PhotoAlto/Ale Ventura / PhotoAlto Agency RF Collections / Getty ImagesDiscovery Communications bills itself as the “No. 1 nonfiction media company,” which made it even odder when an article titled “Why Shouldn’t We Vaccinate Our Children?” popped up recently on one of its websites. The post — by writer Josh Clark of HowStuffWorks — appeared on the Learning Channel’s (TLC) website; both HowStuffWorks and TLC are owned by Discovery Communications. Riddled with mistruths and flat-out errors, the post prompted a coalition of physicians’ organizations and vaccine activists to collaborate on a sharply worded letter signed by 19 groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Medical Association, defending immunization as “one of the most important decisions parents make to ensure their children’s health”: ... Continue reading →

Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. Teens Has Diabetes or PrediabetesIn less than a decade, the proportion of kids ages 12 to 19 with diabetes or prediabetes has jumped from 9% in 1999-2000 to 23% in 2007-2008. ballyscanlon / Digital Vision / Getty ImagesNearly 1 in 4 U.S. teens is on the fast track to diabetes, if they don’t already have the disease, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that was published Monday in Pediatrics. In less than a decade, the proportion of kids ages 12 to 19 with diabetes or prediabetes has jumped from 9% in 1999-2000 to 23% in 2007-2008. The statistic is concerning on its own, but considering that the American Heart Association tags diabetes as one ... Continue reading →

joSon / Iconica / Getty ImagesIn case you’ve been hiding under a rock, Thursday marks one week since the release of a much talked about magazine cover with a lithe, svelte momma breast-feeding her very big-looking preschool-age son. TIME magazine’s startling cover image was prelude to a cover story about attachment parenting, which espouses baby-wearing and co-sleeping, among other things. In other words, attachment parents are very attached — in terms of proximity, among other things — to their kids. You might call free-range parenting the antithesis of attachment parenting. Or perhaps the antidote. It’s not that free-rangers technically couldn’t be attachment parents, but they believe that once kids get old enough, it’s good — nay, essential — to let them be. (MORE: Growing Up: ... Continue reading →

Young Cancer Patients May Get a Boost — and a Visit — from Kelly ClarksonThe original American Idol was so starstruck by a video of children with cancer lip-synching to her song, "Stronger," that she intends to swing by Seattle Children's Hospital to meet them in person. Sometimes, when you’re down and out, you need an anthem. Something that champions triumph in the face of adversity, something, perhaps, like Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger. The kids fighting cancer at Seattle Children’s Hospital who are featured in a viral video — along with doctors, nurses and parents — can use all the cheer they can muster. They found it in Clarkson’s chorus, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” (MORE: Oscar Fixation: Why Are We Obsessed With Celebrities?) ... Continue reading →

Tara Reese / Getty ImagesIt’s Teacher Appreciation Week, so let’s start this column with a nod to my 9th-grade science teacher, Bruce Butler, who lit a spark in me by making geology and environmental science fun, interesting — and rigorous. I still think of him whenever I’m out hiking or fishing and come across some geological curiosity. He went on to a successful career as a principal and is retiring this summer, but would no doubt be happy to know that today’s science teachers seem to be having an impact on kids, too, according to science achievement-test data released yesterday. The data, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, a test given periodically to a national sample of students, shows that overall scores ... Continue reading →

J. Marie PhotographyJessica Brown, at left, with her sister, Melissa, brother-in-law, Steve Mohler, and niece and nephew, Gabriella and Brendan — twins whom Jessica carried for her sister, after Melissa survived breast cancer.This is a Mother’s Day story, but it is really about sisters, about how it took two of them to make one of them a mother. It is a story about cancer and the shadow it cast over the lives of these women, since Melissa Brown was 2 and her sister, Jessica, was a baby. It’s a story, in part, about death. But ultimately, it’s about life — two new lives, to be exact — and the unexpected roads that women sometimes travel to motherhood. Melissa, an attorney, and Jessica, a jeweler, grew ... Continue reading →

J. Marie PhotographyJessica Brown, at left, with her sister, Melissa, brother-in-law, Steve Mohler, and niece and nephew, Gabriella and Brendan — twins whom Jessica carried for her sister, after Melissa survived breast cancer.This is a Mother’s Day story, but it is really about sisters, about how it took two of them to make one of them a mother. It is a story about cancer and the shadow it cast over the lives of these women, since Melissa Brown was 2 and her sister, Jessica, was a baby. It’s a story, in part, about death. But ultimately, it’s about life — two new lives, to be exact — and the unexpected roads that women sometimes travel to motherhood. Melissa, an attorney, and Jessica, a jeweler, grew ... Continue reading →