Prams facing parent ‘healthier for babies’ – report

BABIES in prams might walk the walk, but they also need to talk the talk, a new study has found.

A British report of 2722 parents and babies found children in prams facing the front are less likely to talk, laugh and interact with the person pushing them.

Almost 90 per cent of babies are in forward-facing prams, which psychologists from Dundee University say could undermine children’s development.

Children facing whoever is pushing them are twice as likely to be talked to, boosting their language and emotional development.

Key findings include:

ONE-quarter of parents using face-to-face buggies talk to their baby — compared with 11 per cent of those with babies facing away.

FIFTY per cent of babies facing their mothers laughed during a 1.6km journey, while only one in a group of 20 facing away laughed.

BABIES facing their pushers also had slower heart rates, and were twice as likely to fall asleep.

Ava Adams, a spokeswoman for Valco Baby prams, said many new pram models allowed parents to face babies in both directions.

Ms Adams, 32, is a first-time mother to Jack, 14 months. “In the first six months it’s reassuring to have your baby facing you and as they get older you can face them around to see everything.”

Original:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24811482-661,00.html

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The Baby Expo joins Pampers and UNICEF Initiative aimed at saving millions of babies’ lives

In a new global initiative aimed at saving millions of babies’ lives, Pampers and UNICEF South Africa have come together to help eliminate tetanus, a silent killer of mothers and infants on the African continent.

Tetanus is rife in underdeveloped countries, with an estimated 140,000 babies dying from newborn tetanus and up to 30,000 women dying from maternal tetanus each year. A simple vaccine can help prevent these senseless deaths. The mechanism is simple, for every specially marked pack sold, Pampers will donate the cost of one tetanus vaccination to UNICEF.

In support of their campaign The Baby Expo™ has partnered with UNICEF South Africa and selected them as their beneficiary of choice for the upcoming Cape Town show to be held from the 7-9 November at the CTICC. The Baby Expo Cape Town is one of the first places parents, and parents-to-be, can buy their specially marked Pampers packs and support the Pampers UNICEF One Pack = One Vaccine campaign. Pampers has been a supporter of The Baby Expo since its inception, and views the expo as a valuable platform to interact with parents and empower them with knowledge on babies’ development through a series of workshops. To make the campaign as successful as possible Pampers will be doing the following at The Baby Expo Cape Town.

Pampers Workshops: On behalf of every person seated during a PISA workshop, Pampers will donate the cost of 1 tetanus vaccine to UNICEF. The Pampers UNICEF wall: Moms who have purchased Pampers packs at Baby City can go to the Pampers stand where a picture will be taken of mother and baby. Baby’s hand print will be imprinted on the giant Pampers wall. They will also receive a photo frame with the slogan: “Me and Mommy helped save a life”.

UNICEF: There will be UNICEF representatives on the Pampers stand. On Friday and Saturday, Joan Matji, Senior Nutrition Specialist will be available to explain the initiative and other UNICEF work to mothers who can make additional donations.

Corporate Social Responsibility is becoming increasingly important for both local and global companies, who are continuously contributing more time, resources and funds towards the betterment of society. Through its partnership with UNICEF, Pampers is one brand making a determined effort to help those in need.

In South Africa, the 2008/2009 One Pack=One Vaccine campaign aims to contribute the cost of more than three million tetanus vaccines to the global initiative. Together with the support of moms worldwide, Pampers have already donated the cost of 50 million vaccines and aims to raise the cost of a total of 200 million vaccines.

According to Projeni Pather, Managing Director of Exposure Marketing and Communication, a five per cent donation from all tickets sold at this year’s Baby Expo in Cape Town, will be used to support UNICEF’s child survival programs in South Africa, including a campaign to provide life saving vitamin A capsules to over four million children.

Elaborating on the company’s reasons for choosing UNICEF as this year’s beneficiary, she added, “We feel that UNICEF is an excellent match for the event, a cause which aims to protect mothers and babies speaks to every participant and visitor at the show. We are proud to be able to make a difference in this way on behalf of all moms.”

Visitors to The Baby Expo Cape Town from 7 – 9 November are invited to visit the Pampers stand at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Doors at the expo will be open from 9am – 6pm daily, and tickets are R40 per person, with kids under the age of 10 getting in for free.

via:http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/94/30021.html

India-born baby to meet Japanese dad

A BABY born in India by a surrogate mother is to join her father in Japan, a family friend said, ending months of uncertainty over the infant’s fate.
Manji Yamada was born in July after eggs from an unknown donor were fertilized using her Japanese father’s sperm and implanted in the womb of an surrogate Indian mother.
Her biological father, Ikufumi Yamada, 45, divorced his wife after the fertilization process and his former spouse no longer wants the baby.
With Indian law disallowing the adoption of a girl by a single father, Manji’s fate was hanging in the balance until Indian authorities issued her an identity certificate enabling her to travel last month.
This paved the way for the Japanese embassy to issue her a visa and “now Baby Manji will be with her father this weekend,” Ikufumi’s friend, Kamal Vijayvargiya, said by phone from the western Indian city of Jaipur.

