The Boston Globe
October 2, 2009

"When Kim Zielinski was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 33, well-meaning friends inundated her with products bearing a little pink ribbon. Each product’s maker promised a cut of the sales price to a breast cancer charity, and these friends felt they were supporting the cause and, by association, Zielinski. A petite brunette who’s now 35, she was enormously grateful for the millions of dollars that these pink-ribbon products direct each year to charities that fund breast cancer research and education.

But it wasn’t long before she got a little sick of the pink. “I felt kind of hateful,” says the insurance company sales manager who lives in Charlestown. “I was like, ‘What makes you think I like pink now?’

Time
October 2, 2009

"If you want to know if Elvira Henares-Esguerra has the guts to lead a synchronized, global moment of breastfeeding taking place on Friday across 18 countries, bear in mind that this is a woman who didn't hesitate to nurse her child in front of an audience of 700 as she shared the stage with Philippines' President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005. "You should have seen the [officers]," says Henares-Esguerra, recalling the moment her four-year-old son ran to the stage during the President's speech to inaugurate World Breastfeeding Week in the Philippines. "They all wanted to rush and catch him. But they were too slow."

Bringing more awareness to the broad benefits of breastfeeding has been a global movement for decades. Not only is breast milk considered by Unicef and many others to be the most nutritious food for babies, containing important antibodies and changing its composition as a baby grows, but studies have shown breastfeeding also has clear economic benefits for families over using milk formula products."

The New York Times
October 1, 2009

"TLC said Thursday that it had suspended filming of the Gosselin children on its hit reality series “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” after a lawyer for Jon Gosselin told the cable channel in a letter that that production crews were forbidden from entering the Gosselin family home.

The letter from Mr. Gosselin’s lawyer was reported Thursday on “The Early Show” on CBS. The report said the letter was dated on Tuesday, the same day that TLC announced it would sideline Mr. Gosselin and rename the reality show “Kate Plus Eight.” The original “Jon & Kate” show drew a wide audience last spring when the couple’s marriage effectively collapsed, culminating in an on-camera separation announcement in June."

MSNBC
September 29, 2009

"It seemed like such a practical and good arrangement, the kind that moms have been making with each other since the beginning of time: One woman would watch her friends’ kids while they waited for the school bus so the other women could go to their jobs.

And then the Michigan Department of Human Services stepped in to tell the Good Samaritan mother that she was facing fines and possible jail time for running an illegal day care center.

“To me, this is just a friend helping a friend, plain and simple,” Lisa Snyder said during an interview with TODAY’s Matt Lauer from her Middleville, Mich., home Tuesday."

The New York Times
September 29, 2009

"Austin didn’t know what to wear to his first gay dance last spring. It was bad enough that the gangly 13-year-old from Sand Springs, Okla., had to go without his boyfriend at the time, a 14-year-old star athlete at another middle school, but there were also laundry issues. “I don’t have any clean clothes!” he complained to me by text message, his favored method of communication.

When I met up with him an hour later, he had weathered his wardrobe crisis (he was in jeans and a beige T-shirt with musical instruments on it) but was still a nervous wreck. “I’m kind of scared,” he confessed. “Who am I going to talk to? I wish my boyfriend could come.” But his boyfriend couldn’t find anyone to give him a ride nor, Austin explained, could his boyfriend ask his father for one. “His dad would give him up for adoption if he knew he was gay,” Austin told me. “I’m serious. He has the strictest, scariest dad ever. He has to date girls and act all tough so that people won’t suspect.”"

Time
September 25, 2009

"If the sidewalks seem less clogged with Bugaboo strollers these days and you can't remember the last time you had to diaper a doll at a baby shower, it's not your imagination or fuzzy memory. Birth rates in the U.S. fell 2% in 2008, the biggest drop in nearly four decades, and that trend is expected to continue. A new study out Sept. 23 from the Guttmacher Institute suggests that the timing is not a coincidence; the recession may be to blame, as women factor economic anxieties into their decision about having children.

Those worries are understandable. All the adorable photos now taking over your friends' Facebook pages can't mask the fact that kids are expensive. TIME's Nancy Gibbs recently estimated that it costs parents an average of $221,000 to raise a child to age 17. That large economic investment is one reason that birth rates have historically fluctuated with the economy — the U.S. experienced significant dips during the Great Depression and in the inflationary years of the 1970s."

Today Show
September 24, 2009

"He’s a bouncing baby boy who could break a knee — a mother in Jakarta, Indonesia, delivered a 19.2-pound, 2-foot-long child on Monday via Caesarean section.

The as-yet-unnamed baby’s arrival, chronicled on TODAY Thursday, was marked by a cry that sounded more like a roar and an appetite of epic proportions.

The big baby, a weight record for a newborn in Indonesia, although a bit short of the world record of 23 pounds set in 1879, was likely caused by his mother having gestational diabetes. And even though mom Ani was saved the grueling task of pushing the child out herself, the surgery to bring him into the world was still touch and go."

The Associated Press (via Time)
September 24, 2009

"The maker of Tamiflu on Wednesday said there's a shortage of the children's version of the drug — the first-line treatment for swine flu and seasonal flu.

Switzerland-based Roche Holdings sent a notice to doctors and pharmacists about a shortage of the liquid version of Tamiflu for children and how to handle prescriptions in the meantime.

The company has been facing increasing demand for Tamiflu since swine flu first appeared in April, and has decided to focus production on adult-strength pills, which it can make faster than children's formulations, company spokeswoman Kristina Becker said Wednesday."

ABC News
September 24, 2009

"The makers of Tylenol are voluntarily recalling more than 20 children's and infant's liquid products after bacteria was found in an "inactive ingredient" in products manufactured between April and June 2008.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare, which makes Tylenol, initiated the recall of "select lots" of the products after consulting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration."

Miami-Dade
September 23, 2009

"Florida child-welfare administrators have received a big bundle of joy from the federal government: nearly $10 million in aid for the state's adoption program -- which has become a national model after several years of poor performance.

For the second year in a row, the Department of Children & Families has led the nation -- by a wide margin -- in the number of children successfully adopted from foster care. For their efforts, DCF will receive a hefty bonus that can be used to boost next year's adoption program.

Each year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awards "bonuses'' to state social service agencies that improve upon the prior year's performance in finding permanent homes for abused, neglected or abandoned children whose parents' rights have been terminated.

This year, 38 states and Puerto Rico shared a total of $35 million in adoption-incentive bonuses -- with more than $9.75 million, or close to 30 percent of the total -- going to DCF. The state with the second-best performance, Texas, was awarded half of Florida's total, nearly $5 million in bonus money."