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• They Say: Here's Why Your Kid's a Bully Magnet

  Think your tough and aggressive kid will be safe from bullying in school? Actually, s/he might be more at risk for it. A new study shows what educators and researchers have long suspected. Children who are aggressive in their toddler years often wind up the target of bullies. Experts in the field have known for a long time that there is a link between being aggressive and being tormented.   Read More... Posted Oct 10 2008, 06:02 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: bullies, newsweek, they say, aggressive behavior, link between aggression and torment

• They Say: Miscarriage Means More Risk

  For women who’ve experienced the crushing blow of a miscarriage, one of the small comforts is the conventional wisdom that a single pregnancy loss doesn’t bode ill for future pregnancies. A University of Aberdeen (Scotland) study of more than 32,000 expectant mothers showed an increased risk of many pregnancy complications among women who has suffered even one miscarriage. They were 3.3 times more likely to have preeclampsia, twice as likely to have an induced labor, and almost six times more likely to need intervention like the use of forceps at birth. Continuing the litany of suckage.... Read More... Posted Oct 09 2008, 02:08 PM by Amy Kuras with | with no comments Filed under: pregnancy, preeclampsia, miscarriage, low birthweight, pregnancy loss, they say, induced labor

• They Say: no cold medicine for kids 4 and under

  Kid has a stuffy nose? Suck it up. Well, not literally. But don't give them over the counter cold medicine. That's the word from the FDA, who are now saying that you shouldn’t give cold meds to any child under 4 years old. Read More... Posted Oct 08 2008, 11:30 AM by Brett Singer with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: medicine, health care, FDA, cold medicine, colds, flu, Brett Singer, they say, flu shot, meds, food and drug administration, no cold medicine for kids under 4, over the counter

• 7 Tips for Playgroup Survival

  Playgroups are like childhood vaccines. Some parents wouldn't dare raise their young children without a regularly scheduled one. Others don't want anything to do with them. Others attend reluctantly, off schedule, skipping frequently. And it's true, playgroups, like vaccines, sometimes get knocked for a few bad outcomes. They get blamed for giving mom a low self-esteem (she brought the wrong snack, drives the wrong stroller). They're a hotbed of self-deprecation. The playgroup was the miracle that promised to prevent loneliness and first-time parent confusion but wound up making you feel like a loser. I have always loved the idea of playgroups but as time went on -- and we moved, again! -- participated in them less and less. I looked at playgroups more like pick-up bars: you meet someone you like, trade phone numbers and see each other outside the set time and location.   Read More... Posted Oct 07 2008, 11:31 AM by Madeline Holler with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: vaccines, they say, self-deprecating playgroup, 7 tips for playgroup survival

• They Say: Fan Use Cuts Down On Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

  When my toddler was a baby, I lived in fear of sudden infant death syndrome. The thought that a child, my child, could just die from no apparent malady, affliction or action and there was a chance, albeit slim, that she'd just suddenly stop breathing, totally freaked me out. I like it when there are reasons and answers. But the mystery of how or when SIDS may strike is one that is a haunting fear in paranoid parents like me. When my daughter was an infant, I’d go to her room various times in the night, just to make sure she was breathing. Fortunately, she always was. But the fear still lingered. Had I known about this new study...   Read More... Posted Oct 06 2008, 08:17 PM by SunnyChanel with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: health, SIDS, they say, fans, Sudden Infant Death Syndome

• They Say: Drop the Hamsters, Kids, and Get Back in the Bubble

  I'll admit petting zoos aren't my favorite. And I sometimes shudder thinking about the Iguana that roams freely in my daughter's classroom. The germs! The bacteria! The salmonella! So on the one hand, I'm ready to jump on board with this latest recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics: no exotic pets for kids. Exotic, incidentally, includes hamsters.   Read More... Posted Oct 06 2008, 04:08 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: they say, get rid of your hamster, raising kids in a bubble, exotic pets make you sick, apa recommendations

