After Amanda Peet made quite a stir in this month's Cookie magazine with her comparison of parent's who don't vaccinate their kids to "parasites" she offered an apology.
"I believe in my heart that my use of the word 'parasites' was mean and divisive," Peet writes. "I completely understand why it offended some parents, and in particular, parents of children with autism who feel that vaccines caused their illness. For this I am truly sorry. Since my mom has Parkinson's Disease, I know what it feels like to want a concrete cause, and a concrete cure, as soon as possible."
But she then proceeds to reiterate her stance: that the only way to go, is pro vaccine, and that anyone who thinks there is a link between autism and vaccines are misinformed.
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Of course, she has a point, and some hard facts to back her up. But... a fear of an increased risk of autism isn't the only reason parents who don't vaccinate their kids, don't. And many parents who get lumped into the category of 'anti-vaccination' are actually just altering their child's vaccination schedule so as to avoid over-taxing of the immune system that occurs when multiple vaccinations are given at the same time. Yet Peet claims these parents are believers in a "fringe" theory--likening their beliefs to those who still claim that HIV is a government conspiracy.
What do you think of Amanda Peet's apology? Is it sincere or just damage control?
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced the recall of about 120,000 Cuddly Comfort Pillows. Due to a mechanical breakdown in the manufacturing process, some pillows contain metal fragments in the fiber-fill, which could cause abrasions to consumers.
These were made in China, imported by Sleep Innovations, and sold at certain Costco stores nationwide from February 2008 through June 2008 for about $20 each.
The Cuddly Comfort Pillows were sold in packs of two in white, violet, blue, pink and yellow. They measure 20" wide by 26" long and only those with Registration Number PA-27156(CA) are included in the recall. You can find the Registration Number and the words "Sleep Innovations" printed on the pillow's tag.
If you have these pillows, you should immediately stop using them and return them to any Costco store for a full refund. For more information, contact Sleep Innovations by calling (866) 656-0610 between 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or by visiting their Web site.
Hugh Jackman is no stranger to parenthood. The X-Men star is dad to two children and remembers what it was like to be a new parent. One thing he didn't care for was all the advice lopped at him. As a result, Jackman has endeavored to decline from offering parenting advice to other new parents. He is refusing to offer advice to new mom Nicole Kidman (and new dad Keith Urban). Nicole and Keith recently welcomed daughter Sunday Rose into the world. No word on whether or not they actually sought advice from Jackman, but if they did or do, they ain't gonna get any.
Jackman did go on to say that he received one bit of useful advice from the man who helped deliver his son--never to rock the baby. According to Jackman, if one does this one will spend one's life doing it. He declined to offer this information to his Australian compatriots.
What do you think? Did you appreciate advice when you were a new parent or did it annoy you like it did Hugh Jackman? New parents, regardless of whether or not they're celebrities, have a lot to learn about raising a baby. Ultimately, there's only one way to do it, and that is to go through it and learn from experience.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced the recall of about 115,000 It's My Binky Personalized Pacifiers. The pacifier can come apart and pose a choking hazard to infants. No injuries have been reported, but the company has received two reports of this happening.
Made in Malaysia for It's My Binky of Henderson, Nevada, the pacifiers were sold at Nordstrom and baby boutique retail stores nationwide and online from February 2006 through June 2008 for between $5 and $6.
The recalled pacifiers have the word "Japlo" imprinted on the front of the pacifier shield at the bottom center. They were sold in blue, white and pink with various words or designs printed on the button of the pacifier. Photos showing examples of some of the text and symbols on the recalled pacifiers can be found here.
If you have one of these pacifiers, you should immediately take it away from your child and return it to the store where purchased or contact It's My Binky to receive a free replacement pacifier. You can reach It's My Binky by calling (888) 689-9444 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday PT or by visiting their Website. You can also email Danielle Riiber at Danielle@itsmybinky.com.
