ADHD kids may look as they are capable of crossing solo, but even if they’re stopping and looking both ways they don’t seem to be as adept at judging how much time they need to cross safely.

“In our study, the outcome of crossing the street was much worse for kids with ADHD than for their peers without ADHD,” the study’s lead author, Despina Stavrinos, an assistant professor in the department of medicine at the University of Alabama, told HealthDay News. “Kids with ADHD left much less time to spare to cross, and there were several close calls,” she said.

Results of the study, published online July 25, will appear in the August print issue of Pediatrics.

The researchers chose to look at street crossing because it requires a lot of quick information processing and executive decision making, both places where ADHD suffers tend to be lacking.  Parents of ADHD kids may need to put extra emphasis on helping their children learn to make this kind of basic, but dangerous, life decision carefully and cautiously.

Janis Winehouse, Amy’s mother, has admitted to The U.K. Daily Mail that she felt her daughter’s untimely death, “only a matter of time,” after spending the day with her just twenty four hours before the singer passed away.  It’s a parents worst nightmare, watching your child slip away, and Janis Winehouse is doing it on an international stage.

“She seemed out of it. But her passing so suddenly still hasn’t hit me,” she told The Mirror, another U.K. tabloid regarding her last day with her daughter.  She also shared that Amy said, ‘I love you mum’ at the end of their day together.

“They are the words I will always treasure,” Janis told the Mirror. “I’m glad I saw her when I did.”

Winehouse has taken a place in the so called “27 Club” – a long list of talented musicians who have succumbed to drug and alcohol problems in their twenty seventh year.  She’s in unfortunately good company on a list that includes Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Jim ­Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

As parents, this is a great moment to discuss drugs an alcohol with teens.  Answering any questions your teens might have about Winehouse, and what’s happened to her, should provide some openings to help them see how dangerous substance abuse can be.

She knew of the failed test on July 16 but then for some reason decided to get high again the very next day AND EVEN TOOK PICTURES.   She has absolutely no respect for her new responsibilities in life and the fact that she needs to raise her kid right now and not be smoking it up.

Check out all the pics here, coutesy of TMZ.

We can all thank MTV for making these girls stars and giving them a sense of entitlement because they are on TV.  I don’t care about the girl, what I do care about is her kid who is going to be thrown into all of this and will be able to read all about this in the years to come.  It is unfair that that child should have this thrown at him before he has a chance to even talk.

Indiana is taking the first steps towards what I believe will be a nationwide movement in removing cursive writing from its teaching curriculum.  This Fall they will no longer be teaching the long hand form and will instead focus on keyboard typing skills.  They are the first state to actually take the teaching out of their curriculum although 41 states have declared that cursive writing is no longer a “core standard”.

I beleive this is long over due.  States should have started doing these things years ago when it was clear that the Internet was no passing fad and that the only time people ever use cursive is when signing their names.

Now I know there will be plenty of people out there (most likely over the age of 40) that will find this outlandish and against tradition.  Well…..deal with it.  The world is moving on and pencil and paper just no longer cut it.  Teachers don’t want to have to translate scribbles written on paper made to look like actual words.  They want to clearly be able to read a paper and typing is the easiest way for that to happen.

Cursive writing is going to go the way of caligraphy.  It will be an elective class in high school and used very minimally until it is simply forgotten.  This is how things work.  We have eveolved into this technological society and this is just another step.

What do you think about the movement away from cursive writing?  Will you want your children to learn cursive?  Why do you think we should keep it?

So should parents in the U.S. be worried? Scarlet fever is a form of the Group A streptococcus. Almost 80% of people over the age of ten have antibodies to scarlet fever, whether they’ve had the disease or not.  That’s why young children are the ones for whom there is the most concern. In order to cause scarlet fever, rather than strep, the bacteria must also produce a certain toxin. It causes a skin reaction, leading to the characteristic bright red rash that gives the disease its name.  That rash, which turns skin red and bumpy, like sand paper, is one of the key symptoms of the disease.  Also high fevers, a bad sore throat and occasionally vomiting or belly pain.  A child suffering from scarlet fever may also have a bright, strawberry red tongue, potentially with white bumps, and skin on their fingers and toes may peel.  Knowing the symptoms is important as is prompt treatment.  Thankfully, traditional penicillin still seems to be working to treat the disease, even in some of its resistant varieties.

Ow! Mom! Brainfreeze!

It’s a familiar summer complaint.  Your kids are eating ice cream, somebody starts scarfing a little too fast and boom — their head suddenly feels like it’s about to explode.

