New State Law for Car Seats

http://www.uticaod.com/health/x1136015094/Buckle-up-baby

Starting November 24, state law will require that all children younger than 8 ride in car or booster seats. Safety experts recommend booster seats until the child is 4ft. 9in. tall. 

3 out of 4 car seats are not installed correctly and therefore not keeping children as safe as they should be, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To help parents install these seats correctly, the website www.carseatdata.org provides a list of which car seats are compatible with which vehicles. 

The risk of car accidents is much higher now than in previous generations because there are more cars on the road. It is more important than ever to keep children secure in the car. 

For the best protection, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends keeping infants in rear-facing child safety seats for as long as possible, until they reach the maximum weight or height limit, or at least until 1 year old and 20 pounds heavy. Once the rear-facing seat has been grown out of, a forward-facing seat can be used until the weight or height limit of that seat is reached. After that, use a booster seat in the back seat of the car until the child is big enough for the vehicle seat belt to fit properly. The lap belt should be across the upper thigh and the shoulder belt should be across the chest. It is recommended that children younger than 13 always ride in the back seat. 

Pros and Cons of Unusual Baby Names

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-redmond-satran/unusual-names-why----and_b_333282.html

Unusual baby names are becoming more and more common not just in America. Chinese parents are using unconventional combinations of letters, numbers and symbols for their children's names, such as 1A, or the @ symbol. Many European countries restrict the possible names for children, but in Belgium, where there are no restrictions, over half of children receive unique names such as Testimony and Cherub. 

Most modern studies find that children with unusual names do as well as others in school and with peers. Martin Ford, a developmental psychologist claims that the probability of an unusual name having a positive effect on a child's development is as likely as that of it having a negative effect. Authors of Bad Baby Names claim that children named Ima Muskrat and Happy Day were less distressed by their names than they were proud of standing out in a crowd. 

According to psychologist Brett Pelham, your associations with your own name can influence your life through what career you choose, where you live, etc. For instance, people named Georgia are more likely to become geologists, move to Atlanta, and marry men named George than they are to make choices less connected with their names. People with very unusual or unique names may not have these cultural associations, which could be seen as an advantage or disadvantage. 

Baby Einstein Refund

http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2009/10/26/baby-einstein-refund-and-the-allure-of-the-digital-babysitter/

The Walt Disney Company is offering refunds for it's Baby Einstein videos, which were marketed as being educational for children. According to the New York Times, the refund may be an admission that they didn't increase infant intellect. 

Child development experts say that exposure to the videos don't enhance children's intellect and could actually harm their development. There are lots of conflicting studies about the effect of screen time on young children, but the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend any screen time for children under 2 years old. 

Despite this information, Baby Einstein videos have been very popular. According to a 2003 study cited by the Times, one third of all U.S. babies ages 6 months to 2 years had at least one Baby Einstein video.

Disney will refund $15.99 for up to 4 Baby Einstein DVDs per household bought between June 5, 2004 and September 5, 2009. Parents can exchange their video for a different title, receive a discount coupon, or get $15.99 each for DVDs returned to the company. The offer requires no receipt and extends until March 10.

Recall of Plum Organics Product

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/10/baby-food-botulism-recall-.html

Plum Organic's 4.22 ounce apple and carrot portable pouch baby food has been recalled due to the risk of potential contamination with clostridium botulinum, which can cause botulism - a serious condition which can be life threatening. 

The product has a best-by date of May 21, 2010 and UPC code is 890180001221. It was sold at Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us stores. No illnesses have been reported. 

The onset of symptoms in foodborne botulism is usually 18-36 hours after ingestion of food containing the toxin although cases have varied from 4 hours to 8 days. Early signs of intoxication consist of marked lassitude, weakness and vertigo, double vision and progressive difficulty speaking and swallowing. Difficulty breathing, weakness of other muscles, abdominal distention and constipation may also be common symptoms. 

The incidence of the disease is low, but the mortality rate is high if not treated immediately and properly. 

Toys "R" Us Fights Price Fixing Allegations

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/toys-us-fights-price-fixing-allegations-baby-products/Story?id=8865237&page=1

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Toys "R" Us for illegally keeping prices high on baby products. The retailer is also being sued by consumers and online retailers. 2 lawsuits filed over 3 years ago have been consolidated into 1 case. The lawsuit alleges that Babies "R" Us (owned by Toys "R" Us) was able to keep prices high by coercing toy manufacturers to make agreements with other retailers that the products would not be sold below a certain minimum price.

Two online baby retailers, BabyAge.com and Baby Club of America, say they ultimately lost business because of pressure from toy manufacturers - who were under pressure from Babies "R" Us - which stopped the retailers from discounting their merchandise. 

