Well, I just had my calendar cleared, and ended up spending ten hours out with the kids. At one point, we just sat in the car. For like an hour. Just chilling when napping wouldn't do. And then there were...
[read the full post...]
Category archive: health
January 13, 2012
DT Friday Freakout: Disaster Edition
January 6, 2012
DT Friday Freakout: Boing Boing Edition
It's the weekend! Which will now be ruined by freaking out over these news stories from the worlds of parenting, health, science, and whatever: Fetal cells basically stay floating in the mother's bloodstream forever. It's called microchimerism. [boingboing, which, hmm,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 2, 2012
Awesome National Geographic Story About Twins Studies
If you have or are having twins, you probably already know about it, but Peter Miller's National Geographic article on twins studies is pretty fascinating for anyone with DNA:"What I like to say is that Mother Nature writes some things...
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[read the full post...]
December 22, 2011
And They Shall Call His Name Emanuel. And His Jesus.
Let's put this story from the northern Brazilian state of Para into chronological order:Claudioner Assis de Vasconcelos, director of the hospital in Anajas where she gave birth, told Brazil's O Povo newspaper that the mother came in because she was...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 2, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Lead Juicebox Edition
Here to ruin your weekend, a healthy dose of freakout headlines from the worlds of parenting, science, health, education, and safety: Not to freak you out or anything, just that Consumer's Union really wants something to be done about all...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 1, 2011
A Children's Treasury Of Playground Near Nuclear Power Plant Photos
I can't figure out what's going on in these photographs Eric Vance took. I mean, they're labeled "environmental justice," and they were taken in 2007. For the EPA. During the Bush Administration. So I can only assume they are...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 11, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Lollipox Edition
Sometimes it's hard not to freak out over these stories when they're dribbled out by media. But then, that's exactly why Daddy Types bundles them up into one, giant Friday Freakout, so they can ruin your weekend, not your whole...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 4, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Ritalin/Candy Edition
Why give in to the publicists and media, and freak out every day, right? Here are some headlines from the worlds of science, health, parenting, and education--plus one remixed Simpsons clip--to freak you out all at once. On the weekend:...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 1, 2011
Holy Crap, It's Contagion-Meets-12-Monkeys In Waldorf Schools
I'm no wingnut, and I don't like to be put in a position of agreeing with one, but day-um, Bay Area Waldorf people! Look me straight in the eye and expl--well, never mind. Just why the hell are 77%...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 21, 2011
DT Friday Freakout
Instead of following the publicists' plan to schedule science, health, and research-related news releases one a day, thereby freaking you out all week, Daddy Types saves them all until Friday, so you can freakout over them all at once. All...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 16, 2011
Emliy Rapp Is Intense Parent, Writer
Even if my experience and religious beliefs give me a different kind of hope, Emily Rapp's insights into raising her terminally ill son are extraordinary, inspiring--and hard-won.Our experiences have taught us how to parent for the here and now, for...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 14, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Occupy Sesame Street Edition
Personally, my weekend's already ruined, full of regret for not doing more with the Occupy Sesame Street concept. Or maybe I'll just work in my Photoshop skills. [tauntr] As for the rest of you, here are a few headlines from...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
I Am Unsettled By The Idea Of A Smartphone Ultrasound
Ultrasound should stay in the mall where it belongs. Ultrasound on the go? Smartphone-based imaging system released by Mobisante [geekwire via someone, thanks]...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 20, 2011
New Study Shows Half Of ADHD Cases Are Actually GTFTSD
Go on, admit it, half the time you heard some rambunctious kid or other's got ADHD, you thought to yourself, it's either a parenting thing or a Big Pharma scam. Well:A new study published in the American Journal of Family...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 16, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: I Want My T Edition
A work project that took way more time than it should have has filled my browser tabs with news from the worlds of science and parenting that will ruin your weekend: Actually, if you've seen the study--and once you get...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 12, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Hot Dog Edition
Has it been far too long since inflammatory stories from the worlds of science, health, education, and parenting filled your weekend with Freakout? Well, clear the picnic table: Your bologna has a middle name, it's D-I-A-B-E-T-E-S. A daily serving of...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 20, 2011
Who's Swaggerin' Now? Pharma Targets Yuppies With Costumed Fertility Rap
If you think about it, it'd be impossible not to wince-laugh at the very sight/idea of a sub/urban white couple in their 30s rapping about their frustrations with fertility. So the fact that they're wearing stupid bird & bee...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 13, 2011
How Her iPhone Saved This Mom's Kid's Life
Our pediatrician's pretty sharp and mellow, but he's also at a teaching hospital. So maybe half the times I mention the Internet, some resident dutifully informs me that any website besides the American Academy of Pediatrics is a dangerous lie....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 11, 2011
Paul Ford Produces Much More Than Words
If there are any genes this world needs propagated more than Paul Ford's, I'm at a loss to think of whose they might be. Fortunately, Paul has tried his hand at producing something other than awesome writing. The Age of...
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[read the full post...]
The Sun Never Sets On Rupert Murdoch's Vast Criminal Empire
The phone hacking scandal and subsequent investigation coverup involving Rupert Murdoch's News International and British police targeted not just celebrities, and the families of murder and terrorism victims, but the royal family, and now, it turns out, former prime minister...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
What To Expect When You've Got Gestational Diabetes In Texas
Large birth weight is a typical complication of gestational diabetes [GDM], a condition which affects around 200,000 pregnancies annually in the US. According to the NIH, physicians generally screen for GDM at around 24-28 weeks, earlier if there are more...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 1, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Neuroscience Edition
A couple of stories from the world of neuroscience to freak you out over the weekend: [image: newscientist.com/Michael Crabtree] They know when they've been sleeping; they know when they're awake. A study at Kings College London using MRI scans of...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 26, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: CDC WTF Measles! Edition
Congratulations, vacctivists, for ruining your kids' weekends by causing them to get the measles! The Centers for Disease Control has issued an official health warning as the number of measles outbreaks in the US has reached its highest level since...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 21, 2011
DT Mommy Mailbag: Belly Armor
mishmash screengrab made from bellyarmor.com screengrab made from bellyarmor's pr email Sometimes it's hard to know what to roll my eyes at first:Belly Armor Shields Cell Phone Radiation While Pregnant As a Mommy Blogger, we know how valuable your...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 14, 2011
Waterproof Sunblock Is A Lie, Says FDA
What does it take for the New York Times to actually call something "false"? The FDA has approved new sunscreen marketing regulations for the first time in 33 years:The rules, which go into effect in a year, will also ban...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 13, 2011
This Lovely Blouse Will Protec Your Baby From Cell Phones And/Or Microwave Popcorn
Electromagnetic fields! We're soaking in it! Everyone basically knows that EMF causes birth defects and/or cancer and/or tumors or something, especially the heightened EMF that thoughtless pregnant women with cell phones and electricity and BabyPlus prenatal education systems expose...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 27, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Measles Edition
Some headlines from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting to freakout over this weekend: Can't install them right so you can't get Zipcar, or take them on a trip. Holy smokes, Alexandra Lange asks, why are car seats so...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 20, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Apocalyptical Distance Edition
A passel of parenting and pediatric press to freakout your Friday, fellows. It's no Danny Stiles, but it'll have to do: So THIS is why the Tylenol PRs have been emailing me all this time. Big Acetaminophen is getting on...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 14, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Just One Word...Plastics
Woo-hoo, first they came for the BPA, but I was not BPA, so I did nothing. Then they came for the crapload of other Estrogenic Activity-triggering chemicals in basically every plastic everything in the world, but my manboobs were too...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 10, 2011
They Go Together Like Childhood Cancer And Parental PTSD
So this Boston Herald story is not one of those, "Oh no, nothing worse than finding out the baby has cancer" stories after all. Its' about the inevitably worse stuff that happens because the kid has cancer, and the parents...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 4, 2011
So Did You Know About This Toddlers & Toothpaste Thing?
Because any time I hear someone warning me about the evils of fluoride, I check my wallet. I mean, my wallet-sized map of southern Utah, because I wonder if I'm in one of those towns where people keep watch nights,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 4, 2011
Ruler-Wielding Scientists: Taint Too Far From Phthalate Exposure To Low Sperm Count
In news that brings a sigh of relief from the Iritable Bowel Syndrome folks, who are all too happy to relinquish their Unhelpfully Euphemistic Acronym Award, a group of researchers at the University of Rochester have announced the results of...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 13, 2011
We Are Our Kids' First Immune System
One in 4 women have the Group B Streptococcus bacteria naturally occurring in their digestive tracts and/or vaginas. One in 200 women who test positive for GBS between 35 and 37 weeks of pregnancy and who are not treated with...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 8, 2011
Vaccines Come In On Little Ninja Feet
See, it's the little differences. Whereas for us in the West it's the fabricated threats of autism, in Japan, it's the sudden spate of infant deaths that sets the vaccine panics off. Prevenar, or Prevnar, manufactured by Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 11, 2011
DT Friday Freakout
it's been a while since we've had a good, old-fashioned round-up of freakouts from the worlds of safety, science, and parenting to ruin your weekend, so here goes: You might as well let the kid drink Coke, because diet soda...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 1, 2011
Dear FDA, I Think I Just Opened An Email Meant For You
I don't want my FDA rolling over for Monsanto any more than I want my kid inadvertently eating Frankenfalfa, but I'm not sure that calling your entire email list a jerk is the best way to rally the troops here:...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 25, 2011
Afghan Enters The Opium-for-Kids Phase Of Industrialization
Oh, CNN, I kept reading and reading about how parents in Afghanistan dope up their kids with opium so they can get more work done in their carpet factories or what have you, and you only saw this practice...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 18, 2011
Dadwagon Babyswings For The Fences
Duck, there's another babyswinging video coming out of the Inscrutable East! And this time Dadwagon's there to catch it. A couple of years ago, a vaguely Russian-seeming babyswinging video made a splash onto YouTube--and got the guy who uploaded it...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 5, 2011
DT Wednesday WTF
You know what, sometimes there are just too many WTF's in a day to post them all separately: So minivan marketers say sales are up and minivans are supposedly cool now, because what, the Swagger Wagon ads? The redesigned Odyssey?...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 20, 2010
DT Friday [sic] Freakout: Golden Helicopter Awards
Ready for a little Monday Freakout? Good. Then go read Leonore Skenazy's Golden Helicopter Awards, which conveniently rounds up a year's worth of stupid and/or inspired overparenting stories in one big, eyerolling article. If this were on Huffington Post, it'd...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 18, 2010
On The Bright Side, Maybe Trig Didn't Notice They Were Gone
It seems that immediately after their 2.5yo son Trig had an operation, Todd and Sarah Palin left Alaska for five days of campaigning and speechmaking on the East Coast. As a parent, I cannot imagine ever doing that. But if...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 15, 2010
Monday Male Mutilation Mailbag
It's remarkable how quickly circumcision rates have been plummeting in the US in the last couple of years. I figure it's people stepping stepping back and actually thinking through the logic and implications of "I want him to look like...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 9, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Makeup Edition
Yeah yeah, whatever, our trip out of town this week means I've got a bagful of freakout with your name on it: Now now, New York, don't even try to compare your piddly little elevated lead levels in drinking water...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 31, 2010
HFCS: Holy Crap, Fructose ≠Sucrose!
So some new study about high fructose corn syrup came out in the journal Obesity, and basically every word that's come out of HFCS's mouth is a lie, including "a," "the," and "is." Interestingly named nutritionist professor Marion Nestle has...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 29, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Whooping Cough Edition
You ever have one of those weeks where the news from science, health, parenting, and everything else is just too diverse to freak out over in one post? Well, this is one of those weeks. So for the first in...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 17, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Sunday Supplement Edition
On the bright side, if the Friday Freakout doesn't come out until Sunday night, maybe it only ruins my weekend. Here are some devastating headlines from the worlds of science, education, safety, and parenting: Sleep positioners have been implicated in...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 14, 2010
Canada Declares BPA Toxic/Toxique In Two Languages
The Gouvernement Canadian Government had proposé adding BPA to the list liste of toxic substances toxique in 2008 deux mille huit. And yesterday they made it official officielle. BPA will now be subject sujet to regulations and restrictions under CEPA...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 5, 2010
Mombloggers Of The Corn [Refiners Association]
DT hero and double-barreled momblogger Liz has an epic, yet constructive takedown on the Corn Refiners Association's recent giftcards-for-HFCS-propaganda tour through the mommy blogosphere. Brands and blog tours - not always so sweet. [mom-101.com]...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
It's Just A Barbiturate Suppository
You know how we chuckle and shake our heads at how the Industrial Revolution was carried out on the opium-sedated backs of working class kids? Haha. Because the Cold War was, too. That's when The Greatest Generation turned to...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 24, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Got Milk? Edition
What, you worry? Here are some stories from the worlds of parenting and pregnancy and what not to freakout over this weekend: In case you're having a hard time telling breastmilk and formula apart, just remember: they don't recall 5...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 19, 2010
Just A Spoonful Of Sugar And A Shotglass Of Ginger Ale
Barely two weeks into school, and the kid gets some kind of superstrep that requires the nastiest-tasting antibiotics this side of Bangalore. Our pediatrician--actually, his resident, who clearly doesn't have a kid--suggested we sprinkle it on apple sauce. Almost made...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 17, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Pedo Edition
I missed last weekend, so maybe you've already freaked out over some of these headlines from the worlds of science, education, health, and parenting? Let's rip that scab off and freak out all over again! You walk out that door,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 3, 2010
DT Friday Freakout
With a long weekend, a hurricane, a roadtrip, and kids waking up at 6:30 when they're supposed to wake up at 8, you'd think nothing could ruin one's weekend any more. Well, the reporters of science, health, parenting, and education...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 30, 2010
Vacctivatic Immunity!
