MEDICAL
INFORMATION
FOR KIDS
INFORMATION
FOR KIDS
LATEST NEWS
28 Apr 2010 | Press Release
As an anxious child in the '80s, I sought solace in my mum's guide to childhood illnesses (which had gross colour illustrations of things like scabies and ringworm), plus two awesome books I happened to own, Dinosaurs Beware! A Safety Guide and Ouch! All About Cuts And Other Hurts.
But I mostly read about kids' medical issues in Judy Blume novels, not realising that technology had moved on since the books were written in the early '70s. Hence, I freaked out at the idea of having to wear a strap- on menstrual pad like in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, or a scoliosis back brace like in Deenie.
These days kids still fret about their health, and the internet has made medical information both more available and more misleading. (Google "sore throat" and get told it could be cancer.) But children's literature is valiantly trying to keep up.
Originally published in New Zealand in 2006, Medikidz is a series of medical comic books featuring five characters of pleasingly Captain Planet-esque ethnic diversity, plus a robotic brain on legs called Abacus. The Medikidz Explain... series, to be published in May through HarperCollins, covers chronic ailments including epilepsy, type 1 diabetes, asthma, scoliosis and food allergy, as well as leukaemia (the most common cancer in children) and other diseases that kids are likely to worry about, such as HIV, swine flu and breast cancer. For the fatties, there's also the tortured syntax of Medikidz Explain Childhood Overweight.
But Medikidz is also a flagship multimedia brand, with an associated website and social network for sick kids in six English-speaking countries. There, kids can play medical-themed games, find out about common tests, and search for plainly written information about medical conditions.
It's the brainchild of two paediatricians, Dr Kim Chilman-Blair and Dr Kate James. After working in paediatric orthopaedic surgery, Chilman-Blair turned to academic medical writing. James has worked in paediatrics, emergency medicine and oncology, and was a medical research fellow at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand.
"All of our titles are written by doctors, then peer reviewed by leading consultants in the field, and are then reviewed by our Youth Advisory Board," Chilman-Blair says. "By offering this information to the child at the point of diagnosis, we can put the child at ease as well as empowering them with knowledge."
The Enthusiast ran the Medikidz website past a doctor who has worked at the Royal Children's Hospital. Our medic reported back that the website "has a surprisingly good level of detail/accuracy".