Toys "R" Us says the accusations have no merit. The case is expected to head to court next year. If the class action case is successful, consumers could see lower prices at Babies "R" Us, and Babies "R" Us customers found to have overpaid for products could be awarded damages. 

Paxil Ordered to Pay $2.5 Million for Baby Birth Defects

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,566701,00.html

In the first of about 600 similar cases pending across the country, the anti-depressant Paxil was blamed for heart problems and other birth defects. The Philadelphia jury found GlaxoSmithKline guilty of negligence. The company vowed to appeal the decision.

From its introduction in 1992, until 2005, Paxil was classified as a drug with no known link to increased birth defects. In September 2005, the FDA began warning that Paxil may be associated with birth defects. It is argued that the company may have known about the adverse affects of the drug long before 2005.

The makers of Paxil stated, "Once approved for use, the company acted properly in marketing the medicine, including monitoring it's safety, updating pregnancy information in medicine's labeling as new information became available, and in communicating important safety information to regulatory agencies, the scientific community and the public".

Plaintiff's lawyers will continue to pursue punitive damages in the hundreds of remaining cases. The next one is set for trial in Philadelphia in November. 

New Egg-Screening Technique

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.9ba72084fc14ca0167c0da3a436ea14a.2d1&show_article=1

A new technique could double the odds of an implanted embryo taking hold in the womb. A baby was born last month using this technique, to a 41 year old woman after 13 failed attempts at IVF. 

The new technique, called array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), makes it possible to ensure that eggs have the normal number of chromosomes, making a successful pregnancy more likely. Full chromosomal analysis may double the chance of success for couples who have a poor chance of conceiving. This technique has the potential to dramatically reduce the incidence of miscarriages and multiple pregnancies in IVF patients. 

The treatment is currently only available at Care Fertility, Britain's largest independent provider of assisted conception. Chairman of the British Fertility Society, Tony Rutherford, said array CGH, "offers much promise". He also stated that "It is absolutely essential that these new techniques are subject to further rigorous research, and should only be offered to patients within the context of a robustly designed clinical trial". 

Baby Is Ok After Train Hits Stroller

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10604077

In a train station in Melbourne, Australia, a mother let go of her baby's stroller for an instant, and it rolled off the platform, onto the tracks just as a train was pulling in. The train pushed the stroller about 130 feet along the tracks before it stopped. The whole incident took about 7 seconds. 

Amazingly the baby is okay. The only injury suffered was a bump on the head. Police say that the baby was properly secured in the stroller, which probably saved his life. Police also hope that this incident will encourage people to be more safety conscious when using the train system. 

Anti-Depressant Use in Pregnancy Affect Baby

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/06/antidepressant.pregnancy.newborn/index.html

More than 1 in 10 women develop depression during pregnancy. A new study suggests that women who are treated with anti-depressants are more likely to give birth early, or have newborns that need to be in the neonatal intensive care unit. 

The study included 329 women who took SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, most common medication for depression), 4902 women with a history of psychiatric illness who weren't taking the drugs, and 51,770 women who had no history of psychiatric illness and weren't taking the medication. All had received care at Aarhus University Hospital between 1989 and 2006.

Babies of women taking SSRIs were born an average of 5 days earlier, and were twice as likely to be preterm than those born to women with no mental illness. They were also 2.4 times as likely to have been in neonatal care. 

Experts say that using non-pharmacologial treatments during pregnancy, when possible, is a good idea. In cases with mild to moderate symptoms, psychotherapy can be used as an alternative treatment. In severe cases and in patients with a history of recurrent, severe depression, SSRIs may be the best option. Every case should be considered individually, and the decision should be made by the woman and her ob-gyn and psychiatrist.

Early, At-Home Gender Test

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/women/orl--tc-fam-gender-test-0702092909sep29,0,1716570.story

Rebecca Griffin, a mother of 3 boys and a girl, didn't want to wait 20 weeks for a sonogram to find out the sex of her baby. Working with another Texas mom, she developed an inexpensive, home-based test that could predict gender. 

Working with a chemist, she began testing her product, and in November 2006, Intelligender Gender Prediction Test was born.

Available in the family planning section at many pharmacies for $29.99, the test can be used as early as the 10th week of pregnancy.

It works by testing the urine of pregnant women for gender-specific hormones. A color appears to represent a boy or girl. The product is 82% accurate when used in the home, and laboratory results are over 90% accurate. 

Miscarriage Treatment Won't Effect Fertility

http://www.ajc.com/health/content/shared-auto/healthnews/born/631783.html

New research shows the the current treatments for women who have had an early miscarriage don't effect their long-term fertility. 