Playgrounds have changed a lot since I was a kid. Metal play equipment bolted onto hard concrete pads are a thing of the past. Today, playgrounds are made to be safe, with plastic equipment set atop cushioned surfaces designed to make sure nobody gets hurt while having a good time. For the most part, the changes are a good thing. But while kids may not be leaving layers of skin behind on the boiling hot slides or pavement, the sun can still heat a playground up to a dangerous level.
Anne Casson, a mom in Brooklyn, found this out when her toddler son's bare foot met the rubber safety mat covering a Brooklyn, New York playground. "He stepped onto the black mats and was screaming hysterically," Casson said. "When I picked him up, the skin was just hanging off his feet." That poor child spent four days in the hospital on morphine.
Although a spokesperson for New York's Parks Department says there were no similar incidents reported at any of the city's other playgrounds, doctors say it isn't uncommon. Two city hospital burn units say they see 16-18 young patients each year suffering from playground burns, mostly from the mats placed under junglegyms and slides.
In the hot summer months, those rubber mats can heat up to 165 degrees or more - hot enough to burn the skin in seconds. The city of New York insists their playgrounds are safe and that they have no plans to remove the mats or replace them with the CPSC- recommended lighter-colored ones.
Geoffrey Croft of NYC Park Advocates is outraged. "It is unconscionable that the city continues to install products in playgrounds that hurt the most vulnerable park users - small children," he said. "How many more have to get hurt until someone is held accountable?"
Former supermodel Christy Turlington is campaigning for maternal health. The mother of two (with husband actor Ed Burns) is attempting to get the U.S. government to provide more resources to women during childbirth.
According to Turlington, a woman dies every minute of complications from childbirth. She believes that women around the world do not have access to the same medical care she had when she gave birth to her children. I would wager she is right. I couldn't believe the amount of care I received during the birth of my son and after in recovery--and I'm just a regular gal! Women the world over deserve the same amount of care, so I am right there behind Christie in her endeavor.
Joining Turlington on her campaign is former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, who is mom to daughter Bluebell Madonna Halliwell. Turlington is ambassador for Care, an organization dedicated to fighting global poverty.
Bullying, unfortunately, is a fact of life for many kids. Even funny man and former Saturday Night Live star Will Ferrell had to deal with bullies. The star of the soon-to-be-released Step Brothers says when he was a kid he was taunted by a neighborhood bully.
This teenage bully was unique in that he threatened to shrink Ferrell and even carried around a vial of some sort of powder to prove he was capable of doing so. Ferrell claims he was so traumatized he had nightmares about being shrunk. Hopefully he didn't watch the televised presentation of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. That would have pushed him over the edge!
Who came to the rescue? Says Ferrell, his mom eventually made the kid come clean that the powder would not, in fact, shrink anyone. Ferrell grew up to be a major star. The bully? Who knows. But I wonder who's feeling small NOW! Moral of the story? We all deal with bullies and we all get past it. If we're lucky our moms will set things straight and, if we're really lucky, we'll grow up to be household names. Take that, bullies!
File this in the list of the stupidest things people do, you know, that list that makes you wonder how it's possible for some loser to be a parent when there are so many great people out there who can't have kids? Some jerk decided it was a good idea to leave his son in the parking lot in the car while he went in and saw The Dark Knight, the latest Batman installment.
Oh, yes he did. David Farnham, candidate for father of the year, left his two-year-old son alone in a locked car while he took in the more than two hour movie. Naturally people who were actually concerned about the boy's wellbeing noticed him crying and sent for help from the police. When the boy was retrieved he was dehydrated and scared but otherwise in relatively good condition.