Haha, wow, whatever you've ever said about vaccines and thimerosal and mercury and autism and herd immunity and government cover-ups and Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey and the Lancet and fabricating data to serve your litigious overlords, you're absolutely...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 29, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Depressing Edition
I know the weekend's almost over, but I think freaking out over these stories from the worlds of parenting, science, health, and education can still ruin it retroactively: You thought "anchor babies" were gonna getchya? A politician in Rhode Island...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 20, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Summer Vacation Edition
Some parenting, kid, pregnancy, science, and education headlines from all over to freak you out and ruin your weekend: Despite August not being a good month for launching a new product recall, the CPSC recalled 3,700 Zooper Tango double...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 17, 2010
Hate The Playa, Not The Happy Meal Toy
Happy Meal toys are the toy equivalent of McDonalds french fries, which are in turn the food equivalent of cigarettes. They incite and fill an instant craving. Their utility wears off in about five minutes. By which point, they've lodged...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 16, 2010
Infant Stool Illustrations By The Inestimable Mrs J.D.Z. Chase
Sure, she produced, for the purposes of diagnosis and education, the hand-drawn illustrations of the contents of various infant diapers included in Dr. Harry Lowenburg's 1916 A practical treatise on infant feeding and allied topics, for physicians and students....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 19, 2010
Dear Gouvelas
Sometimes you kick fatherhood's ass, and sometimes it kicks yours. It has been a devastating and heartbreaking thing to read Aaron's account on Daddyfiles of his and his wife MJ's discovery, via an early ultrasound, that their daughter possibly had...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 16, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Jobs Edition
I'll apologize in advance for this week's Friday Freakout. I've been trying hard to muster a freakout over anything, anything at all related to kids, parenting, safety, whatever, that can match the freaking out I've been doing since reading that...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 11, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Chemicals Edition
I've been freaking out over it all weekend, and there's just no way around it: it's hard to top Z-Recommends for Freakout News: "This made the purchase of synthetic urine feel a bit spendy, but can you blame me?...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 7, 2010
DT Mommy Mailbag: Summertime Edition
Hey Ladies, it sure is hot out there! Here's some cool tips and marketing messages for you from the DT Mommy Mailbag! "Let Moms know: Nordstrom's Anniversay Sale!" will include Trina makeup bags! "Sharon Lerner's new book looks for...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 26, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Wows! Edition
If the heat doesn't getcha, maybe some sensationalistic news reports from the worlds of science, medicine, safety, and parenting will freak out your weekend: Kellogg's has recalled 28 million boxes of cereal in white foil bags, because of "an off...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 11, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: iPhone Edition
Here are some headlines of late, all primed to ruin your weekend with freakoutery: The quantity of new parents' sleep is more important to their relationship satisfaction than how well they thought they slept. Of course, the study was conducted...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 2, 2010
Wakefield: Vaccines Cause...Something! Autism!
Yeah, autism, that's the ticket! Slate covers a lot of old ground in their recap of the Dr. Andrew Wakefield MMR-causes-autism debacle: the unethical study methods, the unfounded conclusions, the study's retraction by the Lancet, the revocation of Wakefield's medical...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 30, 2010
Cochlear Implant Activation Videos
Over the last decade, maybe, cochlear implant technology has progressed to the point where it can produce significant impacts early in a kid's language and neural development. From the fascinating, if sometimes overly snarky discussion at Metafilter, it sounds...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 24, 2010
Andrew Wakefield Saga Now In Comic Book Form
Didn't think it'd be Dr. Andrew Wakefield Day around here, but, you gotta blog about Darryl Cunningham's 15-page vacctivist saga comic book when you find it: Also, the publisher of an autism treatment-related book with a foreword by Jenny McCarthy...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Andrew Wakefield Has Given 4,000 Brits The Measles
Dr. Andrew Wakefield has been deregistered in the UK, the medical equivalent of being disbarred, in part for the spurious and manipulated research paper he published in 1998 claiming that the MMR vaccine was linked to autism. The decade-plus long...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 23, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Lost Edition
I don't know if this means anything to anybody, but my 2-yo just woke up from a nap asking if she could keep playing with her giant Playmobil island with the hairplane crashed on it. And in other freakout news...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 8, 2010
The CDC's National Immunization Survey Will Probably Take Around 20 Minutes
So the other day, we're getting ready to go somewhere, and a surveyor called to say our phone number had been randomly selected for the CDC's National Immunization Survey [NIS], did we have any children in the house? When I...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 6, 2010
Nestle Is NOT Amused By Enfamil's Sugary, Chocolatey Toddler Formula
Holy crap! Formula Freakout! I just read on Twitter that dadwagon had a new post about a Los Angeles Times article about the momblogger outrage over Enfagrow, Enfamil's new flavored [and sugar-loaded] toddler formula! Which went on sale in February....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 3, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Tylenocalypse Edition
We left town early, and so we at least saved our own weekend from the gigantic )#($%ing freakout that is the massive recall of liquid infant's and children's Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec, and Benadryl products issued Saturday. Wait, Saturday? What the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 16, 2010
DT Friday Freakout
Friday Friday Friday--Ooh, what does it mean? It means it's time to ruin your weekend with alarming and/or depressing news from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting! Mother Jones has a shocking story about how, according to a mind-blowing...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 9, 2010
Wait, How Many Free Diapers Do British Kids Get Every Day?
The NY Times has caught onto the supposed Mumsnet Election Fever that's sweeping British politics at the moment. Both the Labour PM Gordon Brown and his conservative Tory challenger David Cameron and their wives are working the family-friendly angle. Cameron,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 23, 2010
The Dad Presides: Once-Uninsurable Dadcentric Clan Goes National
Wait, so you're telling me that Jason of Dadcentric's 6-year-old kid can't get insurance because of a common pre-existing condition when he was two? That's an outrage! Someone oughta do something about that! And not someday, but this year! Get...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 10, 2010
Two Degrees Of Jenny McCarthy
This just in from Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy: Dr Andrew Wakefield, whose vacctivist shitstorm-causing article was just formally retracted by The Lancet after his data was discovered to be fabricated and his research methodology was found by a British...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 6, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Snowmageddon Edition
If there's not two feet of snow to freakout over where you are, here are some other options: That definitely counts as two Freakout items. Which is freakier, I'll let you be the judge: A new dad in Kent, UK,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 25, 2010
M-I-C D-D-T
Sure, I know DDT-soaked Disney wallpaper sounds like a hilariously bad idea now. But back in 1947, the massive spraying of DDT had just wiped out malaria and typhus and saved millions of people, including Our Boys Fighting In...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 24, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Sunday Science Edition
A selection of headlines from the worlds of science, medicine, education and parenting designed to freak you out: Sperm in promiscuous mice are able to identify and cooperate with their "brethren" to outmaneuver other males' sperm and reach the egg....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 17, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Sunday S*(%storm Edition
If your house is anything like ours, it's hard to carve out even a couple of hours on Sunday in which to completely freak out over the week's health, science, safety, and parenting news: First up, Virginia is for Ass-Scratchers:...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 15, 2010
It's My Turn-Of-The-Century Baby In A Box!
Dr. Martin Couney pioneered the treatment of premature infants in the US. He exhibited babies he was treating in incubators at a succession of expos and world's fairs around the turn of the last century. Then he settled into...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 4, 2009
K2 H1N1
Mild, should be fine by Monday, but still, not much comfort at the end of a long week....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
DT Friday Freakout: Mall Santa Edition
Even though a trip to any mall is enough to ruin your weekend, we'll expand the reach of the Freakout a bit, just to make sure: While the terrorist elf who threatened to blow up Mall Santa in Georgia has...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 30, 2009
First, The Good Autism Treatment News
Even though it's small, a new autism study from the University of Washington published in Pediatrics is being hailed as a "landmark." It finds that early diagnosis--as young as 18 mos--and intensive socialization therapy can "vastly improve" key ASD-related symptoms...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 24, 2009
It's Just A Childhood Autism Treatment
A family in Sacramento is seeing great results treating their son's autism with a teeny, tiny kid-sized daily dose of medical marijuana. This seems like an autism story even Jenny McCarthy could love. [via andrewsullivan] Could do without the Ooh,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 23, 2009
DT Friday Freakout, Meet DT Monday Meltdown
Yeah, the weekend slipped by with nary a Freakout to be had. Fortunately, these crazy stories from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting can still ruin your Thanksgiving holiday: By now it's [week-]old news that in addition to all...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 13, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Home Alone Edition
While the whole family's scattered to various grandparents for the week/night, I'm freaking out about how well the lacquer on the new radiator cover will take the heat. For you, how about some hyperbolic science and parenting headlines to freak...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 10, 2009
Health Care Reform Prop Baby
Well change my mind and open my health care savings account! Now that 7-month-old Maddie has successfully channeled her opposition to health care reform through her zombie symbiant Rep. John Shadegg, I am thoroughly opposed to upsetting the insurance...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 6, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Shocked, Shocked Edition
Calm, relaxing autumn weekend with the kid? Not if the publicizers of these stories from the worlds of science, medicine, education, safety, and parenting have anything to do with it: What better way to start the Friday Freakout than...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 31, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Halloween Edition
Because you can only worry about razor blades in apples for a few more hours, here are some headlines from the worlds of science and parenting to freakout over the rest of the weekend: 610,000 cheap-ass Halloween flashlights sold at...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 23, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Nuclear Edition
Here are some stories from the science, safety, and parenting worlds designed to help give your confidence a little extra push--over the cliff. Have a great weekend! Actually, these first two are just funny-sad: Do you remember going outside to...
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October 16, 2009
It's Just A Planet
He drives my actual astrophysicist wife crazy, and rightly so, but I still can't help but feel a little thrill that this Carl Sagan video, with special guest star Stephen Hawking, composed by John Boswell, is K2's very first...
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October 9, 2009
DT Friday Freakout
The moon is still here, and you didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize this year, but surely, there are still reports from the worlds of science and parenting to freak out about this weekend? Yes, and don't call me Shirley:...
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That'd Be The Wong-Baker FACES Pain Scale, Colbert
"His show is like the dramatization of a pain chart on a pediatrician's wall."- Stephen Colbert not giving Dr Donna Wong or Dr Carol Beck the credit they deserve while talking about Glenn Beck [who once advertised his special...
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October 8, 2009
Poo-ology Evolves Beyond 'More Bananas Or More Pears?'
In Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, the eunuchs study Pu Yi's poo every day to determine his diet. In The Madness of King George III, analysis of the king's stool was a key plot point. Speaking of, did you know...
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September 22, 2009
UK Autism Study: Same As It Ever Was, Same As It Ever Was
I know I should probably save it for the Freakout, but I couldn't resist. A new NHS study of autism in adults finds that they're just as autistic as all the kids these days. In other words, the supposed spike...
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September 18, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Back To School Edition
Just some news and science to freak out over this weekend: School officials summoned police to confront a family who rode their bikes to school together. They were told they were "out of compliance." [streetsblog via dt sr wtf correspondent...
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September 17, 2009
You Want Ice With That?
Wow, September is like Vasectomy Hyperawareness Month at Dadcentric. Funny, but still. Also, I thought waxing was all the rage, not shaving. I guess Holmes is old school that way. Vasectomy | A Chat With My Boys [dadcentric]...
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September 16, 2009
Natural Female Hair Enhancement? La Bella Placenta Shampoo & Conditioner
via timnyc's twitter [asterisks added]: "RT @shivvy is grocery shopping & has to ask...WHAT THE F*** IS THIS? http://twitpic.com/hvh0h" Oh, you mean this? Why, it's La Bella Placenta Shampoo, in a 34-oz. bottle ["32 oz +2 oz bonus"]. And at...
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September 15, 2009
Welcome Back To School, Sickos!
It hasn't been a week, and the kid's already home with a fever. Which might help her not catch the pink eye they just notified us about....
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September 10, 2009
Strolle(RED): Bugaboo Joins Onto Project (RED)
Bugaboo announced yesterday that the company is joining Project (RED), the big save-a-life-through-shopping program whereby companies create campaigns and products to raise money and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS and other global health crises. To their credit, Bugaboo is...
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Twitter, Snipper. Snipper, Twitter
Day-um. What with the dadblogging and the writing and the multiple weekly podcasts and what not, Jason Avant has been pretty hardcore since he turned pro a few months back. But he has just kicked up the race for fresh...
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August 26, 2009
On Child-Onset Schizophrenia
And to think some of my worst days as a parent are when K2 pulls all her and her sister's clothes out of their dresser for the third time. After escalating fits of hallucinations, violence, and uncontrollable outbursts and behavior,...
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Post-Traumatic NICU Experience Stress Disorder
Studies at Stanford and Duke of parents whose kids spent time in the NICU found that they often exhibited signs of post-traumatic stress disorder--including nightmares, flashbacks, and panic attacks triggered by beeping alarms--long after the kids came home:[A]lthough none of...
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August 25, 2009
First Time As Farce, Second As Tragedy, Or Vice Versa
I swear I was kidding when I wrote just yesterday that circumcision was All-American enough to get the wingnuts to squeal the Pledge of Allegiance. Now some liberal knucklehead's gone and proved me wrong/right by dredging up some birther theories...
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August 24, 2009
Government Foreskin Panels Want To Africanize All American Baby Boys
How's my headline? Does it sound teabag militia wingnutty enough to get some cranky, gun-toting mobs to wave their "Don't Tread On My American Forskin!" signs outside the CDC? Because the NY Times reports that HIV/AIDS epidemiology officials at the...
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August 21, 2009
ZRecs: Sigg Totally Knew It Had BPA In Its Aluminum Bottles All Along
Day-um, I'm sure glad I'm not a baby bottle manufacturer trying to pass my expensive aluminum gear off as BPA-free. Because I'd live in daily fear of Z Recommends totally busting me some day. And if I were the CEO...
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DT Friday Freakout: Fish Edition
I've got a vacationful of stucco wall-inflicted bruises and unsupervised children to freak out over this weekend. But in case that's not enough, here are a few headlines from the worlds of scary science and safety: Blow out the candles...
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August 14, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Neo-Liberal Risk Culture Edition
What does the world of overhyped science and overly alarming and/or underpublicized safety news want you to freak out over this weekend? Researchers in Boston have found the cure to obesity: brown fat, which burns calories instead of storing them....
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August 7, 2009
DT Friday Freakout
Man, my browser tabs are ready to *POP* with all kinds of research and recalls ready to freak. you out: The next time you have to pay for your own C-section, go ahead and treat yourself. A news study shows...
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August 3, 2009
Welcoming Your Little Bundle Of Joy And Hospital Bills, Holy CRAP!
Wow, last time we heard from Sarah Wildman, she was writing an incredibly insightful article for the New York Times stuffed with the wisdom of hard-found parenting experts on how parents in these New Depressionary times really might not need...
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July 31, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: No Toms, Dustins Or Leos Edition
Have we got a pile of overhyped science and alarming news stories to ruin your parenting weekend! "Does Breastfeeding Cause Autism?" This insane headline is the reason the Freakout was created. It is also practically a quote from the UCSF...
