By Mo Ibrahim. Article appears courtesy of the Long Island Press.

Your kid feels like an outsider? She often has headaches? He's acting a bit moody? Not to worry, right? Sounds like every kid. These are not uncommon descriptions of elementary, middle school and high school students. But parents, be wary: These symptoms could very well be warnings of serious childhood or adolescent depression.

According to the "Report of the Surgeon General on Mental Health," 10 to 15 percent of American children and adolescents have at least a few symptoms of depression. That's about 7 to 10 million children.

In 2000, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, suicide was the third leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds, as well as the third leading cause of death among 10- to 14-year-olds. Although an equal amount of prepubescent boys and girls suffer from depression, twice as many girls have depression after puberty. While depression in children and adolescents is not prevalent, it is something to look for. Treating your child now can help prevent full- blown adult depression later and, more important, save your child's life.

It's also important to note that depression is not about "feeling low." It goes much deeper than that.

As parents of ADHD kids know all too well, children with ADHD often have difficulty handling stress, or stressful situations. Now, a team of researchers in Australia may have found a biological reason why this is so.

24 ADHD Children Scanned

The researchers studied brain scans of 24 ADHD children (with hyperactivity) and found that the right parietal lobes in children with ADHD did not function as well as in children without ADHD. The right parietal lobes are associated with the development of coping strategies.

The Associated Press is reporting that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is estimating that each year cough and cold medicines send about 7,000 children to hospital emergency rooms.

Of these 7,000 cases, about two-thirds of the cases were children who took the medicines unsupervised. Of the remaining 2,600 cases, about 1,600 were were children under the age of 2 years old who were given over-the-counter cough and cold medicines that the FDA considers to be too dangerous for such young children.

However, about one-quarter involved cases in which parents gave the proper dosage and an allergic reaction or some other problem developed, the study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

CDC researchers gathered case reports of children 11 and under who had taken cough and cold medications and wound up in 63 hospitals studied in 2004 and 2005. They used that number to come up with the national estimate.

"The main message is no medication left in the hands of a 3-year-old is safe," said the CDC's Dr. Melissa Schaefer.