Would you buy technical fruit for your family?

Filed under: Eating

OK, do you remember a picture from a few years back of a mouse that had been genetically modified to sport a human ear? I do not remember how I came across it, but I do know that it's been permanently seared into my brain ever since, much to my chagrin. Turns out the picture was not totally what it appeared to be, but it was highly disturbing nonetheless.

I think it was around that time that I started focusing on my food, looking for organic stuff and regarding anything "genetically altered" with suspicion and a tinge of terror. My parents have an apple tree at their cabin, "grafted" to grow several different kinds of apples on one tree, and even that skeeves me. So I'm not sure what to make of the news that the Japanese have created a chocolate-strawberry hybrid.

Using "infusion technology", scientists have managed to infuse the garden-variety strawberry with chocolate, a new type of "composite food. And it's not just strawberries -- there are apples infused with wine, too! The possibilities are endless, but I'm still dubious. I think I'd prefer my pears without filling, and so would my kid. Why must we mess with everything, I wonder?

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Is Halley Berry just nesting...or is she having twins?

Filed under: Lifestyle, Pregnant celebrities, Celebrity style, Baby furniture

Halle Berry's seems to be nesting big time. She is supposedly buying two of everything--to decorate her baby's bedroom (one in Hollywood Hills and one in Malibu) identically, "so that the baby won't be confused."

I can't help but wonder if Halle is reading the same books that I was reading when I was pregnant--because I seem to remember that a baby's vision is almost exclusively focused on what's right in front of it's face--i.e. mom and dad, and that it can't even focus on, let alone comprehend the finer points of nursery room decor. Although this does seem to be a current Hollywood trend--Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger did the same thing when they split up.

But even when the baby is old enough to take in the subtler features of nursery decor, I think it would be more confusing, rather than less so, to have two identical rooms in different locations. Just picture how you'd feel if you went on a business trip and woke up in a room that looked exactly like your bedroom at home?

What do you think? Is duplicating nursery decor necessary or needless? ....Or is Halle Berry having twins?

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Study Finds DVDs Don't Help Babies Learn Language Faster

Baby videos, like the Baby Einstein videos, can certainly hold a babies attention but they may not help them become smarter or learn faster. An article on Forbes describes a recent study that found baby DVDs/videos had "no positive or negative effect" on toddlers vocabulary and found that babies aged 8 to 16 months actually learned a few less words than non-DVD watching infants.

The study, which included more than 1,000 families with infants or toddlers, was published Tuesday in the Journal of Pediatrics.

"The most important fact to come from this study is, there is no clear evidence of a benefit coming from baby DVDs and videos, and there is some suggestion of harm," lead author Frederick Zimmerman, an associate professor of health services at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute, said in a prepared statement. "The bottom line is, the more a child watches baby DVDs and videos, the bigger the effect. The amount of viewing does matter."

"The results surprised us, but they make sense," added study co-author Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, in a prepared statement.

"There are only a fixed number of hours that young babies are awake and alert. If the 'alert time' is spent in front of DVDs and TV instead of with people speaking in 'parentese' -- that melodic speech we use with little ones -- the babies are not getting the same linguistic experience," Meltzoff said.

The article also suggests this helpful link on the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's website that describes some great non-DVD activities that can help stimulate language development. The jury is still out on the DVDs. The people behind the study said more research will be needed to determine what long-term effects these DVDs targeted at babies have. The answer may be that there are no short-cuts to obtaining knowledge. Experience is always the better teacher which is why kids need make believe, peek-a-boo, nursery rhymes and other creative activites to help spark their little imaginations.

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Cervical cancer vaccine is painful

Filed under: Health and Safety, High school, College, Teenager, Making a Difference

Teenage girls aren't generally known for downplaying their emotions or being stoic about pain. However, the new HPV (cervical cancer) vaccine is reported to really hurt like a mofo.

"This vaccine stings a lot," said Patsy Stinchfield, an infectious disease expert at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, speaking at a recent meeting of vaccination experts in Atlanta.

U.S. health official have also noted a rise in vaccine-related fainting among teenage girls. From 2002-2004 there were about 50 reports of fainting; from 2005 until last July, there were about 230. About 180 of those cases followed a shot of the HPV vaccine, which came on the market in 2006.

However, it's hard to say if the increase is due to the pain of this particular medication has anything to do with the passing out, as teens as a group have a higher tendency to faint from needles anyway. Researchers aren't sure why, but nervousness may be a factor.

So forewarned is forearmed: your teen is not just being a drama queen about the HPV injection and she really should be treated with new shoes for her bravery!

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Childcare Professionals Criticize UK Baby Show

Childcare professionals are highly critical of a UK show called Bringing Up Baby. The controversial show, which airs on UK's Channel 4, compares child rearing tactics from the 50s, 60s and 70s. The Telegraph repoorts that some childcare professionals believe some of the tactics used on the show may be harmful.

Verity, 41, is shown recommending that infants be left to sleep in a separate room from their mother. She also recommends that parents feed babies at strict four-hour intervals and ignore the child no matter how much it cries.

Childcare professionals, including Mary MacLeod, the chief executive of the Family and Parenting Institute, say they are alarmed Channel 4 is broadcasting "such an exploitative parenting series as Bringing Up Baby".

They warn: "Many techniques in these programmes fly in the face of scientific knowledge about brain development in very young babies. That anyone should be billed as an expert and allowed to promote ideas such as not making eye contact with babies and not comforting them in distress is at best irresponsible and at worst dangerous."

MacLeod said that she would be writing to the watchdog Ofcom, urging it to force broadcasters and programme makers to be more responsible. She said: "Bringing Up Baby may masquerade as a very serious programme but it is not. It is using outmoded techniques on babies that after all cannot give their consent."

People are discussing the show here on a Yahoo UK Answers thread. Most are quite disturbed at one of the practices on the show where a baby was left alone in the garden. They are also describing an episode where parents sipped wine downstairs while ignoring the baby crying upstairs. The Telegraph says a Channel 4 spokesman told the Telegraph that they did consult professionals when making the show and they took the welfarre of the babies involved "extremely seriously."

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