“Baby Manji and her grandmother Emkio Yamada have left for New Delhi from where they will take a flight for Japan,” said Vijayvargiya, with whom the two have been living since August.

“Manji has a one-year tourist visa. Manji’s grandmother hopes the family will be able to get the baby Japanese citizenship as soon as possible.”
The case, which made headlines in India, has brought calls for regulation of the country’s booming surrogacy business.
Surrogate mothers are often poor women opting to carry a stranger’s baby to help pay education and housing costs for their own families.
Gujarat’s Anand town — where Manji was born — has emerged as India’s surrogacy centre after the high-profile case of a woman who gave birth to her own grandchildren on behalf of her British-based daughter in 2004.
Surrogate mothers in Anand charge around $2,500 for a pregnancy and have been approached by a number of overseas Indian and foreign couples who can have a surrogate baby at a fraction of what it would cost in Western countries..
Original From:southasianpost.com

MOTHERING MATTERS: My daughter is growing up, but she’s still my baby

I have permission to write this. Trust me, this time I asked.

I sat down on my daughter’s bed, and she pushed her legs forward.

“What can I do about my furry legs?”

My petite brown-haired daughter is only eight years old. I couldn’t fathom that my child would be worrying about something so grown up when she’s practicing the four’s in her multiplication tables.

“I need to shave my legs,” she announced. But I wasn’t quite ready for that commitment.

“Once you start, you’ll have to do it forever.”

“Mom, look at them.”

And while I don’t like to succumb to peer pressure, and I don’t want to propel my daughter towards womanhood any sooner than she’s destined to be there, I also wouldn’t lie to her. She was absolutely right: her legs have noticeably visible hair below her knees.

“I’ll call your doctor.”

Not that she had any health issue related to this, but I remembered when I began shaving my legs, soaping suds along my shin and calf. It seems my mother had made me wait longer than I wanted, and I needed to make sure I wasn’t committing some parenting faux pas by allowing my child to shave as a third-grader. I wondered if a depilatory would be more suitable for a child, so I left a message for the nurse.

“Did they call back yet?’ My daughter waited 18 hours before she had her answer: if it was OK with me for her to shave, then that was the route the doctor suggested. She questioned the long-term effects of depilatories on a child so young.

I have no memory of which razor I used when I began shaving my legs, but I’m almost positive I didn’t have shaving cream. I always thought that seemed more glamorous than making thin bubbles with a melting bar of Ivory soap. And razors have improved in the past three decades. We found some on sale that had triple-blade precision with the moisturizing edge on top. My daughter picked the purple bottle of shaving cream after I told her, “Lavender helps you sleep.”

Up to this point, I felt fairly proficient in this process, but teaching my child the technique of shaving worried me. Time after time, I’ve shaved an inch-long track along my ankle or over my knee because I’ve forgotten to account for an unusual angle.

“Don’t press hard,” I commanded as I squirted the cream onto her stick-thin legs. She rubbed the gel into foam, then took the razor from my hand, “I can do it, Mom.” I suppose I should be she thankful that she, like my three boys, is so independent.

“Wow, I told you!” she exclaimed. “Look at all that hair.”

“You need to get that out of the razor,” I began, but before I could finish, she’d pushed the clump sideways across the blade, leaving three small slices across her thumb.

“Never, ever do that,” I said too late as we held the blade beneath the spigot and banged it on the tub floor.

She rubbed her hand down the stubble on my shin.”How often do you shave?’ she asked, and I realized that this ritual has evolved and devolved during the 17 years of my marriage.

“Want to feel my legs?” she asked her brothers as she pranced downstairs.

“Eeeoouu,” my second son, a 6th-grader yelled, and my third son, a fifth-grader, would have said the same but he wasn’t home. My high schooler simply ignored her.

Despite her very grown up approach to her problem, I’ve held on to the one thing that reminds me she is still a child, my youngest, my baby.

She calls her legs “furry,” and for that, I’m thankful.

