Jane Newburger, MD, Associate Cardiologist-in-Chief at Children's Hospital Boston offered the following responses:

How would you explain Kawasaki's Disease to a school age kid?

I tell kids in the acute phase of the illness that KD is a lot like an infection, although we don't know what causes it. It affects healthy kids who almost always go back to being healthy after the illness, although they might feel more tired than usual for one to two months.

For children with coronary aneurysms the discussion is very different. I generally discuss the following:

• I am very explicit about the physical sensations (i.e., chest tightness or squeezing with exercise, nausea, dizziness, etc.) that should prompt them to talk to their parents or teachers. I stress that it is better to have a false alarm than to let a real symptom go unreported.

• For the older children, I draw pictures of their arteries and tell them both how we prevent them from becoming clogged with blood clots and also the ways that we can treat the arteries if they become "tight" over time. In particular, we talk about cardiac catheterization with dilation and stenting of "tight" places, as well as coronary artery bypass procedures.

• I discuss the types of sports that are best for them to take part in, and the types that are too dangerous.

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