So why does this happen?  What is it about cold stuff (sucking down half a slurpee in ten seconds or less will give you a raging headache too, so easily that the 7-Eleven corporation actually trademarked the term, “Brainfreeze” in 1994) that makes a person’s head hurt?  It’s a question any adult who is in close proximity to children, summer time and ice cream can expect to be asked.  So here’s the answer:

Blame your hard palete.  Otherwise known as the roof of your mouth.  When the cold substance of your choice touches the roof of your mouth it triggers the nerves up there to cool down.  They send a 911 cool down message to your brain and the brain constricts its blood vessels to chill the joint out.  When warm blood comes rushing back through those blood vessels, you get yourself a stabbing, migraine like headache for a minute or two.

The good news is, brainfreezes won’t kill you.  Even better, you can avoid getting them all together if you eat a little slower and don’t let your chilled beverage or treat touch the top of your mouth.  Of course, if you happen to be participating in a brainfreeze competition with your kids… then scarf away!

It’s already pretty tough going if you want to cling to your smoking habit these days, and the FDA is making it harder.  They’re adding graphic (read gross) warning images to cigarette packages.  Apparently, having come to the conclusion that American’s don’t actually read the already extensive warning labels that have been slapped on cigarettes, the FDA has switched to pictures.

One warning label shows a man smoking, the smoke escaping through a tracheotomy hole in his neck, and warns “Cigarettes are addictive.”  Another shows a mother, holding a baby while smoking.  It proclaims, Tobacco smoke can harm your children.” A third images depicts a distraught woman with the caption: “Warning: Smoking causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers.” A fourth picture shows a mouth with smoked-stained teeth and an open sore on the lower lip. “Cigarettes cause cancer,” the caption reads.

The labels will also all come with a phone number, 1-800-QUIT-NOW, so that smokers know where to go for help quitting.  By law, the labels must now appear on all cigarette packaging.  This is the first big change in cigarette packaging in the last twenty five years.

“President Obama is committed to protecting our nation’s children and the American people from the dangers of tobacco use. These labels are frank, honest and powerful depictions of the health risks of smoking and they will help,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a news release. “These labels will encourage smokers to quit, and prevent children from smoking. President Obama wants to make tobacco-related death and disease part of the nation’s past, and not our future.”

What do you think?  Are these new labels a good idea?

“I explained I wanted her to travel as an unaccompanied minor, she was 12 years old, she had Down syndrome and was very independent,” she told the Daily Mail.

The customer service agent she spoke to said problems had occurred in the past, so it was no longer allowed, and that, had Heather not informed them at the time of booking that Alice had Down Syndrome, she would not have been allowed on the plane when she arrived at the gate.

British Airways told the Daily Mail that it is not actually against company policy to allow Down Syndrome children to fly alone.  ”We will carry any child over five years old as an unaccompanied minor provided they can go to the toilet unassisted, feed themselves, and behave in a socially acceptable manner,” their spokesperson told the Daily Mail.

According to the same spokesperson the airline has “apologized unreservedly” to the Saunders and offered them two return tickets.

Published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, the study too into account the responses of 3,793 women and found that thirty one percent of those who lost their virginity as teens divorced within five years of marriage, and forty seven percent divorced within ten years. On the other hand, the divorce rate for women who had waited to have sex was only fifteen percent at the five year mark, and twenty seven percent at ten.

Sex of any kind, completely wanted or not, before the age of sixteen or seventeen seems to affect divorce potential later in life.  But, not surprisingly, if the first time a woman had sex was unwanted, or the woman had mixed feelings about the act, the chance that she would divorce was even higher.  Since forty two percent of participants who had their first sexual experience before the age of eighteen told researchers that the encounter wasn’t completely wanted, it’s not so surprising that sex in the teenage years is an indicator, or perhaps a cause, of ongoing emotional instability.

The study’s author, Anthony Paik, said in a press release that one explanation for his findings, “If the sex was not completely wanted or occurred in a traumatic context, it’s easy to imagine how that could have a negative impact on how women might feel about relationships, or on relationship skills. The experience could point people on a path toward less stable relationships.”

Common sense might suggest that other factors in a girls life that might push her into situations where she’s having sex before she’s ready also contribute to a lifetime of unstable relationship choices.  But this study does give parents another tool to talk to their daughter about making safe choices.

Do you believe that losing your virginity at a young age may affect the chances of getting divorced later in life?