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The cops noted it was 87 degrees and the windows of the car were rolled up. I think about this kind of thing all the time living in New York where the temperatures get surprisingly hot. Aside from the basic, common sense fact that no child should be left alone in a car, it was too hot for him to be out there. Did I mention it was in the middle of the night? Oh, yeah, the father went to see the 1:00 AM screening of the movie. I know an R-rated movie is no place for a child, certainly not a two-year-old, but isn't it better than being left alone in a hot car? Or, wait--I know the answer: GET A SITTER. If you can shell out the ten bucks to see the movie you can certainly afford a few dollars more to get someone to watch your kid.
It's like an episode of mystery diagnosis. Thirteen-year-old Danielle Fisher got sick last fall and got progressively worse until she was unable to even get out of bed without suffering from vertigo and shortness of breath. Doctors weren't any help, offering up guesses ranging from Epstein-Bar virus to a tumor; one even suggested that all she needed was a psychiatrist. So Danielle's mom decided to do some research of her own.
She searched the internet for Danielle's symptoms and came up with a surprising answer: Lyme disease, caught from a tick bite. After checking with an expert, she is now on a proper course of treatment but if the disease had been left untreated, Danielle could have faced nerve damage, paralysis, and blindness. As for her mom, she says that "this disease is a lot more common than people think and I just want to make people aware of it."
While the internet is by no means a perfect source of information -- there is plenty of misinformation out there -- it is useful for research which can then be provided to a doctor. I know that if my kids get sick or start acting odd, I start checking the internet for information. I think you do, however, have to take anything you find with a grain of salt.
What kid doesn't like to play in the front seat of Mom and Dad's car? Whenever we're parked for any length of time, my kids beg to come up front and try out all of the buttons and knobs, so that when I finally turn the car back on, the radio is blasting and the windshield wipers work furiously, despite the fact that it's not raining.
But a 3-year-old St. Louis boy recently decided that he was going to do more than explore the dashboard of his parent's SUV. He took the keys, told his mom he was going "bye bye," and then instead of heading out to the backyard, where his mother thought he was going, climbed into the family's SUV and put the keys in the ignition. He managed to get it into neutral, and then the vehicle rolled across the street and stopped only when it bumped into a neighbor's house.
The child wasn't hurt (and neither was the SUV, the St. Louis Post reports), but stories like this one are a good reminder, especially during these hot summer days, to keep your car locked and your keys out of reach. %Gallery-27399%
Say what you will about a smoker's right to light up in his car or her own home, but I think we can all agree that underage smoking is wrong, wrong, wrong. a new study suggests that menthol cigarettes are specifically formulated to attract and snag young smokers (and the keep the adult smokers hooked for life).
Menthol cigarettes are the minty ones, you know, the ones most like candy. they're also easier for a young system to tolerate than regular cigarettes. According to a new study out of Harvard, manufacturers of menthol cigarettes are using this information to nab the "vulnerable population." As smokers get used to menthol, like with pretty much anything else, they naturally prefer a stronger flavor or sensation.
The research also indicated that nearly fifty percent of smokers between the ages of twelve (yes, you read that right, TWELVE) and seventeen prefer menthol cigarettes. Menthol cigarettes make up about 28% of overall cigarette sales per year. There's no need to do the math here to realize that a big group of kids is smoking these cigarettes. Those who participated in the study are urging for stronger legislation. Phillip Morris, the company who owns Marlboro Milds, a milder form of menthol cigarette, deny such allegations, as does its parent company, Atria. Lorillard, owner of the best-selling Newport brand of menthol cigarettes, also denied they lure young smokers.
British man Gary Crutchley was enjoying watching his sons having fun on a large inflatable slide at an outdoor event and thought he'd capture the moment with a few pictures. Those innocent snapshots turned the family friendly event ugly, however, when the slide operator and a parent standing inline asked him to stop, even accusing him of taking pictures of their children to post on the internet. The word "pervert" was also thrown around.
Gary showed them the pictures he had taken, pictures of his own children, and even grabbed two police officers walking by to confirm he'd done nothing wrong. He hadn't, of course, but it ended what had turned out to be a pleasant day.