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July 20, 2009
Circumcision Is The New African HIV-Fighting Hotness
The NY Times reports on the latest trend in southern African penises: circumcision. After several international studies found that adult male circumcision reduced female-to-male HIV transmission by up to 60%, hundreds of thousands of men are lining up to chop...
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July 16, 2009
Special Delivery! DT Mommy Mailbag
It's not Monday, I know, but this seemed like such an important message to get out there right away. Dads, won't you help? Take a few minutes on the golf course this weekend and see if you can think of...
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July 15, 2009
M-I-C See If We Tell You B-P-A Actually, We Won't! M-O-U-S-E
Wow, Disney's refusal to disclose whether their new stainless steel kids' drinking bottle contains any BPA is so cheerful, friendly, and upbeat, it makes me want to take the kids to Mickey's Toxic Toontown right now! Disney magically refuses request...
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July 8, 2009
Brits Say They Created Sperm From Stem Cells
Soon the only thing left for you to do will be taking the pictures. AP: British scientists claim to create human sperm [ap/google] OTOH, this same stem cell researcher's been crying "Sperm!" since 2006 [telegraph.co.uk]...
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July 1, 2009
Expensive Tastes
K2 just drank my wife's prescription eye drops. Poison control says the steroids are in such low concentration, it's not a problem, which frees me up to be angry at having to spend $98 on a replacement bottle because the...
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June 26, 2009
DT Friday Freakout
Here are some overwrought headlines from the worlds of science and health and such to ruin your parenting weekend: Smacking your kid will give him cancer. In Canada. "Childhood physical abuse is associated with elevated rates of cancer in adulthood,...
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June 12, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Playgrounds, Pregnant BPA & Asian Co-Sleeping Edition
Some over-reaching conclusions and alarming news stories from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting to ruin your weekend, especially if you were planning to go to a playground, or drink from a plastic bottle when you're pregnant: "Safety Questions...
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June 6, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Russian Mice Breast Pump Edition
The Freakout's roundup of overwrought science, safety, and parenting news ruineth your weekend--and it unruineth [?] it with a little dose of Uma: The California Senate passed a ban on BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups this week, one...
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May 26, 2009
Tanzanian Maternity Ward
Wow, I couldn't bring myself to read this weekend's New York Times article yet about the crazy-high mortality rate for mothers and babies alike in Tanzania. But I just scrolled through Beatrice de Gea's photo essay of the Tanzanian...
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May 11, 2009
DT Freakout Friday: Vaccine Autism Celebrities Edition
Close readers of the Daddy Types will notice that there was no Friday Freakout over the weekend. Sorry. Things got a little busy, I didn't want to ruin Mother's Day, or when it comes to dishonest and dangerous pseudo-scientific quackery...
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May 8, 2009
Insane Argington Bamboofest At BKLYN DESIGNS This Weekend
Alright, this is like five kinds of freakin' bamboo awesome all in one. Argington is one of the half dozen kid-related design outfits participating in the BKLYN DESIGNS festival this weekend in DUMBO. [The others are Boo-Coup, Casa Kids, Hugh...
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May 2, 2009
DT Friday Freakout Followup
We had the in-laws in town for a 4-day playdate, so if the Freakout list is late and lazy, I hope you'll understand. Besides, isn't swine flu enough of a freakout this week already? Obligatory swine flu freakout: a charter...
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April 25, 2009
DT Freakout Friday: Was, Uh, Yesterday Edition
Sorry I'm late. I hope these alarmist, hyperbolic, or way-too-early-to-say stories from the news will still be able to ruin at least half your parenting weekend: Can't really top the headline: "Pregnant woman hit by car while running from bear"...
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April 23, 2009
Did You Know It Is Or Will Be Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week Or Month?
So maybe the Baby Shaker iPhone app was released Monday to drum up publicity for Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week--in which case, our society is doomed, because apparently the media only freaks out over a problem with the App Store,...
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April 20, 2009
Two Idiots And A Blaby
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Blaby2, originally uploaded by geoframsay. It's no ringing endorsement of the Industrial Design program at...
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April 17, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Spawning Season Edition
Sun's out, it's getting warmer, it looks like a great weekend--for random and preliminary medical research news to undermine your confidence in the way you're parenting! Since April is Autism Awareness Month, we'll start there: Were you aware autism is...
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April 10, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Somewhere In New Jersey Edition
Crazy Easter Bunnies aren't the only thing to worry about this weekend. Thanks to preliminary research of some kind or another, your whole parenting approach is wrong, too! For example: Whether it's all cars, the Turnpike, or New Jersey itself,...
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April 8, 2009
UCLA Study: Parents Cutting Costs, Not Foreskins
Actually, the study says that hospital circumcision rates are 24% lower in the 16 states where the procedure isn't covered by Medicaid. But not in Missouri, right? "'We whack 'em all,' says Dr. Renee Stein, whose clinic at St. John's...
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April 3, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Smoking Edition
Some quick 'n dirty scientific studies from which to draw way-too-hasty parenting lessons: Remember that Freakout where the breastfeeding, organic treehugger mom was all worried that perchlorates might be in her kid's drinking water? Well, that's the newly discovered benefit...
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March 31, 2009
The Dozen Or So Unhappily Circumcised Man March
If your head's not too desensitized to appreciate it, the Washington Post's story on the 50 or so intactivists who marched from the White House to Capitol Hill yesterday is entertaining. Also a little sad. Two foreskin-mourning college kids were...
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March 29, 2009
LAT: Thanks To Half-Informed Hippies, The Best Schools Have The Worst Vaccination Rates
Weekend not ruined yet? There's still time. The Los Angeles Times notes that the number of unvaccinated kids in California schools jumped 20% in the last year--from 8,300 to over 10,000--and has more than doubled since 1997. But the times...
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March 27, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Short Tips Edition
We just rolled into NYC after just seven hours on the road. Thanks for nothing, Delaware. So though it should still ruin your weekend with alarmist interpretations of scientific research results, the Freakout will be cut short today: A new...
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March 13, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Lots More Tears Edition
Yes, in case you're keeping score at home, you've already noticed there was no Friday Freakout last week; because we freakin' went out of town for the weekend. So refreshing. But enough of that, let's get on with the overly...
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March 11, 2009
You Can't Not Pick Your Kid's Nose
When I told her "You can pick your nose, you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your friend's nose," the kid laughed so hard I felt like George Carlin himself. Never mind that one of the things...
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February 27, 2009
DT Friday Meta-Freakout: Intuitive Toxicology And The White Male Effect Edition
The regular DT Friday Freakout will return next week, so that we can present you with this special DT Friday Meta-Freakout. A couple of weeks ago, this NY Times reader's interest was understandably piqued by the lede for Peggy Orenstein's...
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February 20, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: K2 Edition
You know, because K2 chose this week to basically challenge Death at every turn, I've had a hard time freaking out over anything the hyperbolic science reporting industry can come up with, but I'll try: The NY Times reports that...
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February 13, 2009
DT Freakout Friday: Valentine's Edition
Hmm, doesn't it feel like we were just freaking out about a pile of overinterpreted or under-reported science stories last week? I'll be adding more later in the afternoon. This week's lead story [uh, heh?] is the same as last...
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February 12, 2009
Brother, Can You Spare A Crawligator?
The Creative Playthings Crawligator is one of those awesome, fun-looking, no-brainer toys that looks like it should be on the market forever. Like a Hula Hoop or Rock'em Sock'em Robots. Unfortunately, the little baby belly skateboard didn't survive the...
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February 9, 2009
DT Monday Madness: Dude Made Up His Vaccine Causes Autism Data
Not sure why they're doing this now, but the Times of London reports that it investigated the original medical records behind Dr Andrew Wakefield's 1998 paper in The Lancet which found a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Their...
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February 6, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: "I Was Devastated." Edition
OK, Science may actually have some preliminary research findings for you to freak out over this weekend: Actually, we've been quietly freaking out over this one for nearly five years, since we first got our place in DC, where the...
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February 5, 2009
Everything Must Not Go! Court Spanks CPSC, Upholds CPSIA Phthalate Ban
Short story: If you make or sell plastic or vinyl children's products, you can forget whatever plans you made for the weekend. Slightly longer story: The Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen sued the CPSC over exceptions the Commission...
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January 30, 2009
DT Friday Chillout: CPSIA, Eats Dirt Edition
Is this how it's gonna be now in the Obama Era? All our Freakouts are turned to Chillouts, and our weekends are our own? We used to feed David Patterson--he lived across the street--David Patterson's baby brother dirt sandwiches all...
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January 28, 2009
DT WTF Wednesday: Studies Find Mercury In High Fructose Corn Syrup
Don't you hate coming up with the perfect comeback in an argument, just too late, like after it's already over and you got spanked? The French call it l'esprit d'escalier, the wit of the staircase. And the poor chumps in...
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January 27, 2009
It's Just A Rock: Study Shows Crack Babies Are Fine
A long-term federally funded study of over 4,400 kids whose mothers used cocaine while pregnant finds that there are few effects on the kids' development, achievement and behavior. And what effects there are are not that big a deal....
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January 18, 2009
Mazel Tov, It's A Guinea Pig!
Great opening from the NY Times:At a birthing class, Dr. [Pawan] Sinha, a neuroscience professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stunned everyone, including his wife, by saying he was excited about the baby's birth "because I really want to...
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January 12, 2009
The New Yorker: An Unhelpful History Of Elitist Breastfeeding Hangups
In modern history, breastfeeding has been fetishized and demonized, considered a woman's ultimate patriotic duty, and a savage, animalistic practice unworthy of mothers of the civilized, fair races. In 18th century Paris, an estimated 90% of women used wet...
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January 9, 2009
DTGIFriday Freakout
What alarming, preliminary research are we supposed to use to revamp our failed parenting this week, you ask? Your kid doesn't have a peanut allergy. No one does. They just have over-sensitive yuppie parents. That's the result of a study...
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January 8, 2009
CPSC Tells Junksellers: CPSIA Is Not The Big One, We're Not Coming For You
The CPSC says the "clarification" issued today about the new CPSIA lead-testing regulations which go into effect Feb. 10. is "Intended for Resellers of Children's Products, Thrift and Consignment Stores." But it's also great news for thrifters, eBay sellers, craigslisters,...
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January 7, 2009
Study: Elective C-Sections Increase Risk Of Complications
A new study of over 24,000 full-term births found that the risk of complications increased 20-100% with scheduled [repeat] C-sections, depending on how early they were scheduled [i.e., 37-39 weeks]. The research was conducted by doctors at the University of...
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January 4, 2009
Pain, In The Butt
I'd never heard of acetaminophen infant suppositories before I saw them at the drugstore tonight. But they have joined rectal thermometers and those snot sucker bulbs on my list of Things That Will One Day Be Linked To All...
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January 2, 2009
The Greatest Generation's Nurseries, Cont'd
I suppose I could write about how, now that K2 realizes we pick the food up from the floor and put it back on her tray, she's started refusing to eat in her chair, and would rather get down and...
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December 28, 2008
A. "Just Give'em Benadryl."
So you're a pharmaceutical industry executive. And not only has the FDA muscled you into a "voluntary" withdrawal from the lucrative children's over-the-counter cold & flu medicine market. But your leading antihistamine brand is also the default, one-word punchline for...
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December 26, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: Robots Edition
It's an abbreviated Freakout Friday, which focuses only on the most pressing ways we're ruining our kids, as extrapolated from preliminary research: Should we let robots take care of our children? Because, uh, hello, they already are. That's the ethical...
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December 19, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: Wasilla Edition
No, I didn't backdate this list of alarming parenting conclusions drawn from preliminary or narrow scientific research; it was just freaking you out so bad last night, you blocked it from your mind: Unmarried fathers who were involved in prenatal...
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December 16, 2008
Before There Was Ultrasound, There Was The Snow Obstetrical Calculator
With 4D photo studios popping up in malls, it's easy to forget that there was a time before ultrasound when pregnancy was a largely invisible mystery. Unless you don't count the X-rays to measure the size of the fetus's...
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Toyota 4Runner MacGuyvered Into 3rd World Incubator
Trying to save newborns and preemies in developing countries from preventable deaths by donating crappy old incubators apparently doesn't work. Even if they work, no one ever sends the manual. But really, the things break down pretty quickly, and there's...
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December 12, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: Watch Your Head! Edition
Let's see what too quickly drawn parenting conclusions the scientists and sociologists and such have to ruin this weekend with, shall we? First up, etsy.com sellers have finally gotten the news of the CPSC's new lead testing bomb that's set...
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DTQ: So You Give Your Kid An Antihistamine Before Bed
And instead of tired, they get wired. Like running around the house and moving chairs wired. What can you do, or do you have to just ride it out?...
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MIFF MUFFered MILF
Would you be surprised to learn that Debra Pascali-Bonaro's documentary, Orgasmic Childbirth, won the Audience Choice Award at the 2008 Motherbaby International Film Festival in Bermuda? I think, based on whether you knew of the existence of the Motherbaby International...
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December 5, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: No Strollers, No Peace Edition
What's the baby and parenting world coming to? Well for one thing, if you joke about the Obama inauguration's stroller ban to a Washington Post reporter, a hundred irate strangers will email you, calling you a shallow, self-centered parent so...
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November 28, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: Thanks A Lot Edition
Some alarming news and way-too-preliminary research to be thankful for this week: Thanks a lot, FDA, for the giant hit to your credibility about this whole melanine-in-baby-formula thing. I was all prepared to be all, "Bah, melamine-tainted formula is a...
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November 25, 2008
DT Terrifying Tuesday: Powdered Formula Is A Preemie's Best Source For Deadly Meningitis??
Ho-Lee smokes. At least 17 cases of spinal meningitis, a potentially fatal or debilitating brain infection, can be attributed to the use of powdered formula or preemie nutrient supplements. The cases have happened in both NICU and home situations, and...
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Foreskins: The New Trend In Danish Modern Design
After banning female circumcision last year, the Danish Parliament is now considering a ban on male infant circumcision. In the case of religious or culturally dictated circumcisions, they would have to wait until the kid is 15 and can make...
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November 21, 2008
DT Freakout Friday, Thy Name Is Bronx Mowgli Edition
It's a travel day, so DT Freakout Friday is short, just the bare necessities, you might say: Not only is he messed up for the school year cutoff, but now it turns out that babies born in the fall have...