Hopefully, however, both of these stressers will turn out to be positive moves in the end.  Of the break up, a source told the NY Post, ”The age difference meant they were in completely different places in their lives.”  Considering that Wilmer Valderrama (formerly of That Seventy’s Show) is thirty one and Demi is eighteen, I’d say that’s probably true.  I’d also say it’s probably a great thing for Demi to be free to find someone who might be more appropriate for her age.

Demi’s mom, Dianna Hart de la Garza, going into rehab may be harder to deal with, but it will also hopefully help stabilize Demi’s life.  De la Garza got a matching “Stay Strong” tattoo with her daughter when Demi went into rehab, now it’s De la Garza’s turn to stay strong and get better for her daughter.

“It has been a tough year for Demi, and her mom has been a constant source of support. But fame has also taken its toll on her family,” the source continued. “Now [that] Demi is strong again, her mom could take some time to deal with her own issues.”

We all know we’re busy, stressed.  Tired.  We forget things every day.  I can see all too easily how you could strap your baby in, jump in the car and drive to work on autopilot, completely forgetting that the peacefully sleeping child was there and needed to be dropped off at daycare.  Or how you could be on an emergency call for work and run into the grocery store, mind completely blanking on the fact that you’ve got your baby with you today, particularly if you’re not used to having your children with you.

As if being a parent wasn’t terrifying enough.

“They think of the people this happened to as monsters, and they don’t put in place the safeguards you should,” Janette Fennell of Kids and Cars tells the Free Press. “If you have the ability to forget your cell phone, you can forget your child.”

Kids and Cars is trying to help, printing up “Look Before You Lock” warning tags to distribute to new parents when they check out of the hospital.  Whether you have a pre-printed version or not, leaving yourself a little note, on the steering wheel, your key ring, your phone, anywhere you’ll check as you leave the car, might save your baby’s life.

‘I could not care less what people think about me. People think of the pole as a sexual object, but does this mean kids are not allowed to slide down a pole on a climbing frame? There are bad people out there who will have dirty thoughts about what Poppy is doing, but I will always protect her from men like that. ‘There are no paedophiles while she’s pole dancing, there’s no risk.,” said The Human Barbie.

But what if Poppy is naturally blessed with big boobs?

“If she develops naturally big boobs, she can have something else done with it,” said Sarah.

Oh, and because no kid wants just a piece of paper for her birthday, Poppy also received a new computer, pink Swarovski crystal ring and necklace set and a $6,500 day at a luxury day spa.  Wow.  That’s more than I think I’ve gotten in all my birthdays combined.  I don’t need to know this girl to already know that she is a spoiled brat being exploited by her mother for a continuing 15 minutes of fame. 

So this girl is only 7-years-old and she already has an affinity for fake breasts, day spas, expensive jewelry and pole dancing?  Way to go on that one mom.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are firmly against scheduling induced labor – or any use of labor inducing drugs that isn’t strictly necessary.

“ACOG is four-square against inducing labor just because you want the baby to be a Sagittarius,” Michael F. Greene, M.D., director of maternal-fetal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told FitPregnancy.com. “It should be for medical reasons.”

Inducing labor runs the risk of more complications and as much as a fifty percent high risk of eventual C Section.  ACOG prefers to save induction for moments when the mother’s health is truly in jeopardy if she caries her child any longer.

This particular scheduled labor, however, seems to have gone off without a hitch.  Agnes joins big brothers Stellan, seven and a half, and Kai, thirteen, Connelly’s son with David Dugan.

“Getting Jude was lucky,” Alexis told People Magazine. “I’m happy, but this has been rough.”

Stewart, who didn’t decide she was ready for a child until her late 30s, has gone to great lengths to get her little girl.  She’s forty five now, and she’s spent the last half a dozen years or so putting herself through IVF procedures and hormone treatments.  At one point she says she was spending up to $27,000 every month on fertility treatments.

Dr. John Zhang, at Manhattan’s New Hope Fertility Center, helped Stewart take better control of the process, reducing her spending to $5,000 a month.

“This is my other job that I don’t talk about,” said Stewart, who hosts the Sirius radio show Whatever with Alexis & Jennifer. “But if you’re lucky enough to be able to afford it and you have time, what’s the downside?”

While its wonderful that Alexis Stewart is getting the chance to be a mom, one has to wonder whether this kind of extreme measures to produce a child that is biologically ones own is really the best way to approach later in life parenthood.  There are still plenty of babies born every year in desperate need of good homes.  If Stewart had started the adoption process after the first few years of unsuccessful treatments she could both be a mom by now several times over and have had an extra million or so dollars left over that could have been donated to help other kids in need have happy lives.  Just because you can spend $27,000 a month on something doesn’t mean you should.

