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Choice or Law?
Can you imagine a place in the world where government puts laws in place to encourage women to breastfeed longer than they currently do in the region?
This is becoming a reality in one of the worlds most populated countries. Indonesia, with 250 million people and one of the most disaster prone countries has started working on laws that would not only encourage breastfeeding longer for mothers, but help ensure babies in the region are safe from illness often passed through dirty water supplies.
Hyland's Teething Tablets
In late October, the news of a voluntary recall on the popular over the counter, homeopathic teething relief for children sparked controversy all over the internet. Inconsistent amounts of ingredients in the tablets themselves sparked the FDA to step in.
Two weeks later the word is out that a new, and reformulated version of the popular teething tablets will be available again. Unfortunately for many parents who are anxiously awaiting the availability, it will not be back on shelves until after the new year. Continue reading »
Similac has recalled 5 million units of powdered formula
Ugh. Abbott Laboratories announced Wednesday that it would recall millions of containers of Similac powdered baby formula after (brace yourself) insect parts were found in the plant where they were made — and in the products themselves.
The recall follows two reports of contamination from consumers, and a search of the Sturgis, Michigan, plant in which beetles and/or their larvae were found. The company said it was voluntarily recalling just shy of 5 million units of Similac, the top-selling baby formula, in United States, Guam, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean markets.
For the past five years, a group of scientists in Russia and Belarus have been trying to breed goats that can produce human breast milk. Now, they think they’ve finally got it.
A new group of baby goats tested positive for a human genome in their DNA. Researchers on the project think once these goats birth offspring, they’ll produce milk that contains lactoferrin, a key component of human breast milk. Continue reading »
Fox news isn’t the most reputable source of information, but a recent report on co-sleeping highlights some interesting data. In Milwaukee county, 100 percent of co-sleeping deaths have involved formula fed babies.
When it comes to maintaining a healthy weight, well all know that how much you eat is just as important as what you eat. But when we are talking about babies, researchers now believe that how food is consumed might also matter.
A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compared the eating habits of babies who were bottle fed for the first six months of life against those who were breast fed. What they found was that those who took most of their meals via bottle were less able to self-regulate how much they ate. The bottle fed babies simply ate more, a fact that researchers suspect may increase their risk of developing a weight problem later in life. Continue reading »
Interest in natural foods has grown tremendously over the last decade. The Associated Press reports that market share of organics increased “14 to 21 percent annually with sales of $24.6 billion in 2008.” Organic baby food items like Stonyfield Farm’s YoBaby are available at mainstream retailers such as Wal*Mart, and anyone who watches Sesame Street on the regular knows Earth’s Best Organics are a ‘proud sponsor’ of the show. But the AP says watchdogs think the National Organic Program “has not been restrictive enough in what it allows to be labeled as organic,” so in an effort to crack down on Bush administration leniency, President Obama announced this week that the additives ARA and DHA “will no longer be permitted in infant formula or baby foods certified as organic because (they) have not received legal approval for use in organic products,” according to The Washington Post. The article goes on to say that ARA and DHA, thought to promote brain and eye development, “are present in 90 percent of organic infant formulas.”
A quick search on Amazon shows that Earth’s Best Organic and Similac Organic formulas both contain the fatty acids. The problem is not that omega-3 and omega-6 are bad for infants; the acids themselves occur naturally in breast milk. But these beneficial omegas are produced chemically “using a potential neurotoxin known as hexane,” then added to formula. Presumably non-organic formulas like Enfamil Premium will continue to include ARA and DHA, begging the question, if they’re not safe for organics, why should they be added at all? Continue reading »
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
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Katherine Stone 
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