• They Say: Gardening Makes You Green

  Want to raise kids with a strong connection to nature? You don’t need to look any further than your backyard, according to a new study from the Horticultural Sciences department at Texas A&M University. Researchers at the school looked at whether or not formal, hands-on youth gardening programs had any effect on elementary students’ environmental consciousness. Study results indicated that children that had any type of experience with gardening – and 80 percent of them had had previous experience before the gardening program that was studied  -- had more positive attitudes toward the environment when compared with students that had not gardened in any setting. Researchers concluded that hands-on gardening activities are important to the development of environmentally concerned citizens. Interestingly, Read More... Posted Oct 02 2008, 06:02 PM by Amy Kuras with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: education, schools, environment, gardening, outdoors, they say, Texas A&M, hands-on gardening programs

• They Say: Math Struggles May Really Be All in Your Head

  I’m good at some things, but math is not one of them. The one math skill I possess is calculating a restaurant tip; however, more times than not my husband sits there tapping his fork while I stare into space and mouth “carry the one…” since he’s figured it out minutes ago. And it’s not for lack of trying – I got extra help in school and even had a few outstanding math teachers (Mr. Scalzi, I’ll be forever grateful). No help. I have often tried to explain it as “it’s just not the way my brain works”—which, as it turns out, might be true. Read More... Posted Sep 30 2008, 05:31 PM by Amy Kuras with | with no comments Filed under: learning disabilities, they say, math is hard, brain imaging, dyscalculia, University of Western Ontario

• Breaking News: Cadbury chocolate made in China recalled

  The AP is reporting that Cadbury is "recalling 11 types of Chinese-made chocolates after tests found they contained the industrial chemical melamine." This follows the recall of tainted milk powder in China. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2008, 11:15 PM by Brett Singer with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: news, baby, China, babies, CNN, chocolate, FDA, baby formula, recalls, breast milk, breast feeding, Pizza Hut, cheese, formula, candy, Taiwan, scary, milk, Brett Singer, la leche, they say, chinese, sanlu, white rabbit candy, white rabbit creamy candy, candies, cadbury

• They say: Sarah Palin should step down

  A few they's are saying it, including "Prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker," who was a big fan of McCain's VP choice a few weeks ago. See, if the Democrats had done this, you would have heard a chorus of "Flip! Flop!" But hey, what's bad for you is good for me, right? Read More... Posted Sep 27 2008, 05:50 PM by Brett Singer with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: news, computers, CNN, hillary clinton, barack obama, republicans, Democrats, election, John McCain, election 2008, president, Brett Singer, governor of alaska, alaska, sarah palin, conservatives, they say, email, yahoo, dnc, kathleen parker, vp, joe biden, presidential election, GOP VP pick, columnist, sarah heath, bristol palin, trig palin, bristol, trig, palin kids, lipstick, RNC, convention, wildlife, palin email, lipstick on a pig, internet for dummies, palin should step down, veep, liberals

• They Say: Antibiotics For Preterm Labor May Do More Harm Than Good

  For most parents, the fear lurks that something you did to help your child -- supplements or prescriptions while pregnant, drugs during labor, or vaccines, for example -- will later turn out to have been harmful. A British study shows that to have potentially been the case for children of mothers who were given erythromycin during preterm labor when the membranes were intact. Standard practice is to give it when membranes have been ruptured prematurely, to lessen the risk of infection to both mother and baby, and some doctors give antibiotics even when the membranes remain intact but the mother has gone into labor too early. A study of more than 3,000 children whose mothers participaited in a widespread health study when they were born were tracked at age 7 to see what, if any, difficulties they may have experienced as a result of getting antibiotics. Read More... Posted Sep 23 2008, 03:30 PM by Amy Kuras with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: preterm labor, cerebral palsy, antibiotics, they say, ORACLE Children Study, functional impairment, British National Health Service

