National Recommendations Fail to Recognize Urgency and Dangers of Unidentified Perinatal Depression

 By Nicole Letourneau Recently the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care was widely rebuked over their recommendation against breast cancer screening in women under 50. The Task Force is an advisory body established by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to create clinical guidelines for healthcare providers across

Caregivers of young children need a different kind of mask

 By Nicole Letourneau and Mandakini Jain Everywhere you look, responsible adults are wearing masks in public. This is great news and sure to help contain the deadly contagion COVID-19 from spreading and keep more of our friends, neighbours and community members safe. Evidence is mounting on the effectiveness of masks

Including the family in children’s literacy education

 By Erin Schryer and Nicole Letourneau In Canada, two out of five adults – that’s nearly nine million people – cannot read well enough to perform everyday tasks. Reading difficulties start early. It is very well established that children who are not reading well by the end of grade one

Why is it so hard for mothers to breastfeed in Canada?

 By Nicole Letourneau and Mary Lougheed An Icelandic Member of Parliament breastfed her baby while delivering a speech in Parliament recently. No one reacted to her breastfeeding, because in Iceland, breastfeeding is the cultural norm. The mother stated that this was the most natural thing in the world. If only

Indigenous people are not the ‘ghosts of history’

 By Len Flett with Nicole Letourneau Canadian Indigenous people have been described as “ghosts of history,” spectres lingering in the background, haunting our legacy. This refers to the fact that Indigenous people have been ignored to a great extent in Canadian history, yet Canadians are fully aware that Indigenous people

Interview: Why do Canada’s Children Lag so Far Behind?

 In a recent UNICEF report, Canada ranked in the bottom half of the world’s richest countries in overall child well-being and child equality. Experts say that a lack of access to healthcare and inadequate supports for parents are reasons why Canada lags behind. In the video below, Dr. Denis Daneman and

Personalized Medicine for Child Health is a Distraction

 Genetics will save the day – at least that’s the message you see pretty much everywhere in the media, and sometimes even in the academic literature.  Newspaper articles herald “breakthroughs” in finding genetic biomarkers for autism. Magazine headlines trumpet finding a biomarker for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We read in