On average, 15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage in the 1st trimester. Surgery to remove tissue remaining in the uterus used to be the standard treatment. Now many women are offered expectant and medical treatment as well.

A live birth within 5 years of a miscarriage was reported by 78.7% of those who received medical treatment, 79% who received expectant management, and 81.7% who had surgery.

Older women and those who had 3 or more miscarriages were less likely to have a live birth. 

In light of this new research, women can be assured that the type of miscarriage management they choose will not effect their long-term fertility.

Cancer Spread to Baby in Womb

http://www.smh.com.au/national/mothers-cancer-spread-to-baby-in-the-womb-20091013-gvqe.html

Scientists have established that cancer can be spread from mother to baby in the womb. The discovery was made in Britain when a baby developed cancer a few months after her mother died of leukaemia. A team at the Institute for Cancer Research found that leukaemia cells had crossed the placenta and spread from the mother to her unborn baby.

Researchers said about 17 cases of suspected mother-to-child transmission had been noted throughout the world- usually leukaemia or melanoma, but this case was the first hard evidence of the phenomenon. 

The most interesting part of this case for researchers was that the baby's immune system didn't recognize the cells as being foreign. Cancer cells of the mother and baby both contained the identical mutated cancer gene, called BCR-ABL1. The infant has not inherited the gene, so the cells must have come from the mother.

The genes of the cancer cells in the infant has a deletion mutation - some DNA missing in the region that controls expression of the major histo-compatibility locus. The HLA molecules distinguish one individual's cells from another, so absence of these meant the infant's immune system would not recognize that they were foreign.

Baby Too Fat To Be Insured

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/insurer-refuses-to-cover-baby-says-hes-too-fat/

A new report reveals that insurance companies now deny coverage to babies that are above the 95th percentile for height and weight after they are born. 

Alex Lange, a chubby, healthy 4 month old was denied coverage by Rocky Mountain Health Plans because he is in the 99th percentile for weight. His parents don't want to restrict his food intake while he is still an infant and still breastfeeding. They think it is absurd to deny insurance to an infant who is healthy.

Studies suggest that there is a correlation between higher BMI's (body mass index) and higher insurance premiums. The CDC estimates that as much as 10% of US healthcare costs are due to overweight and obese people. A normal BMI is 19-25, however, people with a BMI of 27 or 28 don't cost insurers much more than someone with a BMI of 25. 

Parents Holding Back on Babies Because of Recession

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/256/story/76960.html

With unemployment rate at nearly 10%, many Americans are barely scraping by. People are worried about providing for a family and many are putting off having children because they simply can't afford it.

The Great Depression and oil recession of the mid 70's saw record low birth rates in the US. 

It is still too early to have a full view of the current recession's birth rates, but demographers are seeing signs that Americans are holding back on babies for now. 

Missouri's birth rate in the first five months of this year dropped 6%- the biggest change the state has had in birth rate in the last 5 years. 

Dangers of Fertility Treatments

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/health/12fertility.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Thomas and Amanda Stansel used a common fertility treatment, called intrauterine insemination to get pregnant. Mrs. Stansel ended up carrying 6 babies. Her doctor said that there was no chance that she would deliver 6 healthy babies, and suggested selective reduction, a process where potassium chloride is injected into the heart region of a fetus, which will usually then disappear, absorbed into surrounding tissue. This eliminates some of the fetuses, to give the others a better chance at survival. Because of religious convictions, the Stansels rejected this advice. 

The babies were born on August 4, 14 weeks premature. 4 have died so far, including one on Sunday night, 2 are still in neonatal intensive care. 

In vitro fertilization is widely thought to be the main cause of multiple births, but intrauterine insemination (IUI) is actually the major cause of quadruplets, quintuplets, and sextuplets- the most dangerous pregnancies for mother and baby. IUI is used twice as often because it is less invasive, cheaper, and more likely to be covered by insurance than in vitro. The high-potency hormones of IUI overstimulate the ovaries and produce a large number of eggs. 

A recent study by Dartmouth Medical School suggests that because IUI often requires repeated tries, it would lower cost and risk of large multiple births if parents avoided it and went straight to IUI. 

Dr. Richard P. Dickey, a specialist who has conducted research on hormone use in reproductive medicine, said IVF is normally a safe procedure, but some doctors prescribe excessive doses of hormone injections, which overstimulate the ovaries. 

IUI leaves many parents carrying large multiple births and left with the difficult decision of whether to eliminate fetuses or not. Many people are against this procedure because of religious beliefs. Even with selective reduction, there is still a risk of long-term complications, blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, and many other problems. 

