In a press release to announce the recall of up to 5 million containers of top-selling Similac powder formula sold mainly in the U.S., drug maker Abbott Laboratories sought to soothe parents.
Parenting
An 11-Year-Old Babysitter Is Charged With Murder: How Young Is Too Young to Care for Kids?
Few things stress out parents more than finding — and retaining — a good babysitter. Some moms I know guard their babysitter lists zealously, refusing to share names, not because they’re selfish lugs but because they know …
In the Battle Over Breast or Bottle, Guilt May Play a Role
Ah, guilt. Such a useful emotion in so many varied ways. As women, we’re made to feel guilty if we don’t want to become mothers. When we do have children, we feel guilt if we don’t read to our children fresh out of the womb, if we don’t pick the perfect preschool, if we don’t puree our own organic baby food. Yet those and …
Why Most Moms Don’t Follow Breast-Feeding Recommendations
When it comes to breast-feeding, there’s good news and bad news. The former is that lots of U.S. mothers – 75% — are initiating breast-feeding. The latter? Less than a quarter are persevering a full year, which is the …
Moms: Guilty of Driving Their Daughters to Early Puberty?
As if mom were not to blame for enough already, new research is showing a link between early puberty in girls and a lack of maternal-infant bonding.
Would You Like Some BPA With That Dental Sealant, Dear?
Over the summer, my second-grader apparently binged on BPA, that controversial chemical that may or may not act as a hormone disrupter, depending whom you believe.
No, he hadn’t been sipping from contaminated SIGG bottles or …
School’s Back: How’s That Schedule Working Out?
School days are here for pretty much the whole country now. This means hundreds of thousands of parents have just gone from zero to 60 in about two early morning hours, especially if summer was spent somewhat indolently, as mine …
Is Child Abuse On the Decline?
The number of maltreated children in the U.S. has fallen steadily in the last two decades, according to a report this week from the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
Overall, physical-abuse cases per capita fell 3% between and 2007 and 2008 (the most recent year for which stats are available). …
The Battle Over Homework: Getting Your Kids to Knuckle Down
You’ve tried carrots. You’ve tried sticks. But how do you get a recalcitrant child to do his or her homework?
Psychologists at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research think they may have an answer to that age-old question.
Attention-deficit diagnosis depends on kids’ birthdays, study shows
Kids who are young for their grade level are unusually likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — a worrying sign that, for many kids, plain old immaturity has been misdiagnosed as a clinical disorder.
In two separate studies — both appearing in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Health …
Asthma and Tylenol: How strong is the evidence?
Yet another new study — this one is in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine — is showing a link between asthma and acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Researchers have found that, among 320,000 kids in 50 countries, 13- and 14-year-olds who take acetaminophen are more than twice as likely to have …
Drugging children: an under-recognized form of abuse?
The misuse of pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter medications and other types of drugs and alcohol on children should be considered a form of child abuse on par with neglect and physical, sexual and emotional abuse, concludes Dr. Shan Yin in a study published this week in the Journal of Pediatrics. Yin, of the University of Colorado and
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Analyzing baby sounds to detect autism early?
A new technique that identifies early differences in vocal development between children with an autism spectrum disorder or language delay and those developing on a normal trajectory could give pediatricians and other caregivers a tool for earlier detection of autism, and as a result facilitate earlier intervention. To distinguish the
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