So much for all those efforts to increase literacy rates and love of reading amongst young children. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine blames Harry Potter books for causing headaches, neck, and wrist pain:
Dr. Howard Bennett, a pediatrician writing in this week's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, said he had three otherwise healthy children between 8 and 10 years old complain of headaches for two to three days last summer. One child also complained of neck and wrist pain.
After some questioning, Bennett found that all three had been reading the 870-page "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" book for six to eight hours a day. Two of the children read while lying on their stomachs, and the third propped the book on her legs and rested her head on a pillow...
I have the feeling some parents would love to have the problem of kids who read too long without taking breaks.
Posted by kswygert at October 30, 2003 10:16 AM