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November 20, 2008
M-I-C C Is For Cigarette
Wait, he's only two and he's reading Mickey Mouse comic books? And wearing French cuffs? That's so advanced for his age! A 2-year-old smoking, 1959 for Life magazine by Michael Rougier [images.google.com via daringfireball]...
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November 7, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Sara Edition
You know, I'm not feeling particularly freaked out this weekend. In fact, I'm feeling pretty good. And here are a few more reasons why: Because I'm not "mommy dating," and imagining that people are judging me for my watch and...
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October 31, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Spooked Edition
Happy Halloween! Just in case there wasn't enough to be scared about besides gay people getting married on the beach; Communist Muslim Terrorist Presidents winning in a landslide; lamp post-shimmying Phillies fans dropping from the sky; and the paralytic spasms...
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October 9, 2008
Cold Medicine Companies See Writing On Wall, Slap Warning On Box
Truly, nothing inspires confidence and medical credibility than hearing a big pharmaceutical company trumpet the safety of their children's cold medicines one week and then suddenly do a 180 and announce a voluntary [sic] ban on those same meds for...
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October 4, 2008
DT Friday Freakout [On Saturday]: One Of Those Days Edition
Yeah yeah, you don't need to tell me that the Friday Freakout is late; it was one of those Fridays. On the bright side, the kid is as giddy as a schoolgirl about going to preschool now. And on the...
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September 24, 2008
OG Detailed Dosage Info At Dr. Sears
You new dads coming up now will get a kick out of this. Back before the FDA miraculously cured all colds, coughs, and flu in kids under 2 years old, we used to actually give'em medicine when they were sick....
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September 9, 2008
Ha, In Your FACE, High Fructose Corn Syrup Hater!
Come to my Corn Refiners Association party and get all snotty with me about the fruit punch, and I will shut you down. I assume the scene where another parent walks up and says the issue with HCFS is...
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September 6, 2008
This Is Neil Fraser's Brain On Blocks. Any Questions?
Neil Fraser had an MRI, then he laminated his various cross-sectional scans onto a stack of 1" wooden blocks. Now he can do nifty tricks like cut away 3D models of the inside of his head. Wooden Brain [neil.fraser.name...
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September 5, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: The Vacctivists Aren't Gonna Like This Edition
Somehow in the din of CPSC recall and safety warnings last week, I missed a formal Friday Freakout. But don't worry, here's some news from the worlds of preliminary studies you can freak out over this weekend: The connection between...
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September 3, 2008
Baby Moov Lovenest: Is French For Head All 'Round
Leave it to the French to name a kid's first source of good head the Lovenest. Produced by Baby Moov, this sculpted foam headrest is designed by a pediatrician to safely produce "une tête bien ronde!" literally, a well-rounded...
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September 1, 2008
The Demonization Of The Foreskin In Victorian Britain, By The Student Of The Foreskin In Victorian England
I don't know what the Journal of Social History has been working on for the last three years, but they're finally getting around to reviewing Robert Darby's groundbreaking historical book, A Surgical Temptation: The Demonization of the Foreskin and the...
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August 15, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Put Down That Hot Danish Edition
Whew, never do the Friday Freakout first. Anyway, just in time for your weekend, here's a round-up of alarm[ing/ist] news from the worlds of baby-related science, health and safety: Not sure why this is news now, since the scientifically baseless...
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[read the full post...]
August 8, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Or Do You Prefer McFreakout Edition?
Here's a host of alarming research and news stories to shake you out of your parenting habits. After all, I'd hate for you to go the whole weekend only worrying about how you can fit a Chinese-style, 500-foot long LED...
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August 6, 2008
No Hippies Here, Just Post-Vaccination Fever Sufferers
K2 just went to the doctor yesterday for her 6mo checkup and shots, so she's a feverish, cranky mess today, even with the Motrin. Combined with her post-roadtrip nap disruption, posting is obviously a little slow today. So is fixing...
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August 4, 2008
Cord Blood Banking Is Utter Waste Of Time, Money, Say Cancer-Loving Baby Haters
The Boston Globe's Beverly Beckham went to the "Ultimate Baby Shower," at the Wellesley Club, and all she got was seriously pissed at how the whole thing was actually a PowerPointy sales pitch by the umbilical cord blood banking company,...
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[read the full post...]
July 31, 2008
Nursemaid's Elbow? How About Ear-Piercing Scream-Inducing Dislocated Elbow?
Some vacation. I find that the days end up so packed with big events, I get behind on the blogging. Like how I didn't get to write about Monday's flat tire at the Spiral Jetty until Tuesday night. And how...
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July 11, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Eat, Drink & Be Merry edition
It's late, I know--almost midnight on the east coast--but it's not too late to ruin your weekend by jumping to conclusions based on preliminary results from the world of kid-related research: Got HPV-laced milk? A Finnish government-sponsored study of HPV,...
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July 4, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Mom & Apple Pie Edition
Scientists and researchers are always coming up with something for parents to celebrate. Here are some freakouts as American as gatekeeper moms and McDonald's apple pies: Actually, this one doesn't have to be a freakout. A psychology study by researchers...
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Area Baby Hates Getting Shots, Socialized Medicine
Well, we're off to Grandma's house for a patriotic dip in the pool and some patriotic meat. I'll wish you all the same. Meanwhile, if you're looking for a Friday Freakout, try this on for size: evil communists touting...
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June 24, 2008
"Odin, We Have A Problem."
I get so flippant and casual, so comfortable in the sheer, blessed, lucky ease of my life. Then the kids go to bed, and I pop open the computer to find as stark a reminder imaginable of the fragility of...
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June 20, 2008
Neal Pollack's It's Just A Meso-American Hallucinogenic Plant
Neal Pollack writes in Salon about doing salvia [salvia divinorum, a still-legal-in-some-states hallucinogen that provides a very short, very intense high] a couple of times a year, in his basement, after the kid's asleep. Neal's right that salvia videos are...
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The Relationship of Neo-natal Stroller Hurdling And Your Becoming A Doctor Like Your Father
In order to bring a more people-y focus to what is by definition more of an "inside people" publication, the editors of the American College of Physicians' Annals of Internal Medicine invite readers to submit photographs. Of people. I'm...
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June 6, 2008
Freakout Friday: All Week Long Edition
Sheesh, after sitting on some of these alarming findings all week, I am freaked out: Childhood cancer rates are highest in Northeast, study finds. higher by like 7%, too: 179/million vs 166/million average. Must be all that liberal health care...
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June 5, 2008
Which Vaccination Kool-Aid To Drink?
Is infant vaccination a tough decision for you? Strident arguments about pandemics, irresponsible hippies, governmental conflicts of interest, auto-immune disorders, and autism got you down? Everyone sound like they're just peddling a party line of some kind, and you don't...
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May 9, 2008
Babytalk: Phthalates Are Hard! Let's Go Shopping!
Holy crap. A few weeks ago, a group of educated, well-paid, professional women sat in a conference room at the Bonnier Corporation in midtown Manhattan and decided that, in matters of basic science, medicine, and health, they would treat moms...
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Check Out These Vintage Hospital Symbols
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } IMG_6581.JPG, originally uploaded by crabstick. E. Christopher Klumb & Associates designed a symbol and signage...
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May 1, 2008
JPMA: We Are 100% Behind BPA. Until We're Not.
I totally forgot to post this earlier this week. At first glance, this press release from the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association might seem like one more mindlessly self-serving, knee-jerk response to a damning front page article in the Washington Post...
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April 18, 2008
BPA BFD: Hysterical, Hippie Boutique Wal-Mart Turns Back On BPA-Loving America
In a move clearly designed to exploit the misguided media confusion over the baby industry's most successful puberty hastening plastic compound, a publicity-craving, yuppie boutique in Bentonville, Arkansas has grandly announced that it will stop carrying baby products with BPA...
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April 16, 2008
Quirky Canada Has Own Health Ministry, Bisphenol-A Laws
And thanks to NAFTA, soon Americans will, too, Bisphenol-A policies set right there in Ottawa, which polycarbonate gear manufacturers who treat the US and Canada as one market will have to adhere to. As a couple of Canadian types have...
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NIH Panel: Oh, THAT BPA? Yeah, That S**t'll Kill Ya
From the front page of the Washington Post: seems the new draft report of the NIH's National Toxicology Program panel is going to state that Bisphenol-A, the plastic additive found in baby bottles, sippy cups, and liquid formula can liners,...
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April 15, 2008
UK Study: It's Part Of A Brightly Colored, Wildly Imbalanced Breakfast!
I don't know what's more headscratching about this UK study linking commonplace processed food colorings and additives to ADHD in kids: the possibility that some of the most common food additives in the world [may be contributing to hyperactivity and...
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April 12, 2008
DT Headline Update: The International Breast Milk Project Is Also The Milk Supplier For Prolacta Bioscience
The ABC News report yesterday on the International Breast Milk Project actually didn't lead off with their donations of breast milk to HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa. Instead, it began with a domestic tragedy, the tale of Kim Sciulli, who...
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April 3, 2008
DT Link Round-Up: Imagine All The People Edition
Seems that even when I'm on the road, the browser tabs just keep filling up with interesting stuff. And how: The Birth Tour 2008 is coming to a yoga center near you: "What is THE BIRTH TOUR? Imagine a room...
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March 28, 2008
UK Waits Until After Cold Season To Ban Cold Medicine For Babies
It's part of the "special relationship" the US has with the UK: we copy their ubiquitous surveillance state apparatus, and they get our cold medicine ban for kids under two. The BBC reports that The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory...
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March 17, 2008
From Kill The Wabbit To Pee On A Stick: A History Of The Pregnancy Test
1978 is the 30th anniversary of the home pregnancy test, which was developed by pioneering researchers in reproductive endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health. "A Thin Blue Line" is the NIH's online history of the project, and it makes...
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March 13, 2008
Wasting Away Again In KidKupzville
Uh-oh: "If you're a Mom, you're likely familiar with the age-old problem of trying to administer harsh-tasting medicine to a sick, fussy child!" Good thing the publicist added "or a dad" in the press release, or we coulda had...
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February 26, 2008
DT Followups: Outsized Efforts Edition
Here are some follow-ups to recent posts on DT: From the NYT report that after spending several years and millions of dollars, Korean scientists have developed space kimchi:Ordinary kimchi is teeming with microbes, like lactic acid bacteria, which help fermentation....
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February 23, 2008
That Would Explain The Laugh: Spongebob Musical Rectal Thermometer
At least it's not shaped like a pineapple. Musical SpongeBobâ„¢ Digital Thermometer [bd.com via cartoonbrew]...
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February 19, 2008
Swedish Scientists On Eczema Cause: Smells Like Floras
A study at Sweden's Lund University shows that infants who have an imbalanced intestinal bacterial flora a week after birth are more likely to develop eczema.The composition of a child’s bacterial flora is dependent on the mother’s microflora, since...
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Uma's Choice: Milk Bank Can Either Save Preemies Or Cure Cancer
It's devastating, but simple: Fort Worth has so many teen pregnancies with so many premature births, the Mothers' Milk Bank has to turn away throat cancer patients who would otherwise be cured by the liquid gold. Fortunately, the solution is...
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All The IVF Twins News That's Fit To Print, And Then Some
Last week, the Trouble With Twins was all about getting into preschools on the Upper West Side and double stroller gridlock at Fairway. This week, it's all oocytes and comparative genomic hybridization. From the NY Times' apparently weekly series of...
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February 6, 2008
DT Headline Roundup: A Good Meal, A Little Massage, & A Minivan Edition
Or, what's in my browswer tabs: If You Give A Baby A Protein Shake... Thirty years ago, researchers in Guatemala wanted to test the impact of high nutrition and protein intake on preschool growth and development, so they gave fortified...
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February 1, 2008
Female Infant Circumcision? Oh, You Mean The Indonesian Bris?
I've been too unsettled about the New York Times' recent article on female infant genital cutting ceremonies in Indonesia to write about it. Though there's the obligatory quotes from human rights and womens' health advocates, for the most part, the...
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January 30, 2008
Seawater Spray Cures Colds, Says Seawater Spraymaker-Sponsored Researchers
Now that cold medicine's been criminalized, only criminals will give their kids cold medicine. I'd meant to point last week to the NY Times science blog, where Dr. Alan Greene, some hippie doctor with a Green Baby book to promote,...
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January 28, 2008
I Suppose The Bisphenol A Industrial Complex Is To Blame For Shortages Of The Safe Sippy
Every new baby gear company needs a Big Vision. For the Baby Boomers who founded Munchkin, the dream was to "excite and delight parents" and make their "lives easier and more enjoyable." Which meant first, a baby bottle with...
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January 23, 2008
Oh, Crap: NYT Tests Our Maguro, Finds Freakout Levels Of Mercury
The New York Times had tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants tested for mercury, and they found levels so high, they freaked out the chefs and restaurant owners and everyone else. Samples came from places we go, too:...
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January 17, 2008
FDA Makes It Official: Stop With The Cold Medicine For Kids Under 2yo
Well, don't say you didn't know it was coming. The FDA issued an official public health announcement today stating that over-the-counter cold medicines and decongestants should not be given to kids under 2 years old. The drugs can cause "serious...
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January 15, 2008
2007 Safety Stories: I Have Some Good News & Some Bad News
First, the good news: Phthalates are still leaching from your kid's vinyl toys, and Bisphenol-A is still leaching from your polycarbonate bottles and the linings of your formula cans! At first, when it was named Worst Science Story of 2007...
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December 13, 2007
Crunchy Types: BPA WTF?
Unsettling stories about Bisphenol-A are accumulating in my browser even faster than BPA itself is piling up in my blood. Or wherever it works its terrible, epidemiologically studied magic. First up, Mark Schapiro, of the Center for Investigative Reporting, was...
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December 11, 2007
British MDs Debate Infant Male Circumcision & Kids' Rights
The British Medical Journal has published a pro & con debate on whether infant male circumcision is neutral, harmful, or beneficial, and if there are demonstrable medical benefits should operation be put off until the guy can decide for himself....
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December 7, 2007
DT Q&A: "A Million Little Diapers," By Actor/Playwright/Dad John Mooney
It's Daddy Types editorial policy that there's no quid pro quo for advertising on the site. So when I saw the ad appear on Daddy Types for John F. Mooney's play, "A Million Little Diapers," my interest was piqued. So...