All American Girl Crafts Pearly Beads & Ribbon Bracelet Kits with the SKU number of 30-585331 are affected by this recall.  The SKU number is located on the back of the package in the lower right corner. The kit contains 56 pieces. The beads in the jewelry kit are pink, blue, orange and white. Some pink beads have darker pink butterflies imprinted on them. The ribbons in the kit are orange, red, blue and purple.  These products were sold at Michael’s Stores and other stores nationwide from September 2009 – June 2011 for around $18.

Anyone who purchased one of these products should immediatly stop using, take away from children and contact the company or place of purchase for a full refund.  You can contact EKSuccess Brands at 855-535-2099 or visit their website for more information.

Students completely disrespecting teachers to the point where violence is the teachers only recourse.  Do you think the teacher was right to resort to hitting her student or did the student deserve it?  How would you feel if your child attended a school where not only students physically confronted teachers but teachers also physically confronted students? 

Our nation’s educational system is already low compared to other nations and this does nothing to enhance our image.  What can be done?

The shorts were produced as part of class presentations, and Christie says no teacher had previously complained about the animations. However, once he uploaded the videos to YouTube, Christie was promptly suspended, and even had the cops called on him by the school.

“They’ve unfairly judged me and judged my character based on something I made for entertainment,” Christie told The Globe and Mail. “I have the right to post videos on the Internet on my own time.”

In a short statement, Durham District School Board spokeswoman Andrea Pidwerbecki said, “If something is considered detrimental to the positive moral tone of the school, it doesn’t necessarily have to happen inside the school [for us to get involved].”

So now the school is stepping into kid’s private lives and disciplining them for the extracurricular activities.  This is a huge case of a school over-stepping its bounds and disciplining out of its jurisdiction. 

Christie was allowed to attend the school prom last Friday, and will be able to take his final exams but to miss out the last couple weeks of school for posting videos to YouTube is not right.  Those are the best times of year when things are more relaxed and kids can only discuss their plans for what they will be doing after school lets out.  Not letting him participate in these times is wrong.

While many, myself included, find it questionable that Kamrava implanted Suleman with another set of embryos at all, knowing that she already had six children, the act itself isn’t the reason he’s losing his license.  His mistake, apparently, was that he implanted Suleman with twelve embryos, which is six times the norm for a woman her age.  That’s how she ended up with her famous octupletes.

“While the evidence did not establish (Kamrava) as a maverick or deviant physician, oblivious to standards of care in IVF practice, it certainly demonstrated that he did not exercise sound judgment in the transfer of twelve embryos to (Suleman),” the board said in its 45-page decision.

Usually, fertility doctors don’t implant high numbers of embryos because they want to avoid high number multiple births which put both mother and children at risk of severe complications and developmental delays and death.  To date, Suleman’s octuplets are the world’s longest surviving set.

Kamrava, however, seems to have had trouble saying no to patients who wanted more embryos implanted, presumably to increase the chances of a successful pregnancy.  Suleman is not the only patient he was found to have endangered by implanting too many embryos.  He over implanted another forty eight year old woman who ended up with quadruplets, one of whom died at birth, and another woman ended up losing her womb and ovaries to cancer because he became distracted with the Suleman case and failed to follow up on care.

“This is not a one-patient case or a two-patient case; it is a three-patient case and the established causes of discipline include repeated negligent acts,” the board decision reads.

One patient celebrated by partaking in a bikini photo shoot.

According to experts, more than one-third of children and more than two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese.  This new Food Plate will help people understand better just exactly what they should be putting on their and their children’s meal plates.  This new design makes it easier to see that half out plates should be filled with fruit and vegetables while the other quarters should be proteins and grains, all washed down with a glass of milk for dairy.

The Plate also helps reflect the new Dietary Guidlinesreleased back in January.  For more information you can visit the USDA’s newest site www.ChooseMyPlate.gov setup specifically for this new icon.   There you can find more details about the categories as well as recipes, tips and other useful information to get you and your family eating better.

“It’s an opportunity for Americans to understand quickly how to have a balanced and nutritious meal,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “It’s a constant reminder as you look at your own plate whether your portion sizes are right, whether you’ve got enough fruits and vegetables on that plate.”

