If you’d like to identify strategies for reducing obesity in your community but don’t know where to begin, check out the Childhood Obesity News Digest. A free service of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Childhood Obesity News Digest highlights key articles from major journals and news publications. It’s a great way to jump start any program.

Ohio Targets Kids
In response to an Ohio Department of Health study showing that nearly 19 percent of Ohio third-graders are obese, schools throughout the state are implementing obesity prevention programs. According to the Lancaster Eagle Gazette students at Lancaster’s West Elementary School are participating in the…

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Egads! What is it? How do you get it? What are the symptoms? How is it treated?

What is it?
Swine (H1N1) flu is a respiratory disease caused by an influenza type A virus that typically occurs in pigs and occasionally in people. Swine flu virus was first identified in 1930. Like all influenza viruses, swine flu viruses are constantly changing. When influenza viruses from different species such as birds or people infect another species such as pigs, the viruses can swap genes and form new viruses. Over the years, different types of swine flu viruses have been identified. Currently there…

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There is a subtle irony in the recent article in Slate by Hanna Rosin. After all, it was Rosin who described the benefits of breastfeeding as “murky correlations with a whole bunch of long-term conditions” and breastfeeding advocates and formula makers as unlikely participants in a “take-no-prisoners turf war.” (For more on the Atlantic article see The Case For Breastfeeding.)

When I read Rosin’s article in Slate and was unable to locate the findings she described from the study by Phyllis Rippeyoung, PhD and Mary Noonan, PhD, I decided to contact the authors directly. As it turns out, the source paper that Rosin linked to in her…

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Expectant parents spend a lot of time thinking about their baby’s arrival. They wonder where they will be when labor begins and if they will recognize the first contractions. They wonder what labor will be like and what will happen at the hospital. They wonder what their baby will feel like and smell like and need. If they’ve decided to breastfeed, they wonder what that will be like and how they will get started.

I think it is fair to say that no book or video can prepare you fully for the experience of breastfeeding your baby for the first time.…

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Data from a recent study presented at a meeting of the American Federation of Medical Research revealed for the first time a possible link between vitamin D supplements and formula feeding and an increased risk for urinary tract infection (UTI) in babies.

Dr. Robert Gensure and his colleagues at the Ochsner Health System in New Orleans were researching the role of vitamin D in preventing rickets in breastfed babies. After the first baby enrolled in the study developed a UTI, Ochsner’s safety monitoring board asked the researchers to investigate a possible link to vitamin D. A retrospective analysis revealed a never reported result—a…

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Breastfeeding’s purported lack of advantage over formula-feeding was the subject of a recent article by Hanna Rosin published in the Atlantic. While there is much to criticize in Rosin’s essay (see The Case For Breastfeeding and Case Against Breastfeeding Overlooks Big, Dirty Secret), there is also an element of truth (see The Case Against Breastfeeding (?)) in what Rosin has to say.

Because science was, is, and always will be imperfect, we rely upon the preponderance of evidence to guide our decision-making. Given that fact, even Rosin would have a hard time denying the growing body of evidence showing breastfeeding’s advantage over formula-feeding.

Score another…

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I was a fearful father before my son was even born. I was afraid of everything. Should we roll up the windows while driving to avoid toxic fumes? Is this tap water I’m giving to my wife filled with lead and aspartame? Am I reading the right books to my unborn child or should I just pick up the Holy Bible and put down this Tolkien nonsense?

Now that Willard has been welcomed into the world—alive, healthy and with all his fingers and toes—I’m even more afraid. And it goes far beyond rolling up windows and reading the Bible. Every little shiver…

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It’s an understatement to say that art is important to me. Except for a few bouts of wanting to be a dolphin trainer or the keyboardist for Prince and the Revolution, I spent my childhood wanting to be an artist or a writer or both when I grew up. When I did grow up, I still wanted to be an artist and a writer, and so I became those things, quite happily.

When I figured out that Tommy was old enough to start making art himself, I felt a deep thrill. I couldn’t wait to share with him the very thing…

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If you have ever wondered what a doula is and what a doula does … If you have ever had a doula at a birth and wanted to explain that person’s role to your baby’s siblings … If you are a doula and want an easy way to explain what you do … here’s a book that will make you sit up and take notice: Being Born: The Doula’s Role.

From Hohm Press, a publisher known for candid (think Ryan and Auletta’s Breastfeeding or Chia Martin’s We Like to Nurse) and health-promoting (think Elyse April’s We Like to Move) works, this latest…

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It seems common sense that hospitals can influence breastfeeding behavior. There you are: the new mother with the baby in your arms. During your time at the hospital, nurses, doctors and others are likely popping in and out of your room up to 54 times a day. They’re just full of advice and interventions. So, it may be no surprise at all that a recent study of national data finds a link between women’s hospital experiences and their actual breastfeeding experience.

Study details
A team of researchers led by Eugene Declercq, PhD looked at data from a national survey of 1,573 women between the ages…

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The recent decision by the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA’s) to ban a breast pump company from exhibiting at its annual conference and advertising in its professional journal was met with both adulation and consternation. The adulation emanated from those who believe that the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes needs to be vigorously enforced. Consternation was expressed by those wondering how ILCA’s decision will impact their relationship with Medela, the company whose marketing practices are at the center of the controversy.

ILCA’s actions were the subject of a recent post on baby gooroo by Karen Gromada. As evidence that ILCA is not…

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Living in an area that is more likely than not to be in some historic drought or other, it has traditionally made little sense for me to purchase rain boots. Or a rain jacket for that matter, or, um, an umbrella. (I know, I know—my family hasn’t owned a single umbrella in quite some time. I just bought one last week. We’re working on buying a second umbrella. Baby steps.)

But guess what? Both my son and my fledgling vegetable garden are ecstatic to know that the most recent drought in my area of Georgia is over, according to state officials—for…

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