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December 5, 2007
Study: Honey Works Better Than Cough Syrup
A Penn State study found that honey was more effective than dextromathorphan for treating nighttime coughs in kids ages 2-11. The dosages used in the test were equivalent to the cough syrup: half a teaspoon for kids 2-5, a full...
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November 8, 2007
Unsuccessful Scientists: "Toddlers Thrive On Pollution"
I swear, I read it on the internet. Dr. Dilbert somethingorother, I missed his last name. [via chimay]...
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October 31, 2007
Pediatrician On Front Lines: FDA Cold Medicine Ban Doesn't Make Sense
In an op-ed for the Boston Globe, Dr. Darshak Sanghavi, a pediatric cardiologist at UMass Medical School argues that an all-out FDA ban of cough and cold medicines for kids is an unnecessary overreaction that would increase the suffering of...
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October 21, 2007
Cough Medicine, The New Opiates Of The Masses' Children, Ain't Got Nothin' On The Old Opiates
It's funny what three years of parenting will do to your attitudes on drugging children. Last week, I was plotting to promote an underground band of renegade dads, calculating their own doses of contraband decongestants, but in August 2004, when...
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October 20, 2007
Drug Deal: What Infant Medicines Are Included In This Whole FDA Ban Thing?
As DT reader Gromit pointed out yesterday, there's something of an "information void" about what medicines and active ingredients are included in the drug industry's recent voluntary withdrawl of cold & cough medicines for 0-2 year-olds, and what medicines the...
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October 19, 2007
DT Wonkout: FDA Panel Votes To Ban Cold Medicines For Kids 0-6 [Yes, SIX]
Well it was an awkward day for the infant cold medicine-hoarding MBA's in the house, let me tell you. The FDA's joint advisory commitees for non-prescription drugs and pediatric medicine met today to review and vote on a petition to...
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October 18, 2007
Crazy Hippies Pose As Jesusfreaks To Avoid Vaccinating Their Kids
And we'll all get freakin' polio as a result. Thanks a lot. From the AP:Twenty-eight states, including Florida, Massachusetts and New York, allow parents to opt out for medical or religious reasons only. Twenty other states, among them California, Pennsylvania,...
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October 11, 2007
DT Currently Hoarding Infant Drops, Overdosing On Dosage Information
So the major drug makers--members of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association--are voluntarily pulling their over-the-counter infant cough & cold medicines from the market rather than be forced by the FDA to pull them [or to put decades-old, grandfathered-in drugs through...
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WHOA. NYT: Makers Pull Infant Cold Medicines
How are new parents supposed to get more than four hours of sleep or travel to Asia with a newborn NOW?? The NY Times just reported that the makers of major infant cold medicines are pulling their products from the...
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October 4, 2007
DT Headline Roundup: Keeping Up Edition
A few quick items to clear out the browser tabs: There's a party in my tummy tuck! Can't quite figure out what the takeaway is on the "Mom Job" post-pregnancy plastic surgery package article in the NYT, but Karen's quote...
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October 1, 2007
DT Headline Roundup: Cold Medicine, Zimbabwe, Sperm Banking & Photostealin'
Part of me feels like I've gotta clear these browser tabs, but part of me feels everyone can read the NY Times on his own: Slow-mo Infant Cold Medicine Ban Rolls On--Slowly: Instigated by pediatrician activists in February and finally...
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September 20, 2007
BabyPlus Inventor Responds: 'I Am Not A Quack. Also, Buy My Book.'
Dr. Brent Logan, PhD., the self-esteemed neurogeneticist/psychologist, is the inventor of the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System, the only prenatal rhythm sequencer-on-a-beltpack endorsed by both 02138 Magazine: The World of Harvard AND famous pregnancy expert Nicole Richie. Logan invented the system...
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September 12, 2007
New Yorker Confirms What You Know: Colic Is A Form Of Torture
The Sept. 17 issue of The New Yorker has a long, fascinating, informative, but ultimately frustrating article on the vexing mysteries of colic. If your kid has colic, though, please don't use your one precious hour of quiet reading about...
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September 1, 2007
CPSC 'Complete Disaster': Bush Administration Sides With Big Everything On Everything
I'm running out of pretend-surprise. The NY Times has a damning article about the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which has been systematically weakened, rendered ineffective, and nearly destroyed by the Bush Administration's appointees, who promised their former employers--manufacturers, corporate...
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August 31, 2007
Bush Administration Sides With Big Formula On Breastfeeding
I've gotta get the kid out the door for pre-preschool [it started yesterday!], so I haven't even had a chance to read this story on the front page of the Washington Post yet, much less think of an outraged, pretend-surprised...
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August 29, 2007
Probo The Huggable Hospital Robot Is Obviously From Europe
The University of Brussels and the ANTY Project are developing a friendly, plush hospital robot for diagnostic and therapeutic use with children. Despite getting burned on the Teddy Ruxpin thing a few years back, Bill Gates is involved in underwriting...
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August 24, 2007
Go, JHPIEGO, Go! Midwife Training In Afghanistan
Afghanistan has the second highest rate of mortality for pregnant women and newborns in the world. Women have a 1 in 9 chance of dying during or after birth, and children of those women have only a 1 in 4...
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August 23, 2007
After BPA Blurb, Publicists Reach Out To "Headline Parenting" "Expert"
So while I didn't get on CBS yesterday, I did get a quote in the Washington Post's article about the latest developments in the whole Bisphenol A toxic plastic baby bottle controversy. [I guess that means I'm not TV-hot, only...
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August 17, 2007
Vanity Fair: Arthur Miller "Deleted" His Down Syndrome Son
I am totally floored. The playwright Arthur Miller had a son with Down Syndrome in 1966 who he never publicly acknowledged and all but wrote out of his life. [What an odd choice of words, under the circumstances.] The boy,...
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[read the full post...]
August 15, 2007
Toys R Us Lead-Tainted Bibs Still Less Lead-Tainted Than Wal-Mart's
The NY Times commissioned its own testing, and found that vinyl bibs made for Toys R Us by Hamco contained three times the lead allowed in paint. Hamco bibs sold for three years at Wal-Mart, however, had as much as...
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FDA: Stop Giving Cold Medicine To Kids Under Two
Last spring, a group of pediatricians petitioned the FDA to finally conduct a formal safety review of cough and cold medicines for kids under two years old. [The FDA had resisted for decades in large part because of the longstanding...
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August 6, 2007
Stitches Out On Time
So a quick stitches update: the kid has been doing fine. She was a bit clingy and wiggy for the first couple of days, but she was the best patient I've ever had. We developed a little ritual for changing...
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August 3, 2007
What's? The Deal? With That? Don't Mohels Have To Sign NDA's?
Good L-rd, people, PLEASE tell me you are not out there choosing your mohels based on which celebrity offspring penises he's circumcised?! Just check out what happened to Babble contributor Sam Apple when he went chop-shopping at the JCC:Thirteen circumcisions...
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Cutting Off The End Of Your Son's Penis May Or May Not Affect His Sex Life
There's a lot to swallow, but the deft reporting hands at US News & World Report do a good job of pulling back the outer layers of controversy and concentrating on the most sensitive areas that are the thrust of...
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July 30, 2007
My First Braining
Frankly, I always thought it would be the bookshelves. There's a 9-foot niche in one of our living room walls, a perfect spot for some low, sleek, floating shelves to hold artbooks with a display shelf on top. So...
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July 28, 2007
R2-KT: This Is The Pink Droid You're Looking For
Wow, I was definitely taken in by The Dark Side of The Force on this one. I was about to blast George Lucas like a Tatooine womp rat when I saw this picture of a kid hugging a pink...
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July 23, 2007
You Are What You Eat, And For New Yorkers, That Means Mercury-Laden Fish
A couple of very interesting research results for the food-and-baby-conscious New Yorker: First, new mom Meg Hourihan [mazeltov!] has a very enlightening discussion of how to decide what to eat during pregnancy. Statistically, her data sample has problems, since it's...
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July 17, 2007
Stranger Pregnancy: Seattle Writer On Wanting To Knock Her Boyfriend Up
Writer Jen Graves takes a long, circuitous, and self-involved look at pregnancy in the way that only someone writing for the Seattle indie paper The Stranger could. The gist of the piece: an unexpected pregnancy and an even more unexpected...
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Sushi During Pregnancy? You're Eating For Two; Get The Platter.
Asian food writer Steven A. Shaw guts, skins, and filets the American medical community's warped recommendations about eating sushi during pregnancy. Then he slices them into tasty, bite-sized morsels and serves them up in the New York Times today:WHEN my...
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July 14, 2007
Sperm Donors Work, Egg Donors Nurture: Parenting Stereotypes In The Assisted Reproduction Marketplace
Peggy Orenstein, who covers the uterus beat for The New York Times Magazine, has a long, fascinating, and somewhat frustrating article charting the socioemotional landscape of egg donation. It's all worth reading, but Orenstein's account of surfing an egg donor...
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June 14, 2007
Male Physiological Changes: What You Didn't Expect When You're Expecting
In Slate, Emily Anthes has a very interesting round-up of research into the physiological, chemical, hormonal, and neuronal changes men undergo during pregnancy and fatherhood. It's interesting, but also short; one of Anthes' main points is how little interest scientists...
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June 8, 2007
It Takes Huge Balls To Write About Infertility
It was a combination of smug self-satifaction and cluelessness that kept me thinking, "Gee, why aren't more people applauding my hilarious LOLSperm Test post the other day? That stuff was FUNNY." The truth, of course, is that dealing with infertility...
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June 4, 2007
It's My Sperm In A Box! Male At-Home Fertility Test Goes On Sale In US
The Fertell male fertility test popped up around here last year when it was introduced in the UK. While its innovative adaptation of clinically proven sperm motility testing to a self-administered, at-home setting is laudable, especially because men are...
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[read the full post...]
May 25, 2007
Bollx! Brit Gov Docs Nix Preg Drinks
The "just a glass of wine with dinner" and "me mum said somedays, the only thing she could keep down was a Guiness" crowds just got a little thinner today. The UK government just changed their official recommendation about drinking...
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[read the full post...]
May 21, 2007
Why Are All The Crazy Parents Vegan?
If 2006 was the peak year for meat-eating meatheads to leave their kids with the valet parking guy, I really hope 2004 was the high watermark for vegan parenting stupidity. That's the year Coney Island vegan dad Raphael Spindell kidnapped...
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May 9, 2007
Only Men Who Drive Station Wagons Are Man Enough To Ignore This 5-Second Rule Study
A new Clemson University study finds that the five-second rule only applies when you can be sure the floor you dropped the food onto is free of salmonella or E. Coli contamination. The New York Times reports that 5-second rule-ology...
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Increased Down Syndrome Testing Prompts Grass Roots Campaign By DS Parents
There's a fascinating article in the NY Times today about Down Syndrome screening, and a couple of must-see videos, too. When the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists officially recommended the newer, much less risky prenatal screening be offered...
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[read the full post...]
April 26, 2007
ReliaDose: PharmaNip BottleSyringe
The ReliaDose infant medicine delivery is basically a syringe-in-a-bottle. It's a way to fake out a feisty kid who won't take medicine via a syringe alone. It looks like it was invented while staring at a Dr. Brown's anti-gas...
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[read the full post...]
April 23, 2007
Chemical & Industry Journal: Hormone-Laced Formula Will Help Kid Keep The Weight Off
I don't know which is more reassuring: the fact that this study about the possible obesity prevention benefits of hormone-filled baby formula was published in a journal called Chemical and Industry, or the quote from the lead researcher who argues...
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[read the full post...]
April 15, 2007
Tip: Don't Let The Kid Eat Lead, Jewelry
Lead is highly toxic for kids. They shouldn't get near it. And it turns out to be mostly up to you to guess what has lead in it and keep it away from your kid, because the EPA and the...
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[read the full post...]
March 28, 2007
No Sushi, No Beef, No Sushi, No Beef
First, let me take back the headline. Sure, a University of Rochester study just showed that the sons of women who ate a lot of beef during pregnancy showed sperm count decreases of as much as 25%, which researchers linked...
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If You're Receiving, Then You're Not Thinking About Syphillis
Can't decide whether to file this one in the Never-on-Bloggingbaby folder, or the Front-Page-of-StrollerDerby folder. Or maybe the health risks to the fetus of extra-marital blowjobs during pregnancy are significant enough to warrant their own folder. From Dan Savage's...
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[read the full post...]
March 27, 2007
AP To Paralyzed Guy: You Want Hard? Try Writing About Electroejaculation
Even when the benefits to getting the word out are obvious, you have to wonder sometimes how some news stories come [sic] about. For example, this almost hilariously uncomfortable AP story about how most men with spinal cord injuries can...
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[read the full post...]
March 10, 2007
Mayo Clinic Researchers: Cell Phones In Hospitals No Big Deal
From the March issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings:Use of Cellular Telephones in the Hospital Environment JEFFREY L. TRI, MSEE; RODNEY P. SEVERSON, CBET; LINDA K. HYBERGER, MA, CCRC; DAVID L. HAYES, MD OBJECTIVE: To determine whether cellular telephones used...
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[read the full post...]
March 6, 2007
Folkpsychological Development In Infants, Also Descartes' Baby Is An Awesome Title For A Book Or A Band
My wife flagged several very interesting studies on how kids' minds work and form and evolve in that looong NY Times Magazine article, "Darwin's God." I haven't gotten through it myself, but she's right; they're pretty fascinating. This one is...
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March 2, 2007
Children's Cold Medicines Are [Check All That Apply]: Untested, Useless, Potentially Dangerous
But hey, at least they're in BPA-free plastic bottles! At the urging of a petition submitted by a group of prominent pediatricians and public health officials, the FDA will begin a "broad review of the safety of popular cough and...
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[read the full post...]
February 28, 2007
About That BOTTLE OF DEATH You Just Put In The Kid's Mouth. Again.
Bottles of Doom in order of descending toxicity, l to r: Avent, Evenflo, Gerber, Dr. Brown's, Playtex This just in from Environment California, an advocacy group which commissioned the University of Missouri to test five major brands of hard,...
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[read the full post...]
February 20, 2007
Hallmark Tries To Conceive...Of More Occasions To Send A Card
I guess cards with ready-to-go, sympathetic sentiments about infertility and miscarriage signal some kind of lifting of lonely taboos of silence, but still, they seem a little odd. Hallmark Journeys: The Right Words Help Cope. With Family Matters [hallmark...