• UPDATE: Tainted Milk Tally tops 50,000

  The number of children affected by a dangerous chemical in certain brands of Chinese-made baby formula is going up. CNN is reporting that more than 13,000 children in China have been, "sickened by tainted milk." The details are even worse... Read More... Posted Sep 23 2008, 12:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: news, baby, China, babies, CNN, baby formula, recalls, breast milk, breast feeding, formula, scary, milk, Brett Singer, la leche, they say, chinese, sanlu

• YOU say: I got fooled (update to "They USED to say: give babies cola")

  We all know that, on occasion, advertisements can offer some fairly crappy advice. Back in the day, though, ads had no shame. Here's a great example: "For a better start in life, start COLA earlier!" Why give your kids cola? UPDATE: The ad is fake, but it inspired some interesting comments. Details after the jump. Read More... Posted Sep 20 2008, 12:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with 19 comment(s) Filed under: babies, advertisements, advice, coke, Brett Singer, bad advice, they say, digg, images, vintage ads, coca cola, they used to say, cola

• They Say: Bad News For Gov. Palin

  There's no such thing as a safe tan. Even though she made it through getting chided earlier this week for installing a tanning bed in the governor's mansion (she paid for it herself, remember), the whole apparatus and tanning process could bring her this much closer to her running mate, John McCain, who has survived several bouts of skin cancer. Here's the deal (from Yahoo!):   Read More... Posted Sep 19 2008, 05:28 PM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: they say, yahoo, abc news, morning news, no such thing as a safe tan, tanning bed and sarah palin

• They Say: Bilingual Kids Stutter More

  Researchers in stuttering have confirmed what they have long suspected: bilingual children stutter more than those who speak only one language at home and school.  But not all bilingual kids fit the mold. What the researchers found was that those kids who have been bilingual since very early childhood (before age 5) are more likely to stutter.   Read More... Posted Sep 17 2008, 11:03 AM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: Washington Post, stuttering, they say, bilingualism

• They Say: Don't Eat Your Veggies!

  Dr. T. Berry Brazelton is about to become your kids’ new hero. In today’s New York Times Well Blog, he colorfully answers readers' questions about their children’s health, and gets the ball rolling with a firm admonition against vegetables. Forget about veggies, he says. Battling your child to eat any particular food will only backfire in extended dietary struggles throughout your kid’s childhood. Buy a multivitamin for those picky eating years, and save yourself and your kids some headaches. Read More... Posted Sep 16 2008, 01:31 PM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: children, kids, picky eaters, health, cooking for kids, breastfeeding, diet, vegetables, vitamin D, fruit, advice, calories, jessica seinfeld, deceptively delicious, greens, Well blog, they say, pediatrician, vitamin d deficiency, cholesterol, dr. brazelton, nutrients, vitamin, childhood nutrition, multivitamins, veggies, forget about vegetables

• They say: keep your money under your mattress

  That's not exactly what they say, since a fair amount of your deposits are federally insured. Of course, if things get really bad, that won't matter, but we're not going there. In this worse-than-even-I-thought economy, its important to do whatever you can to protect the assets you have. What does this have to do with parenting? Well, do you want to leave the little buggers anything to pay for that nice old-age home you may end up in? (Don't answer that if today was the day junior decided to arch his back and kick you in the family jewels while you tried to do something horrible to him, like put him in the stroller and take him out to buy a bagel. Not that this has ever happened to me. Really.) Read More... Posted Sep 16 2008, 11:00 AM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: news, money, barack obama, crisis, advice, economics, economy, election, John McCain, election 2008, Brett Singer, they say, stock market, your money, savings, lehman brothers, hewlett-packard, finance, dow jones, markets

• They say: Chinese baby formula is dangerous

  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a waning about baby formula made in China. These products are illegal in the U.S., but the FDA fears that some bottles may have found their way onto store shelves in Chinese neighborhoods. According to Chinese officials, "contaminants were found in Sanlu-brand milk formula," which, "killed one baby and caused kidney stones in dozens of others who may have drunk the same product." Read More... Posted Sep 13 2008, 12:30 PM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: news, baby, China, babies, baby formula, recalls, breast milk, breast feeding, formula, scary, milk, Brett Singer, la leche, they say, chinese, sanlu