Original:gastongazette.com

Gwen Stefani’s Perfume Smells Like Bananas (BANANAS)

I’m totally obsessed with perfume, and I’m so glad I’m not alone in my obsession. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can often find me at Neiman Marcus having a nice little chat with the salesladies about the newest Jo Malone offering. However, I stopped by Macy’s last week to put some NARS makeup on my Macy’s card (wise choice, the Orgasm blush is as ace as everyone says and I’m addicted to their Indian Red lip stain. . . as a red lipstick devotee, this one tops my list) and noticed a disgustingly cutesy display in the perfume section of that downtown department store. (I have a lot of issues with Macy’s, but that’s another day’s blog.)

Said display was totally devoted to Gwen Stefani’s new line of perfumes for people in middle school or those with, as the campaign states, “a fatal attraction to cuteness.” Remember when Gwen used to travel around with that pack of cute Asian girls? Well, she made perfumes in their image, and one in her own. Each tiny bottle is shaped like “Love,” “Angel,” “Music,” or “Baby,” and the bitsy dollies are soooooo cuuuuuute. . ..or, kawaii? So naturally I stopped to sniff, though I was totally unimpressed with Gwen’s debut fragrance, L, last year.

“Baby” smells like, you guessed it, a baby—-and though a bunch of dudes from another generation think Love’s Baby Soft is the sexiest perfume ever, I don’t share this opinion at all. “Angel” and “Music” and “Lamb” were as forgettable as any Victoria’s Secret body splash or drugstore knockoff brand, but worst of all was Gwen’s eponymous little dolly, “G,” which smells akin to spilling Malibu Rum all over yourself. Try as they might, the salesladies just couldn’t push a spritz or a purchase on me. Save them for the 7th graders.

from:

http://www.mndaily.com/blogs/ae-blog/2008/10/20/gwen-stefanis-perfume-smells-bananas-b-n-n-s

Inside Ashlee Simpson’s Baby Shower

Ashlee Simpson and husband Pete Wentz had a Winnie the Pooh-themed baby shower at Bel-Air Hotel’s Palm Room on Saturday afternoon, reports Star.

Ashlee’s older sister, Jessica, and mom, Tina, hosted the co-ed party, which was had 40 guests.

On the menu was crabcakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, jicama salad with grapefruit and a bumble bee-shaped cake.

“The room was decorated with yellow and orange roses, and guests were given jars of honey with custom-made labels that said ‘Baby Wentz’ and ‘Thank You For Celebrating My Life’ on them,” says a party guest. “The girls were also given bracelets that had a big bumble bee on them.

The baby is due any day now!

Original:buzznet.com

Keeping an eye on the kids from irishtimes.com

Ensuring the safety of children when they go online or outside is a problem all parents now face – but how far should you go, asks Fionola Meredith

TEENAGERS HATE being watched. One of their top priorities is avoiding the beady gaze of parents, whether that means lurking moodily in their rooms (door firmly shut), or making a lightning-fast dive for the minimise button on the computer screen at the sound of a parental footstep.

God forbid that a disapproving parent should catch a glimpse of any online conversation they might be having. As the mother of a 14-year-old boy, I’m familiar with this adolescent lurch towards shiftiness and evasion. But it leaves parents with a dilemma. If our kids aren’t telling us anything about their lives, how can we keep a protective eye on their activities?

Given the lack of two-way communication, some parents are going undercover, turning to decidedly sneaky ways of monitoring their monosyllabic offspring. Quick perusals of unattended mobile phones (scrolling hastily through stored text messages) are common, and some parents register with sites such as Bebo or Facebook, with the specific purpose of checking out their children’s personal pages.

One couple I know came up with the idea of secretly installing baby monitors in their 15-year-old daughter’s bedroom, so they could listen in on her telephone conversations from the comfort of their living room. There they would sit, G and Ts in hand, eyes out on stalks, eavesdropping on their daughter’s lurid, expletive-riddled confidences.

Why did they do it in the first place – and did they find out anything disturbing?

“We were worried because our daughter had fallen in with a rough, boozy older crowd,” says mum June. “We never discovered anything dreadful, but it was horrible hearing her swear, and talking away about sex in this cocky, loudmouth tone that wasn’t really her. And we did feel a bit ashamed of ourselves, a bit sordid, to be spying on her like that.”

Desperate times, desperate measures. But with all the high-tech surveillance options increasingly open to worried parents, such behaviour is starting to look old-fashioned. Why mess around with cumbersome baby monitors, or random phone checks, when you can secretly monitor your child’s online activity with surveillance software, retrieve deleted text messages with a dinky little gadget, even follow their every movement with GPS tracking, or – in the case of older teenagers – a hidden camera in their car?

WHILE MOST OF US would find such frenzied scrutiny excessive, teen-tracking is big business in the United States, and it is starting to catch on here, fuelled by parents’ fears about cyber-bullying, predatory adults and teenage suicide.