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[read the full post...]
February 15, 2007
Natural Cleaning Supplies Popular Among "Science Is Hard! Let's Go Shopping!" Crowd
Prompted by their school's switch to natural cleaning supplies, parents are switching, too...says Don Imus's wife, whose non-profit group tries to get schools to switch to natural cleaning supplies. And science schmience, if ammonia residue on the coffee table...
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[read the full post...]
February 13, 2007
Headfake Your Medicine-Spitting Kid With The Kidzmed Pacifier
It may look like a harmless pacifier, but when you push the plunger on the Kidz-Med Medicine Dispenser--BAM!--the medicine hits the back of the kid's throat, bypassing his tongue, and most all his spitting reflexes. So if the trick...
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[read the full post...]
February 12, 2007
Crema Neige Di Santa Maria Novella
This morning as my wife is hydrating in advance of her flight to Amsterdam [quick over&back for a conference; the kid and I are staying put], she took town this little pot of Crema Neige emmollient by Santa Maria...
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[read the full post...]
February 5, 2007
The Princess And The Pseudoephedrine
Everyone knows that kids can react to drugs differently; it's why you test the Benadryl before the flight to see if your kid's one of goes-to-sleep kind or the bounces-off-the-wall kind. As we found out last night at 01:55, there...
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[read the full post...]
February 3, 2007
Yes, Basil Lavender & Tea Tree Oil, Nice Rack.
What's that, you say? You thought gynecomastia only affected readers of the back pages of New York Magazine? Think again, my testosteronal friend. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine links topically applied tea tree...
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[read the full post...]
January 31, 2007
Sweet Stainless Steel Sippy
Good morning clean, cool water from a stainless steel sippy cup. Stainless Steel Sippy Cup [Klean Kanteen, Greenfeet]...
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[read the full post...]
January 24, 2007
Testing Your Meddle
Some news links that almost warrant their own posts. If you need a theme here, how about meddling? If you want to keep believing that it's not her parents, no way, Marla Olmstead has been a genius painter since she...
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[read the full post...]
January 23, 2007
DIY Stem Cell Harvesting, In 22 Easy Steps
Feeling a little out of place in the delivery room? Looking for a meaningful way to contribute? Well, suggests Atilla Csordas in his 22-step, fully illustrated [!] tutorial, there's always prepare to harvest the stem cells from the amniotic...
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[read the full post...]
Sooooooooey!
Awesome t-shirt from The Grateful Palate. Available in kid's size 7/8, $16.95. Previously: Lips Stuck On A Pig...
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[read the full post...]
January 16, 2007
Mustela Hydra-Stick Lets Kid Self-Balm, Self-Moisturize
Putting lip balm on a toddler is like slipping a harness over the biggest pig in the pen and getting him to pull the portable pump back to The Man With The Yellow Hat's House so you can get the...
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[read the full post...]
January 11, 2007
New Bed, New Nightlight, Now If Only She'd Sleep...
After an enthusiastic embrace of the new toddler bed and love-at-first sight with the ghost, the kid has had a really rough week sleepwise. Most nights, the problem's been not going to sleep. The first couple of nights were great,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 10, 2007
No, Suck On The Other End
Let's look at the facts: Armies of towering stewardesses A bunch of hippiesploitation flicks that, one way or another, obsessed our parents' generation Tiger Woods' bikini model wife The beds in which 25% of Europeans were conceived Is it any...
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[read the full post...]
December 14, 2006
Cut & Dry: Circumcision Lowers AIDS Risk
It's official now. After a French study in South Africa showed the same results last year, the US and the WHO have made pronouncements about two large-scale studies in Africa that showed circumcision significantly lowered men's risk of HIV infection...
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[read the full post...]
Studies: Do Something, Anything, To Get Kid To Sleep
Seeing as how it's based on a review in the October issue of SLEEP, the journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, I'd say the Times was asleep at the wheel with this story about which behavior techniques get...
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[read the full post...]
December 10, 2006
Hmm. Study Didn't Say: Smoking Moms 2x More Dangerous Than Car Seats
A study at the University of Auckland [NZ] looked at the cases of 43 babies who suffered lack of oxygen. In 9 of those cases, the survey found, kids were resting in an infant carrier for some extended period of...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 6, 2006
Dwarfist, Deaf Parents Down With PGD
[Q: Is Dwarfist a word?] A recent survey of 190 clinics offering Prenatal Genetic Diagnosis, or PGD, found that in 3% of cases, PGD was used to select embryos with a particular genetic anomaly, not without. Those cases were either...
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[read the full post...]
December 2, 2006
Evolving Approaches For Gender-Variant Children
The question of a kid's gender is usually not much of a question at all, and as he or she grows up, the sense of identity, behavior, difference, and expectation all take shape. A very small number of kids are...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 30, 2006
Increase Your Milk Supply With Breastea: 'These Bags Are Big'!
They're not just for men anymore. And by 'they,' I mean spam ads promising to increase your performance and size using unscientifically tested herbal treatments. Check out what DT reader Robert spotted in the hippie alternative [sic] to Craigslist in...
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[read the full post...]
His First Word Was, "Smoke? Smoke?"
It's been known for a while that a baby's tastes for things are influenced by what the mother takes in while she's pregnant: salty, spicy, broccoli--and now cigarettes. According to a long-term study from the University of Queensland, Australia, kids...
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[read the full post...]
November 29, 2006
FLASH: Non-Alcoholic Beer Just Not The Same For Some
After reading this agonized NYT article about how some women decide to have a drink now and then when they're pregnant, I am dying to hear some French mom confess to eating a salad:Many women who choose to drink have...
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[read the full post...]
November 28, 2006
NYT Checks In On Pre-Conception Health
According to the New York Times, men just have to avoid paint and giving their future baby mamma the clap. Women, on the other hand, well, infant mortality researchers say that women in the reproductive stage of their lives should...
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[read the full post...]
November 27, 2006
Uh, So About That Miscarriage Taboo...
Not to be the unsupportive one pushing people back into the closet of miscarriage silence, or anything, I'm just saying... wow. In The Grip of Nature's Own Form Of Birth Control [nyt]...
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[read the full post...]
November 17, 2006
Q: How/When Do You Work Out Post-Baby?
DT reader Jeff asks a question that we struggle with ourselves. It seems like the first thing to get cut from a busy schedule, where you're being pulled in different directions by work, the kid, family, etc., is the gym....
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[read the full post...]
November 2, 2006
JAMA: Serotonin Breathing Reflex Abnormality May Be Related To SIDS
A new study in based on autopsies of 41 infants who died of SIDS and other causes shows that a serotonin abnormality in the brain stem that triggers breathing reflexes may be involved. This breathing problem fits with the prevailing...
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[read the full post...]
October 26, 2006
Research Scoop: Kids Hate Needles
Just as we got able to overcome the kid's fear of the doctor's office--triggered by the wallpaper border and the icy, hard scale in changing/weighing room--the kid'd have another shot, and we'd be back to square one, having to prep...
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[read the full post...]
October 25, 2006
How Crazy [sic] Is Therapy For Babies?
This Wall St Journal article talks about early diagnosis of autism and anxiety disorder in infants [signs: crying, agitation, inability to express self, mood swings, what?], but my diagnosis is there's a whole lot of projection going on. Parents' own...
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[read the full post...]
October 24, 2006
Scientists: Something About Cell Phones And Sperm Counts
Yeah, I'm not really following this: Guys who are on their cell phones for four hours a day or more have dramatically reduced sperm counts. Which head are they holding that thing against? The findings are preliminary and unclear [duh],...
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[read the full post...]
October 13, 2006
"Different States of Being"
The Frieze Art Fair is this weekend in London, but because of preschool and other obligations, we're not there. As art fair circuses go, it's probably the most intelligent and well-thought-through and enjoyable, and not just because they make a...
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[read the full post...]
October 12, 2006
Scientists: Cat People Have More Boys
Researchers in the Czech Republic have found that women with high levels of the toxoplasma antibody have a 72% chance of giving birth to a boy, compared to the average 51% chance. The Toxoplasma parasite, which can cause birth...
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[read the full post...]
September 27, 2006
Gastroschisis And Omphalocele Turn Out To Be Quite Different
The death of Rev. Run's daughter soon after her delivery by C-section last week might tee up debates somewhere about reality television and what point you stop the cameras--and about the ethics of hyping a show around a celebrity pregnancy...
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[read the full post...]
Scientists To Dads: Pick The Right Week To Give Up Snorting Paint Thinner
Researchers in the Netherlands and Canada found that men who were regularly exposed to airborne paint solvents--they studied painters--in the three months before their partners got pregnant were six times more likely to have a kid with a congenital malformation...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 2, 2006
You Down With PGD? No "Wait & See"
The NY Times has a long article on the expanding frequency and breadth of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or P.G.D. PGD involves removing a cell from an 8-cell embryo for genetic screening. Then if it passes, that embryo is implanted using...
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[read the full post...]
September 1, 2006
Outraged Yet? Links From All Over
Over at BoingBoing, Xeni's all freaked out. You'd think she'd never seen a fully illustrated, nothing-left-out, 1971 Danish sex-ed book for preschoolers by Per Holm Knudsen before. [attention t-workers: that first link starts with an illustration from the book;...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 23, 2006
WHO's On Fat?
I know there's a new study out showing babies are getting fatter. And I can understand the whole difference between "should be" vs "is," and how the WHO's newly calculated "optimal" height-weight percentile charts might be more logical than the...
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[read the full post...]
August 9, 2006
Pediatricians: Replace Shopping Carts Of Death Concussion
The American Academy of Pediatricians is calling for new safety regulations and designs for shopping carts because of all the injuries they say occur with the current 70-year-old design. [Nice of you to chime in now, Docs. What took you...
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[read the full post...]
August 8, 2006
It's Raining Breast Milk During World Breastfeeding Week
In case you didn't notice, it was World Breastfeeding Week last week. And if you go over to Celebrity Baby Blog, right now, it's just bursting with a buxom bevy of breastfeeding-related posts. They really took aim and let...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Researcher: Not Me, But Other New Dads Feel Depressed
Researchers at Eastern Virginia Medical School found that becoming a parent increased the incidence of depression for both men and women. 14% of new mothers showed signs of depression, compared to 9-10% of gen pop [Ah, Oz. Gone, but not...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 4, 2006
New Study: Breast Is Best For Getting Divorced
What a long-term study of the emotional maturity and resilience of breastfed children says: by the time they were 10, kids born in 1970 who were breastfed dealt with their parents divorces 5x better than bottle-fed kids. What a new...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 1, 2006
Scientists: Fatherhood Makes You Smarter
Studies of the prefrontal cortex structure of first-time and experienced marmoset parents show that "Fatherhood produces changes in very high-cognitive-level areas" said Yvesgenia Kozorovitskiy of Princeton University. It's important to remember, though, that this information is coming from people...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 31, 2006
Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut
After a dad at her son's preschool vetoed the snacks she was sending--twice, two days in a row!--Emily Bazelon found herself not unsympathetic, mind you, but frustrated in dealing with other kids' nut allergies:But it would be a lot easier...
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[read the full post...]
July 30, 2006
BabyTalk Shoves Breastfeeding Agenda In Innocent Infant's Mouth
When are the nursing nazis at BabyTalk Magazine going to get the message? New parents have enough stress in their life without having to worry that their newborn infant might be inadvertently exposed to a naked, engorged breast in the...
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[read the full post...]
July 28, 2006
Take "So He Can Date Natalie Portman" Off The List
When the topic has come up around here, we have learned that, colloquially speaking, "so they can get more play" is a not uncommon reason guys give for deciding to have their sons circumcised. Well, if one of your rationales...
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[read the full post...]
The Elimination Game
Hi-ho. John Biggs here, guest blogger and recent new dad. In an effort to fill the vacuum of my days, I've decided to take a stab at the old Elimination Communciation (EC), a process in which you listen for your...
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[read the full post...]
No More Bangers & Soy For You, Little Guv'nuh
After reviewing existing research on the health effects of processed soy in Western diets, the British government's Commitee on Toxicity [CoT] and the Food Standards Agency has recommended that infants not be given soy-based formula except on the advice of...
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[read the full post...]
July 27, 2006
The Ghost In The Ghost In The House
Grrr. I get hyper-irritable when I read articles that reflexively namecheck Betty Friedan in their opening sentence and then proceed to discuss the dilemmas, stresses, and oft-ensuing depression that come with parenting, but that don't make a single freakin' mention...
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[read the full post...]
July 19, 2006
Mothering Magazine's International Breastfeeding Symbol Contest
Mothering Magazine is upset, and they're not going to take it anymore:The image of a baby bottle on an airport sign announcing the location of a "parents lounge" infuriated us and got us thinking: Isn’Äôt there an international symbol...
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[read the full post...]
July 15, 2006
Dad-Driven Innovation At The Open Prosthetics Project
This is so cool, I don't know where to start. First, the Open Prosthetics Project is just that, a site and organization dedicated to the development and propagation of improved prosthetics solutions. The site rallies engineering, research, and manufacturing expertise...
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[read the full post...]
July 5, 2006
Daniel Raeburn's NY'er Essay, "Vessels," Now Online--With A Followup
In the two months since it was published, I've probably received 300 requests from people looking for a copy of "Vessels," Daniel Raeburn's extraordinary New Yorker magazine essay about his and his wife's experience with their stillborn daughter, Irene. So...
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[read the full post...]
June 29, 2006
US Leads World In Morally Ambiguous Stockpiling Of Frozen Embryos
In the UK, unused embryos from IVF and other fertility treatments are destroyed after five years. Other countries mandate that any embryos created during IVF must be transferred for implantation. In the largely unregulated and privately funded US fertility industry,...
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[read the full post...]
June 21, 2006
And In Other Blade-Near-Genitalia News...
I guess I've lost a bit of sensitivity and awareness in my head, because I totally missed Genital Integrity Awareness Week. Meanwhile, now you know what G.I. stands for. Genital Integrity Awareness Week, March 29th - April 4th, 2006...
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[read the full post...]
Your Post-Vasectomy Reversal Boys Can Swim, But What Happens When They Get There?
A study by university researchers in Bangkok shows that post-vasectomy, the incidence of sperm with chromosomal abnormalities such aneuploidy or diploidy [different numbers of certain chromosomes, or a full double set, respectively] increases dramatically. Post-vasectomy? Those guys are out of...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 12, 2006
WHO: Show Us You're Breastfeeding!
