Could this be the next best baby shower gift? The TummyTub(r) claims to be the next best thing to mom’s womb, but if you look at the first picture on this webpage, the baby sure doesn’t look all that thrilled to me!
The bucket/bath/tub is a clear bucket-shaped container that the website calls “womb-shaped and sized.” Created in the Netherlands, the tub is supposed to be popular, providing the baby with a comfortable transition from the womb to outside.
According to the website:

Baby feels warm, safe, and relaxed within soft boundaries
Eases …read more

What does a “review” on a television show have to do with health? I was so shocked by what I saw that I truly believe that it plays strongly into mental health. A couple of weeks ago, I watched, for the first (and last) time, the TLC show Toddlers and Tiaras. It was like watching a train wreck. My husband was shocked that I was watching it, but I couldn’t stop. I’d heard about it and had an idea of what it was about. After all, I do remember the sorry story of Jon-Benet Ramsey’s murder and all the talk …read more

Having trouble toilet training the toddler?
Then check out this interesting idea – a musical diaper that triggers a ‘wetting alarm’. 
Seriously.
In a study recently published in Neurology and Urodynamics, the participants (young healthy children between 18 and 30 months) in a daycare center were observed for the effectiveness of wearing a diaper with an ‘alarm’ system. Some wore the actual diapers with the actual wetting alarm and others wore diapers with a placebo alarm.
The results – those wearing the ‘wetting alarm’ diapers achieved independent bladder control almost 60% of the time as compared to the placebo alarm group that achieved independent bladder …read more

The sad news of the death of four-year-old Exodus Tyson who died as a result of strangulation from a treadmill cord offers a somber reminder to parents everywhere of the dangers of treadmills.
Treadmills and other home gym equipment is great for keeping adults fit but are a definite danger to children.
In fact, the Australian Office of Fair Trading has become so concerned the increase in reports of treadmill injuries to children that they issued a public education campaign in 2008.
Called  Treadmills and Kids Don’t Mix, this campaign highlights the dangers of treadmills for children, especially how a treadmill’s moving belt …read more

“We don’t swim in your toilet. Please don’t pee in our pool”
- sign posted next to a private swimming pool
It’s sad, sad world when people have to put signs like this up.
One might be inclined to take the message as a joke except that according to  survey conducted by the Water Quality and Health Council, “four fifths of those questioned believe that their fellow swimmers are guilty of relieving themselves without bothering to get out and find a bathroom. And one in six people polled admitted that they have indeed peed in the pool.”
This isn’t good. Swimming in unclean water …read more

What’s the connection between obese children and allergies? 
Well, the researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences or NIEHS aren’t quite sure. But having recently conducted a study on this, they are convinced that there is a connection.
During this study (now  published in Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology)  they analysed data that had been collected on 4,000 children and young adults between the ages 2 to 19. In particular, they looked at all allergy and asthma related data on these children.
The result – they discovered that obese children and adolescents appeared to be 26 percent more likely to have some kind of …read more

April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day.

Trying to get some kids to eat vegetables is like pulling teeth. They’ll do just about anything to avoid that green, orange, or yellow thing sitting on the plate. Hiding it doesn’t work. Somehow, they always seem to know it there.
Well, turns out there’s an easier way to get your kids to eat their greens, yellows, and oranges.
Just give them a cool name like ‘X-ray Vision Carrots’, ‘Tomato Bursts’, or ‘dinosaur broccoli trees’ and the vegetables won’t stand a chance. They’ll be goobled up quick.
That’s the finding of a new study by Cornell University researchers. They presented 186 four-year old …read more

Got a few minutes to spare? Then check out this National Geographic Channel quiz which challenges you to compare twinned photos to find 10 differences in each, and learn facts about identical twins, particularly how they may not actually be fully identical.
Sure hope you do better than me…

The National Geographic Channel created this quiz as part of their In the Womb series.
By the way, the next episode of In the Womb screens this Saturday 28th February on National Geographic Channel.

Today’s Sunday Sidebar focuses on three different cases that intrigue and mystify me.
First up, the 60 year old woman from Western Canadian who recently gave birth to twins. Seems she had her heart set on having children and when it didn’t happen naturally, resorted to IVF treatment in India (Canada apparently has a cutoff age of 50). I’m sorry but having twins at 60 sounds more like a nightmare than a blessing. Keeping up with one infant would be hard enough but two? Even a thirty year old might have problems doing that.
Second up, the baby faced 13 year …read more