“The end justifies the means, as far as I’m concerned,” says Vera, who routinely spies on her oblivious 15-year-old son. “I would never use any information I discover against him. But it’s important for me to be aware of significant events happening in his life, in fact, it’s my duty.”

Vera’s defence – prying as a reasonable exercise of parental responsibility – is becoming increasingly common. Online parenting discussion forums resound with similar arguments: “I will always place protection before privacy,” says one parent, while another remarks, “It’s not a matter of trust for me in my kids; it’s who my kids might be trusting that worries me”. One darkly warns, “There are many parents out there who now wish they had ’snooped’ a little more”.

But in the rush towards parental espionage, are we giving in to a form of paranoid hysteria, a a chronic compulsion to control every aspect of our children’s lives?

How would we have reacted, as teenagers, if we’d glanced up from an illicit embrace with an unsuitable boyfriend to see Dad in a parked car, watching through a pair of binoculars? Perhaps trust is the real casualty here.

Of course, adolescents themselves are shocked by such underhand tactics. What would my son Aaron think if he knew I was covertly observing him? “I would feel betrayed,” he announces solemnly. His friends feel the same, bristling with outrage at the very thought. “I would be absolutely horrified. I would also feel isolated and betrayed by my folks. It shows that they can’t trust me and don’t think I am of a mature age.”

“Everyone has a right to privacy,” says Maire (14). Gordon (16) adds, “I’d be angry and creeped-out and betrayed at them going into my private stuff”. Daniel (15) admits: “Well, I don’t really have much to hide, but they would probably be annoyed to find out what I’ve seen on YouTube (they are very strict about swearing and age limits). To tell the truth, I’d be pretty pissed.”

While parents may seek to reassure themselves that they are acting in the child’s best interest, excessive snooping, and the consequent breakdown in trust, could have serious consequences for children’s development – perhaps impeding their ability to take responsibility for their own lives.

Psychotherapist and UCD lecturer Colman Noctor says: “No child will gain by being un-trusted. They should be allowed to get things wrong, to make mistakes. They need the space to do that in order to individuate. If they are not allowed to develop, they will either become more secretive, withholding even more information, or they could go the other way, becoming rebellious and gung-ho, indulging in high-risk behaviour.”

SARAH NEWTON , a well-known “teen coach”, says, “In my mind, [spying] can never lead to a good result. In essence, a successful parent-teen relationship hinges on two things: trust and respect. When you spy on your teenager you are giving out two powerful messages: one, I don’t trust you, and two, I don’t respect you, your private space and your private time. “That message will seriously damage your relationship and you are more likely to encourage your teenage to act irresponsibly,” she says.

So how do you balance trust and the need for supervision? Here’s Newton’s advice: “Allow them the reins while also putting a container around their behaviour. So, for example, give them free rein of the computer, but let them know occasionally you will check their browser history.

“If they delete the browser history, tell them they cannot use the computer for a week. This is far more trusting than installing spyware that your teenager will most likely be able to figure their way around anyway.”

Apart from all other considerations, isn’t spying on your child just wrong? Commentator Melanie Read says, “Online teen tracking amounts to a form of internet child-abuse even more potent . . . than the kind which parents seek to prevent in the first place”.

Richard Hull, who lectures in ethics at NUI Galway, says that such subterfuge moves into an “unjustifiable invasion of privacy of a fledgling adult”. After all, he points out, how would you like it if your teenager posted pictures on MySpace of you reeling home on a Saturday night?

Prying Eyes: spyware for parents

SnoopStick: this colourful gadget looks just like a memory stick, and can be used to install stealth software on to your child’s computer, allowing you covert access to their email, instant messaging, and to websites they have visited. www.snoopstick.com

iMonitorPC: This is claimed to be the equivalent of a digital surveillance system for your computer. It can send parents alerts when a child uses specified keywords on social networking sites, and allows access to the entire history of chat room activity. www.iMonitorPC.com

DriveCam: A video event recorder, which is mounted on the windscreen behind the rear-view mirror. Used as part of the US Teen Safe Driver Program, parents receive a weekly report card comparing their teenager’s driving with their peers.

“Not signing up is like taking the seatbelts out of your teen’s vehicle,” claims the site www.drivecam.com.