"Breast is Best" is apparently not good enough for the World Health Organization and the Dept. of Health & Human Services, who have instituted a new awareness campaign claiming that not breastfeeding is actually risky, for both a mom...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
New Study: You Only THINK The Kid's Allergic To Peanuts
When the kid first started on solid foods, we did the whole "test one grain cereal at a time to see if she's got a sensitivity to it" thing. And when she spouted a diaper rash the week she started...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
June 10, 2006
CDC: Do You Have A "Reproductive Life Plan"?
Because for many preventitive fetal and maternal health measure, "the horse is already out of the barn" by the time the bun is in the oven, the CDC convened a panel to formulate preconception health standards and recommendations. In a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 30, 2006
Wow, The Only Thing Slate Left Off Is The Pick-up Lines
If you can get past the story of an STD surge at Florida retirement communities, the last Human Nature column in Slate before a two-month hiatus is a fertile field of pregnancy- and kid-related science findings from all over. Guess...
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[read the full post...]
This Chinese Kid Has Three Arms
But only one kidney. Doctors are still testing to see what the best options are for 2-month-old Jie-Jie, but so far, the kid's two left arms appear equally developed. Unless Bai Xiao Qiu, the shadowy Nick Bollettieri-like mastermind behind...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
May 6, 2006
Looking At Boobs' Jobs
Are they bouncing, bikini-filling orbs of sensual wonder, embodiments of womens' self-esteem and mens' attraction? Or are they nurturing sources of live-giving milk, the source of mother-infant bonding over the millennia? Turns out you may have to choose. Because according...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 29, 2006
Daniel Raeburn Writes About His Stillborn Daughter In The New Yorker
In this week's New Yorker, Daniel Raeburn tells of Hemingway once boasting that he could write an entire novel with only six words: "Asked to prove it, he took a napkin and wrote, 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn.'" At...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 12, 2006
At Present, There Is No DVD For Enhancing Your Kid's Inner Savant
A neurology and vision researcher (and physicist) in Australia named Allan Snyder is developing a new theory about how Savants function, particularly Autistic Savants, who can begin manifesting their mad, Rainman skillz as early as 18 months [although by age...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 3, 2006
Jack Fell Down, But Did Jill Call 911? NOOOO.
If I'd posted this on Saturday, you would've thought it's a joke. Unfortunately for people relying on the Canadian health system, it's all too real. The reason your dad can't get his hip replacement for six months is because the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 30, 2006
Slate Dr.: Breast Is Best? Or Just So-So?
So, Dr. Sydney Spiesel, of Yale, Connecticut, Slate, and NPR, you're saying that breastfeeding's probably still better than formula, but that the ecstatic health benefits of breastfeeding are not actually based on definitive research--because rigorous studies of humans, much less...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 23, 2006
Well, Covering Him With Spiders DOES Get His Attention
So do medications for attention deficit disorder really cause kids to hallucinate about spiders, snakes, jellyfish, and other creepy things crawling all over their skin? OR are they just nuts and trying to get attention? Hello, attention deficit disorder... Doctors...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 16, 2006
Pregnancy As A Genetic Tug-Of-War?
I'm still struggling silently to wrap my head around that article from the Times the other day, the one about pregnancy being a subtle struggle between the competing self-interests of the mother and the fetus. It's fascinating stuff, but the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 13, 2006
A Wrongful Birth? The Moral/Emotional Landscape That Doesn't Show Up In The Sonogram
Wow. I'd put off reading Elizabeth Weil's NYT Magazine article about the emerging concept of wrongful birth, but now I'm glad I did. It does a pretty great job of laying out the emotional, moral, ethical, and medical issues that...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 10, 2006
No Pressure, But Depression Hampers Parenting
DT reader Buck calls it possibly the "most obvious headline" ever: "Depression Hampers Parenting." A new study shows that parents--the study is only of mothers, wtf--who show symptoms of postpartum depression are slightly less likely to do child-interactive-type activities with...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
March 7, 2006
Postpartum OCD: Something Else To Get Depressed About
NO! DON'T! It's normal to have those thoughts of harm coming to your newborn child dance across your mind! According to a Mayo Clinic study of 85 new parents--mothers and fathers both--"researchers found that 89 percent experienced distressing, intrusive thoughts...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 27, 2006
How Infants Learn Not To Fall Over The Edge Of The Sofa
I remember the first time the kid nearly took a dive off the sofa arm. There was this pop sci/parenting factoid in my head that a child had this innate perceptive ability to avoid danger. Some scientist somewhere had done...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Should That Be Explainable Infant Death Syndrome Now?
A three-year study in the medical examiner's office in Detroit shows that most cases of SIDS can be attributed to accidental suffocation. The findings are based on a researcher visiting the locations of 209 SIDS-related deaths and asking parents/caregivers to...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 14, 2006
Scandal! US Dad Forced To Seek Dental Advice From British [!!] Parenting Mag
Why do I think we'll see a Pavement reunion tour kicking off from Branson, Mo. before we see an American parenting magazine that addresses a dad's concerns? When it comes to parenting, moms may be a little bit country, and...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Re: Getting Your Son Laid
A frequent reason guys cite for deciding to have their sons circumsized is that if he doesn't, the kid won't get any play, because American chicks love themselves a cleancut penis. [A lot of assumptions here, of course, but let's...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 7, 2006
JAMA: Moms Get Antidepressants, Babies Get Withdrawal
To my untrained ear, the symptoms of Newborn Abstinence Syndrome sound a lot like the symptoms of Newborn Baby Syndrome: "high-pitched crying, tremors and disturbed sleep." But apparently there's a difference, and new study reveals that NAS has shown up...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Rotavirus & A "Mouther's" Love
First, I'm surprised there's no plush version of the Rotavirus. It's so cute, it seems like a no-brainer for the Giant Microbes folks. But I'm sure they get tired of people telling them how to do their jobs. As I...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 6, 2006
The Family That Pukes Together
It was like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Some stomach flu virus went through the whole family, one by one, the last few days, despite our efforts to avoid getting sick. [Big apologies in advance to the folks at the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 27, 2006
1) Clorox 'Pacifier-Safe' Bleach, 2) Why Some Kids Like Salt
Mmm. Clorox Anywhere Hard Surface has the same stuff as regular disinfectant spray, just in lower quantities. So it kills bacteria, but not other small organisms. Like viruses and children. Mild enough to leave on a high chair tray or...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 12, 2006
CF Carrier Screening & Beyond
A dad-to-be writes in: My wife is pregnant, and we have both tested as positive CF carriers. (Cystic Fibrosis). We are going to see a geneticist early next week, wondering what to expect. Kind of a downer as opposed to...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Help Us, Indigo Children, You're Our Only Hope.
Apparently, there are these children with extraordinary abilities who represent an remarkable shift in human evolution, and they're misunderstood, hounded, and persecuted by the mainstream culture? These kids could use a sweet private school in Westchester and unlimited access to...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 5, 2006
And We All Know What Long Research Papers Mean
I really thought I knew what long meant [cough]...until I came across this study on semen displacement and penis morphology published last year in Evolutionary Psychology. Touching lightly on the most sensitive part, it seems that the shape of human...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 2, 2006
Adoption Medicine: Diagnosis By Photograph
For parents seeking to adopt a child from a foreign orphanage, the question of undiagnosed medical conditions that might pop up later or that might cause developmental or behavioral challenges down the line haunts the whole process. Some pediatricians are...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 13, 2005
30-to-2: Heart Association Changes Infant CPR Recommendations
That's why she's called Alpha Mom. While I've been downloading clips of sick&twisted kids TV shows, Alpha Mom's Isabell Kallman has been busy mobilizing her editorial staff to report on actual, important--lifesaving, even--news. Turns out the American Heart Association just...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 19, 2005
Just Because Elvis Did It Doesn't Make It Cool
Whether it's a kid drowning in the tub in that split second when you go to answer the phone or the door, or a large-headed, top-heavy baby drowning in the toilet, the bathroom is the site of over 300 unnecessary...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 16, 2005
No, I Was Not Aware: Prematurity Awareness Day Was Nov. 15th
The way I see it, if I'm only a day behind Eric Snowdeal on being aware of Prematurity Awareness Day, then I'm still doing alright. Not great, but alright. Turns out Prematurity Awareness Day was yesterday. If you didn't know...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 15, 2005
I'm A Bigger Neat Freak Than Gwyneth Paltrow??
So on Defamer today, I read how Gwyneth Paltrow is a "germophobe" because she " insists that visitors take off their shoes at her house, she sometimes wonít shake peopleís hands, and she often asks people to use antibacterial soap...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Needed: Spare Womb For Brain
Haven't had time to read the story yet, but judging by the headline, it's either about how preemies face developmental challenges because their final weeks of gestation are spent out of the womb, OR it's an explanation of why men...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 25, 2005
CUT! Study Shows Circumcision Reduces HIV Infection Rate By 61%
It may look like the folks at the Guardian took a few months to read and digest that Wall Street Journal article about the African study showing significant reductions in HIV infections among men who were circumcized. But the Guardian...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 18, 2005
Shut Your SIDS Trap, The Kid's Asleep (On Her Stomach)
The NYT reports that some parents are taking in all the SIDS prevention advice and theories that pediatricians put out, examining it, recognizing the still-unclear understanding of the causes of SIDS--and letting their kids sleep on their stomachs sometimes. Because,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 15, 2005
Amish Trendwatch: Polio=Hot, Vaccinations=Not
Four children in a Minnesota Amish community have contracted polio, the first cases in the US in 26 years. How the virus shows up is still not clear, but it's apparently related to the live-but-weakened virus used in oral polio...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 11, 2005
Celebrity Baby Has Big Box Of Crayons, ASD
The kid doesn't have crayons; because they make me nervous. The table, the walls, the art, I see the kid having a blast playing with crayons, and I don't think "Awwww, maybe she'll be an artist someday. Let's put these...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 10, 2005
And In Other Sucking News: Pacifiers May Prevent SIDS
A woman stopped me on the street today to tell me that pacifiers may prevent SIDS. Literally. Of course, she only told me after testing my parental knowledge of SIDS prevention on-camera. She was from ABC News, and the Kid...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 4, 2005
Prowess-less Biker? Try A Prowless Bike Seat
That numb sensation? That erectile dysfunction? That 70-80% drop in penile blood oxygen levels within 3 minutes of getting on the bike? That 28-year-old with the penile vascular system of a 60-year-old? At some point, serious cyclists who don't want...
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September 29, 2005
Daycare & Preschools Are Epicenters Of Flu Epidemics
Ring Around The Rosie indeed:New data compiled by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, reported in October 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, suggest that otherwise healthy 3- and 4-year-olds drive flu epidemics, a pattern...
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Freaking Out Children's Tiny Minds For Science
I'd always wondered when the kid was going to stop grabbing at the balloon string in Goodnight Gorilla, now I know. A potentially huge research finding--that children under three don't develop the capacity for symbolic thinking--that could have far-reaching implications...
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September 11, 2005
Oh, Sure, I'll Just Try The Baby Enemas
"...so if that doesn't do the trick, try the glycerine suppositories, or else the teeny tiny baby enemas." That's from a recent reader comment on an earlier post about dealing with a constipated baby. When the kid had trouble...
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September 6, 2005
More Folic Acid = Less Spina Bifida
The March of Dimes has been campaigning for nearly 10 years for increased folic acid fortification of basic foods like flour and bread, and now they say why. (I'm sure they said why before, too; it's not like MOD is...
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September 3, 2005
The Toddling Wounded
The kid already calls every monkey "Bobo," so we've been fighting the use of "boo-boo" and "owie" and other kidspeak. But now that she officially scrapes her knees and gets slideburns across her face, we needed something. So just now...
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[read the full post...]
August 30, 2005
Circumcision: 'It's the American Way."
Ah, good. Because what the circumcision discussion has been lacking is good old-fashioned, nationalist class rhetoric. The ContraCosta Times takes a look at some of the issues and advocates for and against circumcision. In the covered corner: some peoplel talking...
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August 29, 2005
Slate On The Hot Topics: Circumcision & Delivery Rooms
Slate's columnists weigh in on two topics that have lit up the ol' weblog here the last few days. First, normally, I'd rather have the tip of my penis cut off than agree with Christopher Hitchens on anything, but when...
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[read the full post...]
August 26, 2005
'Oral Suction, Or In Hebrew, Metzitzah B'peh'
Remember that Orthodox mohel who got in trouble with the 'oral suction' phase of that circumcision, not because he developed his bris pictures at Eckerd's, but because the kid got herpes and died? Yeah, well that's still going on, apparently,...
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[read the full post...]
August 23, 2005
If Only Your Kid Was Cool Enough For One Of These Plagiocephaly Helmets
Sometimes parents go to extremes to conform to externally imposed societal norms, ordering elaborate and expensive medical procedures be carried out on their children, just because they think their heads have an abnormal shape or appearance that'll keep them from...
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[read the full post...]
August 14, 2005
Making The NICU More Baby-Friendly
The NYT Magazine profiles the efforts of Harvard child developmental psychologist Heidelise Als to help premature babies by making the NICU more supportive of kids' brain development, not just their phsyical survival. What that involves: making the NICU more womb-like,...
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[read the full post...]
August 8, 2005
Newsweek: Baby Brains Should Be Smarter Sooner = Harvard Off The List As Early As 10 Wks
Newsweek's cover story is about advances in cognitive development in infants which show that babies are far more capable of emotion, memory, and analytical processing than was ever thought possible. In that zombie-like stimulus-response phase when we think they don't...
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[read the full post...]
August 4, 2005
In The Broadband Laser-filled Future, No Sperm Tail Is Safe
Where to start? A team of in vitro fertilization researchers in Australia have successfully captured a sperm cell in California. And cut its tail off. With a laser. On the Internet. While it's surprising enough to learn that IVF treatments...
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[read the full post...]
July 10, 2005
Baby-related Party Conversations From This Week's NY Times
"And I was like, "'you can easily spend $200?' HAH! We got this Maxi Cosi car seat from Europe. ebay Germany. "Huh? Nah, but you don't need to speak it; all the buttons are in the same place. Anyway,...
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July 5, 2005
Circumcision Reduces HIV Risk, But Conservatives Now Face Quandary
According to the most extensive and rigorous studies of the connection between circumcision and HIV transmission (the results are as-yet unpublished, but they've been widely discussed in the HIV prevention community, apparently), circumcision reduces a man's likelihood of infection from...