How To Communicate With Your Baby

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/baby/baby-talk-communicating-with-your-baby

Early speech and language skills are associated with success in developing reading, writing and interpersonal skills, both later in childhood and later in life. Encourage your baby's attempts to communicate. Give attention to them when they baby talk, and imitate that baby talk back to them. Imitate their gestures too. Talk to your baby often, narrating what you are doing.

At 1-3 months, baby will start cooing and gurgling, making vowel sounds like "ooh" at around 2 months. At 4-7 months baby watches for your reaction to his or her babbling. At this age, introduce your baby to simple words by holding up an object and saying it's name. At 8-12 months baby will start playing with sounds like "ga-ga" and "da-da". At this age, baby loves one-on-one interaction and games and songs such as patty cake and itsy bitsy spider. 

During the 1st year, your baby should respond to your baby talk by cooing, gurgling and babbling back. If you are concerned about your baby's lack of development in communication and speech, talk to your baby's doctor. 

New Research on Premature Birth

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/04/premature.infant.deaths/index.html?iref=newssearch

The March of Dimes has conducted the first global report on premature births. They have found that more than 1 million babies born prematurely die each year before they are 1 month old. Each year nearly 10% of annual worldwide births are premature. More than 85% of these occur in developing countries in Africa and Asia.

In the US, the annual cost of caring for preterm babies and their associated health problems is over $26 billion. The highest preterm birthrate is in Africa, where 11.9% of births each year are preterm. North America had the second highest preterm birthrate- 10.6% of all births. Much of this hike is linked to more pregnancies after age 35 and the use of fertility treatments. 

Infants who are born prematurely and survive face lifelong health risks including possible development of cerebral palsy, blindness, hearing loss, learning disabilities and other chronic conditions. The report stated that preterm birth needs greater attention from policymakers, researchers, healthcare providers, the media, donor organizations. and other stakeholders. 

According to the March of Dimes, some premature births can be prevented by addressing risk factors in mothers such as diabetes, high blood pressure, nutrition, body weight and tobacco and alcohol use. Women who gave birth to a preemie are at greater risk of having another. While this will help prevent preterm birth, doctors do not have a reliable remedy for early labor. 

New Findings on Gestational Diabetes

http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20090930/treat-gestational-diabetes-for-babys-sake

According to a new study, treating gestational diabetes, even in mild cases, helps reduce the risk of complications in infants and mothers. Gestational diabetes is a glucose intolerance that first shows up during pregnancy. Women with elevated blood sugar levels are known to be at risk for pregnancy complications, but it has not been clear how the milder form of gestational diabetes affects pregnancy. 

A new study provides clear evidence that women who treated their mild GD had a number of advantages over those who didn't. They were half as likely to have a large baby. Large babies are at risk for health problems later in life, including obesity. The women treated were also less likely to need a Cesarean delivery, less likely to deliver a baby with shoulder dystocia, in which the shoulder gets "stuck" during delivery, less likely to have pregnancy-related high blood pressure and preeclampia.

The study concludes that even mild forms of gestational diabetes allow elevated levels of glucose to get to the fetus, in turn leading to excessive growth. Treating this condition with diet and exercise decreases the risk for health problems for mother and baby. 

Heart Defects in Baby Linked to Mom's Obesity

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/HeartHealth/overweight-mom-risk-baby-heart-defects/story?id=8734255

New research by the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities shows that women who are overweight during pregnancy may be putting their baby at a higher risk for congenital heart defects. 

Compared to women who were at a normal weight at the beginning of pregnancy, overweight mothers had an 18% increased risk of giving birth to a child with certain heart defects, particularly right ventricular outflow tract defects, pulmonary valve stenosis, septal defects and secondum atrial septal defects. Severely obese women were at a 30% risk of defects similar to those of overweight women, but also including conotruncal defects and tetralogy of Fallot. 

These findings may be explained by differences in diet between obese and normal weight women. These defects occur very early in the pregnancy, so women should try to be at a healthy weight before they get pregnant to prevent these complications.

How To Protect Baby From Swine Flu

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/sfl-swine-flu-qna-100509,0,4598970.story

Newborn's immune systems are incomplete, putting them at a higher risk for the H1N1 flu virus. Babies under 6 months old cannot get the flu vaccine. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention advises parents and siblings livings with infants to get vaccinated. 

If someone in the house does get sick, try to keep them away from the baby. If possible, have a healthy person care for the baby. If that is not possible, consider wearing a surgical mask when caring for baby, or put a blanket in between you and baby. Wash hands often and avoid touching mouth, nose and eyes. 

Mothers who are breast-feeding should keep doing so. The virus does not travel in mother's milk and it is okay to take flu medicine while nursing. If sick, pump milk and have others do the feeding.