Deleted Text Message Reader: a tiny plug-in which can retrieve text messages that have been stored on the SIM but marked as “deleted” by a mobile phone. www.spystore.ie

GPS tracking device: not marketed as a covert device, but as “a way to take care of those we love”, the KoolTrax Ranger will let you know exactly where your child is at any time. According to the website: “ A teenager out on the town at night may well want to be picked up at the end of the night. You can set a temporary boundary around the venue and, when they leave you’ll receive an alert and know to set off to pick them up promptly”. www.bluetreeservices.co.uk

© 2008 The Irish Times

Original from The Irish Times

Breast pumps, baby monitors reported stolen from Babies R Us store at Tradition

PORT ST. LUCIE — Police charged two Coral Springs men with grand theft Saturday for allegedly stealing breast pumps and baby monitors from the Babies R Us store in The Landing at Tradition, according to arrest reports.

Store manager Kawana Gilson called police after she watched John Grassano, 42, and Sean Loychik, 20, put four breast pumps and four baby monitors into a shopping cart, according to the reports.

The reports said Gilson recognized the two men from an Oct. 5 surveillance video, which showed them loading three more breast pumps and what appeared to be baby monitors into a cart. In the video, Grassano distracted the cashier near the exit while Loychik pushed the cart outside without paying.

On Saturday, the two noticed police on the way to the store, bought a couple of small items and left without the pumps and monitors. Two officers stopped them as they split up on their way out of the store.

After being shown the Oct. 5 video, Loychik told police Grassano paid him $50 to steal the pumps and monitors. He later wrote in a statement that he was “sorry for what he did.”

Grassano said he planned to buy the items he put into the cart Saturday for his pregnant daughter, who is carrying Loychik’s child, according to the reports. Grassano claimed he left when he realized he didn’t have enough money.

After the officer asked why he needed four breast pumps, Grassano said he sells them on eBay, according to the reports.

Store employees found surveillance video of two other times when Grassano and Loychik drove up from Coral Springs to take breast pumps from the store without paying, the reports said. Gilson told police several Babies R Us stores along the east coast of Florida have been reporting thefts of the pumps and monitors.

Top 4 Myths About Baby Acne from Greatdad.com

Baby acne, also known as neonatal acne or acne neonatorum, is a common condition seen in newborn babies. Almost 20 percent of newborns suffer from it.

Baby acne is characterized by the appearance of pimples or red bumps on the baby’s scalp, forehead, and especially the cheeks. A rough skin, along with pustules, whiteheads, and blackheads is also a common indication of baby acne.

Myth 1: Baby acne is the same as infantile acne or teenage acne.

This is not true. Baby acne is not the same as infantile acne, which affects older infants over three months old. It also has no connection with the acne that teenagers and adults suffer from.

Myth 2: Baby acne can occur at anytime during childhood.

Actually, baby acne usually affects babies three to four weeks after birth. Sometimes however, babies even exhibit signs of baby acne right from the time they are born. The symptoms may appear and recede intermittently as the baby reaches around four to six months of age.

Myth 3: Baby acne is the result of poor hygiene and nursing.

On the contrary, baby acne is believed to be caused by hormones released by the mother during pregnancy. Absorbed through the placenta, these hormones play an important role in the development of the fetus during the later stages of the pregnancy. These hormones stimulate the oil glands present in the baby’s skin and are thought to cause baby acne.

The symptoms may, however, get aggravated when the baby’s skin reacts to irritants, such as detergent left behind in clothing or bedding, for instance. Increase in the flow of blood to the skin, brought about when the baby is hot or active, can also intensify symptoms of baby acne.

Myth 4: Baby acne is a serious condition that needs treatment.

This is just not true. Baby acne is harmless and does not really require treatment. The symptoms generally disappear on their own in a few weeks. Also, the application of creams or lotions—a common practice amongst parents—may actually worsen the symptoms, and should therefore be avoided. Gently washing the face daily, using water and baby soap, may help alleviate the symptoms of baby acne.

Original from:GreatDad.com

Gin rummy and blackberrying, it’s just what the iPod generation need

It is unusual to come across a family of seven children. Only the very poor, or the very rich, want big broods nowadays. More often than not the children are accumulated through a series of relationships or by adoption, as in the case of Angelina Jolie, who has just announced that, barely three months after the birth of her twins, she plans to adopt baby number seven.

The 33-year-old actress said that her children had adapted well to their new brother and sister, adding that eldest son Maddox, six, was already ‘the professional big brother’ to Pax, four, Zahara, three, and Shiloh, two. ‘We have so many children that they’re independent. They don’t need Mommy and Daddy all the time,’ she said in an interview.

I’m the youngest of seven. Before me there was Clare – born while my dad served overseas during the Second World War – Philip, Nick, Carolyn, Tony and Sue. Often my mum would forget our names and call us by something vaguely gender-related, or by the dog’s name.

Family fun: Angelina Jolie takes children Pax and Maddox out on a visit

More at:Dailymail.co.uk