I rolled out of bed this morning before sunrise to shower, get dressed and do the unthinkable: run a 5K. As recently as a year ago, I quipped to friends that if they ever saw me running, I’d be running for my life.

Today I was running for someone else’s life. Catherine Conners, a.k.a. Her Bad Mother, organized the 5K run for the wee hours before this year’s BlogHer kicked off. She hosted the event with her nephew, Tanner, to raise awareness and funds for the medical condition that is slowly killing him.

Tanner has Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy, an incurable illness that has crippled him and will eventually take his life. In the past, Catherine has used her voice as a blogger to raise awareness about Tanner’s situation and this terrible illness. Now she’s raising money to try to grant him his biggest wish: the chance to live out his life at home with his mom.

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Swine flu seems to have dropped from the headlines, but it hasn’t stopped being a problem – especially for kids with muscular dystrophy who attended a summer camp put on by the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Seven campers and three adults got sick after attending a muscular dystrophy camp in Minnesota, which led the MDA to cancel the remainder of its summer camps around the country. Around 2500 children will be affected.

That’s just sad for kids who had been looking forward to camp, but there’s a good reason. People with muscular dystrophy often take prednisone to help with their symptoms, which also lessens their immune system’s ability to attack diseases. Many also have underlying conditions such as weakened respiratory muscles that can make swine flu –or any type of infectious disease – worse.

All ten of the people infected at the camp have recovered, and the camp facilities have been disinfected. No other groups who have booked the camp run by a rehabilitation facility have canceled.

The Minnesota camp wasn’t canceled because no one fell ill while they were at the camp –instead, the cases showed up a few days later. While everyone attending the camp, both workers and campers, were screened before the camp, someone could have been infectious but not yet showing symptoms of the disease.

This could have been lots worse than it was, but that doesn’t mean you should panic before sending your little one off to camp or day camp for the summer. As always, vigilant handwashing –something so simple – is the best bet to stay healthy.

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If you think your toddler needs more food and physical activity than you can stand, wait till you meet Liam Hoekstra, a three-year-old with superhuman strength.

Pictured here holding five-pound weights, the toddler is one of only two people in the world with a genetic condition known as myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy, which basically means, this little dude is ripped. Continue reading »

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