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When was the last time a celebrity breastfed a baby, cooked breakfast, breastfed a baby, packed lunches, drove carpool, breastfed a baby, worked her ‘second job’ (breast pumping twice during the work day), drove carpool, breastfed a baby, cooked dinner, read a bedtime story, washed and ironed clothes, breastfed a baby—all in the same day and without help?

With thousands of U.S. women attempting to do all of the above and more, for Gisele Bundchen Brady to tell Harpers Bazaar UK, “I think there should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breastfeed their babies for six months,”…

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Disguised as a means for insuring that finicky toddlers would get essential vitamins and nutrients, Enfagrow was pulled from the market on June 9, 2010 in a surprise announcement by its maker, Mead Johnson. Originally launched in July 2009 sporting a vanilla flavor, it was the release of a chocolate flavored version in February 2010 that proved to be not only unhealthy but unwise. With 19 grams of sugar in each 6-ounce serving, critics of Enfagrow chocolate weren’t hard to find. And with childhood obesity having reached epidemic proportions, many argued that the last thing most children needed was a…

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If the words “health care reform” make your eyes glaze over, check out the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) one-page fact sheets intended to explain the Health Care Reform Law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, and how they align with the academy’s core principles:

1. Every child must have quality health insurance.

2. Quality health insurance should be a right, regardless of income, for every child, pregnant women, their families, and ultimately all individuals.

3. All health insurance plans should have a comprehensive age-appropriate benefits package directed to the special needs of…

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The economy may be lagging, but organic food sales are booming. In 2009, sales of organic food and beverages were up an estimated 5.1 percent over 2008—a grand total of $24.8 billion in sales; organic fruits and vegetables alone increased 11.4 percent compared to 2008. Sales of organic baby food have trended upward as well, with a whopping 21.6 percent increase between 2006 and 2007. It is estimated that by 2012, organic baby food will be a $2.26 billion business.

Parents who give their babies organic foods typically do so because they believe they have higher levels of vitamins and minerals,…

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Taxed with too many questions and too little time, but intent on meeting the needs of parents and health professionals alike, Dr. Thomas Hale is planning to create a national call center at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. The InfantRisk Center will be associated with the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health and will give callers up-to-date, evidence-based information on the use of medications during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.

Hale, Professor of Pediatrics at Texas Tech University and author of Medications and Mother’s Milk, hopes to have the call center up and running by the end of July 2010 and is asking…

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A significant number of breastfeeding mothers report having “not enough milk.” In an effort to boost their supply, many turn to galactagogues (drugs or herbs used to increase milk production)—some have proven successful, others not so much. Given the scant data on galactagogues, particularly lacking is information on side effects, Drs. Thomas Hale and Kathleen Kendall-Tackett are conducting an online research study—a survey of women’s experience with two drugs commonly used to increase milk production—domperidone or metoclopramide.

Any mother who has taken either drug is asked to complete a 30 minute on-line survey. The study has been approved by the…

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The decline in farm fresh foods has given rise to a government database known as EAFUS—Everything Added to Food in the United States. Maintained by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), EAFUS contains more than 3,000 chemicals and ingredients used in food production, everything from acacia to zoalene.

Some are directly regulated by the FDA, but many are Generally Recognized As Safe—a classification known as GRAS. Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, any substance that is intentionally added to food is considered a food additive. As such, additives are…

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada have alerted parents and caregivers to the risk for dosing errors when giving liquid vitamin D to babies.

Amidst growing concerns over vitamin D deficiency, baby gooroo has discussed the importance of vitamin D and the need for supplementation, but no mention has been made, until now, of the need to exercise caution when giving liquid vitamins to children.

The back-to-back warnings were prompted by reports that some liquid vitamin D products were being sold with droppers that were either mislabeled, not labeled, or oversized, making it possible for parents to accidently give more than the…

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Earlier this month, Congress unveiled new legislation to provide children with year-round access to healthier foods. The “Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010”—a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee; U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities; U.S. Rep. Todd Russell Platts (R-PA), ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities; and other lawmakers—is the next step toward fulfilling President Obama’s mission to end child hunger in America by 2015.

If passed, the bill (companion legislation to the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids…

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What was once a pill-a-day regimen has turned into two-a-day. And despite the increase, my level of vitamin D is still below what experts consider normal—a level that is about to change, again. With increased awareness and knowledge of the benefits of vitamin D (a Google search of “vitamin D studies” yields nearly 8 million results) comes a need to reassess how much each individual needs. But knowing how much vitamin D to take each day is like trying to hit a moving target. While the current RDA (recommended dietary allowance) for vitamin D is 400 IU, evidence now suggests that…

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Parents already have plenty of reasons to choose organic foods for their babies, given the potential health risks–including cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and mental illness that have been linked to the pesticides found in non-organic foods. While many of the health risks related to pesticides are unproven, some experts believe pesticides pose the greatest risks to infants and children.

A recent study linking pesticide levels in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, better known as ADHD, gives parents one more reason to choose organic.

Research
The purpose of the study, conducted by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Montreal and published in the May…

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Ignorance is bliss. Or so they say. Remember the good old days, when you didn’t worry about what your baby’s bottle was made from? Glass, plastic…it didn’t seem to make a difference other than the look, feel, and style. That all changed in 2008, when the National Toxicology Program released its report on bisphenol A (commonly known as BPA), a chemical found in plastics. At that time, the government agency stated a series of concerns about the chemical used in many plastic food containers, including baby bottles. Among those concerns was that human exposure to BPA could cause brain, behavior,…

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