News of Interest for Late-in-Life Moms October 26, 2008

News to know:

56-year-old gives birth to triplet grandchildren
Jaci Dalenberg, 56, of Wooster, Ohio, acted as a surrogate for her daughter, Kim Coseno. On Oct. 11, Dalenberg gave birth by Caesarean section to identical twin girls and their sister. The babies were more than two months premature and each weighed less than three pounds.

Many moms risk SIDS by sharing bed with baby
Almost one third of mothers participating in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program report sharing a bed with their infant, according to new research published in the Journal of Pediatrics. Sharing a bed with an infant is a known risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Rashes prompt warning about baby clothing
After about 400 babies who wore Carter's Inc. baby garments with tag-less labels developed rashes on their backs, the The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning.
The agency said children should stop wearing these garments if they develop a rash; however it did not announce a recall of the product line. Affected clothing includes knit items such as body suits, shirts and pajamas.

Food allergies increasing in children
Food allergies in American children seem to be on the rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 1 in 26 children had food allergies last year, the agency reported. That’s up from 1 in 29 kids in 1997.

Surprising success for childhood rotavirus vaccine
Rotateq, a vaccine against rotavirus, has led to a dramatic drop in hospitalization and emergency room visits since it came on the market two years ago, doctors reported. Rotavirus is the leading cause of diarrhea in infants. The vaccine also seems to prevent illness even in unvaccinated children by cutting the number of infections in the community that kids can pick up and spread.

News of Interest for Late-in-Life Moms September 15, 2008

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News to know:

Baby bottle chemical draws mixed messages from U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reopening the debate over bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical used in many plastic products -- including baby bottles.
An FDA panel of outside experts plans to review the agency's draft report issued last month saying that BPA is safe. Critics argue the FDA ignored strong evidence in animal studies that BPA is harmful.


CNN Report: Why infants still die from SIDS
Story Highlights:
Fewer than 2,500 infant deaths this year will be classified as SIDS
SIDS may be underreported because causes of infant deaths are mislabeled
Babies who begin daycare before 4 months of age may be at increased risk

Study: Kids of Privileged Working Moms Fare Worse
A Newsweek article highlighted a study that reported kids from high-socioeconomic-status families have difficulties when their moms work outside the home.
According to economist Christopher Ruhm, at ages 10 and 11, kids perform more poorly on cognitive tests and are also more likely to be overweight than those whose high-status mothers leave the workforce.
Children from low-status families, on the other hand, don't seem to suffer as much when their moms work.

News of Interest for Late-in-Life Moms July 7, 2008

News to know:

Congratulations to new celebrity Mommy-Come-Lately Nicole Kidman! Her daughter, Sunday Rose, was born today. Kidman, 41, is married to country recording star Keith Urban, 40.

Men past 40 can face fertility problems
Couples trying to have a baby when the man is over 40 will have more difficulty conceiving than if he is younger, according to researchers.
The data, presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference, provides evidence for a strong paternal effect on IUI (intrauterine insemination) outcome on both pregnancy and miscarriage rates. The researchers do not know exactly why,
but said a link between a man's age and DNA decay in sperm that causes it to fragment could be a likely explanation.

Cholesterol drugs urged for some 8-year-olds
The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that some children as young as 8 be given cholesterol-fighting drugs to ward off future heart problems.
The new advice is based on mounting evidence showing that damage leading to heart disease, the nation's leading killer, begins early in life.

Haywire brain chemical linked to SIDS
There is new evidence that the brain chemical best known for regulating mood also plays a role in the mystifying killer of seemingly healthy babies — sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
Experts suspect that an imbalance in serotonin might be behind SIDS. Italian researchers engineered mice born with serotonin that goes haywire — and found the brain abnormality is enough to spur sudden death, in ways that mesh with other clues from human babies.

Baby's temperament can predict later behavior
Research suggests both parents' interactions with their baby during the first year of life and the baby's natural temperament can predict the odds of behavior problems later on.
The study, which followed nearly 1,900 children from infancy up to age 13, had the following findings:

• Children whose mothers gave them plenty of intellectual stimulation in the first year of life — reading to them, talking to them and taking them out of the house — were less likely to have serious behavioral problems.
• The odds of behavior problems were also linked to certain measures of the children's temperament during infancy, such as how "fussy" they were, or whether they had a generally happy or more moody disposition.

News of Interest for Late-in-Life Moms June 2, 2008

News to know:

Congrats to celebrity Daddy-Come-Lately, actor Jack Black, 38, and his wife, Tanya, 37, a singer ans musician, whose second son was born "about a week ago."

Germs may play role in sudden baby deaths
Researchers say bacteria may be a contributing factor in sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) one of the leading causes of death for children under 1.
According to a study published in the Lancet, researchers found potentially dangerous bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli in nearly half of all babies who died suddenly and without explanation over a decade at a London hospital.

For moms, more kids can mean fewer teeth
Women who gave birth to more children tended to lose more teeth during their lives, regardless of whether they were rich or poor, U.S researchers found

C-sections may be behind rise of preemie births
Premature births of U.S. babies have been climbing since the mid-1990s and the increase is being driven by Caesarean section deliveries, according to a new study. From 1996 to 2004, the rate of premature births rose by about 10 percent.