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Male Postnatal Depression? Some British Bird Says Buck Up
When it comes to psychiatry-hating, the Times of London's India Knight apparently hails from the Stiff Upper Lip faction, not the Tom Cruise one. But that doesn't make her dismissal of the idea of male post-natal depression any less stinging....
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July 1, 2005
Pretty Depressed, Pissed Baby
Apparently fed up with being criticized as a misguided pill-popping mess by the sideshow freak formerly known as Tom Cruise, Brooke Shields speaks out forcefully in the NY Times:While Mr. Cruise says that Mr. Lauer and I do not "understand...
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[read the full post...]
June 28, 2005
Thermospot Baby Thermometers For Dummies
Or rather, for mothers in developing nations who don't have ready access to nurses and traditional mercury thermometers [d'oh, mercury?!!]. The Thermospot was designed by one John Zeal in response to the apparently widespread infant hypothermia problem in many cultures...
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June 25, 2005
Congratulations, Thimerosal Crackpots! You Made The Times Front Page!
Precipitated, I guess, by Robert Kennedy's article in Rolling Stone/Salon, The NY Times waded into the "Thimerosal in vaccines causes autism" quagmire today. And the article leaves me imagining what'd happen if the paper had gone after other polarizing subjects...
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June 24, 2005
Daddy Types Question Spawns Int'l Male Postnatal Depression Awareness Movement
Since posting a new dad's question about male postpartum depression research and resources earlier in the week, the international medical community has been spurred into action. After studying 12,800 couples over the first few weeks after a birth, they found...
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June 21, 2005
Down With Male PPD: Do You Know Me?
A DT reader and new dad writes in with the following:Over the last few days I have to my surprise/chagrin/horror sunk into a depression and I was wondering if you had ever heard of other men experiencing what is traditionally...
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June 16, 2005
We're From The Government, And We're Here To Help Cover Up A Giant Immunization Scandal
Thimerosal, ever heard of it? A preservative containing mercury compounds that was used in vaccines in the US until 2003, including some of the most commonly administered immunizations given to infants and children: Hep B, Haemophilus Influenza B, and diptheria-tetanus-pertussis...
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June 14, 2005
They Don't Make NICU's Like They Used To, Fortunately
The Times had two stories recently that look back at old-school pediatrics; it's enough to make you want to hug your neo-natalogist, that's for sure. Sunday was the story of Dr. Martin A. Couney, aka The Incubator Doctor of Coney...
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[read the full post...]
June 10, 2005
Baby DNA Kit: "The Ultimate Keepsake"
Because--except for locks of hair, umbilical cord stumps, cord blood, and the sheen of drool that now coats every surface of your house--there's never been a way to sample or store your baby's DNA "for your peace of mind" and...
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[read the full post...]
May 19, 2005
Chimeras: Read Up, Then Watch Discovery Channel
Whoa, this show starts in 20 minutes. But it broadcasts many more times over the next month. There is an extremely unusual condition--it's thought to be rare, but then again, it's often discovered only be sheer accident, so who knows?--where...
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Remember The German Mutant Superbaby?
There's a kid in Germany--his identity has not been published, because, do I have to spell it out?--who has a genetic mutation that gives him incredible muscle mass and strength. Doctors are following him closely, partly to make sure that...
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BabySIM Robot Delivered At Florida Hospital
[via robotwisdom] From ABC News, a story about the delivery at a Florida hospital of BabySIM, a $52,000 pediatrics training robot:At 21 pounds and 28 inches in length, BabySIM has the physical characteristics of a three- to six-month old infant,...
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May 14, 2005
Baby Massage: Is That A Trend I Smell?
Despite what this slightly freaked out mom might think, the baby massage technique known as Indian milking does not originate in the Kamasutra:"If it's a boy," she said, "it's even weirder: dim the lights and put on mellow music and...
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May 13, 2005
X-Rays of Things In Kids' Stomachs
"We see coin, after coin, after coin, after coin, after coin, after coin," Dr. Frank McGeorge said. I raced out of the house so fast with the kid this morning, that I didn't notice she was sucking on a penny...
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March 29, 2005
Costco, Is There Anything You DON'T Have?
A cool almost-spring night at the end of cold season is probably the wrong time to tell you this, but Costco has a megasized bottle of Infant Tylenol Drops for like six bucks. Megasize for Infant Tylenol is, of course,...
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[read the full post...]
March 25, 2005
Remember, Drug Prices Are High Because Of R&D
A recent survey by The Quigley Corporation, makers of Cold-Eeze, found that "68 percent of Americans thought the media and government overemphasized the impact and import of the shortage." The survey also found that, if they were sick, twice as...
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[read the full post...]
March 21, 2005
When *I* Was A Boy, We Got Salmonella From Spoiled Food
That's because turtles were banned as pets in 1975, and turtles, like all amphibians and reptiles, apparently, carry salmonella bacteria and were a major cause of salmonella cases--and even deaths--among infants and children. Coming a bit late to the story,...
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March 7, 2005
No, TRUE Love Is Letting Someone COUGH In Your Mouth
which the kid just did when I picked her up. Wash hands before and after everything, try to keep the piles of babysnot-filled Kleenexes around the house below knee-level. Echinacea, Vitamin C, Jamba Juice, I even painted our door frame...
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February 21, 2005
Debate Precedes Report on Nationwide Newborn Testing Policy
A federal advisory group is preparing to release a report that calls for nationwide standardized newborn testing for 29 extremely rare but potentially devastating diseases and conditions. Currentyl each state has its own set of tests that newborns automatically receive,...
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February 4, 2005
Now You're Taking Paxil For Two!
A preliminary study shows that newborns who were exposed to anti-depressants in the womb may show some symptoms of withdrawl. [Yes, "preliminary," "may," "some," nice ambiguity-spotting. Obviously, ask your doctor(s).] It makes total sense that when pregnant women take drugs...
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February 3, 2005
Child Who Received Experimental Cord Blood Treatment Died
Hannah Stimmel, whose parents pursued a highly experimental cord blood bone marrow transplant for her after she was diagnosed with a rare disease called Nieman-Peck [via comments below] Niemann-Pick Syndrome, has died. Her story was told in an article in...
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February 2, 2005
When Choosing A Mohel, "Caring" Isn't Enough
Three cases have been identified--including one twin who died--where baby boys in New York City contracted herpes shortly after being circumcised by Rabbi Yitzhok Fischer. "Under Jewish law, a mohel -- someone who performs circumcisions -- draws blood from the...
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January 25, 2005
Fertility Tourism
According to this front page report in the NY Times, the high cost of infertility treatments in the US--especially egg donor programs and in vitro fertilization--are driving increasing numbers of Americans to find foreign clinics. One South African doctor pitches...
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January 22, 2005
Robo-Party!
The kids these days have taken to getting high--and OD'ing and dying--by guzzling cough syrup with dextromethorphan [DXM]. In some states like Utah, misuse got so bad a few years ago that pharmacies were ordered to put Robitussin and Coricidin...
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January 11, 2005
The Andy Blog
Talk about extreme parenting. Andres Trevino and his wife are from Mexico, but they have been basically living in Boston for the last few years after their 5-year old son, Andy began treatment at The Children's Hospital for a rare...
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December 29, 2004
VBAC Backlash
On Slate, David Dobbs examines the recent dramatic drop in the number of VBAC's, Vaginal Birth After Cesarean, which has occurred as more and more hospitals ban the procedure--and force women to give birth via cesarean again. The reasons, Dobbs...
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December 19, 2004
From Father's Day Party To Experimental Cord Blood Transfusion
If you have to find out your new baby has an extremely rare, deibilitating, and potentially fatal disease, at least try to be in a family of pediatricians. That's one lesson to learn from the story of Scott and Jill...
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[read the full post...]
December 18, 2004
Kids Favor Sounds Over Visuals
Researchers at Ohio State University found that children paid more attention to sound stimuli than to visual stimuli. They theorize it may be part of the language learning mechanism. Read the report of their findings or BoingBoing's original post about...
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Sperm Banking and Testicular Cancer
Rather than just be funny and critical (or just critical, depending on your POV), I thought I'd round up some info on testicular cancer resources, including an important issue for dads and anyone with designs on being a dad sometime...
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[read the full post...]
December 8, 2004
Be Careful With Your, Um, Laptop Equipment
A new study from researchers at SUNY found that the combination of high computer temperature and the knees-together posture required for actually positioning a laptop on your lap can increase scrotum temperature by as much as 2.8 degrees centigrade. That's...
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December 7, 2004
You Had Me At 'Explosive'
On the supposedly squeamish subject of men and diaper changing: I've always figured that any gender who can create (and turn into a box office success) a movie like Dumb & Dumber should have absolutely no trouble working the business...
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December 2, 2004
California Baby Lotion, Shampoo, &c.
My wife showed up one day with this travel-sized assortment of shampoos and creams from California Baby. As far as the bottles go, so far, I've only used the shampoo and bodywash in the kid's bath, but it's pretty nice...
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November 30, 2004
Have You Ever Tried Greek Olive Oil?
I didn't even know it existed. Most people don't. The Italians have olive oil mindshare just about cornered, but then the grocer down the street got all impassioned like I've never seen her when, upon seeing it on the shelf,...
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Hormone Swings: They're Not Just For Women Anymore
One interesting vein of research was presented at the At-Home Dads Convention a couple of weeks ago in Chi-town. Rebel Dad mentioned it, and now, Peter Baylies, the at-est-home dad of them all, expands on it. Turns out that pregnancy,...
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[read the full post...]
November 11, 2004
The Kid, Now Available in Snot-Nosed Version
So maybe I shoulda listened to that old lady at the grocery store. Maybe I SHOULDA put a hat on the kid for that quick Diet Coke run. Anyway, she's got a cold, is very (and understandably) moody. I can't...
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[read the full post...]
October 16, 2004
YOW. 1-Year Old Drowns In Bucket Of Water
While a father in Michigan was "distracted for three to five minutes" talking to someone--or "playing football," I'm not quite clear--his one-year-and-a-day-old daughter got out of the house, onto the porch, and into a 5-gallon bucket of water that'd been...
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[read the full post...]
October 7, 2004
What's Going On In That Bald Little Head?
I remember hearing that babies are born capable of making and understanding all possible human language sounds, and that their ability gradually narrows as they're exposed to a dominant language (or languages). Here's an interesting study of a preverbal baby's...
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[read the full post...]
October 6, 2004
You're On The VIP List
Vaccination for Influenza Priority groups, that is. Now that influenza vaccine stocks have been cut in half in the US this season, the Centers for Disease Control are recommending that only people in certain priority groups get vaccinated. The full...
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[read the full post...]
September 28, 2004
The Kid's Five Favorite Yoga Postures,
in the order she learned them: 1) Matsyasana, the Fish 2) Setu Bandhasana, the Bridge 3) Joyful Baby Pose 4) Navasana, the Boat 5) Ardha Merudandasana, the Half Bear* * Note: foot is usually brought to her mouth, a posture...
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September 27, 2004
Technically, You are invited to STROLLERCIZEÆ
Doing deep lunges while pushing the kid around in a stroller may be the best post-pregnancy workout ever, who knows? Get out of the house, bond with the kid, &c, &c. And officially, "partners and husbands" are welcome and can...
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[read the full post...]
September 15, 2004
Why Is Sushi Banned During Pregnancy?
Sushi and alcohol are just the tip of the iceberg. In the last two decades, the lists of things a pregnant woman can't eat or do without putting the fetus "at risk" is a mile long. Not that I didn't...
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[read the full post...]
September 14, 2004
Thinking of Cutting your Dad-ability Short?
And if, during my darker moments I feel at a loss for perspective, I can always recall the sentiments of my wife, uttered once she felt it was time for me to pull myself together, start changing nappies again and...
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[read the full post...]
July 13, 2004
Aromatherapy for Kids
John and Helen During, parents of Alastair (8 years) and Andrew (5 years), [and founders of the AromaKids brand of aromatherapy and massage oils for children] feel strongly that the touch of a parent's hand and the sound of their...
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[read the full post...]
July 8, 2004
SmartKlamp for, excuse me?? Automatic Circumcisions??
WHOA. If you're on the fence about circumcising any boys about to be born in your vicinity, Gizmodo's got a review of a penis clamp that just might make your mind up for you. My wilfully uneducated guess is, the...
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[read the full post...]
Micro-preemie Resources?
Kids born at the extreme edge of viability--24-26 weeks, or at a little more than 1 lb birthweight--are called "micro-preemies." Personally, I prefer "extreemies," or "X-treemies," which sounds tougher, and tough is what these kids have to be. They basically...
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[read the full post...]
June 30, 2004
Jew Havin' A Baby?
ChosenCouture.com, the makers of the Yo Semite! and Jews for Jeter t-shirts, also offer a few gift ideas for the new dad. You don't need to be Jewish to appreciate them (although for one, you do need to be a...
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[read the full post...]
June 8, 2004
New Approaches for Treating Indeterminate Gendered Children
On Slate, Claudia Kolker looks at the latest research and thinking about dealing with "intersex" or gender indeterminate children, a condition with multiple possible causes where a newborn's gender is ambiguous. To some degree or another, it affects approximately 1...
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[read the full post...]
May 13, 2004
Off-gassing and Kids
Not the kind of off-gassing where that tiny baby you just brought home farts like your frat buddies on a ski weekend. No, it's the other kind of off-gassing, the one THAT WILL POISON YOUR CHILDREN IN YOUR NEW HOUSE,...
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[read the full post...]
April 13, 2004
Baby Blues, Daddy Depression?
The National Health Service in the UK will roll out an anonymous helpline for fathers dealing with Post-Natal Depression (PND); the service has the so-upbeat-it's-disheartening title, "Fathers Matter." Although some psychiatrists--and at least one cranky farmer--dismiss the idea of PND,...
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[read the full post...]
April 6, 2004
No TV, and Eat Your Vegetables
Research out yesterday reveals that: excessive TV viewing before a kid is 3 years old contributes to ADD, and the tastes a kid is exposed to in the first 3-5 months (as well as the last couple of months of...
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[read the full post...]
March 9, 2004
Doctor's Orders: Buy This Book
You want to see how quickly you can get your pediatrician to roll his eyes? Just begin a sentence with, "I read on the Internet that..." If you're going to be researching questions about your children's health online, make sure...
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