• I can tell how much you orgasm because of how you walk

  Let's say a guy tells a group of female college students that he can tell how often they've had orgasms by watching them walk. That guy would likely get a smack for that, right? But if he's a SCIENTIST… well, that's different. "A new study found that trained sexologists could infer a woman's history of vaginal orgasm by observing the way she walks. The study is published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine." Read More... Posted Sep 09 2008, 02:30 PM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: college, science, studies, women, scientists, Brett Singer, they say, videotape, beavis and butthead, sleazy guys

• They Say: Kidnapping? It's on the Increase ... But Not Really

  The lead of this story at MSNBC is alarming. I quote: "More new babies are being kidnapped from public places — homes, parking lots and shopping malls — even as improved awareness and better security have cut the number of newborns snatched from the nation’s hospitals and health centers." Makes you nervous, right? Well, the situation is not quite as frightening as that sentence makes it sound. Read More... Posted Sep 08 2008, 01:28 PM by Jen Chaney with | with no comments Filed under: studies, they say, Jen Chaney, kidnappings in hospitals, American Journal of Nursing, kidnappings, kidnappings at home, infant kidnappings, abductions

• They Say: One Kid, One Sport ... No Good

  Think you're solving all your kids potential health problems by getting her interested in a sport early on? Well, maybe not. Sure, experts say the enthusiasm for exercise and just getting out there and moving around is great. But the injuries ... oooooh, the injuries!   Read More... Posted Sep 07 2008, 09:29 AM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: childhood obesity, exercise, NY Times, kids and sports, they say, kid sports injuries

• They Say: That Thing About BPA Bottles Being Safe? Uh, Kidding!

  On behalf of plastic-pushing parents everywhere, I'd like to say to government scientists: make up your damn minds! The latest out of Washington is that, yes, once again, there is cause for concern about baby's brain development in children who consume food and drink through plastics containing BPA (bisphenol-A for those raising their children under a rock).   Read More... Posted Sep 05 2008, 03:01 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: FDA, BPA-free bottles, they say, BPA safe, government toxicologists, bpa not safe, risks of bpa exposure, whatever!

• They Say: More Toddlers Get Immunized Than Ever

  From the news -- multi-state measles outbreaks, autism-weary parents cautious when it comes to immunizing --  you'd think parents who get the full schedule of vaccines for their kids are the ones way outside the norm. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Surprisingly so.   Read More... Posted Sep 05 2008, 02:01 PM by Madeline Holler with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: immunizations, cdc, they say, reuters, childhood vaccinations, measles outbreaks, autism link to vaccines

• They Say: no link between autism and measles vaccine

  This news is unfortunately not likely to solve anyone's questions about whether or not vaccines are a cause of autism. "Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University, collaborating with a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Trinity College in Dublin, tackled the hot-button question: whether the MMR vaccine causes autism. "'We are persuaded there is no link,' said Lipkin, director of the center on infection and immunity at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health in Manhattan." Read More... Posted Sep 04 2008, 01:30 PM by Brett Singer with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: Jenny McCarthy, health, news, autism, vaccinations, MMR, science, studies, vaccines, measles, scientists, doctors, vaccine, Brett Singer, they say, autistic, mmr vaccine

• They Say: Here's the Reason Your Baby's First Word Is Mama

  Okay, this probably won't come as a surprise to anyone. But babies don't say "mama" and "daddy" as their first words because they adore their parents. As this article explains, researchers recently used imaging techniques to study how language affects the infant brain. Turns out words with repeating syllables -- like mama, dada and baby -- stimulate the temporal and left frontal areas of the brain. Words that don't involve repetition, meanwhile, are not as appealing and therefore, harder to learn to say. This new scientific data also explains why my son constantly says Nana and Obama. Read More... Posted Aug 28 2008, 12:28 PM by Jen Chaney with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: science, words, they say, language and infants, baby's first words, scientific studies on infants