The biggest change is that grains are no longer as prominent in our daily diet.  But that in no way means we should put less emphasis on carbohydrates.

“Nutrition-wise, carbs make up the bulk of our diet,” said Marisa Moore, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. “Fruits are a source of carbohydrates and most starchy vegetables are carb sources in addition to pasta and rice. They’ll still be represented. It’s more of an emphasis on fruits and veggies.”

It turns out, according to a new study, that nursing moms are more responsive to their baby’s cries than non-breast feeding moms and that their brains show an increase in activities in areas related to mothering.

Researcher Pilyoung Kim of the National Institute of Mental Health tells MSNBC that the study serves as another example of why it’s important to support mothers who breast-feed their children.

“I understand the challenges mothers have,” Kim tells MSNBC. “Regardless of their decision, I think it is critical during this early postpartum period that they seek support and encouragement from others, especially when they feel very stressed and challenged by the new demands because of the new parenting experience.”

But this doesn’t mean that non-breast feeding mothers are bad moms.  Like so many other things about parenting, it seems as though how connected and empathetic you are to your baby depends on how much love and care you give them.

Brain activity in the superior frontal gyrus, striatum and amygdala is associated with empathy.  These areas spike when one is engaged in parenting activities.  This mirrors studies in animals.  Whether or not mothers in the study breast-fed their babies, increased activity in the mothers’ superior frontal gyrus and amygdala was connected with the level of affection they showed their babies.  Breast feeding intensifies the process, but being a loving mom is the important part.  How you love them comes second.

Please do not go around recording every bad driver you see now.  That will result in more accidents and your video will then prove to the police that it was 100% your fault.  DON’T USE ANYTHING BUT YOUR CAR WHILE DRIVING:

Bonds has never been really popular outside of San Francisco and will forever be tainted by steroid allegations and years of not getting along with the media.  He is often seen as arrogant and stand-offish with little patience for reporters and fans alike.  But this time he is doing everything right by not making a big deal out of it and not having a big press conference to announce his generosity and how great he is.  By keeping it under wraps he doesn’t get the donation labeled as a PR move and get more negative press about this.  This is a classy move by a guy who likes to stay out of the spotlight now.

When San Francisco Giants’ fan Bryan Stow was severely beaten by a pair of Los Angeles Dodgers’ fans Opening Day everything changed for him and his family. He is still in critical condition, coming in and out of a coma in the hospital and will most likely never recover fully from this horrible assault.

Walmart has received a total of 58 incident reports: 24 reports of the food processor operating without the lid in place, of which 21 resulted in injuries to fingertips; and 34 reports of the unit smoking, including 3 reports of fires.

These products were sold from September 2009 through February 2011 and retailed for around $50.  Anyone who purchased on of these units should immediately stop using the product and return it to Walmart for a full refund.  For more information you can call Walmart Customer Service at 877-207-0923 or visit the website here.

The study didn’t determine whether or not the chemical, chlorinated Tris, was actually being absorbed by children, just that it was available.  But, in the article on the study, which has been published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, does suggest that infants who are exposed to these products are being exposed to higher than recommended levels of toxins.

This list of products the study examined included things like changing table pads, sleep positioners, portable mattresses, baby carriers, rocking chairs and highchairs.  Many of them contained Tris and other toxic but still legal flame retardants like TCEP, which the State of California describes as a cancer-causing agent and Penta-BDE, a flame retardant that builds up in human tissue and that manufacturers voluntarily phased out in 2004.

“Why do you need fire retardant in a nursing pillow?” Dr. Blum, who is the executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute, a nonprofit organization dealing with toxic products, pointed out to the New York Times.  “The whole issue is, they are toxic chemicals that are in our homes at high levels; and right now, people don’t know much about it,” she said.

The World Health Organization has been asked to make the final decisions, but the U.S. is proposing that the stockpiles be kept so that, in the case of an accidental, or deliberate, re-emergence of the deadly disease a vaccine could be made.

U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sibelius said that the U.S. is “committed to the eventual destruction” of the stockpiles but still fears that without the virus available to create a vaccine the world would be vulnerable.  An aide to Sibelius, Bill Hall, later assured the AP that the United States would not act unilaterally, but would await the outcome of the U.N. vote on its proposal in the Geneva-based assembly.

Many other countries argue that the safest course is to destroy the remaining stockpiles, though WHO is still waiting on whether it will recommend destroying the virus this year or allowing for more research time to finish developing a third vaccine (there are already two) and a variety of experimental drugs in the works that would treat but not cure the disease.