“We tend to think children are like small adults in many ways, but in terms of energy utilization, they’re definitely not the equivalent of small adults,” write Drs. Norbert Herzog and David Niesel in their Medical Discovery News column. “They consume more energy than a pregnant person and even more than growing teenage boys. Unbelievable! Scientists have stated that in terms of burning energy, young children are like a different species.”

Vitamin K doesn’t cross the placenta, so babies are born with very little vitamin K in their bodies. To complicate their low levels, breast milk is low in vitamin K, Dr. Sally Robinson writes in her regular column. Since 1961, the standard of care is for newborns to receive one shot of vitamin K to prevent those complications. However, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of parents who refuse the intramuscular shot.

Several studies now show COVID-19 vaccines can affect menstrual cycles, but the effects are minor and short-lived. Drs. Megan Berman and Richard Rupp explain this in their Vaccine Smarts column.

“Now that spring has sprung, get your dose of sunshine daily and keep yourself healthier,” Dr. Victor S. Sierpina writes in his regular column. “Nudist camps often claim to be health-promoting — and we may have something to look at there.”

For about half of the counties in the country, which contain 70 percent of the U.S. population, the CDC advised people could unmask indoors. But it continued to recommend indoor masking for areas like Galveston County. “I am trying to study the metrics that CDC has provided. They don’t actually give the actual data that they’re extracting,” said Dr. Janak Patel, director of infection control and health care epidemiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. “I have a feeling that Galveston County got a worse rating than Harris County because we have a large health care system that serves multiple counties.”