August 19, 2019 at 8:57 a.m.

Although doctors for years have advised pregnant women that inducing labor before 41 weeks increased the likelihood of cesarean birth, a sweeping study released Wednesday found that induction at 39...

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