In this age of easy technology, parents can be understandably protective about strangers photographing their children. But does that mean that parents can no longer take pictures of their own children in public? I think this is a case of over-protectiveness gone bad, but there have been instances when I was uncomfortable with another parents' photography. Just last week, an older couple who appeared to be endeared by my children at an outdoor event turned their camcorder on them. I was left momentarily speechless; my gut told me they were harmless, yet I wasn't sure why they'd want video of my two kids.
How do you feel about parents taking pictures of kids in public places?
President George Bush has signed into law the Children's Gasoline Burn Prevention Act, which is designed to prevent kids from being burned or otherwise injured from gasoline. The Act requires portable gasoline containers to conform to child resistance safety requirements already in place for other flammable liquids. This new requirement applies to containers manufactured for sale in the United States on or after January 17, 2009.
"Families who purchase gasoline cans with child resistant gas caps and who keep all flammable liquids out of the sight and reach of children are improving the safety of their homes," said Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Acting Chairman Nancy Nord.
Keep your kids safe around gasoline by following this tips, courtesy of CPSC:
Buy a gasoline container that is child resistant.
Place a gasoline container in a well ventilated, cool area.
Never store gasoline or other fuel inside the house, in the basement, or near a fuel-burning appliance, open flames, pilot lights, stoves, heaters, electric mowers, or any other sources of ignition.
Never smoke near gasoline.
Never carry gasoline in the trunk of the car. Escaping vapors can easily ignite.
Keep gasoline, kerosene and other fuels out of the reach of children. Never permit children to play with matches or fuel.
The Children's Gasoline Burn Prevention Act was introduced to Congress by Dennis Moore, D-Kansas, after he learned of a tragic accident involving two children in his state. A four-year-old boy died and his younger brother was permanently scarred after they opened a gas can and spilled its contents near a hot water heater.
According to new research, they just might. A recent study suggests that pregnant mothers who eat nuts may impact their child's health later on. Women who consume nuts or "nut-products" like the beloved peanutbutter may increase the risk of asthma in their children by as much as 50%.
Before we go any further, I would like to point out for the record that peanuts are NOT nuts, they're legumes. It's true. Anyway, the Dutch researchers in charge of the study are leary of advising pregnant women to forego peanuts as they provide protein and nutrients. Although seafood also causes similar allergic reactions in children, the researchers were only able to make a connection to peanuts.
Four thousand women were surveyed for what they ate while pregnant along with their children's eating habits over eight years. The research indicated that women who ate nut products daily were more likely to have children with asthma. The link persisted despite factoring for the children's diet. Although there is no conclusive evidence at this time, the researchers think the toxin from the peanuts could pass through the placenta and sensitize the unborn baby. Needless to say, more studies are needed before anyone throws out her peanut butter jar!
After Amanda Peet made quite a stir in this month's Cookie magazine with her comparison of parent's who don't vaccinate their kids to "parasites" she offered an apology. 
The 
Playgrounds have changed a lot since I was a kid. Metal play equipment bolted onto hard concrete pads are a thing of the past. Today, playgrounds are made to be safe, with plastic equipment set atop cushioned surfaces designed to make sure nobody gets hurt while having a good time. For the most part, the changes are a good thing. But while kids may not be leaving layers of skin behind on the boiling hot slides or pavement, the sun can still 
It's like an episode of mystery diagnosis. Thirteen-year-old Danielle Fisher got sick last fall and got progressively worse until she was unable to even get out of bed without suffering from vertigo and shortness of breath. Doctors weren't any help, offering up guesses ranging from Epstein-Bar virus to a tumor; one even suggested that all she needed was a psychiatrist. So Danielle's mom decided to do some research of her own.
British man Gary Crutchley was enjoying watching his sons having fun on a large inflatable slide at an outdoor event and thought he'd capture the moment with a few pictures. Those innocent snapshots turned the family friendly event ugly, however, when the slide operator and a parent standing inline 
President George Bush has 
